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I made two different contributions within this projet. My first was to contribute to some of the visual elements of our garden in relation to my discipline in Fine Arts and Visual Culture as I contributed to a couple of the design and layout ideas as well as incorperated painted works of art into the mix in the hopes that it would add a unique feature that most gardens wouldn't have. I was also placed with the task of overseeing some possible advertisement methods. These methods of advertising I hope would be successful in creating a flurishing community

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Artful and edible—a cake to launch a community garden.

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Artful and edible—a cake to launch a community garden.

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Could make one of these for our booth...Thats for our "cooks" to prepare

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Nabo is a Social network for people to get connected with each other from their local Suburb. In it you are able to buy, sell, swap and stay up to date on whats happening in your neighbourhood and a possible too to get the word out there about our Community Garden

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Calling
 Market Stallholders for 'Live on the Green'

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Calling
 Market Stallholders for 'Live on the Green'

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Process and example of a market to sign up to

http://www.localmarketguide.com.au/noticeboard/calling-market-stallholders-for-live-on-the-green

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Advertising at Farmers markets and other related markets

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Advertising at Farmers markets and other related markets

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Simply search for a market of interest. This is a great idea as it allows us to show off some of our producem set up activities for people to participate in, we could set up an information board and display pictures behind us with a table to hand out our brochures and cards

http://www.localmarketguide.com.au/markets/farmers-market

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Place advertisements in the Sydney Newspapers and Magazines

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Place advertisements in the Sydney Newspapers and Magazines

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You can sign up online and place an add in the Sydney newspapers. Sometimes they provide opportunities for free listings which is a great, cost effective time to add a listing. Adding a listing in these newspapers is benificial because they cover a wide area. I live on the Central Coast and get these newspapers

Some well known Newspapers include:

The Sydney Morning Herald

http://www.smh.com.au/

The Daily Telegraph

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/

You can add your listings via these links and they do require you to sign up to add a listing below:

The Sydney Morning Herald

https://advertisers.com.au/

The Daily Telegraph

You need to select your category, add your personal details as well as the details for your ad, confirm your details then wait for them to call you to arrange payment details, otherwise again you may find some free payment opportunities

http://placeanad.news.com.au/index.jsp?pub=1dtm&cat=24

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Hand out Brochures, cards at local Community Centres

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Hand out Brochures, cards at local Community Centres

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Below is a directory of Community centres in Sydney. A Community Centre is a commonly visited place by locals around the area and by placing brochures here and having them displayed presents an extra chance of attracting attention and gaining interest

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/community/community-services/community-centres

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Even though the link between these two disciplines may not be obvious to many people, they are in many ways related. In Visual Culture and Fine Art, one has to study the meaning of beauty, colour, lines, shapes and all things visual. For a garden to appear beautiful there has to careful consideration of the way vegetables are planted and the way all other things are arranged. For a complete atmosphere, the artist has to consider how his audience, in this case the community members, will feel in response to his artwork - the garden. That was my approach. I set of to 'paint' a garden in which all community members will feel a sense of beauty, calmness and belonging, and I hope I have achieved this.

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This seating is very similar to that in a theatre, yet it is in a community garden. I imagined these in one corner of our garden.

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it maximises the harvest, makes the most of limited space, doesn't require a lot of bending, and keeps the vegetables away from pests. For example, one square meter of vertical gardening can give you up to six meters of standard, horizontal gardening. This is ideal for an urban/rooftop community garden, such as our one.

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I have imagined an elevated space such as this one, which could be used for performances, demonstrations, workshops and as a kitchen. It would have all of these features built in. It is the stage and the point of focus of the garden. The long tables would be in front of it and the vegetables around these.

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I have been allocated the task of working on the design and the layout of our vegetable community garden. The initial phase of this process required me to undertake extensive research in what urban gardening trends already exist, what our environment (Sydney CBD) requires and what our community needs are. I have started of with a number of ideas, initially making the concepts very obvious and gradually paring back and making these nonintrusive. A lot of my ideas came from the other group members and then I tried to develop these further. I have worked with the following concepts: NY and Berlin urban gardening, rooftop gardening, the oasis, street art and urban culture, vertical gardening, beekeeping and performative spaces/ workshops. The final design is a mix of all of these in some way, yet none of these are obvious and overwhelming.

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As a part of my Visual Culture major I will be undertaking a subject called Art and the Environment, and in that unit we will be studying the history of garden design. My drawing and illustration skills are still not good enough for me to develop a layout like one of these but I hope it helps you understand what is involved in the process of developing a garden.

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This is an example of a garden kitchen made of pallets. It is affordable and it's often possible to get a donation of pallets. I have imagined a slightly elevated kitchen so that it can double up as a performative space, i.e. a stage. This will allow us to use it for workshops, demonstrations and entertainment.

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This is a way of making street art more green and more relevant to our educational mission. The good thing about this type of graffiti is that it takes time and you need to nurture it like you do with any plant. It's in no way vandalism because it requires a lot of thought, design and patience. The end results can be wonderful, as you can see below.

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Adam Purple is an activist and urban Edenist or "Guerrilla Garderner" famous in New York City. He is often considered the godfather of the urban gardening movement, and his "Garden of Eden" was a well-known garden on the Lower East Side of Manhattan until it was demolished.

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https://www.nabo.com.au/

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Over 330,000 neighbours across Australia are using Nabo

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Find local events, groups and connect with your neighbours. Neighbours are verified & your details are private, so learn all you need about your neighbourhood today!

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Possible Content ideas for advertising/brochures

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In order to do this we need to create a domain name (Website address) for our Garden and make sure the name is available, then next you need to look at web hosting, you could also register your phone number message and management system, get a trademark and copyright for your business as wel:

Only Domains Australia

https://www.onlydomains.com/?gclid=COfI9bfHg8QCFUgGvAodwEIA-Q

There are so man Website hosting sites available. Here are a few reccomended companies based in Australia

http://www.hosting-review.com/au-b.php?aff_sub=H-R-Australia-EN&aff_sub2=website%20hosting&aff_sub3=e&gclid={gclid}&ga1=%20H-R-Australia-EN&ga2=website%20hosting&ga3=e&ga4=adwords&gclid=CIOauL7Kg8QCFcMIvAodL5AA2A

More information Regarding Domain Names

Domain Names FAQ

http://www.domainregistration.com.au/infocentre/

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When setting up Community garden website it is important to have different pages containing important information about the garden. The home page should always include a logo, as well as recent news and any important information, community features, things to do. The Home page is also the main link to the rest of the website. Other important pages should include "About Us"-information about the garden, "Events"-if you don't have this on the home page, addressing any upcoming events, "Photos"-Photo gallery showcasing past events and garden features, "Contact Us"-with workers, contact details: email address, residential address, contact phone numbers, map, getting to the garden. "Get Involved"-A sign up page for people who are interested in signing up to the community. These are just some basic, important links to start off with and more can be added as the community grows. Below are some examples of some other Community Gardens
Alexandria Park Community Garden
http://www.alexcommunitycentre.com/web/Garden/CommunityGarden.aspx

James Street Reserve Community Garden
http://jsrcg.blogspot.com.au/

Sustainable Chippendale Footpath Gardens
http://sustainablechippendale.com/

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Another Advertising site for logos, cards, advertisements

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Another Advertising site for logos, cards, advertisements

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Another Website you can join if you would like others to create your advertisement material. Its similar to 99designs

Freelancer

http://freelancr.com.au/

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Create cards, brochures, A5 Pamphlets and hand them out to the local Community Centre, local shops, village fairs and other events.
99Designs is an easy, convenient site where you can join up and specify what you are after; cards, logos, posters, even website designs, give design briefs and specifications and then people can take on your task and design ideas, as a person hosting the task, various people will all post their different designs on your page and you specify a date to when you want submissions in by and at the end it is up to you to select your favourite idea. You do need to pay for your designs of course

http://99designs.com.au/

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Program activities to fit in with celebrations specific to each group

Develop multilingual pamphlets

Ensure each group was invited to celebrations important to all Australian’s

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Engaging with the Muslim Community

The Supreme Islamic Shiite Council of Australia

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils

The Islamic Council of NSW

Engaging with the Indigenous Community

Community Builders NSW

NSW Reconciliation Council

Engaging with Refugee Groups

NSW Refugee Network

House of Welcome

Welcome to Australia

Asylum Seekers Centre

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“You don't go online shopping for shoes and accidentally become a jihadist”.

Dr Erin Marie Saltman

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Sign upto Community Garden Counsel Website and Databases and create A profile for our garden. Enter details then join and set up your own garden profiles that people can visit and look up relevant information. City of Sydney is the main database for Community gardens based around the Sydney region.

City Of Sydney
https://online.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/?ReturnUrl=%2fAccount%2fEdit

Australian City Farms & Community Gardn Network
http://communitygarden.org.au/join-us/

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An act or threat, intended to advance a political, ideological or religious cause by coercing or intimidating an Australian or foreign government or the public. This action must cause serious harm to people or property, create a serious risk to the health and safety to the public, or seriously disrupt trade, critical infrastructure or electronic systems.

Criminal Code Act 1995
(Commonwealth)

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My role in this project was to develop a Community Outreach Program aimed at groups that may be targeted by terrorists or violent extremists. The program is also aimed at disaffected groups, particularly those who feel unfairly stigmatised and marginalised by recent terrorist events.

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One method of terrorist prevention is the implementation of measures aimed at countering the ideas and the message of terrorists. Its aim is to “prevent non-radicalised populations from becoming radicalised. The objective is to create individual and communal resilience against cognitive and/or violent radicalisation through a variety of non-coercive means” (Neumann 2016, p16). Radicalisation is a multistep process, whereby a person or group takes on extremist views and seeks to further them through violence. De-radicalisation can be cognitive, where belief systems are changed or behavioural, where violence is renounced but extremist ideology retained (Romaniuk and Fink 2012, 5). According to the Centre for Global Counterterrorism Cooperation, a program of community engagement and outreach is one initiative that can be deployed to counter radicalisation. The US Department of Homeland Security endorses community based programs that strengthen relationships with communities that may be targeted for recruitment by violent extremists. Therefore, our Community Garden project could be used as a method of countering the narrative of terrorists and violent extremists. It would do this by making them feel like they are one of us..

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Security, Terrorism and Counter Terroism

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Article On Advertising: Research on Advertising Techniques That Work -
And That Don't

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Article On Advertising: Research on Advertising Techniques That Work -
And That Don't

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Research conducted on advertising techniques that were successful and were not so. Detailed look into television commercials and magazine advertisements and their findings. This is a big project and whilst at first, Television advertising may not be necesary, if the project is successful, it could be a relevant possibility to look into in the future. Here are some findings on what and what not to do.

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Article On Advertising: Despite Growth of Internet Advertising, Small Business Owners Still Prefer Word-of-Mouth Advertising

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Article On Advertising: Despite Growth of Internet Advertising, Small Business Owners Still Prefer Word-of-Mouth Advertising

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This article discusses Small Businesses and how they like to advertise by word-of-mouth, it also addresses the growing interest of advertising through the internet and other ways in which small businesses like to advertise.

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The library's online resources such as databases, e-books and e-journals are covered by licences which specify the conditions under which the licensed material can be used. Library resources are provided to support academic research and study. They may not be used for commercial purposes, or for paid or unpaid work on behalf of an organisation other than Curtin University.

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Article on Advertising:Killer Facebook Ads : Master Cutting-Edge Facebook Advertising Techniques (2nd Edition)

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Article on Advertising:Killer Facebook Ads : Master Cutting-Edge Facebook Advertising Techniques (2nd Edition)

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This is a e-book with everything you need to create successful advertising for Facebook

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The library's online resources such as databases, e-books and e-journals are covered by licences which specify the conditions under which the licensed material can be used. Library resources are provided to support academic research and study. They may not be used for commercial purposes, or for paid or unpaid work on behalf of an organisation other than Curtin University.

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Its very simple to set up a page on facebook. Its also an effective method to advertise if applied correctly.

You need a personal individual profile to set it up. If you already are a member, on the left hand side there is a section that says 'pages', click on 'MORE' which should appear next to it, right at the top you should see 'Create Page', Once you have done this, you need to select what category your page will belong to, in our case we would probably select 'Cause or Community'. Next enter the community garden name in the box provided then select 'Get Started'. From there you format your page, add important information, contact details, pictures and everything else necessary. Below are examples of some community gardens who have set up a facebook and also Twitter accounts.

Social PPC: 17 Tips for Successful Ads on Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook

http://spearmarketing.com/blog/social-ppc-17-tips-for-successful-ads-on-twitter-linkedin-facebook/

Facebook Pages

Green Square Growers

https://www.facebook.com/GreenSquareGrowers

Waterloo Salvos (Facebook)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Waterloo-Salvos/230209810328106?sk=timeline

WOOLLOOMOOLOO COMMUNITY GARDEN

https://www.facebook.com/pages/WOOLLOOMOOLOO-COMMUNITY-GARDEN/56618843343

Twitter Pages

Conect to a Community garden website to promote garden

https://twitter.com/AustComGardens
City Of Sydney
https://twitter.com/cityofsydney

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Simple signage used by the Ultimo Community Garden addressing important information regarding what their about, joining fees, rules, and website details. Simple signage like this could be used in our garden. Thank you Ultimo Community Gardens for providing me with this image

http://www.cwcfs.com.au/2012/02/ultimo-community-garden/

http://www.ultimocommunitygarden.org.au/

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Research into how similar Community gardens have advertised to their audience 

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Research into how similar Community gardens have advertised to their audience 

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As a part of my research, I decided to go along with the recommendation to email various community garden groups and ask them about their forms of advertising. These are some of the most helpful responses that I recieved. Through these emails I was able to find some successful advertisement methods.

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The Convergence of Social Mobile and Photo Technologies in Libraries

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The Convergence of Social Mobile and Photo Technologies in Libraries

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Converging technologies are a great asset for libraries because it promotes intellectual discovery and learning whilst having the capability to connect people and knowledge.This is a great article regarding the convergence of technologies in libraries, specifically the integration of social media with photo technologies. This technology would  be advantageous when we are updating live progress on any Community Gardens Project.  We can share instant photos of live events in our Virtual Tour website as well as social media links for any of our community participants.

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I have created the following catalog showcasing my current picks of artwork that could be exhibited along the walls or stylishly incorporated in with the vertical gardens or perhaps there could be a separate art gallery where exhibitions showcasing different artists and themes could take place.
The aim for this Gallery would be to create a sense of atmosphere, create awareness relating to relevant issues and provide inspiration for aspiring artists. Perhaps themed exhibitions could be held promoting particular local Sydney artists or promote particular themes such as; growth, peace, the natural world, etc, as well as awareness themes like well-being, promote animal awareness and environmental awareness, indiginous and multicultural awareness...

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This is the website for the Virtual Tour Software Tutorial. The Panotour Pro 2 Software  would be the most suitable Virtual Tour Program for our Community Garden Project because it allows viewers to become fully interactive. The software allows  multimedia tools, guided audio commentary, floor plans, maps, informational pointers and even social media sharing. The only disadvantage  with this program is that it requires a broadband connection. However the rate of  Australian broadband usage with internet service providers is over 70% and growing yearly, hence, this should not be a problem.

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Kolor | Panotour - Virtual tour creation software

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Explore the world in a virtual tour. Create virtual tours of next generation. With Panotour, you can now show the world around you to your friends, clients or to the mass public.

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School excursion, example of assessing risk chart.

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The role that I had was to collected information for teachers and students, that would be engaging

in an school excursion.

As my discipline is to become a librarian, I covered areas where teachers had access to books and facts sheets.

With providing teachers with the resources required for their excursion to be successful.

Students engaging in planting seeds and maintain gardens, followed by eating the wide range of vegetables.

Story time for the students that relate to living things which covers Stage 2 in the Australian curriculum.

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Librarianship and information management

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How a bean grows. Teachers will gather information from school library, to introduce to students how a bean will grow step by step.

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Teachers can borrow books that relate to gardens before students explore the community garden.

Visual text is a great for students to experience living things.

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Students learning how rain water can be stored , and used for the gardens

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The website of Second life allows you to create your own parallel life in a virtual world in which you are able to visit other people including forming relationships and engaging in normal everyday activities in a virtual sense.  As a Librarian, one of my primary roles is social engagement. Finding out where all the hidden communities are located and to connect with them regardless if the communities exist in a virtual world. Second life could be used as a tool by librarians to tap into and engage with the hundreds of thousands of users which already inhabit this virtual world. There are around a million regular users of Second Life and Librarians have already recognised their potential by building virtual libraries. So how about using this tool to create a replica of our Community Arts Gardens and engage with all the second lifers out there. Also, by using Second Life, we can promote our Garden and inform them of our current activities in the real world.

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Remote Meetings Redefined

Make meetings fun again with virtual hangout spaces, classes and conferences. For over a decade, leading companies and educators have trusted Second Life for branded social spaces for events and remote meetings.

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Official Site | Second Life - Virtual Worlds, Virtual Reality, VR, Avatars, and Free 3D Chat

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Second Life's official website. Second Life is a free 3D virtual world and original metaverse where users can create, connect, and chat with others from around the world using voice and text.

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The role of Professional Writing and Publishing in our Community Garden Project.

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The role of Professional Writing and Publishing in our Community Garden Project.

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My role addresses the responsibilities of communicating the purpose of our project and the sharing of collective knowledge and achievements of participants with a diverse group of community members.  As a writer I will promote participation through our newsletter, foster integration through the publishing of our Garden Journal and song and provide support to community members and give voice to otherwise silenced community groups, through translation services and multilingual publications. My responsibilities also include writing multi - age practical documents relating to the operation of our garden.  I will communicate our purpose through the development of slogans and community service announcements. To ensure that we are  providing a productive, welcoming  and educational space, and, communicating our message effectively I will  conduct research and write surveys.

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Community Song Writing and Narrative Practice

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Community Song Writing and Narrative Practice

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I came across this article when investigating creative ways to document the stories and experiences of our community garden participants. This article address creative documentation of the particular skills and knowledges of individuals and communities through song-writing. This process is collaborative and encourages attendees to share experiences and participate in writing, playing and recording our community event/project  through song. Children who utilise the garden will be included in  narrative collecting so I will work with Sevy and Fatimah to develop age appropriate material and work with John and participants from diverse cultures to give voice to disaffected groups.Song writing can be used  to counter radicalisation and unite multi-lingual and multi-age groups.

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by David Denborough ¹
This article was written for the UK publication Clinical Psychology, Issue 17, September 2002.
As I begin this piece of writing, I am sitting in a motel room in Narrandera, a small rural Australian town. I have just put down my guitar after quickly recording a song called 'Going back home'. The lyrics of this song have been crafted from a series of consultations which took place over the last six months with members of the local Aboriginal community. A gathering of this community is taking place on the Sandhills this week and I'm here as a member of a small team of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal workers who are acting as a reflecting or listening group during this event. It's my role to record in the written word and with song the sparkling moments, valued stories and the skills and knowledges of the community. Those at the gathering will then decide what they wish to do with these words and songs.

In this short article, I wish to discuss some of the ways in which music and song are engaged with on these gatherings, but to do so requires a little background. I realise that the context from which I am writing is probably very different to the one that you, the reader, are currently within. For one thing, you are probably in the northern hemisphere, thousands of miles from here. The stars above you are therefore different than the stars above me. The season you are experiencing must be different too, as must the animals surrounding you. Just today, I have seen emus, kangaroos, gallahs, cockatoos, colourful parrots and an owl. The Murrimbidgee river runs through Narrandera and wherever the river flows, a diversity of bird and animal life follows. Not only do the stars, the birds and the skyline differ between where you are and where I am tonight, but the histories of the land upon which we currently stand are also divergent. I mention all of this because during this week, it's my job to immerse myself in the experience of those who live in this particular community, this particular context. This is not my home. I live in Adelaide, a thousand kilometres from here, and the sights, sounds and smells of Narrandera are new to me (just as, no doubt, they would be new to you). I am a stranger here who has been invited to play a particular role in this gathering and this brings corresponding responsibilities. Perhaps the most notable of these is to remember at all times that I am a guest of this community and that I cannot assume to know the stories and histories that shape the local experiences of life. I am here to document what the community articulates as significant. To take care that this is what I am doing requires many acts of collaboration, some of which I refer to later in this piece.

Community gatherings informed by narrative practices and structured definitional ceremonies have been held in Australia over the last seven or so years. They have been instigated at the request of a wide range of different communities including communities of people affected by mental health issues, communities of people affected by HIV/AIDS, as well as various Indigenous Australian communities affected in different ways by the colonisation of this country. ² Narrative therapy practices inform every aspect of these gatherings from the initial planning consultations, to the development of the gathering program, to the use of definitional ceremonies on each day of the event, and to the ways in which the gatherings are documented in words and song. ³

A key aspect of narrative therapy involves the documentation of the particular skills and knowledges of individuals and communities that are relevant to them addressing the current challenges they are facing. ⁴ This documentation is a part of the re-authoring process. As the skills and knowledges which are articulated in conversations are documented, they become more acknowledged and in turn more available. On gatherings, the same is true. What is more, recording the skills, ideas and stories of a community on paper means that these can be shared widely with those who were not physically present at the gathering. Documenting the conversations that occur on the gatherings also ensures that a record of the event exists for future generations and this is often treasured by participants. There are any number of dilemmas, challenges and possibilities associated with the process of translating the spoken word to the written word on gatherings but I am not going to focus on these here. Instead, I wish to write about the use of music and song.

On gatherings, songs and music compliment the use of the written word. While I am totally devoted to the written word, particularly its rigour, its capacity to record all that is spoken, the ways in which drafts can be shared and collectively edited, and its intimate characteristics (how it speaks to each individual who reads it), songs can be sung together in a way that the written word cannot. Songs can also be danced to. In some contexts, the written word is not accessible to all, whereas songs and music can include most people in any community. There can be room for everyone to either sing or play the rhythm sticks or hold the lyrics up for others to read during the recording process. And perhaps most significantly, with a good melody, songs can remain in one's mind, available for instant recall in a way that the written word cannot.

As holders of community knowledge and pride, songs can lift the spirits and hold them aloft. The physical act of singing together, of making music together, can also be transformative. This seems especially so if the process resonates with cultural traditions of community song making and music making which exist in the vast majority of communities. In this way, not only can the song itself act as a musical documentation of the alternative stories of the community, but the community performance of this song can act as a demonstration of the continuation of a joyful and inclusive tradition. When a recording is then made of the community singing songs which have been created from their words, this ritual is captured in time and is forever available to be replayed. This replay might occur when a young member of the community plays the CD while wearing head phones. Or it might occur when a member of the community places a tape of the song in their car stereo and drives down the centre of the town with windows down and music blaring.

Characteristics of gathering songs

I have tried here to describe some of the characteristics of songs that come to be loved and appreciated on community gatherings. These characteristics include:

The lyrics are comprised of the words spoken by those at the gathering

The chord structure is easy to teach

The melody is one that people can easily sing and which is at an easy pitch for most participants

The rhythm is simple and clear

The chorus is memorable

The song is written quickly and played back to the community very soon after they have spoken the words which have become the lyrics (like a reflection at the end of a conversation). This ensures that the community recognises that the words are their own - they can still remember who said which words and the context in which they were spoken.

Importantly, the song is always one that carries hope. This is not to say that the melody and words are simply 'happy', but rather the whole purpose of the song is to write into lyric and melody the alternative stories that have been articulated. The songs are very deliberately a part of the re-authoring process. They seek to more richly describe that which has been spoken. As such, they are like a thoughtful reflection within the definitional ceremony process - acknowledging the real effects of the dominant story but in ways that richly describe the skills and knowledges of the community. ⁵

There are particular skills involved in the writing of such songs which are learned and practiced (just as learning how to scaffold therapeutic conversations takes time, practice and patience). Having learned the piano from a young age, and later taking up the guitar, writing songs has been a part of my daily life for 18 years now (since I was 14). My early songs and singing voice would have brought no comfort to anyone! There is a definite process of learning the chords with which one is comfortable and beginning to improvise melodies. There is also a skill in listening ever so carefully for words and phrases that can become lyrics. These are all learnable skills which require practice.

If there is a 'trick' to songwriting, it is in the interweaving of melody and words. These are the two elements that need to come together in a meaningful way. In my experience, after a while, these two realms begin to work together. The melody learns to lilt where the words require it, and simultaneously the lyrics adapt to the shape of the song line.

De-centred musical practice

The entire purpose of gathering songs is to centre and richly describe the knowledges and skills of the particular community. If any aspect of the process centres the song writer then this immediately limits the value of the song. This is a key hazard involved in this process. The ways in which music is related to in current western culture often privilege and separate the role of 'performer' from the listener. What's more, there is a great deal in the training of musicians that encourages an ethic of performance that can be a hindrance on community gatherings. On these community gatherings, any micro-practice that centres me as the song-writer/singer can limit the possibilities of the community coming together in song. These micro-practices can be subtle and require vigilance. My middle/upper class background and my training as a musician can at times trip me up. But again, there are skills of decentring that can be learnt as a musician just as they can be learnt by therapists. ⁶

I have tried here to describe a range of collaborative processes which enable the song writer/singer on community gatherings to remain decentred: Co-writing the songs In some circumstances it is possible for all aspects of a particular song to be co-written (ie. there can be collaboration in writing lyrics, coming up with melody and developing chord structures). This takes time however and requires participants to have a some degree of confidence in the process and/or musical/poetic experience. An example of such a song, 'Power to our Journeys' is included here. This song was written during a gathering initiated by a group of mental health consumers and carers. ⁷

Power to our journeys
A song by Sue & David
A journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step
We're coming together now,
we're talking about respect
It shouldn't be too much to ask to listen and to learn
To fill the libraries with strategies that work

Chorus: There is power to our journeys
There is hope in this room
Voices to be heard
And stories to be told
(repeat)

Chorus

As we tell out stories, we remember friends on similar journeys
We take their hands and join them in rage
We join them in sorrow, we join them in hopefulness

Chorus

We are silently boiling over, we are silently boiling over
We are silently boiling over, we are silently boiling over
(chorus and repeat chorus)

There is power to our journeys

Collaborative song-writing

In this process, a basic structure, melody and lyrics might be proposed but with a lot of room made for alterations, suggestions, additions etc. A range of options can be given and participants can be asked to choose between these. This process involves the song-writer providing a scaffolding by which the song can then be jointly created. An example of such a song, 'Going home' is included here. This is the song I mentioned at the beginning of this paper which was drafted as a reflection from consultations with the Narrandera Koori Community and then altered and completed in collaboration with a senior community member.

To listen to this song, click here.
Going home
There's room here for all of us
Like in the old ways
There are stories to be told
Songs to be sung
Like in the olden days

Well our grief has always been with us
But so have our healing ways
We may no longer be living on the hill
But we're going home today
Well, we're going home today
Yes we're going home today

Offering the song as a reflection

Even in circumstances where the song is offered as a completed reflection there are things that can be done to decentre the song-writer/singer:

Before playing the reflection it can be stated again that the words have come from what the community members have just said.

The song can be played in a way that the voice and technique of the player are a vehicle for the participants' words (this means playing and singing simply, with a modest style and tone).

Community members are asked for feedback about the song. Often a different team member asks for this because otherwise the participants might feel they need to praise the song-writer even if the song did not particularly resonate with them.

Community members can be asked to create a name for the song.

Community members can be asked to decide how the song should start and finish.

If there is praise directed towards the song writer, ways can be found to reflect this attention to the song itself and the content of its lyrics (which are words spoken by the community). If there is consistent praise of the song-writer then something is going wrong with the process and further collaborative practices are required.

When songs are offered as reflections, it is a matter of them being 'pitched' at the appropriate place. As the songs use the words of the community this is a significant safe-guard. However, I don't want to diminish the fact that there is also a skill involved in this process in shaping the song in ways that will resonate with the community. The most important balance is often for the song to be able to carry on its lyrics and melody both the sorrow expressed in the conversation and also the alternative story, the sense of hopefulness.

An example of a completed song offered as a reflection, 'Happiness has its way' is included here. This song was written during a gathering for people with an HIV positive diagnosis and workers within the HIV field. ⁸ To listen to this song, click here.

Happiness has its way

Living positive lives
If one thing's certain it's not to know just where the future lies
Living positive lives
Carving out each day dignity and ways to live with pride
We may have lost oh so very many
But we honour oh so very many

Chorus

We may have lost oh so very many
But we honour oh so very many

Chorus

Inclusiveness in singing and recording

Inviting participants to join in singing and playing the songs is a key aspect of decentred musical practice.9 This inclusivity moves any playing of the songs away from an ethic of performance towards one of participation. I've found that it really helps to have easy to play instruments and copies of the lyrics widely available. Ideally the lyrics can be written up on large sheets of paper or on a overhead so that people can stand together and look up at them as they sing. When people are holding individual sheets of paper it is more an individual experience (but this can still work just fine).

In my experience, an ethic of participation when recording can bring hilarious moments, and also a little nervousness on my part. A balancing act is often required of me as I don't recommend ditching an ethic of performance altogether! It is really important that the recording is one which everyone will be proud of when they hear it back, and it is crucial that everyone who wishes to is included in the process. When there is not much time to practice, this is a dilemma that sometimes requires quick thinking and adept arranging to address.

As referred to above, the recording process is not just about recording the song. It is also a powerful ritual and community event. Recording the community event as well as the song is therefore important. Sounds of children talking, people moving about, snippets of conversations before and after the songs - indeed any sound that will evoke the recording ritual - are important to include as the songs themselves. The spontaneous applause that the community often bursts into is often particularly important to include on the final recording!

On this Narrandera gathering the recording ritual involved four generations in a shed singing, playing didgeridoo, guitar and rhythm sticks. We recorded songs that had been written over the past few days. Four of the songs were new, created from the words spoken during the week, while one was an old song, written by a member of the community who died ten years ago. It was the first time this song had been sung for many years. Once melodies begin to circulate it is quite common for an old tune to be remembered and resurrected. In this case it was a beautiful song and the community gathered around to sing it and record it. We made recordings of the five songs and then arranged for CDs and tapes of the recording to be distributed throughout the community. I've brought a CD home to Adelaide too and it is currently playing in the background as I write these words.

Summary

In my experience, the creation of community songs on gatherings can provide a source of hopefulness and can sustain and support the alternative stories of the spoken word. A trusty guitar can be taken out of its travelling case to provide the chords and rhythm, the community's words can become lyrics, and a melody can be found or borrowed. With these elements woven together, the songs are ready to be sung, recorded, remembered and replayed.

These songs are just one part of the community gathering process. They couldn't exist without the community's invitation, the consultation process, the program of themes which create space for the articulation of unique outcomes, and the work of the reflecting team which draws out these sparkling moments and begins the process of co-authoring alternative story-lines. Gatherings are all about collaborative processes and I treasure the opportunities to be a part of them. To join with others in the creation of community songs is a source of great personal sustenance. I couldn't recommend it more highly!

Reprise

As I am finishing off this article, I am now back in Adelaide, and I can hear Peter, my neighbour, strumming upon his guitar. Peter is an older man who lives alone. The person whom he was closest to in life - the woman who lived next door to him for many years - has recently passed on. I had always worried what direction Peter's life would take after her death. And yet, a few months after her passing I heard the sound of a tin whistle. I heard it at odd hours - late at night, early in the morning. I guess these were the times when Peter could not sleep. Whereas these could have been lonely times, sad times, somehow instead they became opportunities for Peter to reconnect with a musical life that I had never known about. The tin whistle sounds quite wonderful these days, and now he obviously has a guitar in hand. He has told me that this was the instrument he used to play as a young man. I have no doubt that the hesitant sounds I can hear now will soon be intricate melodies.

In these past few months I have often wondered how Peter made the reconnection with music. I haven't asked yet, because I have my own version of the story which I quite treasure. It is my guess that his closest friend gave to him the tin whistle before she died and asked him to play it in her memory. She would have known that after her death Peter would not have many companions. It's my guess that the music I can hear now is a legacy of their friendship, their love for one another. In my experience so many relationships with music are like this. Particular songs, instruments, melodies are associated with those we love and cherish. And in turn, a re-engagement, or an engagement with music in particular ways, can bring new life to relationships and communities.

I hope these written words might encourage others to dust off their guitars, tin whistles and vocal chords. There are so many songs waiting to be written.

Notes

1. David Denborough works as the staff writer/song writer at Dulwich Centre. He has edited the books: ' Beyond the prison: Gathering dreams of freedom' (1996), ' Family therapy: exploring the field's past, present and possible futures' (2001), and ' Queer counselling and narrative practice' (2002). All of these books were published by Dulwich Centre Publications (www.dulwichcentre.com.au). David can be contacted via Hutt St PO Box 7192 Adelaide, South Australia 5000. Email: [email protected]

2. A number of these gatherings have been thoroughly documented. For more information about these please see:

These publications are available via Dulwich Centre Publications ( www.dulwichcentre.com.au) and Narrative Books ( www.narrativebooks.com).

3. The process and thinking that informs these gatherings has been documented in 'Living positive lives: A gathering for people with an HIV positive diagnosis and workers within the HIV sector' (Dulwich Centre Journal 2000 #4).

4. For more information about the use of documents in narrative therapy see: Morgan, A. 2000: What is narrative therapy: An easy to read introduction. Dulwich Centre Publications.

5. For more information about the shape of reflections in the definitional ceremony process see: White, M, 2000: 'Reflecting teamwork as definitional ceremony revisited' in Reflections on Narrative Practice: Essays & interviews. Dulwich Centre Publications.

6. To read more about decentred therapeutic practice see: White, 1997: 'Decentred Practice' Chapter 10 in Narratives of Therapists' Lives. Dulwich Centre Publications.

7. To read more about this gathering see ' Speaking out... and being heard' (Dulwich Centre Newsletter 1995 #4).

8. To read more about this gathering see 'Living positive lives' (Dulwich Centre Journal 2000 #4).

9. I have learnt from previous mistakes that great care must be taken in the process of inviting inclusivity in musical processes. Many people have in their lives experienced incitement to sing or play music and therefore encouraging people to participate in songs and music can be experienced very negatively. I think now that it is my responsibility to create a context whereby anyone who would like to can join in (no matter their degree of musical experience or confidence) and that those who do not wish to be involved feel no pressure whatsoever to participate.

Copyright © 2002

More info

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Community song writing and narrative practice - The Dulwich Centre

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by David Denborough 1 This article was written for the UK publication Clinical Psychology, Issue 17, September 2002. As I begin this piece of writing, I am sitting in a motel room in Narrandera, a small rural Australian town. I have just put down my guitar after quickly recording a song called 'Going back home'.

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Inspired by our reflective journal assignment I intend to interview and photograph individuals within the garden to publish a Garden Journal to record the achievements and sentiments of our garden participants.  It aims to celebrate differences and build relationships between community members. The publication will unite participants by acknowledging similarities between community groups that use our garden, and celebrate the differences.  The Garden Journal will be styled in a way similar to the publication shown below and aim to capture poignant moments within our garden and show how as a community we can cope with difference by adopting a Cosmopolitan perspective.

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Humanity A celebration of Life has 12 ratings and 4 reviews. Suzanne said: This is great, not suitable for me to sit down and read from front to back, bu...

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In this Ted Talk designer Stefan Sagmeister explores artistic ways to convey meaning through slogans.  Slogans relating to our "blooming" community will be written and  constructed using the living elements of our garden (eg. Nik's Moss  graffiti concept ) to communicate the values and purpose our garden project.

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Stefan Sagmeister: Designing with slogans

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Rockstar designer Stefan Sagmeister delivers a short, witty talk on life lessons, expressed through surprising modes of design (including ... inflatable monkeys?).

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And while we are promoting virtual story telling. Lets give our children something physical to do in our garden project....why not spark their imagination with yoga? Libraries often incorporate physical dance activities into their songs and nursery rhymes for their story time sessions. For example, do the Hokey Pokey. So why not virtual story telling with yoga for kids who can't make it to our Community Gardens to engage in the real activity. The You Tube clip is attributed to PlayfulPlanet

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Storyland Yoga is great for toddlers and kids of all ages. Especially designed yoga for kids to have fun, get fit, and be introduced to yoga. It's the ultimate kids yoga dvd. Storyland Yoga is a playful kids yoga video that engages childrens imaginations through storytelling.

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Eddie's Contribution to the Community Garden

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Eddie's Contribution to the Community Garden

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As a student of Libraries and Information Management, my goal is to promote, market and manage our information for the widest range of audience possible. One of the best ways I found to do this, is by making  an interactive multi-media virtual tour of our Community Gardens Project. Besides being a  digitised visual record, the Virtual Tour of the project will also act as an audio and information record and will become a valuable tool for storing historical records for the future. A well maintained multimedia oriented Virtual Tour that is updated regularly would be a great asset to the Community Project. It has the potential to attract and engage with a broad range of people, from tourists to students and schools with low excursion budgets would benefit from the virtual outing. Other  marginalised groups  who would benefit include people with physical and mental disabilities, and also the elderly and frail.

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To attract more customers, librarians and  information professionals often  need to be able to market their information in a way that would relax and entice people to read and absorb information. Music in a Virtual Tour would play an important part in that process. Retailers, restaurants and even television advertisements use music to target specific audiences. For example, a restaurant may play classical music for fine dining experience and television advertisements may play catchy tunes to motivate buyers. It would be the same with a Virtual Tour. In the Community Garden's Virtual Tour, I would use specific ambient music and sounds to create the desired atmosphere for absorbing information. The You Tube clip gives a tutorial of how to source music through Songfreedom.com.

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Freedom Wars | Voice Customization System Video

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Mobile Storage Workflow for Photographers

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Adding Custom Audio to Virtual Tours with Songfreedom

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Every virtual tour needs a quality audio track to complete the package. In this video, we'll explore how to build-in value by adding custom audio for real estate virtual tours via Songfreedom.com.

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Writing Verbal Descriptions for Audio Guides

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Writing Verbal Descriptions for Audio Guides

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An Audio Guide is an excellent component of a Community Gardens Virtual Tour. This website article gives us an excellent approach to writing verbal descriptions. Due to the nature of Virtual Tours, the audio guide voice over component can be much more lengthier than if it were a real tour. This is because people can watch virtual tours at any time they choose to, unlike a real tour where time is generally limited.

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Download PDF Version Writing Verbal Descriptions for Audio Guides (PDF contains images)
Lou Giansante, Writer/Producer, Art Beyond Sight. Lou Giansante writes audio tours as an independent producer and for audio tour companies. He also works with Art Beyond Sight as a writer and producer of Verbal Description audio tours.
A Very Brief History of Verbal Description

Dr. Margaret Pfanstiehl, founder and president of The Metropolitan Washington Ear Inc. and her husband Cody, developed the art and technique of audio description in 1981. They saw it as a tool for 1) navigating a visitor through a museum, 2) orienting a listener to a work of art, or 3) providing access to the visual aspects of a live or recorded performance. Different organizations use different terms for the process of using words to describe visual phenomenon. Some, like Dr. Pfanstiehl, continue to use the term audio description. Others use the terms verbal description, or verbal imaging, or audio imaging. Art Beyond Sight uses the term verbal description to describe recorded or live presentation of information about art and other exhibitions. For description of films, videos, or theater Art Beyond uses the term audio description.
For many years, museums and advocates for blind visitors thought that if a museum had an audio tour for its sighted audience, then it needed a separate verbal description tour. Today, museums still produce such verbal description tours and they are successful with visitors. But in recent years, some museums and organizations, like Art Beyond Sight, have begun advocating tours that work successfully for both sighted and blind audiences. More on this later.

If you work for a museum, then you know that recorded audio tours are a growing feature of art, history, and science museums for in-gallery exhibitions and for virtual exhibitions on web sites. And museums have discovered that writing tours with the technique of Verbal Description can make exhibitions accessible to people who are blind or have low vision.

Verbal Description is a way of using words to represent the visual world, of helping people form mental images of what they cannot see. Some museums have discovered the unexpected consequence that Verbal Description can also provide a new perspective for people with sight.

The technology for delivering audio tours, whether verbally described or not, is constantly evolving. I will offer a limited overview of the current possibilities, but most of this article is about writing Verbal Description for audio tours and for web sites.

How Long is Too Long?

There are guidelines for writing for Verbal Description audio, and I'll define those. First, I'll address a common question from museum staff: how long should the stops be in a verbal description audio tour? To answer that question you must consider the length of traditional audio tour stops, how and where people will hear your audio tour, and the nature of your audience.

Traditional Tours. Companies that produce audio tours for sighted visitors try to keep their stops at around ninety seconds, and rarely go over two minutes. Of course, these stops do not include verbal description. So a stop that includes verbal description will be longer, but not necessarily dramatically longer.

In-Museum Tours. In a museum, people may easily spend an hour standing and walking through an exhibition. So physical fatigue is a factor. Boredom can also be a factor. Put yourself in the shoes of a visitor and ask how long you would feel comfortable and stay interested while standing in one location. It's subjective, but a factor to consider.

As an example, in 2013, in conjunction with Art Beyond Sight I wrote and produced a verbal description audio tour of paintings at the New York Historical Society's "Armory Show at 100" exhibit. The stops ranged from two and a half to three and a half minutes long and the scripts wove art historical context for each work with the verbal description. Here's one stop from the tour, a painting by John Sloan titled Sunday Morning, Women Drying Their Hair. It's 2:45.

Virtual tours. If your museum web site offers a selection of works from your permanent collection, audio tour stops can be longer than in-museum tour stops. Visitors will listen to your verbal descriptions at their leisure, probably sitting down. So they will be more inclined to listen to longer stops.I took this into account when writing verbal description for two Art Beyond Sight web sites, New York Beyond Sight (NYBS) and American Art.

NYBS has prominent New Yorkers reading verbal descriptions of the city's visual culture, including architecture and public art works. The "stops" on this site range from 3 ½ to 6 minutes long, with most in the 4 -5 minute range.

American Art features art from the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Brooklyn Museum. The verbal description audio recordings range from 3 to 6 minutes, with most in the 4-5 minute range.

Your Audience.

You probably can identify people who are blind or have low vision and who visit your museum frequently. They may desire longer, more detailed verbal description than casual museum visitors. So for both in-museum and virtual online tours, know your audience and write accordingly. If your goal is to satisfy a mixed audience, you must try to find a happy length that will satisfy both.

Alert Your Listeners.

I've found that listeners appreciate knowing how long audio stops will be. You can add a line in the tour introduction so listeners know how long they can expect to stand in one place.

Writing Audio Tours for Some - Or for All

The first verbal description audio tours I wrote were specifically for people who are blind or have low vision. Today, whenever possible I write audio tours that serve sighted and blind audiences together. For example, with Art Beyond Sight I produced a Verbal Description tour of Grand Central Terminal in New York to accompany an existing general tour for all. Here's a sample stop:

This saves money for a museum, and has the added bonus of creating an inclusive experience with blind and sighted people enjoying an exhibition together.

My thinking began to evolve when I noticed that sighted people would sometimes pick up an audio tour player and listen to the verbal description tour. My first reaction was to stop them, thinking they would object to having art works and historical objects that they could easily see described for them. But I never stopped anyone, and to my surprise no visitor ever complained.

This first happened at a verbal description tour I wrote for VSA exhibit in the Smithsonian International Gallery in Washington. I stood with an artist watching sighted people listening and voiced my surprise. Her response: "People don't like to read." Which I believe is correct for many visitors.

But I also began to realize that there's more to it. Having a voice describe what you're looking at mimics the experience of most television watching in the U.S, especially local and national news programs. Sighted people have come to expect descriptions of what their eyes can easily see.

That's when I began attempting audio tours that combined traditional content for a sighted audience with a level of verbal description for those with sight loss. Again, no one with vision ever questioned the writing.

Actually, one person did question me. The curator of a show on historical silver objects read my first draft script and asked, "Why do we have to tell people this teapot is twelve inches tall? They can see it." My answer had two parts. First, I reminded her that the tour was for both sighted and blind audiences. And second, I told her my experience is that such details help sighted visitors confirm their perceptions. Rather than resenting the verbal description they appreciate it. The best thing any audio tour can do is to help someone look more closely and carefully. An audio tour can focus attention, making for a richer experience, especially if a sighted visitor chooses to not read wall labels,

A sighted museum docent inadvertently confirmed the value of my writing approach. At a museum where I produced an audio tour of paintings and sculptures for both sighted and blind visitors, the docent told me she listened to the audio tour and gleaned new visual insights that she could use in her group tours of the exhibit with sighted visitors.

So now I advocate audio tours that address both audiences. The challenge is coming up with the correct balance of artistic or historical context and verbal description, in a length that won't bore the visitor. I must decide how much verbal description is adequate for person who can't see the painting or artifact, and how to weave it with the other information.

If there is a downside to this approach, it is that some blind people want more detailed verbal description, and that is valid criticism. But in most cases I feel the verbal description tours provide experiences that can be shared by both audiences, whether in a museum or on a web site.

Writing Successful Verbal Description - The Content

Writing Begins With Research

Before you begin writing verbal description of a work of art, you must gather information on the artist, the style or school of art, whether the artist has written or spoken about his or her work, what critics have written, and how the public has reacted. The point is that the verbal description should not be about your opinions. You must filter all the information you find and synthesize it into your verbal description.

If you're able to interview and record an artist, you can weave an audio clip into your verbal description. Even a recorded telephone conversation is usable. I have recorded short phone interviews with artists and included excerpts in the audio tour stops about their works. Artists have talked about their inspiration, their technique, or how they hope the viewer will react. I've even asked artists how they would describe their work to someone who cannot see it. Hearing the voice of the artist makes a compelling connection for listeners, whether sighted or blind.

What to Say First

For artworks, start simply and directly with basic information: the title of the work, the artist's name, the medium, maybe the year it was done, maybe where it can be seen. The client you write for will determine what you include.
Early Sunday Morning is an oil painting on canvas by Edward Hopper in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
How would you judge this opening sentence in a verbal description of painting?
The title of the painting is Early Sunday Morning. The artist is Edward Hopper. It's an oil painting on canvas. It's in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Seems like efficient, succinct writing, direct and straightforward, no? It is, for a reader. But it contains four bits of important information that fly by the ear. Easy to read and reread. Not as easy to hear and retain. It's better to deliver the facts individually, in sequence, starting with the most important facts.

Then Offer Dimensions
The sculpture is 18 inches tall. It stands upon a pedestal about 3 feet tall. The painting is a rectangle about 3 feet wide and 2 feet high.
For paintings and sculpture, give listeners the dimensions of the work. Be specific if you know the dimensions or tell listeners if you are approximating.

And Give the Big Picture
It shows a block of three attached buildings, all two stories tall, with shops on the street level and apartments above them. The buildings extend horizontally across the painting from the left edge to the right edge.
It's best to then quickly give a summary of the content and style of the painting or sculpture before delving into the details. To continue using Hopper's painting as an example:

Establish a Point of View
You see the buildings as if you're standing across the street from them.
For a representational painting, describe the point of view the artist given the viewer, who is now your listener. Are we seated across a table from the subject or are we across a field? Are we looking down on or up at the subject? Again using the Hopper painting:

Also, when you use phrases like "to the left" or "on the right," explain whether you're referring to your point of view as viewer of the painting, or the point of view of the subject in the painting.

For describing architecture or sculpture, it's equally important to establish a point of view for the listener. Where are you standing as you describe? Across the street from it? At the base of it looking up? Maybe you're sitting on a park bench in front of it.

For a sculpture, explain if you are you viewing it from one point of view, or tell the listener if you will describe it from various points around it.
I will describe the mansion by beginning at the ground floor and moving up to the roofline. The painting is primarily made up of three horizontal sections. I will begin with the upper third of the painting.
As the verbal description continues, remember that you are incrementally building up an image in the mind of the listener. Each line should add to that image in an order and in sequence. And you should first tell the listener what that order will be.

Relate to Listener Experiences and Find Analogies

When describing sculptures, or objects and figures within paintings, make comparisons in human terms. Are they life size? Twice life size? The width of your hand?
It's as big as [a car, an elephant, a soccer ball]. The wrought iron railing is waist high. The nave of the church is a like a long rectangular box. The body of the mandolin has the shape of pear. The bell tower's three sections look like boxes piled one atop another.
Sometimes the best way to verbally describe something is with an analogy to something in life the listener might know or have experienced.

For descriptions of architecture, research to find exact dimensions like height and width of buildings, towers, windows, etc. If you can't find that information, estimate using your body. Use your own height to estimate building height. Pace off the length of a façade and count your steps. Then multiply by the length of your pace and approximate. If there is a stairway, count the steps and include the number in your description.

Direct the Listener's Pose
Along the top edge of the roof is a line of carved wooden shapes. The shape is kind of like a large leaf. Hold your hand out flat and spread your fingers wide and you'll have an idea of the shape. The sculpture consists of the model's head and face, a chignon or knot of hair at the back of her head, and her hands and forearms. To understand the pose, try this. Place your palms together in a prayer pose, and also try to put your forearms together so they touch. Now keeping your arms together, place your joined hands on the left side of our chin and tilt your head down a bit. That's the sculpture. To understand Lincoln's pose in Brady's photograph try this. Stand up straight and imagine the camera is directly in front of you. Keep your head facing forward, while turning your shoulders to the right about 45 degrees. Your right hand hangs straight down; your left hand rests on a pile of books on a short wooden column.
Sometimes you can suggest that a listener use his or her body to feel a certain shape, or to understand the pose of a figure in a painting or sculpture.

Color

Don't hesitate to include color in your verbal descriptions. Often blind people had vision earlier in life and recall the world in color. Even congenitally blind know the cultural associations with various colors. Today there are smart phone apps that can tell a blind person what color something is.

Refer to technique
Cezanne was not interested in painting realistic views of his subjects. We can tell the hillside surrounding the mission is thick with nature. But he does not paint realistic trees. Instead he used small parallel brush strokes with many colors to build up the impression of a lush woodland. And in some places he has deliberately let the off white canvas peek through, becoming an element of the landscape.
When possible, make reference to the style and technique AND how that technique affects a viewer's experience. For example, is the paint applied thickly and roughly or with a fine delicate line? Describe how the technique serves the artist's creativity and the affect on the viewer. This type of information should reflect your research into the views of critics and the public. Here's an example I wrote in a verbal description stop for a painting by Cezanne.

Use Touch

If you have tactile diagrams to accompany the works you describe, by all means use them. Some museums use tactiles before or after listening to verbal description; some museums have visitors touch while listening.
To Learn More. The Art Beyond Sight Institute web site offers an excellent PPT titled Verbal Description Training that was developed for staff/educator/docent training and self-study. The Training focuses on how to use Verbal Description during group tours and how to integrate it into the interactive nature of live presentation with blind or visually impaired museum visitors.
If you have access to artists in an exhibit, ask if they would provide a small tactile sample of their artwork for blind visitors to touch. Of course, the venue hosting the exhibit must be open to allowing such a possibility.

In verbal descriptions of architecture or public sculpture, look for opportunities to invite listeners to touch the sculpture itself, or the texture of walls or other architectural details.

Writing Successful Verbal Description - Language for the Ear

Your Audience - Listeners

Always remember that you are writing for a listener, not a reader. A reader can re-read a word, a sentence, a paragraph. A listener does not know what's coming next, and can't go back and review what they just heard.

If listeners don't get it the first time, if they don't understand each line clearly and immediately, then they may not hear the next line you write because their mind is still deciphering the previous line. The point is to never leave doubt about what you mean.

Take your ego out of it. Don't try to impress with clever writing, complex sentence structure, and exuberant vocabulary. Put yourself in the listener's place. He/she wants the basic information in unflowery prose. Listeners should forget about your presence and only remember the image you leave in their minds.
1. Use simple sentences. They're direct and each holds a thought or image. The sky is blue.
Keep It Simple
The sky is blue and the sea below it is green.
Verbal Description writing is writing for the ear instead of the eye, and it has basic principles that writers use when writing for any presentation that uses the spoken word - radio, newscasts on radio or TV, film and video narration, PowerPoint presentations - whenever information is conveyed with the spoken word.
The sky, which extends across the entire top of the painting, is blue.
Sometimes a compound sentence is ok.

But never, or almost never, use a complex sentence, that is, one with a subjunctive clause. These clauses begin with words like which, that, who, while, when.
2. Use active verbs
The problem is that a complex sentence asks your listener to hold the first fact in mind - while hearing about another fact until the end of the sentence - which makes a connection to the first fact. A complex sentence unnecessarily asks the brain to decipher your writing. Use two simple sentences instead.

The sky is blue. It extends across the entire top of the painting.
Having been influenced by Cubism, the young artist's work was reflective of its principles. Cubism influenced the young artist, and his work reflected its principles. 3. Write like you talk
The passive voice is weak writing whether for the eye or the ear, but it's especially troublesome for a listener. For example, The boy was hit by the car uses the passive voice. Who did what? The car hit the boy. That's active.

The passive voice can bring doubt to a listener's mind. It asks the listener's ear (and brain) to figure out who did what to whom by mentally inverting the information it hears. The worst examples of the passive voice use forms of the verb to be. In this example, both verbs are in the passive voice.

Better to write something like this:
There are pilasters on the sides of the windows. A pilaster looks like a free standing column, but it's a decorative element attached to the building. The red flowers draw one's attention to the lower right. The red flowers draw your attention to the lower right
First, that means it's ok to use contractions. People talk with them, don't they?

Second, keep the vocabulary simple. Beware of the long word that is no better than the short word. An artist doesn't "utilize" paint. She uses it. Her style isn't "referred to" as Impressionism. It's called Impressionism. Don't "be cognizant" of these long words. Watch for them.

Third, use proper terms from art history and for techniques when appropriate. But when you do, define or explain the term simply in the next sentence.

Undefined jargon can put off listeners and make you sound formal and distant. You should be talking to someone, not giving a lecture or reading a book.

The best way to find out how you sound is to read your words aloud and listen. Are you talking to someone or reading to him or her? It helps to use words like "you" and "yours" and not the stuffy and impersonal "one" or "one's." Read these out loud to hear the difference.

Writing Successful Verbal Description - With Sound

When a sighted person has experienced a work of art, they are often left with a mental image of the work and with a sense memory of the experience. For people with vision loss, Verbal Description can help do the same, but I have found that adding sound - music, sound effect, ambiences, dialogue - offers even more compelling ways to create those images and memories.

Creative use of sound in an audio tour can help listeners have a richer sensory experience that can help them both understand how a work looks and leave them with a visceral sense memory of the art. You may find it useful to write verbal description with sound, using in-house staff or an outside producer. Here are some ways I've combined sound with verbal description.

Creating Context

Sometimes I begin an audio tour stop by using sound with narration or dialogue to set the historical or cultural setting for the creation of a work of art. I use the techniques of storytelling to set the context for the work. Then I add traditional verbal description to create the visual image of the work. You can hear examples of this with the works on the American Art web site.

Here is another example about a 17 th century painting, Still Life with Parrots by Jan Davidzon de Heem, that I produced as part of a tour for the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida.

Sometimes you can create context by simply adding an ambience background that supports the content of a painting: birds in a forest setting, restaurant ambience, horses trotting by, a church bell tolling in the distance. Let the content of the painting or sculpture and your imagination suggest the ambience.

Creating Audio Analogues

Sometimes I have created sound analogues for visual images or techniques.

You can hear one example of a sound analogue in this audio tour stop for Marcel Duchamp's painting Nude Descending a Staircase. It's 3 minutes long.

Methods for Delivering Audio Tours

Here's a brief summary, as of 2013, of the options for having sighted or blind listeners hear an audio tour in a museum: buying or renting audio players, cell phones, smart phone/pad apps, and do-it-yourself solutions.

To keep up with the evolving world of technology for delivering museum tours for general audiences and people with disabilities, visit the Museums & Mobile web site. Museums & Mobile is a research and professional development initiative focused on the effective use of mobile technologies within the cultural sector. It sponsors online conferences and conducts annual surveys of the field.

Audio Players

Major audio tour producers like Acoustiguide, Antenna Audio, and Orpheo have a variety of players to sell or rent. Some are audio only, some also contain screens to show images or play video. Blind visitors can easily use the players because navigation is via a touchpad just like a phone. Users enter a tour stop number and listen, with options for adjusting the volume and pausing or replaying the audio. This method of delivery requires a sighted companion or museum staff to tell the blind listeners the stop numbers to enter.

Some museums choose to install infrared systems to automatically trigger audio stops, giving the blind visitor greater independence but less control over the listening experience.

Cell Phones

There are companies like Guide by Cell and OnCell that make it possible for sighted or blind visitors to use their own cell phones to dial a number and listen to audio tour stops. Listeners use their keypad to control volume and playback, and there is often a feature for leaving feedback for the museum on individual stops or the entire tour, like leaving a voicemail message. Companies who provide cell phone audio tours can produce and upload the audio for a museum, or provide the museum with software and instructions for doing it in house. This makes it easy for a museum to easily change the content of a tour if necessary.

A potential limit to cell phone audio tours is that some listeners prefer not to use their calling plan's minutes, or do not want to use their phone's battery life on a tour.

Smart Phone/Pad Apps

There are a variety of companies that now produce museum tour applications for smart phones and pads. Besides containing audio tours, these applications can contain still images and video, interactive features, links to web pages, and links to social media. People can download the app to their phone at the museum or before visiting.

These apps offer possibilities for designing tours that are accessible to multiple audiences. For blind visitors, the feature VoiceOver in iPhones and TalkBack in Android phones can make on screen text audible to people who are blind or have low vision. And for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, on screen transcriptions can make audio accessible.

A potential limit to the use of apps is that visitors may not want to use up their phone's data plan. A museum can solve that problem by providing wi-fi access within its walls.

Do-It-Yourself

Some smaller museums and presenting organizations have developed less expensive ways to provide audio tours for sighted and blind audiences. Some write their own verbal description tour (or hire a writer) and then record the tour using inexpensive audio recording equipment, computer editing software. Then they provide the audio to visitors on consumer quality playback products like CD players and iPods. A few museums have adapted blind audio labeling products like Pen Friend and Touch Memo to the museum setting.

Speaking of pens, a unique system (not do-it-yourself) that uses a pen is provided by Touch Graphics. The system uses a Talking Tactile Pen that can record and playback audio and that can trigger audio playback when it touches specially designed tactile images. The system is in use to provide a verbal description tour of the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum in New York. I wrote this tour in consultation with Art Beyond Sight. The pen has also been used in other museum exhibitions, including at the Boston Fine Arts Museum.

Contact Info:

Art Beyond Sight
Elisabeth Axel, CEO/President
elisabeth.axel@artbeyondsight.org
(212) 334-8720

Lou Giansante
www.lougiansante.org/p/home.html
lgiansante@artbeyondsight.org
(917) 892-7982

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Writing Verbal Descriptions for Audio Guides

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Download PDF Version Writing Verbal Descriptions for Audio Guides (PDF contains images) Lou Giansante, Writer/Producer, Art Beyond Sight. Lou Giansante writes audio tours as an independent producer and for audio tour companies. He also works with Art Beyond Sight as a writer and producer of Verbal Description audio tours.

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This You Tube clip provides  great examples of  audio hotspots which adds another dimension to a virtual tour.

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In this series of 'Options' videos I aim to cover all of the additional options we can offer you when you choose a tour from Smart Virtual Tours. This video demonstrates a less common option but still one that I feel adds great content to your tour and brings in another of our senses, sound.

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Panorama Tutorial - Which Camera and Lens to use?

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Panorama Tutorial - Which Camera and Lens to use?

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The old saying goes that a  picture is worth a thousand words. Most Libraries use audio and visual items such as digital cameras to record and digitise their local history photographic collection including community and council events.  A virtual tour of our Community Gardens would be part of the Library's local history collection. But would also require specialised audio-visual equipment like specific camera lens to make a 3D Virtual Tour. This excellent You Tube Tutorial describes what panoramic photography equipment is required for making a virtual tour.

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Merge Panoramas in Lightroom & Photoshop

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360x180° Panorama Tutorial - Pt.8: Q&A - Which camera / lens do I need?

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Part 8. I often get asked "Can I use camera X and lens Y to shoot 360x180° panoramas?", as well as "Does it make a difference if I use a wide angle or fisheye lens?". This "tutorial" answers these two questions in detail.

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Librarians are well known for advocating literacy so why not a Virtual Story-time in our Community  Gardens for all those poor kids who are unable to attend the real event?  This You Tube video clip is attributed to storytime yoga for kids. But it can be incorporated into a Virtual Tour by attaching video hotspots.

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Storytime Yoga® for Kids: The Grateful Crane - Japan

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The Queen of Bohemia, Sydney Solis, tells the Japanese story of the Grateful Crane for the Storytime Yoga Kids Story of the Month Club. Kids can draw a picture of their favorite scene from the story and send it to info@StorytimeYoga.com to enter for a chance to win a Storytime Yoga DVD.

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 Virtual Indigenous Knowledge of Local Plants 

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 Virtual Indigenous Knowledge of Local Plants 

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Librarians have always been aware of how valuable Indigenous knowledge of the flora and fauna in Australia. Unfortunately much of this information and knowledge is only handed down verbally from one generation to the next. One of the best ways to capture and store this information is through a virtual clip. This YouTube clip gives us an example of  what could be achieved if we incorporate it into a virtual tour of  our Community Gardens Project where a number of endemic plants, native bees and other wildlife exists. This is a great opportunity to engage with the  Aboriginal people and to learn about the local native plants they use for traditional purposes.

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Through Our Eyes - Native Plants Near Collarenebri with Ben Flick

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Ben Flick, an Aboriginal man from the Kamilaroi language group of north-western NSW, identifies various native plants at Wirrabilla near Collarenebri and how they were used by Aboriginal people in the past. He speaks about whitewood, native grasses, quinine, river red gum and melaleuca trees.

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Natural stones, visually appealing, effetive sectioning and looks clean.

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Garden layout idea for our Vegetables. Great design, easy to distinguish vegetables plus visually appealing,

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Design is elegant. Also its a very simple and inviting deswign that will easily fit with our garden landscape. The colour of the concrete are said to lighten up the atmosphere and contrast great with green. Any of these stair ideas would look great. Combine a few to add variety. Also it would be safe and visible and not so steep for ease of access

See Weblink: http://homedesignlover.com/landscape-designs/15-inspiring-designs-of-garden-stairs/

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The Magic of QR Codes in the Classroom - Karen Mensing

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The Magic of QR Codes in the Classroom - Karen Mensing

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Libraries have always been big advocates of QR codes  due to the creative ways it can dispense its information. This insightful Ted Talk about how engaging QR codes can become in the classroom highlights  opportunities of how it can be employed in our Community Gardens Project. By placing QR codes all around our gardens including on brochures, show-bags and other souvenir objects, we can create links to internet items such as Virtual/Audio tours, specific informational websites, maps, layouts and social networking access. With the rising tide of technology users from around the world and especially within the city where people's time are often very limited, QR codes can be very beneficial.

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The magic of QR codes in the classroom - Karen Mensing

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 Making and Taking Virtual Field Trips in Pre-K and the Primary Grades

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 Making and Taking Virtual Field Trips in Pre-K and the Primary Grades

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As part of the Librarianship and information management discipline, we are always thinking of new ways in dispensing information. This is an excellent article which explains how virtual field trips can be a launching point for children to extend what they can learn in the physical world. It also explains the processes and planning involved in inputting information and data into a virtual tour for the class room activity. The information attained in  this article would gives us an idea of how we can organise our  information for the Community Gardens Project

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Virtual Field Trip for Long Term Care Residents : A Feasibility Study 

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Virtual Field Trip for Long Term Care Residents : A Feasibility Study 

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As part of librarianship discipline, we are always looking into innovative ways to engage with all parts of the community. This is an interesting journal article which involves a feasibility study of virtual field trips for long term care residents. The Study found that it enhanced their quality of life in terms of improving mental health by decreasing depression and stimulating subject interest. The article highlights what virtual tours can accomplish with people who are not  physically capable of visiting our Community Gardens. A Virtual Tour would allow marginalised groups to have stimulated virtual interaction and still be able to feel as though they were part of our community .

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The Pros and Cons of Virtual Field Trips

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The Pros and Cons of Virtual Field Trips

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This is a great article which explains the Pros and Cons of a virtual field trip for school and educational purposes. Our Community Gardens Virtual Tour would  benefit schools who are often limited by constraints in budget cuts, long distances, time and even safety concerns.

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Most school districts are feeling the effects of state and federal budget cuts. With less money for activities and events, more teachers are turning to technology for innovative solutions. Virtual field trips, which use a combination of images, video and text about a particular time or place to present information to students via the Internet, are becoming a popular alternative to traditional field trips. Many students and teachers say the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

Range of Experiences

Virtual field trips allow students to explore places that they might not have been able to visit otherwise. Elementary school students especially benefit from virtual field trips since their school trips are often limited by distance and time constraints. Students of all ages can experience traveling to far-off locations -- from Antarctica to outer space -- through a virtual trip. Virtual field trips also allow teachers to expose students to places not common in their geographic region.

Broad Educational Objectives

The use of the Internet to provide virtual field trips increases the amount of information students receive during the experience. According to Jim Bradley, director of communications at Colonial Williamsburg, on-site field trips commonly have a specific educational objective, determined by the field trip coordinator of the visiting school. Virtual field trips, on the other hand, cover a wider range of topics because they aim to meet learning standards in different states. Older students also prefer the educational freedom that comes with going on self-directed virtual field trips. Students can view and study information on different places on their own time instead of being ushered through by a tour guide.

Safety

In traditional field trips, student safety is always a concern. Even with teachers soliciting parent chaperones and using methods like the buddy system, there's always a chance that an incident where a student gets lost or hurt could occur. Virtual field trips eliminate the problem of worrying about student safety almost completely. While the issue of online safety could arise during a virtual trip, teachers and school districts manage this concern through proper planning and Internet filters.

Student Engagement

Though virtual field trips provide students with a range of educational experiences, they are limited in the modes they provide these experiences through. Virtual field trips can only engage students' senses of sight and hearing. Traditional field trips allow students to actively participate in their learning experience by providing opportunities for them to see, hear, smell and sometimes touch or taste the things around them.

About the Author

Based in Gainesville, Carissa Lawrence is an experienced teacher who has been writing education related articles since 2013. Lawrence holds a master's degree in early childhood education from the University of Florida.

Photo Credits

Creatas/Creatas/Getty Images

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Pros & Cons of Virtual Field Trips | Synonym

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Most school districts are feeling the effects of state and federal budget cuts. With less money for activities and events, more teachers are turning to technology for innovative solutions. Virtual field trips, which use a combination of images, video and text about a particular time or place to present information to students via the Internet, are becoming a popular alternative to traditional field trips.

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Please note, if Padlet isn't loading the website then please click on link below and wait a liitle while to load: http://www.upmforestlife.com/#sid=6&hid=2&lang=0

This is a great example of an interactive virtual tour website which incorporates all informational aspects of forestry. This website highlights what can be achieved if implemented in a Virtual Community Gardens Tour.  Please keep in mind that it requires broadband internet connection to play and takes a little while to load in the beginning. However, broadband usage in Australia has increased steadily over the past few years and is now over 70%. Hence, loading virtual tours in the future should not be a problem.

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Students gathering vegetables, that can be eaten after maintain the garden.

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Students learning how to plant seeds.

The first step to growing plants.

With covering "living things" for primary school students

and keeping with in the guide lines of Australian Curriculum.

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Students maintaining garden. When visiting a community garden.

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I intend for our newsletter to be a monthly multilingual publication that acknowledges the achievements of our garden community, shares stories of individuals community members working on our project  and invites our community to upcoming events  . It will include a QR code to access a virtual tour of our garden, as devised by Eddie.

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Grow Your Health - Leland Community Garden Newsletter-Fall 2010page1 | The Delta Health Alliance

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Delta Health Alliance is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization that is changing health care and education in the Mississippi Delta by improving access to health services, promoting healthier lifestyles, and expanding educational opportunities.

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Multilingual newsletters will promote activities and achievements of our Community Garden. This website provides access to interpreting and translation services available to community groups. Working with John and participants from refugee groups and marginalised communities, this service will help to foster integration and stronger communication between groups and cultures. Working toward clear communication  between languages will promote a sense of belonging and give power to voices that may otherwise be silenced.

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This NSW government site aims to assist in strengthening communities and on this site community events and workshops or seminars can be advertised for free.

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ourcommunity.com.au provides advise about how to access free advertising for community events on the web.

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australian best practice grantmaking quarterly

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prime ministers community business partnerships

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schools clubs groups colleges organisations organizations

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The Our Community Group provides advice, connections, training and easy-to-use tech tools for people and organisations working to build stronger communities. Our partners in that work are not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises; government, philanthropic and corporate grantmakers; donors and volunteers; enlightened businesses; and other community builders.

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ourcommunity.com.au is a great resource of "how-to" information for community groups. This page relates specifically to community service announcements and accessing free advertising space.

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australian best practice grantmaking quarterly

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prime ministers community business partnerships

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schools clubs groups colleges organisations organizations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Our Community Group provides advice, connections, training and easy-to-use tech tools for people and organisations working to build stronger communities. Our partners in that work are not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises; government, philanthropic and corporate grantmakers; donors and volunteers; enlightened businesses; and other community builders.

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Why Evaluate? To ensure effective communication between groups using our garden and to make sure we are attaining our goals of promoting participation, fostering cultural integration, and, ensuring our garden is a productive and educational space.

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I am researching practical documents that need writing to support the operation of our garden.

This is a link to an example of a Community Garden Safety Document

http://communitygarden.org.au/2010/01/09/safety/

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Fine Art and Visual Culture

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A long wooden table for community dining

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A long wooden table for community dining

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This is the type of table and benches I had in mind for our garden. It's a great way for a community to sit together and socialise. Once we've prepared meals using our own vegetables, we could sit together and enjoy them. Perhaps we could introduce the same concept as Lentil As Anything where everyone gets to eat the same meal but those who can, contribute more. This could be in the form of gardening, money or any other way.

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Make this out of reclaimed wood for your front yard. Benches seat more people than chairs. One long table encourages conversation and group interaction.

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Beekeeping in James Street Reserve Community Garden - Sydney:

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Beekeeping in James Street Reserve Community Garden - Sydney:

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The James Street Reserve Community Garden is one of the more active and innovative gardening communities in Sydney. Below is a photograph of one of their beekeepers on a Redfern rooftop. In the background we can see the CBD. We are fortunate that the City of Sydney recognises the importance of bees in our environment.

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I think that Ron Finley's concept of guerrilla gardening is interesting and relevant to our concept because we are trying to merge contemporary urban culture with vegetable gardening. He does this in a unique and energetic way, but also makes very important political and social points. Why can't we plant food all around our cities? Why is real estate more important than people?

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Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA

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Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA -- in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys."

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It is important to let children get close with nature and appreciate how food is grown. It is equally important educating children about, composting, worms and the need for nutrients back into the soil.