I saw WSI gently illuminating a different path and beckoning others to join them in exploring it, as they have done so often before. Exploration was for me the essence of this project, for artists, parents, children and teachers. WSI’s motivation is not to replicate what they know they can do well, but constantly to reach out into areas they perceive as needing to be addressed, to approach the development of useful prototypes with imagination, sensitivity and poetry and thus they make a valuable contribution to important dialogues in many disciplines.

‘A Child’s Eye View’ appeared to be for children, but what I saw was a vital project for adults. It’s title asked us to crouch down, to look not just alongside children but to remember our own view as a child. For me, WSI’s ongoing work is about re-enchantment. The re-enchantment in this project, being the need for reconnection of the adult world with the simple poetry of communication and imagination, then in turn it can be transmitted to children. ‘A Child’s Eye View’ seemed to be communicating this to adults through giving the experience to the children themselves. The ‘framing’ of the piece as a children’s event, which of course it primarily still was, licensed the adults to dream in an unselfconscious way on the questions WSI was raising. The warmest delight and most poignant moments of the piece for me, were when this became literal and adults became lost in the experience themselves, bursting out answers to Sasha.

What is so striking and important is that WSI were showing us, yet again, that what is vital and precious is not some rare, expensive magic to be found only in artist conjurors or on superstore shelves, but is an innate skill and response within ourselves, that can be present in our everyday lives. WSI do not mystify us with their wonderment, but invite us to rediscover it in ourselves. An ideal world would not need this company or projects such as these, we would all be aware and confident of our individual capacity to communicate in this way. But in a far from ideal world, WSI’s ability and motivation to suggest and encourage a new way of looking is wholly necessary.

‘A Child’s Eye View’ was, I felt, an exploration of the sensual, poetic elements in a child’s early development that are being lost in world of mass produced education and play. In observing the project, I was greatly moved by what I saw as the illumination of many barriers both mental and physical, that need to be questioned if we are to honestly investigate viable alternatives to the current models of communicating thought and creativity to children. In embarking upon the journey of ‘A Child’s Eye View’, WSI were able to suggest not a rarefied definitive answer, but a timely reminder of why work of this kind must be developed and one brave offering of how it might be approached.

Statement by Lancaster Sure Start

We looked with curiosity, fun, amazement. We saw colours, textures, various shades of light. Primary colours gently moving into natural green/brown colours that are not normally used for pre-school.

We enjoyed the dark spaces, and use of lights. The different textures on the floors, over everything we walked on. We could feel difference not only with our hands/eyes, but also our shoes.

We felt that Sasha was very gentle in voice and movement. He kept the children’s attention and worked intuitively with the group, creating what was difficult in a short length of time – a group that felt like it was on an adventure. There was a sense of being part of a journey, which made us forget everything else, and slowly use all of our senses – even our sixth sense in the shadow puppet/universe environment.

It was great for parents, and an imaginative use of space.

Questionnaire Responses

"I want to live in it."

"Using everyday, cheap objects
very effectively."

"I felt my childhood had rushed back to me"

"I think the children gained creative 'role model' experiences
through the senses, problem solving, active participation,
sense of ownership of space."

"The children obliviously joined in without instruction."