This activity uses your communication, relationship, imagination, and emotional literacy to create a human sculpture of an emotion.
What you’ll need: One other person, your imagination and playfulness!
What’s it for?
This activity helps you to increase your emotional literacy by using your imagination to mould another person to represent a feeling. You'll need good communication skills and to be very respectful of the other person. Seeing a feeling represented by a human sculpture can help you explore how you (and the person moulded) experience different feelings.
Check In:
Notice how you’re feeling right now. Close your eyes and notice what’s going on inside your mind and body.
How are you feeling?
What are you thinking?
How does your body feel?
Method:
First, decide who will be the person sculpting (the 'sculptor') and who will be the person being moulded into a shape
Start by walking around the space, find and stand in a comfortable spot
Start making slow movements of your body (head, arms, body and legs)
The sculptor thinks of an emotion
They instruct the other person to move their head, arms, body and facial expressions to reflect the emotion
When the sculptor has finished instructing the person, look in silence at the resulting moulded person
The sculptor should think carefully if it represents the chosen emotions. If not, make adjustments
The sculptor thinks carefully about what sounds the mould might make to enhance the overall impression of the feeling. What might it sound like?
Does the sculptor have any questions that they'd like to ask the mould?
The sculptor should ask the moulded person how they feel in their sculpted mould
The moulded person should try to move in the sculpted shape. How does it feel?
Both people should shake out the exercise and move about the space again before switching roles
Extra Activity: Try moulding different things with a partner like animals, sports, buildings, and objects.
When you’ve finished, spend a moment reflecting on the activity and ask yourself the following questions:
How did it feel to be moulded?
Were there places on your body that felt uncomfortable?
How did it feel to move in the form that you were moulded in?
What other ways does change happen within your body?
Did this process bring up any particular feelings for the sculptor or moulded person?
Conclusion:
This activity helps you to visualise projected emotions which can be impactful for the sculptor to see. It requires good respectful communication. It also opens up discussion around the different ways that feelings might be represented. It also encourages creativity and emotional expression.
If you would like to, share something about your experience with this activity with someone you live with! Ask the person who looks after you to send us an email if you have any questions or comments about the activity, or would like to send us any pictures (info@catcorner.co.uk). Don't forget to subscribe for more fun CAT activities!
Created by Vanessa Reid © April 2022
Creative Arts Used: Drama
Psychological Areas Explored: Self-Exploration, Emotional Literacy, Communication, Relationships, and Play
If you enjoyed this activity, you might also like: Human Instrument: Play a human instrument and learn to communicate with musical gestures!
These activities could be done by children of all ages, but some may need the support of their parent or carer to read the instructions or complete the activity safely.
This website was made by CAT Corner to help you explore your feelings through fun creative arts activities. The people using the website and the people responsible for them need to make sure they stay safe (full disclaimer on About page).