Untitled - Narodowe Centrum Kultury

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Video!
Girl VJs’
Initiative to
Animate the
Area!
Video! Girl VJs’ Initiative to
Animate the Area! is a project
run by Gdańsk’s Się Zrobi!
Social Initiatives Foundation.
The project coordinators are
Monika Popow and Agnieszka
Kaim. Video! is designed for
girls who do not attend art
schools and aren’t fully familiar
with new technologies. The
aim of the project is to offer
non-school art education
opportunities, create equal
opportunities for girls to use
modern technologies and
inspire creativity.
t
he idea for the project came
about last year in the fall at
a concert featuring video projections.
VJ-ing, the live-mixing of images
with music, is a very spectacular art, so it
seemed ideal for involving young people.
the project
We enlisted the cooperation of young Tricity
artists and professional VJs Agata Królak
and Michał Magdziński. Together, we developed
a programme of workshops combining
development of technical skills with social elements.
The workshops emphasise teamwork,
develop girls’ strengths and boost their
self-confidence. Video! uses art as a tool for
developing technical skills and enhancing
girls’ belief in their own abilities. We are developing
the project within the tenets of inclusive
education.
The only requirement for workshop
participants was imagination. The project,
running from July to December 2011, included
a series of six workshop sessions in which
participants learned how to make their own
stop-motion animation, discovered the secrets
of video editing and processing, made
a music video together and practised mixing
images with music. The girls were not just
passive participants. They organised the final
concert themselves – chose the line-up,
created the scenery and hosted the event.
They showed their video projections, performing
alongside professional musicians
Stendek, Kiev Office, Radio Bagdad and eM.
target groups
Our efforts factor in social diversity. We also
make it a point to strengthen groups threatened
with social exclusion. We believe that
you cannot work effectively unless you focus
on individual needs. We followed these
principles when designing VJ workshops for
girls, who have a more limited access to advanced
technology than boys. Schools tend
to develop girls’ interests in the humanities.
Another important factor was our firm belief
that the most effective educational activities
bring joy, inspire and encourage exploration.
funding
The project is funded by the Polish Ministry
of Culture and National Heritage and the city
of Gdańsk. The main partner is the Gdańskbased
Moraine Cultural Centre, which hosted
our workshops and the concert. Video!’s
aims include engaging local community and
enforcing the image of the Moraine Centre
as a space for modern cultural education
through participatory methods and involvement
of acclaimed artists. The project also
includes an information campaign intended
to promote VJing among a wider group of
girls. We encourage them to try their hand
at creating visuals and to present them on
our Facebook profile, Vimeo or the blog
siezrobivideo.blogspot.com. This is where
we publish reports on workshops, inspiring
example animations and interviews with
VJs who share their experience with budding