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Meet a Change Creator: Jay

Name: Jay Carter-Coles
Age: 20
Campaign: Food Waste

What made you apply to be a Change Creator?
I applied to become a Change Creator because there are so many issues that I feel passionate about, but I never before felt that I had a voice in my community. I saw the advertisement on Twitter and realised it was the perfect opportunity for creative people to create change within society. I was hooked and sent off my application the very same day!

What are you up to when you’re not developing your campaign with Change Creators?
I spend about 30% of my time working as a front of house assistant at a seafood restaurant. The other 70% is spent freelance filmmaking! I have filmed commercials, music videos and events. I also do a lot of work as a production sound recorder.

What aspect of Change Creators are you most excited about?
I am most excited about putting our campaign into action and actually seeing the positive affect that it will have on society.

Where do you see yourself at the end of the programme?
At the end of the programme I will be writing and producing my own documentaries, aiming to raise awareness of big issues that affect our small blue planet.

If you would like to see Jay’s work you can check out his blog here at https://jccvblog.wordpress.com/ Twitter @jay_c_c

Change Creators: Week Two

On Monday 7th March, the Change Creators met at Arup’s Bristol Office to continue with the development of their social change campaign. The group met with Peter Cooper, who is a Consultant and Research Engineer at Arup, and we took the group through Arup’s history and experience in engineering, consulting and project management.

The Change Creators separated into their groups of four and began to finalise their campaign ideas, taking into account time, resources, and whether their aims are achievable and realistic.

Andrea, Chelsea, Ella and Yelena are continuing to focus on services offered to young people dealing with mental health problems. Their aim is to diversify these services. They want to collect data, using brain sensors, that will show how young people feel after different types of therapy or counselling. The group also want to use phone sensors to monitor what the young people do after they have received these different types of therapy. Yelena says that this can help them see if and how art therapy has worked and can also help to identify when people are at risk.

The group working on food waste confirmed that they will be focusing on consumer/citizen food waste. They want to help people understand the difference between ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ – as they can be confused as meaning the same thing and people can throw away food that is perfectly fine to eat. Charlie, Emma, Jay and Mason want to show people that they can make meals like soups or smoothies from fruit and veg that is going out of date instead of wasting it and buying more. Another of their ideas is a tupperware that can sense when food is going off, giving people a chance to use the food in time and decreasing the amount being wasted.

The Change Creators then came together to share their new findings and ideas with the rest of the group, providing and receiving feedback and sharing how the two campaigns are developing. Peter also gave some valuable feedback to the groups, highlighting key issues associated with the two topics that are currently on the political agenda.

KWMC’s Young People’s Programme Manager Mena Fombo commented: ‘last night’s session was really positive, and the groups are now beginning to shape their social change campaigns. There is so much raw passion coming through the group members, I’m excited by the development of both of these projects’.

You can follow the Change Creators workshops live on Twitter at @Change_Creators

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Change Creators: Week One

After Inspire week, the Change Creators had the weekend to gather their thoughts and relax after an action-packed five days. They returned to KWMC on Monday 28th February to discuss their ideas further and begin developing their campaigns. In groups of four, they discussed their aims and what they wanted to achieve through their social change campaigns.

The group working on mental health – Ella, Yelena, Andreea and Chelsea – decided that they would focus on diversifying the way young people receive mental health support, as they believe more people would benefit from alternative methods such as art therapy. They want to bring attention to the possibilities for using art therapy or workshops to help people experiencing mental health problems.

Mason, Jay, Charlie and Emma, who are focusing on food waste, found that there were many different layers to the issue. After researching, Mason concluded that there were three important stages: the supplier, the supermarket and the consumer. The group will spend more time exploring these stages in the next few weeks to find a focus for their campaign.

As the groups will be using sensor technologies in their campaign, both groups devised a pitch explaining the sensors they would like to create, the data they would like to collect, and what the information would be used for.Some of their ideas included a wristwatch that sensed emotional activity and a sensor that would record the weight of food waste in a bin.

Over the next few weeks the Change Creators will be gathering feedback about whether their ideas are viable. There is still more planning and research to be done and you can follow the Change Creators’ workshops live on Twitter at @Change_Creators

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Young people triumph at national Festival of Code

Three young people from Bristol have been recognised at a national event for young coders – holding off competition from across the country.

Chris Chapman and brothers Rhys Marsh and Owen Marsh won the ‘Code a Better Country’ category at the Young Rewired State Festival of Code 2014 with their app CityRadar. The event took place at Plymouth University from 1 – 3 August and marked the end of a week of experimentation where young people gathered at coding centres across the country.

During the annual Festival of Code young people use freely available open data to make websites and apps that address ‘real-world’ challenges. CityRadar allowed people to use their mobile phones to quickly report issues in their community such as graffiti or fly tipping. It was programmed to send a report to the local council – who could then flag the issue when it had been resolved.

Chris, Rhys and Owen developed the app at KWMC over just four days, before heading to Plymouth with their mentor Tom Mortensson from the University of Bristol, and other young coders and mentors. A total of six teams from KWMC presented their apps to judges and one team also reached the semi finals with their app Weekly Shopper.

The University of Bristol and Chartered Institute for IT (BCS) collaborate with us during Young Rewired State, with their staff, students and volunteers acting as mentors to the young people.

Through Young Rewired State, we want to support young people to make apps that encourage social action – and we hope that coders will be inspired to explore new skills, ideas, and careers.

This is the second year that we’ve been a Young Rewired State centre and CityRadar is the second success story to emerge. An app conceived by five young people in 2013 is soon to be rolled out across Bristol as part of European project IES Cities. The app, Democratree, will allow Bristol residents to identify potential sites for trees to be planted.

Chris Chapman, a member of the winning group with CityRadar, said: “Young Rewired State has been a very enjoyable experience for me – I think it’s an incredibly important opportunity for any young coders who want to go and make something, and strongly recommend it to young coders looking for an opportunity to show off their skills. You get to see some fantastic talks from people in the industry and meet loads of amazing new people.”

Mike Bartley, local Chair for the Chartered Institute for IT (BCS), said: “We wanted the week to be fun and practical, allowing participants to see a whole new side of computing. It not only focuses on code development but also on the creative process, team work and communication skills – which most companies regard as key skills for working in the sector.”

Caroline Higgins, Outreach Manager from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Bristol said: “At a time when many schools feel under resourced and lacking in computing expertise, activities like Young Rewired State and Digimakers are playing an increasingly important role in inspiring the next generation of engineers and technical innovators. Since the launch of our outreach programme we have seen a huge demand for this kind of informal learning activity. Working with our partners KWMC and BCS allows us to pool resources and have more impact, particularly in areas of Bristol that need it most.”

Beccy Thomas, Young People’s Programme Manager at KWMC, said: “We are excited to be building on the success of Young Rewired State with our new schools programme. KWMC will be working with six partner schools in South Bristol including Victoria Park Primary and Bridge Learning Campus Secondary Phase to develop new and creative ways of teaching young people ICT and computing. It’s unique to have an arts organisation working with schools in this key curriculum area.”

For more information please contact Beccy on 0117 903 0444.

Image: Rhys, Owen and Chris (left to right) with their awards

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#artvstech Round Two

Knowle West Media Centre will be putting Art and Tech head to head for a second time this half term. Join us to create a collection of memories and bring your stories to life – digitally!

On Tuesday 27^th May Ludic Rooms will join us again for a day of mapping, getting lost, and finding our way again. Help us to find the answers to questions like: “How many scooter lengths from Knowle West Children’s Centre to KWMC?” and create new ways of measuring Knowle West.

Work with artists Pippa and Fiona on Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th May to find and design interesting objects triggered by memories. Use new materials to re-cast found objects, and use Fiona’s laser cutter to make your designs.

On Friday 30th May join the KWMC Young People’s Team to make a sound story or audio clip of your favourite memory. Use Google Maps to make a map of memories and bring it to life with your creativity through craft work, drawing and more.

The Young People’s Team will be on hand all week to help you create films and other digital records of the memories you collect. There will also be all the things you would expect from a week of KWMC activities: more Raspberry Pi’s, more Littlebits, more music, more photography…

All activities are free.
Knowle West Media Centre, 27th – 30th May 2014, 10am-3pm. Ages 10-19. Please bring a packed lunch.
To book your place call 0117 903 0444.

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.

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Contact Us

Knowle West Media Centre
Leinster Avenue
Knowle West
Bristol
BS4 1NL
+44 (0) 117 903 0444
enquiries@kwmc.org.uk

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