The interest and motivation in much of our work is the 'unknowability' of another persons experience of the world especially if they are unable to communicate using language. Through our work we explore different forms of response and communication using visual art based materials and data.
Research & Dissemination is an evolving area of programming that uses exploratory routes towards understanding and sharing the importance and impact of art in the lives of people who have severe neurological impairments. Between 2012 and 2015, projects will open out this work to others through events, exhibitions and the development of on-line resources.
| Archiving
Project Art Works has an extensive and rich archive of media, documentation and works of art accumulated over ten years of project activity. Begun in late 2008, we are currently nearing completion of digitizing all documentation including photographs of projects, workshops, exhibitions and individual works of art as well as an extensive film archive. At the same time, we are also organizing centralised and bespoke storage systems for physical media – paintings, drawings, prints, slides, objects and installation components. |
| Perceptual Impairment and the Built Environment
Project Art Works has conducted several innovative and investigative projects that focus on how people with complex needs experience built space including: Close to the Wall (Kate Adams/ NESTA/Wellcome Trust 2005) and a major feasibility study for a specialist centre funded by SEEDA and Seaspace, 2007, that included new ways of consulting with people who have severe communication impairments and their families about the impact of built space on creative engagement.   
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| Spaces
‘My eyes work like everybody else’s, so I see what you see, but I do not experience it like you experience it’. ‘Changes of colour on the floor are tricky, because they can tamper with perception of depth. I can’t see whether what’s being indicated is a step up or a step down, or not'. The above quotes by people with autism indicate highly sensitive responses to space and the built environment. We continually monitor and evaluate what people we collaborate with ‘tell’ us, sometimes non-verbally, about the spaces we work in. Over some years we have designed bespoke spaces in which to conduct workshops as well as show work. These have been developed in direct response to the impact that particular spaces have on people who have complex needs. 
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| Models of Consultation
We recently completed an in depth consultation for and with Screen South on Youth Screens – a national project aimed at engaging young people in film making. The consultation indicated a need for a more developed approach to consultative approaches with people who have complex cognitive and communication needs that have resonance and depth. Project Art Works has specific expertise in this area. We work alongside speech and language therapists and have developed multi-faceted tools for communication that include augmentative communication symbols and signage, picture and object exchange and the use of film and photography. These methods of augmentative communication are used in conjunction with the deconstruction of standard questionnaires, and areas of consultation that would usually rely on understanding and use of the spoken word.   
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