Stories of Listening: Enni (age 5)
Captured by Deb Wilenski
Languages of Collecting
Enni begins her year as the only Finnish speaker and a multi-language learner new to English. When she enters the Atelier, she is drawn to The Collection - an archive of objects, found and made, offered for active investigation. Enni looks closely, touches, and gradually begins ‘re-collecting’. Over many weeks, she gathers and arranges the things she loves most, communicating her curiosity, identity and aesthetic ways of knowing.
As the Atelierista I respond by making more spaces for re-collection, adding frames and clear surfaces. Listening differently, I hear Enni’s languages of assembling and locating and I remember the ViewMaster and its reels. The worlds inside the viewer are miniature scenes, framed and collected by photographers many years ago. Enni becomes fascinated by the tiny worlds and the 3D effects. As I clear up after the session I suddenly notice, she has collected the ViewMaster into one of her own frames too.
COLLECTING:
looking, moving, selecting, placing, holding, grouping, sequencing, enclosing, framing, seeing, accompanying, showing, preferring, positioning, considering, locating.
