Leap Then Look Audio Description Script

Outside the Entrance

The entrance to the exhibition,is on the ground floor.  The outside wall is painted a rich sunshine yellow.  The entrance doorway is halfway along the wall. In deep blue capital letters, to the right of the entrance are the words ‘LEAP THEN LOOK’ arranged in steps down to the title underneath- 

‘PLAY INTERACT EXPLORE’.  These words appear on blue curved boomerang shapes that hang on a sketch of a wooden frame.Each word appears to have been cut out with a jigsaw.

Then there are the dates of the exhibition, 

12 October 2024 – 1 June 2025

On the left of the doorway there is a TV screen that plays a video of the artists talking about the exhibition.

Entering the gallery.

Passing through the central open doorway we enter a large space with white walls, well-lit from above.  The gallery is brimming with colourful, natural materials. Wide, circular and square light-grey rugs lie on a black tiled floor. Structures made from wood and soft furnishing fabrics are displayed on the walls and laid out in the space in different zones. 

On each wall are coloured rolled up hoses with funnels at either end.Yellow and orange, green and blue.These can be removed from the wall and used as telephones. An extra-long, bright orange hose, with funnels the size of traffic cones, loops across the space suspended by ropes from the ceiling.

Large, brightly coloured signs have been placed on the walls above each of the different zones with words of encouragement.  The words are on the same dark blue boomerang shapes as the title outside the entrance. The letters appear to be cut out by a jigsaw, so the gap created makes the letters the same colour as the background.  For instance, the first sign is green with ‘Look, move, build’ on three different pieces and the letters show through green.There are also notches cut in the colour shapes which ties in with sculptural pieces later in the exhibition.

We turn left from the entrance to walk around the gallery in a clockwise direction. Introductory notes to the exhibition are on the entrance wall beside the doorway, black letters on white. The opening paragraph to the notes is...

‘Play Interact Explore is an exhibition of interactive artworks and resources created by Leap Then Look, artists Lucy Cran and Bill Leslie. The exhibition considers play and collaboration, creating new relationships with art objects and materials.’

The notes go on to explain that Leap Then Look have worked with community groups to create the exhibition.

Everything in the exhibition is interactive and you are encouraged to spend time in the space to explore, create and play.

Following around the corner, below a clock, there are a set of rules on the wall …

Dos and don’ts

We’re encouraging play in this space for all ages (including grown-ups) together, share and be mindful of each other.

Children under 12 should be accompanied by an adult in this space at all times.

On some days and at peak times, we may ask you to take your turn and then give others the chance to have a go, please be led by Baltic Crew in the space.

Please do not take any small parts home with you.

Toddler Time

Beside the list of rules is an open doorway. This is the entrance to a workshop area sometimes used for planned workshops but open for ‘Toddler Time’ daily. The room is set up for toddlers to enjoy a safe space to play in. There are large, coloured bricks for building, soft toys and pens and paper for drawing.

The room has6 small round tables with chairs, and an open space for building with bricks.  4 windows give a view across the river and on the opposite wall there are 8 poster-size photo portraits of young men and their kids entitled- 

North East Young Dads and Lads- Portrait Youth.

A wooden sandwich board sign titled Activity Space in the entrance explains-

‘a programme of activities takes place here during Leap Then Look Play Interact Explore. Please scan the QR code or visit www.baltic.art/play to find out more.’

Small Sculpture Zone

Moving past the doorway we reach a wide round wooden table surrounded by chairs. Boxes on the table hold different sizes of wooden dowels and small off cuts of wood smoothed into different shapes with holes bored through. Visitors can sit to use the pieces provided to create small wooden sculptures by pushing the dowels through the holes in the off-cuts.

Also on the table is a set of 12 cards that can be used to prompt ideas. For instance ‘make three sculptures and join them together.’

On the wall is a box containing exhibition leaflets that give more information about the development of the exhibition work.

Colour Pattern Screen.

Beyond the table is an open area formed around a circular rug.

Against the wall there is a screen made from a large roll of paper.The paper is fixed to a narrow table at the bottom forming a shelf so the screen curves back against the wall then rises to 6 foot high. 

An overhead projector relays images onto the screen from a tray of coloured shapes.  The shapes can be moved about to make different colours and patterns on the screen. The small sculptures made at the table can be placed on the shelf at the bottom where their silhouettes and shadows interplay with the colour shapes on the screen.Here they can be photographed.  On the wall to the right of the screen there's a metre square wooden unit divided into shelves, three down and four across. This creates12 shoebox sized shelves where visitors may place and display their finished small sculptures. 

Along the wall from the shelves is the first green sign with the words ‘Look, move, build’. 

The Looking Trolley

The looking trolley can be rolled around to different parts of the gallery but its starting point is on the carpet beside the overhead projector. The trolley is wooden and pushed around on casters. Inside the trolley a collection of different lenses on the end of sticks can be taken out of the trolley to be looked through.  At the centre is one very large, wider than your face, round magnifying glass stuck on a long wooden stick like a lollipop. There are different coloured lenses, magnifying glasses and kaleidoscopes set into handheld frames stored in the sides of the trolley.  

Movable Frames Zone

Moving on to the left-hand corner at the bottom of the gallery there is a collection of movable frames. One large frame at the back is fixed to the floor for stability but the others can roll around on casters to create different spaces. The wooden struts at the bottom can be a tripping hazard.

A blue sign on the wall says ‘work together’.

The wooden frames hold different colours and textures of fabric tied by twine threaded through holes in the material and wood. The frames are different shapes and sizes standing from about the head height of a child up to 6ft high. For instance, there is a sharp pointed triangle with white material, a harp shape that's pale blue, and some like the sails of a yacht, in green and yellow. 

Soft Shapes Zone

A pink sign has the words ‘surprise yourself’.

Moving Across to the next corner we find a collection of soft shapes that people can wear.  These hang by hooks on both sides of the walls of the bottom right corner.  Made with thick upholstery material in mustard brown, navy blue and dusty pink the shapes are padded like thin cushions with a collection of different sized holes where you might put your head or arms.  The shapes suggest a horse’s collar or a floppy version of the stocks in many different forms.

Each shape has poppers on the ends so they can be fixed together to extend the shapes or to attach people to one another. This offers the chance to create all kinds of games, perhaps a human chain or a costume to create a performance.  It is possible to use the moveable frames as the wings of a theatrical space.

Large Sculpture Kit

An orange sign says ‘play, interact, explore’.

Moving up the side of the gallery is a zone with a large sculpture kit that can be used to build big structures on an expanse of carpet.  This gives the opportunity to make unique sculptures from preformed pieces. 

The kit is collected in large wooden boxes set against the wall beside 2 wooden benches. The boxes hold off-cuts of wooden board made into curved shapes with notches cut out all around the sides. The pieces can be locked together by attaching the wooden shapes notch to notch with the chance to build large structures.

The preformed pieces are made from smoothed light-coloured wood. Some pieces are painted orange or blue and add splashes of colour into the sculptures.

Rock and Roll Zone

Next to the sculpture kit zone is an area with wooden structures shaped in circles or part circles.  The sturdy pieces have two smooth sides attached to each other by wooden struts about a foot wide that run all around and appear like the steps on a ladder. The sides are painted in blue, green, yellow, pink, orange and red.

The round sculptures can have solid or doughnut shaped sides and can be rolled across the ground.

The half circles can be placed so they curve like a rainbow or placed the other way round they can be rocked like a rocking horse.

If placed flat side down, they can be stacked into towers. 

There are also 2 little carts on wheels that toddlers enjoy pushing.

The Film Corner.

Next to the rock'n'roll zone is a long narrow area that fills the final corner of the gallery. There is a large square screen that divides the space from the entrance doors.  The screen is made from opaque material tied inside a square frame by threads of twine like the material on the moveable frames. 

The lighting here is a little darker to better show the film made for the exhibition. A projector on the wall points to the screen at the bottom of the space and creates shadowy images of hands that flicker and wave.  Images on the screen can be viewed from either side.Fingers curl, point, and flick up one at a time as if counting. A pair of hands flutter together like a dancing bird.A finger pinches the thumb in a ‘perfect’ sign shape.  A hand gives the ‘thumbs up’.  Fingers from lots of hands mingle together.

On hooks along the wall, between the projector and screen, are a collection of 4 cut-wood fruit shape frames.  Pieces have been cut out from the shapes and filled with coloured perspex in curved yellow banana shapes and orange flower petals and flowing green and purple curves.

Visitors are encouraged to hold up the fruit shaped pieces in front of the projector to transfer colour to the screen.  It is possible to add physical shadows to the screen by standing between the projector and the screen or to create shadow puppet images using your hands. 

Walk past the film screen and turn left to exit the gallery.

This is the end of the audio description.