Young Digital Creators (YDC) Project

YDC uses the Internet and creative digital technology to enable young people to express their perspectives on their own lives and realities - and on issues that they and their peers face. The artistic creations that participants produce may take on a local flair or tone, particularly as they are supported through individual schools and mentoring teachers, but the online medium is meant to foster exchange of images, sounds, and ideas across cultures. While entertaining, the process is meant to be an educational one, as it is supported by the exchange of factual information through the Internet as well as by curricular materials and other resources available to participating teachers.

There are currently 3 separate projects in which interested classes from schools all over the world are invited to participate. Each web-based project includes components in both English and French languages. The projects include:

• Scenes and Sounds of my City - UNESCO provides this background: Despite living in an increasingly globalised society, with news and pictures from the television and the Internet linking people to the rest of the world, many still have very little idea about the everyday lives of people in other countries. To that end, the project website is designed to provide an opportunity to discover what it would be like to live in another city. Students take photographs of their own urban environments and then upload them in the form of a slideshow with recorded sounds. Students are encouraged to view art about cities by other urban youth, thinking about the media used, developing ideas for their own projects, and providing fellow artists with feedback. (To view this gallery, click here, then click on the "Art Gallery" icon in the upper right-hand corner of the page). The aim is to enable students around the world to obtain a better understanding of each other's urban environment, culture, and surroundings.
• The Sound of our Water - At the start of the project, students are asked to think about the kind of sounds of water they would like to record; they then go on to produce their own digital water song or water sound scape. These recorded water sound pieces are saved on the web-based sound bank for use by all participants. The process of browsing and listening to different soundtracks from the audio clip database, which are made by the other participants, is a key part of the interactive learning process. With the selection of favourite sound clips, the young digital creators explore creative editing and mixing and compose their own water audio piece. They are then uploaded to the web-based database, where there is an archive of collected creative productions. This programme can also be promoted, with the guidance of teachers, within the regular educational curriculum of the schools (in such subject areas as natural sciences, geography and music). An online forum, tutorials, and resource section on water are designed to provide information and opportunities for experience exchange to support curriculum development.
• Youth Creating and Communicating on HIV/AIDS - As background for this project, UNESCO notes that: "Art is an expressive and creative communicational tool, which can be used regardless of language barriers and cultural differences. Wouldn't you like to discuss with young people living in the other part of the world on what they think about HIV/AIDS? Why not create a collaborative digital art piece with someone who is living with HIV/AIDS?" Using a project website, young people reflect on HIV/AIDS related to specific social and cultural issues and express their thoughts and feelings through creation of artwork with digital sound and images. This process is meant to be an entertaining opportunity for participants (more advanced students, perhaps those studying graphic design) to play with creative digital tools such as digital recording and artistic remixing. Click here for a detailed summary of this programme on The Communication Initiative website.

Youth, Intercultural Exchange, Education, Environment, Health, HIV/AIDS, Globalisation.

UNESCO seeks participants through the end of 2004 for the above projects, which are scheduled to continue in 2005. The participating classes should have access to a computer and the Internet. UNESCO will not be able to provide funding, but will give exposure to the project along with information on the school and the teacher. A CD-ROM and booklet that will provide more guidance and information (YDC Resource Kit) will also be provided. UNESCO will also provide students with letters of participation. The age groups range from 12- to 17-year-old students, apart from the HIV/AIDS project, which is geared toward older students. Interested teachers may contact Christina Human at c.human@unesco.org or UNESCO, Digi Arts at digiarts@unesco.org

The First Session of 2004 of the YDC Programme was launched in April and May 2004. Prior to launch, these programmes were tested and evaluated from September 2003 to February 2004 with a selection of UNESCO-associated schools, clubs, and centres, and were presented at the World Summit on Information Society (Geneva, December 2003). The work created by the young participants during the first session was performed at Computer Space 2004 (12-14 October 2004), Sofia, Bulgaria and the World Summit on Internet and Media (18-20 October 2004), Beijing, China.