Workshop development

Warm-up exercises and breaks
Further to my conversation with the young people involved in Graffi-tee I have developed some little exercises to break up the workshop.

Firstly, the warm-up exercise, this is a fun exercise, but slightly relative to the identity theme, and the meaning of words and names!

The young people organise themselves into groups of 3 people, person A, B and C, they then each take it in turns to say the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4.  Person A begins and says the number 1, then person B says the number 2, person C says the number 3, and then person A says the number 4 and so forth, they try to keep a rhythm going.  After a few moments, they then have to replace some of the numbers with a word they think of or a name, and repeat the process.  As they do this the sounds and meanings of what they are saying become distorted as they try to keep up the process.  We can then discuss how we attached meanings and feelings to words and names, but that these can be removed very easily. 

Secondly a quick break exercise, again a fun exercise but with interesting results, each person is given a pen, a post-it note and then they are asked to draw a sketch of themselves in 30 seconds.  This exercise is not related to artistic talent but is another great example how we all see ourselves differently.  Even small elements like some people will draw their whole bodies, others just their heads!