URBAN BANANA SOUNDS – I’ll take the lead!

Pupils from the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Oberschule design and create an audio guide as part of a series of workshops. By young people for young people. The Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Oberschule is a partner of the programme Stadtraum!Plus of the Stiftung Berliner Leben and took part in the first part of the three-part workshop series on 15th and 16th February. This took place at URBAN NATION under the guidance of the two sound artists Heidrun Schramm and Nicolas Wiese from geräusch[mu’si:k], an artistic mediation programme for experimental music.

The young people first explored the current exhibition TALKING… & OTHER BANANA SKINS at the URBAN NATION Museum. They chose stations that particularly interested them. They exchanged their observations and thoughts in small groups and then they got creative themselves. They developed a script for the audio guide. Step by step they approached this big task. They created interview questions that they tested on themselves and other visitors. They listened to the recordings and worked together on possible changes and additions. In this way, they continuously came closer to their goal and finished their texts at the end of the workshop. They even built a provisional recording studio and made the first sound recordings. What a successful day. Many exciting new impressions and skills learned. The pupils of the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Oberschule had great fun on both days and were proud to conclude the first part of the workshop series.

At the end of February, the young people will come together again to create the sounds for the audio guide. In the third part of the workshop series, they record their texts in the recording studio they built themselves – in German, English and French.

In this way, the project enables young people to design and complete their own art and culture project. It strengthens communication among each other, self-organisation and, through intensive engagement with the exhibition TALKING… & OTHER BANANA SKINS, provides many impulses for further engagement with important social issues.

We are excited about the other workshop days and look forward to reporting on them soon.