We are all familiar with multisensory experiences, where you can see, touch, hear, and sometimes smell various textures and vibrancies. Particularly useful for children, the range of inputs can provide a sense of wonderment and tranquillity. Children with certain special needs can find the unique and playful environment in sensory exhibits particularly exciting.


Real ORCAs will have seen and hopefully read my book Cri Du Chat, The First Ten Years. It's about bringing up my daughter who has the syndrome. Even now at age 17 she loves glowing lights, bright pink blu-tac, and if she gets away with it, several screens at once with different shows. Now that modern technology is able to provide a whole list of multisensory experiences from simple devices, the concept is rightfully branching out into other places. Hand in hand with therapy and recreation, the arts have also been experimenting with what these ideas can bring about for everyday visitors.


Creative Pinellas have taken this concept into their own hearts. Presenting in Largo, Florida, an interactive multisensory art experience called Look Touch Move, visitors are invited to soak up the invigorating and enchanting atmospheres created by a joint artist venture. A true multi-disciplinarian, Sharon McCaman makes use of sculpture, sound, colour, projection and more to produce vivid and adventurous experiences. Featuring the Reiteration exhibition by Sharon McCaman, the works are reframed and reignited via the collaborative inclusion of Helen French's Reprise.


Helen French holds an art degree and has quickly risen to great heights well beyond her St. Petersburg community. The dance choreography she produces has been enjoyed in many venues around the land and this new show is bound to encourage many to come and see this fusion event.


Reiteration involves large-scale structures that are comprised of textures, angles, vibrancy, and moving parts. Visitors are invited to experience the work, listen to its feedback, and get to grips with the varying sensory anomalies that are provided. On the other hand, Reprise has been choreographed to provide a visual dance experience that explores the sensory works in the exhibit.


The explorations are endless, with metaphor and symbolism holding open ended chains of thought association. We can use art like this to realise how our own lives are multidimensional and that we regularly make adjustments to the way we express ourselves on a layering of different levels.


Find out more about the exhibit here.


Via Patch

There are many conflicting opinions about Winston Churchill out there, with advocates of each closing their ears to the other side's view. This partisan stance from society towards Winston Churchill is no-doubt earned from his life and actions. I never studied him at school, apart from when we briefly covered the second world war, and I didn't know much more than a few quotations, the fact he liked cigars, and that he died long before I was born. A recent story came to light when a group of activists wanted to have his statue removed from parliament square. This being due to his imperialist ideologue and a few snippets from his various written works that seem to define him as a racist and white supremacist. Why is he treated as a saint when he carries such a large shadow? I read this book in order to get a better idea.


It begins as many biographies do with Churchill's early years. Born into money within a traditional and states-person central family, a future of great things seemed to already be laid out for him. He lived in India when he was young and enjoyed playing polo most of the time, although he was a stationed officer of the British army. Never did he cook his own food or make his own bed, he had a servant that took care of all his everyday needs. When the first world war broke out, he went off to the trenches like everyone else, yet still managed to sip champaign, have his meals cooked for him, and he employed someone to keep his quarters tidy.


Joining the Conservative Party as a fresh civilian once the war was over, a career in politics soon blossomed. Clearly with no idea about the daily struggle of ordinary people, he could only seem the world through the eyes of a person who never felt the pang of hunger or the sleepless nights worrying if you'll be able to pay the essentials when other people expect so much as well. It was during this early time as a fledgling politician that Churchill made most of his famous imperialist quotes. He subscribed to eugenics theory in which only high achievers should be allowed to reproduce. He also said that white English people are morally bound to take care of lesser races.


It was only until after the second world war that he recanted most of these views. Frightfulness is not a remedy found in the British pharmacopoeia as he rightfully said. It seems he didn't realise how frightful some of his early ideas were. But what about the thing that made him famous? If it wasn't for the defeat of Nazism then he'd have likely been a faded face on a photograph hardly anyone notices. Why did he become the figurehead of freedom and victory?


His war tactics were arguably flawed, the bombing campaigns intended for pure terror and without any viable war targets led to the deaths of hundred of thousands of non-combatant Germans and the destruction of hundreds of British planes filled with the brightest and bravest of all of us. Most of Churchill's air tactics would be deemed war crimes in today's world. It was only through the combined efforts of Britain, Russia, The USA, and the resistance fighters in their native lands that Nazism was defeated. The rubble left behind by British carpet bombing gave the Nazis one last defence against the oncoming armies.


So why do we iconise Churchill as the face of bravery and freedom? He has become synonymous with certain human qualities and flaws. He makes war seem moral and right. If you can liken your cause to the allies against Nazism and identify yourself with Churchill, people will rally behind you. Like a modern day Abracadabra, if you can summon the ghost of Winston Churchill then you can persuade people to fight. When this happens, a lot of money is spent in nearly every sector. So by keeping Churchill famous and by silver lining his shadow the big powers can continue to use his famous ideas to push their own agendas.


The fact that I can recount this all to you in one go is pretty good evidence towards the quality of this lengthy but worthwhile book.  

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Toronto based artist Adam Macciocchi Lancia classifies himself as having bad eyesight. Not just an inner feeling, this is serious business as eye doctors all agree that he suffers with cracked and detached retinas in both eyes. Never the less, Adam manages to create absolutely blinding artwork proving that nothing is beyond the reach of this man. Currently on display at The Local Gallery (Toronto), and with a massive Instagram following, we're all just awestruck with the quality. Considering that Adam experiences a constant strobing effect even when his eyes are closed, it's amazing he has the patience and wherewithal to produce such stunning pictures.


When Adam's eyesight failed in 2007, it didn't look good. The gradual onset of blindness meant that Adam had to undergo tests and procedures to discover the cause and any possible cure. The retinas were reattached to his great relief however the fact that light enters his eyes at the wrong speed can't be altered. This is why he is constantly bombarded with the flickering strobe effect as light struggles to make its way through his optical sensors.


With the support of his friends and family and a great attitude, Adam Macciocchi Lancia now can proudly call himself a highly successful artist. His parents bought him paints at a very young age as something to entertain himself with. This became a love for art over the next few years which gradually blossomed into the amazing skill we see today. When he was just seven yeas old, the city of Toronto acknowledged his clear ability and granted him access to the Young Artist's Incubator. This set him up to further his study at university when the time came.


His fantasy and interpersonal scenes really strike as potent and vivid images. It's easy to imagine how the strong contrasts in composition within the individual works serve to help Adam define place and flow despite his obstacles to clarity. An almost escapist thematic can be felt in the visual journeys that depict people and places with abstract textures that produce another layer of metaphor within the larger whole. Like layers of exploration, we can take our time to fully explore the nuance and timbre of each work and be drawn right in.


Why not pay a visit to Adam's website and see what else he has made. Visit here.


You can follow Adam Lancia on Instagram


​Via Daily Hive

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It's been a good twenty years since the final Yves Saint Laurent show back in 2002. Then it's a worthwhile wait because the first room of the six museum strong exhibition in honour of the artist opens with a recreation of this magical affair. A series of expert sketches rekindle the flow and elegance of the display while remaining true to the media. Through suggestion the viewer can place themselves in the room with the reality. Of course, this primary exhibition is to be found at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent.


Five other prominent Paris venues are also displaying resonating works to compliment and harmonise with this remembrance. Moving past the first room in the Musée, visitors can expect to be greeted by some true artefacts from the Yves Saint Laurent collection. The designer's creative process is outlined as selections of fabrics, designs, shapes, and decorations are explained with various cabinets and media.


It's widely known the Yves Saint Laurent paid many homages to the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso. Famous for his abstractions and impressionism, the theories and schemas portrayed by the artist often found themselves represented in the fashion world. At the Musée Picasso in Paris, the combination of the two creators are demonstrated in highlighting exhibitions. Now we can be drawn along the line of the YSL legacy and discover how Picasso often found his way into the clothing and designs.


No multi-venue Paris exhibition would be complete without a section within the legendary Louvre. Among many national treasures and hugely significant masterpieces, one of France's biggest cultural names surely has a rightful place. And what a place, the Yves Saint Laurent section has been assembled in the Galerie D'Apollon. The place where the French Crown Jewels are kept, this historical building is housing an avenue that shows the luxurious background which swept in and around everything Yves Saint Laurent did. The jewellery and royalty inspired designs by the artist are selected and put on show next to some of the most precious objects in the realm.


One huge influence in the private life of Yves Saint Laurent was the work of Proust. Being a defining factor in the way the designer formed his own thoughts, this subconscious seed manifested in several ways through his expert creations. The book In Search Of Lost Time was a particular piece that YSL is known to have read at a relatively young age. The Musée d'Orsay is playing its role by highlighting several pieces that echo with the archetypes left behind by this seminal work.


Something that Yves Saint Laurent is famous for is “Putting Colour in Motion” (Art News). At the Musée d'art moderne this aspect of the designer's career is given full view. In the Bonnard room, visitors can find the painter's masterpieces The Garden and The Lunch shown in dim lighting next to some of Yves Saint Laurent's creations. Further rooms define the designer's influences through works by Lucio Fontana and Raoul Dufy.


Hugely influenced by other artists, the designer had in fact helped make some painters much more accessible than they were before. One example of this staircase effect is the cocktail dress designed to resemble work by Piet Mondrian. This and other works that identified with need-to-know artists are exhibited too. In order to see this collection visitors need to travel to the Centre Pompidou. Curated by Mouna Mekouar and Stephan Janson, with the help of Pierre Bergé of the Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, it's essential viewing for YSL fans and those who want to find out more about the designer's lifestyle.  

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