Visualising Symptoms, Sound Workshop.
A workshop turning sounds of symptoms from the human body into collaborative works of art.
Throughout the workshop, Mellissa played sounds collected throughout her project Sense of Symptoms exhibited at Phoenix Art Space in October 2023. Participants listened to these sounds and recorded their reactions using various art materials, they worked together on one large sheet of paper to create a collaborative graphic score.
Sounds used in these workshops were collected collaboratively with:
Sound therapist Mark Dixon
Cultivamos Cultura residency in Portugal by sound artist Nigel Helyer.
Sounds of pulsatile tinnitus were collected by the Pulsatile Tinnitus Clinic and RADIS Lab at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, and the Biomedical Simulation Lab at the University of Toronto. (RADIS = Robotics, AI, Dynamic flow, Imaging and Simulation)
Palm Bay Primary School - Margate
From 2019 to 2023 Mellissa was artist in residence at Palm Bay Primary School alongside a group of female artists Megan Metcalf, Sarah Stokes, Sara Jackson and Nova Marshall. Organised by Melanie Tong, for 5 years the artists have offered extra enrichment of arts to the school's curriculum as well as running regular projects teaching different skills and techniques. Throughout this time various groups of children have learned new techniques such as how to cast with alginate, plaster, draw what they see down a microscope, and make sculptures with modroc and clay.
PALM BAY NEWSPAPER
In May 2023 Mellissa created a poster that brought together illustrations the children had created through multiple workshops and Artists statements from each artist in residency.
Weekly Workshops With Mellissa
Mellissa has taught weekly workshops at Palm Bay School since 2018 and is passionate about the teaching materials she uses in her practice. The first workshop introduced the YALs (Young Artist Leaders) to Mellissa’s practice by exploring how she combines Art and science. Mellissa brought her microscope so the YALs could learn to draw what they saw under the microscope. Mellissa enjoyed involving the children in the various lines of inquiry her work explored and she often asked for their feedback on what she was creating.
Since lockdown 2020 Mellissa began a venture into ceramics with help from a local not-for-profit Clay Space and now she runs weekly ceramics classes, learning alongside the YALs.
Microscope Drawing Workshop
DYOM (Design Your Own Microbiome)
Mellissa created a series of workshops called DYOM (Design Your Own Microbiome) these were run at schools, colleges and festivals. DYOM workshops linked Art and science, as well as Illustration to inspire participants to explore the hidden world of the microbiome.
Design Your Own Microbiome (DYOM) was a series of workshops delivered in multiple locations. The workshop with bio artist Mellissa Monsoon encouraged participants to learn about the invisible world on their skin by exploring collage painting and sculptural techniques. Some workshop participants used images of bacteria and collage techniques to create dramatic self-portraits. others cast their faces or hands with Modroc, which they then decorated using marbling inks. This marbling technique created unique designs on each sculpture reminiscent of Mellissa’s groundbreaking piece Microbial Me which is currently exhibited at The Eden Project. Participants worked collaboratively in pairs to create each other's microbial portrait.
Mellissa designed the DYOM workshops to convey the collaborative work produced between herself and Professor Mark Clements on projects such as Microbial Me and Microbial Micheal, documented by the BBC for 'Michael Mosley vs. The Superbugs' in 2017, in which Mellissa created a series of sculptures by casting the artist's face or Micheal Mosley's body. These casts were re-produced in agar. Mellissa then coated the sculptures with living bacteria collected from the surface of the skin. This bacteria grew creating unique colours and patterns across the surface.
Select workshops:
Margate Pride, looking down the microscope, LGBTQIA+ youth of Thanet, February 2023
Blue Monday, Online zine workshop, Hope for the Community, January 23
Visualising Symptoms, inviting the public to interpret tinnitus sounds to create a group visual score, October 2023
Let's get creative, IIH community support online workshop July, August 2023
The Margate School, Tech expert, process demonstration for monthly Tech Club, August 2022
Plant Cell workshop, Guest Lecturer MA Art & Science, Central Saint Martins Grow Lab, December 2021
Visualising Physical Pain, Virtual Workshop as IIH UK Arts & Culture Rep, July 2021
Guest Lecturer, MA Art in Science, Liverpool John Moores University Sept 2021 SKIN SAFARI, virtual workshop with Dermotologists, University of Warwick, June 2021
Visualising Physical Pain, virtual Workshop with Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance, November 2020
Margate Pride workshops, Dreamland, Margate, UK - Workshop Leader, August 2019
Green Man Festival - Workshop Leader, August 2018
Proteus Theatre, Basingstoke - Workshop Leader, June 2018
HackLab, Toronto - Event Organiser & Workshop Leader,February 2018
Ramsgate Festival, Ramsgate - Workshop Leader, July 2017
Ramsgate Seadog Festival, Ramsgate - Workshop Leader, July 2017
National Saturday Art Club, London - Workshop Leader, May 2017
Green Man Festival - Workshop Leader, August 2016
Orleans House, Twickenham - Workshop Leader, February 2016
Central Saint Martins, London - Workshop Leader, March 2016
The Royal Society, London - Illustration Tutor for The Big Draw, November 2015
Penrice Academy, Cornwall - Workshop Leader, September 2015
The Royal Microscopic Society, London - Workshop Assistant, March 2015