Sound mapping of an ideal garden

The project "sound mapping of an ideal garden", carried out in partnership with the nature initiation museum - CPIE Vallée de l'Orne, stems from a desire, between the RPA - La Charité and the crisis and hospitalization unit for adolescents (UCHA), child and adolescent psychiatry service, to create a link around a common passion which is the garden.

The initial idea was to think, with the patients and the care staff, about a vision of their ideal garden.

How to start from nothing, from an almost blank space, to arrive at a garden where you feel good, where you want to share walks with a loved one, a visitor, a caregiver, to share moments of life.

A Culture and Health project.

The first year consisted of reflecting on the garden in an immaterial way, in different phases:

• Visits to cultural institutions related to the theme.
• Educational workshops with the nature education museum – CPIE Vallée de l'Orne.
• Writing workshops with author Isabelle Rimasson and Epoque book fair in Caen : writing of "the tulips will soon be back".
• Illustration workshops for the imagined story, offered to patients accompanied by illustrator Amélie Delaunay.
• Voice acting, sound design and recording: the story was set to music during workshops led by musician Marion Motte.
• The recording of the compositions then took place in the Cargö in Caen.
• Printing and design of a book/object: it was printed by the City of Caen and embellished with a screen-printed cover and back cover, during workshops led by Karine Debout-Métairie from the collective l'Encrage.

The second stage of the project is based on the physical realization of the garden planned beforehand, within the RPA – La Charité.

• Garden design with Yoann Faivre of ''Vives terres'' and the nature initiation museum – CPIE Vallée de l'Orne.
• Design of the route in the garden of the RPA – La Charité based on the story written in the book/object.
• Production of outdoor furniture with theArt Itinérant association : benches, armchairs, insect hotels, sound and classic birdhouses, vegetable planters.
• Screen printing workshops on garden furniture, with the collective l'Encrage.
• Manufacturing outdoor sound diffusers: an electronics workshop using hands-on skills to create audio players with motion sensors. These sound diffusers will be hidden inside birdhouses.

The garden will subsequently be maintained jointly by the residents and the young people of the UCHA.

"A place of care, a place of life" - it is in this spirit that the Caen Normandy University Hospital contributes to the quality of the reception and stay of its users by maintaining a strong link to the outside world through culture.

Thus, throughout the year, the establishment offers its patients, caregivers or visitors cultural activities in various artistic fields such as music, singing, theatre, visual arts, books and reading, storytelling…