Mediawharf

a mediastudio for knowledge and praxis and its first assignment: Streetwise Billboards - a city game for Rotterdam South.



Introducing the Mediawharf

In 2009 and 2010 the Patching Zone realised two projects for and with young school dropouts, commissioned by Pact op Zuid in Rotterdam: Go for it! and Big South Lab. As a results, the client, partners and young people from the neighborhood, were interested in making our methods and subjects matter more sustainable. Zadkine South (Technical vocational courses, for ICT, Human Technology and Construction) is working on constant educational innovation for the motivation of young people so they do not quit and perhaps more importantly, that they are well prepared for practice. These two parties are both involved in sowing the seeds for Mediawharf. In the Mediawharf, the method of the PatchingZone will be further developed and anchored in the practical part of vocational education with the intention that the project continues to Zadkine South AND that students are motivated to creative media projects works close to their own experience and are thus well prepared for practice.

The core of the Mediawharf is creative media training and apprenticeships for young people who are deemed to be socially distant to both labor markets and educational systems. We focus on media literacy in combination with engineering and other "hard" techniques for creating interactive installations in public space. This training is provided by The Patching Zone in close collaboration with teachers from the Zadkine South, study ICT and Technology, Nieuwe kans (The New Chance) and other local youth organizations. The young people we want to reach represent a hard-core group of school dropouts (± 75), vocational technical students and other young people, based in the public space of the area around the Zuidplein.

The Mediawharf complements the courses already available aimed at school dropouts and students who are considered at risk for dropping out. The purpose of this project consists of two directions: a) The completion of an appropriate training. b) increasing opportunities for young people in the labor market. The project partners include the possibility of (national) cooperation with other vocational courses.



Introducing the first Mediawharf assignment: Streetwise Billboards

The urban encounters between people are increasingly achieved through media channels, and much social interaction is invisible to those who are not directly involved. Portable and online technologies such as ‘smart phones’, tablets and other handheld devices offer new opportunities for young people to communicate with each other. It enables them to tell their own stories in their own way and to communicate with each other directly and immediately. But what are the possibilities for young people from cultural 'cold spots' (areas poorly served by cultural facilities) to tell their own stories via these types of media? How does this online behavior and physical life interact in such environments? In the Streetwise Billboards project we want to see how this works in practise for the youth in the Zuidplein of South Rotterdam.

About