March 2014 - KWMC

Archive for March, 2014

Young people pit art against tech

This Easter over 70 young people aged 10-19 joined staff, artists and volunteers to give Knowle West Media Centre a digital makeover.

Project Piano was an experimental fusion of art, music and technology. Young people worked with volunteers to replace most of the piano strings with pots, pans and anything we could find that made a noise. Another team worked with staff to record live sounds and play them back through one octave of the piano using sensor pads, an arduino, and a laptop. You can visit the piano now at KWMC.

Other popular activities included playing and programming games on the Raspberry Pis, photography, a Wii Sports tournament, and workshops from Nth Camera and PiBot. Find out more about what happened at #artvstech

Photographer Kirsty Mackay took 40 beautiful portraits of children, young people and their families in Hengrove Park during the Easter holiday. They’re on display now in the KWMC studio. If you haven’t collected yours yet, please come and see us. Find your picture and it’s yours for free!

We’ll be bringing art and tech head to head again in May half term from 27^th-30^th May. Join us to make a collection of memories and bring their stories digitally to life.

Gallery

Spring event explores ‘wild food’ heritage

What is ‘wild food’? Could you find your own?

As part of the Bristol Food Connections festival, Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) held a unique event on Saturday 10th May that investigated, explored and celebrated wild food. We partnered with Source Food Hall & Café, Watershed Café Bar, and local wild food experts to share the know-how of people who have foraged, caught and raised food on the Knowle West estate for generations. The event, titled ‘Wild Thing’, included:

– Preparing and cooking demonstrations – Saturday Kitchen style – using locally sourced ingredients, with local experts in conversation with food professionals

– A panel discussion exploring the legality, ethics and health benefits of sourcing wild food including plants and fungi, rabbits, pigeons and fish

– Tasting and local produce market with a chance to network

– A wild foraging walk with experts

– An exhibition of KWMC’s extensive work on food in the community

– Playful instant feedback mechanisms and real-time documentation

Following a collaboration with Pieminister we offered an exclusive ‘rabbit hop’ pie, created just for the event. Source and Watershed also served dishes inspired by Knowle West’s wild food heritage during the festival. Experimental foodies, chefs, and people who were new to the idea of catching and foraging wild food attended the event. The event was, we hope, a thought provoking and delicious experience for all!

For more information visit the event page or contact Penny.

Lawrence Weston Community Farm

In March 2014 we ran a training course for employees of Lawrence Weston Community Farm. ‘Make Your Own Website Using WordPress’ was very well received.

Feedback included: “very satisfied – very good training which was really geared towards questions raised by the group” and “I felt the training was well-tailored to our needs.”

If you’re interested in commissioning KWMC to run a training session visit the Media Studio.

Supporting women in technology

Knowle West Media Centre has created a series of photographic portraits to mark International Women’s Day 2014.

Female staff, visitors and young women involved with KWMC created giant placards to illustrate facts, hopes and aspirations – and why they believe it’s important to support young women. They were then photographed holding their card.

View the gallery below or visit the Tumblr post: www.womenofkwmc.tumblr.com

We have worked with young people since our inception in 1996 and we are currently planning a new programme to support more young women to gain the skills and knowledge needed to enter and progress in the technology workforce, which currently has a significant gender imbalance. Only 17% of the technology workforce is female and this figure is decreasing by 0.5% each year[1].

KWMC wants to support young people to become producers as well as consumers of technology. We want to encourage more girls and young women to experiment, learn new digital skills and develop ideas so that they are better able to recognise a wider range of opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship.

Further details about the ‘Girls in Tech’ programme coming soon. Contact Penny for more information.

[1]E-Skills (2011) Analysis of data from the ONS Labour Force Survey 2001 to 2010, London.