Underpinning research
The project grew out of Eric and Alex’s research into the modernist movement of the late 19th/early 20th century, which followed the impact of industrial societies and the First World War. Their focus was on how modernist artists used technology to challenge the status quo on gender, sexuality, class or racial background.
Eric’s research highlights the ‘reading machines’ invented by poets Bob and Rose Brown in 1930 to make reading more accessible to working class people, while Alex explores how women poets adapted technology to challenge traditional, patriarchal ideas.
From past to present
Drawing on these themes, Eric and Alex developed their project for engaging with young people who were marginalised, for instance due to their sexuality, ethnicity or disability.
Updating the idea of the 1930s reading machine, Eric and Oxfordshire County Libraries were awarded ‘Building Bridges’ funding from CILIP and Arts Council England to build an app and toolkit to engage young people in virtual storytelling. Designed to be easy to use, it guides participants through the process of creating a VR experience in under two hours.
The app was shaped with input from young people aged 12-24 over 23 workshops, many of these taking place in partnership with Oxfordshire County Libraries, and also in workshops with their partners Bergen Public Library in Norway and Tesserae Urban Social Research in Germany.
‘I feel like I can build anything’
Those young people taking part in the project’s workshops have been enthusiastic about the gains.
One series of workshops, supported by Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, encouraged students to create their own ‘reading machines’. Their models were featured in the Ashmolean Museum’s ‘Cool Modernism’ exhibition from March-July 2018, reaching over 2,000 people. One young person said: ‘I felt so proud that my machine is now an exhibit – I feel like I can build anything.’
Partnering with Oxford’s community arts Ark-T Centre, the project started with workshops for 12 young people. Now the centre is using the app to engage young people from one of the UK’s most deprived areas and is clearly making a difference, as one participant explained. ‘The project made me understand how digital storytelling could help me feel better about myself, and I think it is something I can do for a job’.
