Making SideWays: Field Notes from the InSideWays Creative Process

Making SideWays is a window into the creative process, for artists, researchers, practitioners, anyone interested in access as a creative starting-point rather than an add-on, and everyone who chooses the wiggly path. 

Two makers at a workshop table making a sensory blanket
A person creating a colourful shadow of their hand on paper
Outline of a house made from colourful tape on the studio wall. It is filled with different coloured post-its covered in ideas

Welcome to the wonderfully wiggly, creative inner world of InSideWays: an At Home show made across two countries, with two Swedish theatres, eight families, and more than 100 artists, musicians, makers, singers and craftspeople over two years (with one baby born along the way).

Gathered here are field notes: reflections, images and observations recorded by artists and researchers during and just after the making of InSideWays. Together, they trace a wiggly line through co-creation, access, perception, sensory practice, play, connection and resonance.

Just like InSideWays, there’s no single route through it. Instead, we invite you to wander, finding a path that sparks ideas and questions of your own. 

Making SideWays: Field Notes from the InSideWays Creative Process is available in two formats:

Making SideWays: Read an extract


  • About InSideWays

    InSideWays is a first-of-its-kind international collaboration between Sensory Theatre pioneers, Oily Cart (UK), trailblazing sensory producers Scen:se, and regional theatres Folkteatern Gävleborg and Estrad Norr (Sweden).

  • About the Authors

    Making SideWays: Field Notes from the InSideWays Creative Process was co-produced by Oily Cart (UK), Folkteatern Gävleborg and Scen:se (Sweden). It was edited by Flossie Waite, with graphic design by Toy Walker.

    It was written by:

    Ellie Griffiths

    Ellie has been the artistic director of Oily Cart theatre company since 2019. She founded the Upfront Performance Network (which connects 1000+ international Sensory Theatre makers) in 2016, and was awarded a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship, to research Sensory Theatre across the world. Ellie’s artistic work and training has been produced and delivered internationally in countries such as Japan, Sweden, Australia and the USA. In 2021, Ellie became the first UK artist to receive the International Award for Artistic Excellence from Assitej, the global association for theatre and performing arts for children and young people.

    Dr Aaron McPeake

    Aaron works as a lecturer, researcher, disability advisor, and artist. His work as a sculptor and filmmaker has sound and multi-sensory experiences at the centre of his practice. He is registered blind, and his sculptural works are designed to be physically interacted with by beholders creating multi-sensory engagements.

    Aaron has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally, and has completed a number of public sculpture commissions. His PhD research focused on sight loss and what has become known as visual arts practice. His most recent work has culminated in a UCL Press publication and exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute, both titled Beyond the Visual.

    Eva von Hofsten

    Eva is the founder and director of the program Scen:se at the regional theatre Folkteatern Gävleborg in Sweden. Scen:se is dedicated to accessible performing arts for disabled children and youth and has been running for 10 years, with several performances created and produced in collaboration with other theatres.

    Scen:se also runs a wide-reaching pedagogical initiative in drama, developed in collaboration with specialist schools, fostering meaningful encounters between audiences, artists, and diverse ways of experiencing theatre.

    Elspeth Clark

    Elspeth Clark is a researcher and occupational therapist with extensive experience working alongside disabled people who experience multiple and complex barriers to access. Throughout her career, she has worked as a support worker, enabler, and later in clinical practice as a therapist.

    In 2022, Elspeth embarked on a PhD at the University of Southampton (funded by the SCDTP) where she uses a sensory and embodied approach that de-centres verbal communication and aims to stretch the boundaries of inclusion in research. Working together with students who have been labelled as having profound intellectual and multiple disabilities, they collaboratively explored how engaging in meaningful

    activities (also referred to as occupation) can facilitate the experience and expression of belonging. A research internship at Oily Cart has further enriched this journey, offering Elspeth space to explore connections and cross-pollinations between research and Sensory Theatre, building bridges between the arts and academia.

    Laura Blake

    Laura Blake is an artist and researcher. Her practice is formed on the foundations of craft, as a space where people and materials meet. The pieces created in her studio stem from moments of awe in nature, which translate into artworks intended for touch and play as much as visual impact. This tactile element of her practice expands artistic experience beyond reliance on sight or a complex description for comprehension, and aims to include audiences often excluded from exhibitions.

    Originally from the UK but now based in Sweden, Laura graduated from an MFA in textile art at the University of Gothenburg in 2018. She has since been working as an artist on projects and exhibitions throughout Sweden and internationally.

  • Reference List

    Here are the books, articles and resources mentioned in Making SideWays:

    The Empty Space by Peter Brook

    ‘Not 5 but 33 senses’ by Dr Merle Fairhurst
    https://www.sciculture.ac.uk/2014/06/12/not-5-but-33-senses/

    ‘Being a parent… and an advocate’ by Helen Horn https://disabledchildrenspartnership.org.uk/being-a-parent-and-an-advocate/

    No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for uneven terrain by Rebecca Solnit

    Supporting people with profound and multiple learning disabilities: Core and essential service standards by Dr Thomas Doukas, Annie Fergusson, Michael Fullerton and Joanna Grace

    ‘Att växa sidledes (To grow sideways)’ by Fanny Ambjörnsson, published in Jag är tid jag är rum: Sinnligt språkande scenkonst tillsammans med barn och unga med funktionsvariationer. En antologi av Kollaborativet.

    Quirky dramaturgy in contemporary UK theatre: autism, participation and access by Alex Leggett  https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00051632

    Ask a Beautiful Question  https://www.timeslips.org/resources/creativity-center/ask-a-beautiful-question/ 

    ‘Co-occupation: Extending the dialogue’ by Noralyn Pickens and Kris Pizur-Barnekow in Journal of Occupational Science, 16(3)

    Occupation by design: Building therapeutic power by Doris E. Pierce

    Light: A radiant history from creation to the quantum age by Bruce Watson

    Thinking through craft by Glenn Adamon

    Textiles: The whole story: Uses, meanings, significance by Beverly Gordon

    The Textile Reader, edited by Jessica Hemmings

    Awareness and Activism https://worldquilts.quiltstudy.org/americanstory/engagement/awareness-activism

    ‘Quilts as activism explored in ‘Radical Tradition’ at Toledo Museum of Art’ by Chad Scott
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/chaddscott/2020/11/28/quilts-as-activism-explored-in-radical-tradition-at-toledo-museum-of-art/

    An Embroidered Elegy: Mrs Scales’ Autograph Cloth by Lynn Setterington

    ‘Quilt language: Towards a poetics of quilting’ by  Mara Witzling in Women’s History Review, 18(4), 619–637
    https://doi.org/10.1080/09612020903138351

    A Playful Manifesto by Max Alexander
    https://playradical.com/a-playful-manifesto/

    Resonance: A Sociology of the Relationship to the World by Rosa Hartmut (translated by James C. Wagner)

    The Uncommon Senses: Dinnertime: A multisensory extravaganza! on BBC Radio 4
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b08k5zqw

    Active Support: Enabling and Empowering People with Intellectual Disabilities by Jim Mansell and Julie Beadle-Brown

    ‘Meaningful moments of interaction with people with profound intellectual disabilities: Reflections from direct support staff’ by Wieneke Penninga, Sara L P Nijs, Hedwig J A van Bakel and Petri J C M Embregts in Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 35(6), 1307–1316
    https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.13019

  • InSideWays Creative and Producing Credits

    InSideWays Creative Team

    Co-Directors Ellie Griffiths and Eva von Hofsten
    Designer Laura Blake
    Composer and Sound Designer Bernt Karsten Sannerud
    Writers Karl Seldahl, Eva von Hofsten and Ellie Griffiths
    Creative Collaborators The Bowen Family, led by Lucy and Sam Bowen
    Pedagogues Linnea Lundberg, Maka Marambio de la Fuente and Andreas Dahl
    Dramaturgy Karl Seldahl, Rachel Bagshaw and Rhiannon Armstrong
    Research and Development Collaborators Annika Bromberg, Jens Gustavson, Sally Langford and Aaron McPeake
    Creative Consultants Joanna Grace and Max Alexander
    Creative Researcher Aaron McPeake
    Researcher-in-Residence Elspeth Clark

    Illustration, Graphic Design and Devising Toya Walker
    Graphic Design Johan Strand
    Makers Karl Jörtsö, Lisa Pernebrant, Sara Holmström, Astrid Larsson Lindh, Niklas Wiberg, Per Moneeo, Iréne Moneeo, Bernt Karsten Sannerud, Teresa Fyhr and Maja Ramberg

    Sound Recordist Chris Bullock, Simon Marchant and Adam Tavner
    Voiceovers Sam Bowen, Sebastian Bergström from Teater Barda, Chiya and Lily Edelman, Ellie Griffiths, Eva von Hofsten, Claes von Hofsten, Usifu Jalloh, Saul Kirk, Lachlan Kirk, Mark Leeson, Lumi and Laura Norlin, Elisa Makarevitch and Iris Makarevitch, Leticia Valles
    Videographers Tilda Persdotter, Paul Williams and Roswitha Chesher
    ‘How InSideWays Works’ video performers Agnes Furuvik and Vilma Frecon
    Photography Thomas van der Kaaij, Johan Strand and Tilda Persdotter

    With thanks to Kelly Fraser, Victoria Swan, and the Demelza Choir; South House in Faversham for use of the space; Chef Jozef Youssef of Kitchen Theory; Lotta Frecon and Anna Pella; Julie Steward; Jen Walke-Myles; April Sethi and Mia; and all the families in Sweden and the UK who were part of the show’s development.

    UK and Sweden Organisation Credits

    Oily Cart

    Artistic Director Ellie Griffiths
    Executive Director Zoë Lally
    Production Manager Brent Tan and Mor Kestin
    Tours Producer Alison Garratt
    Communications and Advocacy Officer Flossie Waite
    Access and Wellbeing Officer Maka Marambio de la Fuente
    Development Officer Zhaolin Zhao
    Administrator Romica Sharma
    Stage Manager Laide Sonola
    Youth Associate 2025 – 26 Lucy Bowen
    Press Representative Binita Walia, The Space in Between
    Researcher in Residence Elspeth Clarke
    Placement Nuria Cano Lorente

    Folkteatern Gävleborg

    Artistic Director Gro Oskarson Kindstrand
    Executive Director Marcus Hellsten
    Artistic Project Manager, Scen:se     Eva von Hofsten
    Producer: Johanna Westlin
    Producer: Jens Mellqvist
    Drama Pedagogue, Scen:se Andreas Dahl
    Communications Strategist Anna-Karin Berglund
    Communications and Graphic Design Johan Strand
    Communications Linnéa Manzanares
    Communications Linnea Bäck
    Stage Manager, Technical Coordinator Thomas Andersson
    House Technician Anna Sörell

    Estrad Norr

    Producer Christina Seldahl Lindgren
    Producer Tomas Nyqvist
    Performing Arts Pedagogue Linnea Lundberg
    Communications Frida Laurin Carlss