Young Creatives from Coventry and Nairobi have come together to create incredible immersive experiences designed to inspire change in their cities. The Digital Storytelling Lab welcomed the young people into their programme in July 2021 with up-and-coming filmakers, digital artists, writers and musicians signing up. The learning programme was designed to introduce them to cutting edge storytelling techniques, tools and platforms.
They were also invited to attend a series of workshops to offer the young people mentoring and support, enabling them to create their own new short form digital experiences. The two experiences explore youth unemployment and life after graduation. An interactive short film, ‘Our Daily Bread’ delves into different city themes and how they impact young people’s mental health while they search for employment. The experience moves between Nairobi and Coventry and audiences can make choices which change how the story unfolds. The other experience, ‘Now That I Know things’, uses spatial audio techniques to follow a range of thoughts, feelings and experiences from two students during their graduation days. The project follows Aisha in Nairobi and Sara in Coventry and uses smart devices, laptops, tablets and phones to deliver an immersive experience. The teams on both projects have been collaborating remotely throughout lockdown.
Team members working on Our Daily Bread said: “By sharing our stories with the world our goal is to inspire policymakers, activists and governments to be intentional and deliberate in combating issues that affect young people across the globe. We’ve all acquired skill sets that we can’t wait to put into practice for future projects and made new friends with a group of revolutionary creatives to connect with and learn from.”
Both projects are now available to experience on BBC Taster and will be showcased at events celebrating the Global Youth Series in Coventry and Nairobi on the same day.
The storytelling lab has been bought to life through a partnership between Coventry City of Culture Trust, British Council, The Space and BBC R&D, which aims to create new media to inspire change.
Click here coventry2021.co.uk/what-s-on/wemove-global-youth-series-day-3-taking-up-space to register to watch the Global Youth Series.
Source: coventryobserver.co.uk