How can Gen Z use social media and the digital arts in London to make change?
Cities are endlessly changing, but who is change for? How do young people feel about regeneration of their neighbourhoods? How can we ensure young residents have a voice - and are heard - in critical planning decisions that affect their lives and their communities?
In 2020, The Bartlett Development Planning Unit’s Barbara Lipietz and community organisations Pempeople and The Ubele Initiative came together to explore new methods of public voicing for young people. The result was a series of on-line, open-call participatory workshops with young people from Peckham and Brixton. Facilitated by poet and performance artist Kat François and interdisciplinary media artist Daniel Oduntan, the sessions explored notions of belonging, change and displacement, race, age and labelling, Covid lockdowns and mental health, voicelessness and the importance of active listening when designing tools to empower. Participants experimented with poetry, spoken word, and mobile filmmaking, inside and outside the workshops.
The present web page acts as a living repository of outputs from the experimental collaboration, and, for partners, a site of ongoing experimentation and discussion on the role of of creative expression in amplifying the voice of young people in community-led approaches to regeneration-as-planning in London.
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