Making Connection Visible
In the previous post, I shared the structure of the workshops.This moment became a key turning point.
Synaptic Forest: making connection visible
One of the most pivotal moments in the series was the Synaptic Forest workshop, which became a key conceptual turning point for the entire project. Here, we focused on the idea that every thought, feeling, and memory begins with connection.
Copyright © Touch & Trace - Alice Burnhope & Lianne Keighery
Using rope-making as a central technique, participants worked in pairs to twist threads together to form rope. In this process, each person became a neuron, and the rope became the synaptic connection between them.
The physical action of crafting the rope, through the tension required to hold the rope together mirrored the strengthening of neural pathways through repetition. When the tension loosened, the rope could unravel, demonstrating how connections can weaken, shift, and be remade.
Copyright © Touch & Trace - Alice Burnhope & Lianne Keighery
Before this, we began with a multi-sensory activation, inviting participants to respond to sound, touch, smell, and visual stimuli. Colours were chosen intuitively, translating sensory experience into thread. These “sensory ropes” became deeply personal holding emotional responses within their structure.
As the ropes were brought together, they formed what we began to call synaptic forests, networks of connection that could be moved, layered, and reconfigured. There was no fixed composition. Instead, participants created systems that were fluid, adaptive, and open.
This workshop, alongside the 7 other workshops illustrated that the abstract concepts around neuroscience could become visible, felt, tangible and embodied. The theory becomes connection, empowerment and change.
In the next post, I’ll share how these ideas moved from workshop into installation.
Copyright © Touch & Trace - Alice Burnhope & Lianne Keighery
