A Living Here project by young people in St. Thomas
West Exe Technology College off-site Learing Centre
Click on the sound bars under the photos to hear recordings created by young people in St Thomas.
PLEASE NOTE: Some recordings contain a small amount of swearing.
Radio programme
Some of the group broadcast a live radio programme on Soundart fm. Listen to a recording of the programme by going to the bottom right of this page.
Giving young people a voice
This Living Here project encouraged a small group of young people in St Thomas to express themselves through sound. Sarah, RAMM's Curator of West Exe explains:
" The young people explored, collected and edited the sounds of their own voices, lives and community. They had support from two experimental sound artists, Chris Booth and Lucinda Guy. It was a new way of working, sometimes tough, mostly fun. Young people often feel overlooked and unheard. It's great to give these young people a voice in the interpretation of their neighbourhood."
Do something different
The project came about when West Exe Learning Centre approached RAMM wanting to do something different. It started with a visit to explore the museum and touch handling objects from the Designated world cultures collection. The young people were invited to talk about the wider world and then how they felt about their own immediate world around St Thomas. With time and conversation the project unfolded. After several more sessions they got interested in working with sound.
Difficult themes
Sarah adds: "We decided to keep some of the swearing in the final edits. People listening to this in the distant future will get a better sense of young people's voices today. There are some difficult themes. Some of them are surprisingly close to the sometimes painful things much older people have told me about their younger days. Should this be a shock or a sign of how closely we are connected when we look beneath the surface of age?
This work really shows the young people's creativity and growing confidence over the project. I remember at that age how much I wanted to make sense of the past, present and future. I'd like to thank Chris, Lucinda and staff at the Centre too, for all the time and effort they put into this project."
(All photos are for illustration only. They are not the young people who took part in this project.)