The activities within the training course, were documentated by three ESC volunteers involved to the project activity during their volunteering service. We thank them for their contribution and the following explanation of the activities from their pens.
Drawing Demons Experience
Drawing Demons Workshop was conducted by the Icelandic team. In this workshop, the main target was to challenge the participants to think about the state of mental health, stigma against mental disorders and way to strengthen mental wellbeing. Another aim was to use the creativity to produce some comic work about the topic of mental health.
At the beginning of the workshop, the participants created a circle. The instructor explained the aim and the logic of the workshop. She presented the participants the topic of mental health, its importance in our daily lives and different ways of overcoming several difficulties that we face. Then she asked each participant to mention what ‘’mental health’’ means for them and how they overcome some issues in their difficult times. Each participant expressed their opinions and their ways of handling the problems that they face.
After this, all participants took their plces in the tables to do another task. In this task, each participant came up with some concepts within the field of mental health. A lot of concepts such as ‘’loneliness’’, ‘’overthinking’’ and ‘’deviance’’ were written. After this, the instructor asked the particiopants to create a comic regarding the topic of mental health. The participants were free to work by themselves or in pairs/groups. They were also free to use whatever technique that they wished. At the end, an exhibition of all the works was conducted and participants found a chance to explain their works.
The people who participated in this workshop expressed that it raised an awareness regarding the topic of mental health and how important it is in our daily lives. They also mentioned that they found an opportunity to see and experience different views and forms about the mental health.
Elements of Communication
Elements of Communication workshop was applied by the Icelandic team. In this workshop, the main target was to discuss the elements of communication. At the beginning of the workshop, a circle was created by the participants and by the instructions of the educator of the workshop, they discussed about the topic of communication; what they find important and what should be paid attention to in a conversational setting. Participants expressed their ideas regarding this issue. For example, one of the participants mentioned about the fact that how something is said matters as much as what’s said.
In the proceeding part of the workshop, the instructor divided the participants into three groups. She asked them to create any kind of artistic work that they find relevant to the topic. They were free to use whatever material they wished to, or to use nothing as a material. After some time, the three groups came up with their works: two groups created drama works whereas the other group created some artistic work made by clay. At the end, the groups presented their works.
One of the groups, for instance, created a drama based on the idea that mimics and gestures significantly differ in several concepts across different cultures. In order to show this, they created a line of 6 persons where each person spoke a different language that the others did not understand. Random individuals from the audience told the person who is the head of the line an emotional concept: such as disgust, or sadness. After that, the person who holds the head of the line started the game in which they were expressing in their own languages what they see from the previous person. At the end, it was seen that there is a relativity of body language across different cultures.
People who participated in this workshop expressed that this workshop created an awareness about the concept of communication and what some important parts of it are.
Creative Technique Machine Workshop
Creative Technique Machine workshop was an artistic workshop that was mainly aiming to research for new techniques to get in touch with illogical proposals in order to stimulate divergent thinking. In this workshop, the instructor presented a creative material that she obtained from a garden. It was a powdered black substance derived from a plant. She mixed it with water and then explained the participants some different uses of this material.
After that, she asked participants to draw different kinds of seeds on some papers using this material. Participants were free to use whatever technique they wished to use. After drawing their pictures, participants hanged their works onto the wall and they were exhibited in a way that everyone saw each other’s works.
Participants expressed that they had a nice and relaxing time in this workshop and they said that an awareness regarding the topic of creativity with different materials was raised.
Origins of Music Workshop
The workshop named Origins of Music was conducted by the Portuguese team. This workshop mainly aimed to consider how music is an elemental part of every society and every culture in the world, to dismantle the expectation that music must be a professional skill with professional tools, to strengthen teambuilding and international cooperation and find creative ways to promote practices that strengthen culture sharing, international cooperation, and work in the arts.
In the workshop, firstly, the participants were informed about the concept of ‘’human universals’’ and their features. After raising some awareness and informing the participants regarding these concepts, the workshop facilitator divided the participants into four groups for an activity called human orchestra. In order to do this activity in a more social and cultural way, the participants did the activity in the historical castle of the city. During the activity, they tried to create some rhythms with their bodies in synchrony with each other. At the end, each group did a show of their performances.
Participants expressed that they gained quite much insight regarding these concepts. Besides this, they had a fun time in the historical castle of the city with other participants.
Theatre of the Body, Authentic Movement Dance and Rhythms Workshop
Theatre of the Body, Authentic Movement Dance and Rhythms workshop fundamentally aimed to investigate a little more deeply oneself. In order to do this, a sequence of activities that are built on the idea of ‘’divergent thinking’’ were applied to the participants. There were 24 participants from Turkey, Spain,Portugal and Iceland.
In the workshop, firstly, an activity called ‘’nadie como yo’’ was done. In this activity, participants created a circle. Then, the instructor started the activity with an object that he threw to one of the participants. The task was to say one thing that makes them unique, in their opinion. After hearing this one fact about one of the participants, the other participants with the same fact said ‘’ yo tambien’’ which means ‘’me too’’. This activity continued until each person participated to the activity.
The other activity that was done in this workshop was called ‘’quienes somos?’’. This phrase means ‘’who are we?’’ in Spanish language. In this activity, each participant talked about who they are, what they like or dislike and what their dreams are. The other participants were free to ask questions. After this interview, the participant who talked about themselves created a statue that is meaningful for them. The other participants were free to add some figures to the statue. At the end, each statue was named by their creators and their photos were taken.
Through this activity, participants had a chance to think and talk about themselves, their weaknesses and strengths, their unique aspects, and their common points with others. Participants expressed that this activity gave them an opportunity to express themselves in front of many people.
#SayStop Workshop
#SayStop is an art workshop that aims to raise an awareness in individuals on social issues such as domestic violence, violence against women, child abuse, social inequality. Besides these, this workshop also aims to create an awareness that the agendas created by the power of social media are temporary and not sufficient, although they are perceived as great.
In order to achieve these targets, an artistic workshop was conducted, and the participants were informed about several NGOs that work in this particular field. There were 24 participants from different countries: Portugal, Turkey and Iceland.
The applier of this workshop was the Turkish team and firstly the concept of #saystop was introduced to the participants. In this introduction, they hanged on the wall an illusion of the figure of #saystop. On this illusion, participants from different countries wrote some phrases in their own languages about the social issues mentioned above.
After the illusion of the figures, an art workshop of linoleum was conducted. For this workshop, participants selected some images to make as their art works and worked on them for some time. As a more individual artwork, linoleum was found quite interesting and relaxing by many participants. After doing the linoleum workshop, the works were exhibited in the activity room.
As a result, through this workshop, it was aimed to create an awareness regarding some social issues such as domestic violence, child abuse and social inequality. Participants expressed that it was both an entertaining and informative workshop for them. At the end of the workshop, some forms to get the feedback of the participants were distributed.
