Best Laid Plans of Mice & Men

In January of this year I was given the chance to work as an intern for pedestrian. This wasn’t the first internship I had undertaken in an educational facility but it was the first time I would be working with the students and not behind the scenes as a technician.

In January of this year I was given the chance to work as an intern for pedestrian. This wasn’t the first internship I had undertaken in an educational facility but it was the first time I would be working with the students and not behind the scenes as a technician.

I felt that working with people with learning difficulties and challenging behaviours in the past would prepare me for the task, which it did, there was still much to learn though. Meeting the team at pedestrian was the first surprise. An array of extremely talented people, with skills from all over the arts and entertainment industry, they are an eclectic team with a lot to offer and learn from. The internship focused around the organisation and execution of a workshop for young people at Corby cube. Concept aimed to introduce people to music and expand their skills and understanding.

Planning Concept was very much a group effort, guided by Kate, the Concept team came together to brainstorm ideas and explore the aims of the project. This allowed everyone a chance to get to know each other and what skills they could offer as well as who they are as artists and educators. I was more on the outside of this process, documenting the day, I had to chance to dip in and out of the conversation, seeing the way people seemed to work to include and compromise. One task, to generate a motto for the project saw a number of different ideas come together, the way every idea put forward found its way into the finished motto was pretty impressive.

I hadn’t expected to see quite the level of team spirit that came about. Drum circles and team activities not only brought the people together but gave us all a taste of what Concept was all about. The awkwardness of trying to find a place in the group without over stating one’s self.

After the planning I was tasted with creating a short video of the day to show what had been achieved. This was a challenge as I had had little experience in video production before. I would like to think that I had risen to the task and the resulting video showcased the concept well. Two videos were produced, one for promotional use, the other, never to been seen by the public, a mix of all of the embarrassing moments of the day, the joy of pizza and cake, these moments hopefully allowed everyone to feel like they were part of a friendly team. It defiantly did for me.

This was a large step away from the kind of planning I had done before, from a purely technical position, logistics and equipment specs, I had not until now considered the human dynamic of a project like this. This is something I hope to explore more in the future.