NESTA Case Study

FreqOUT! has recently been included as case study in a recent pulication, funded by NESTA. Social by Social explores how new technologies are changing the way we engage communities, run companies, deliver public services, participate in government and campaign for change.
You can read the case study here

FreqOUT! Showcase at the London Coliseum

An audience of 80 visited the FreqOUT! showcase at the London Coliseum to celebrate the achievements of the project over the last 3 years. The night was also a chance to watch 2 films made by young people from the Queens Park New Media Centre and Centrepoint. Both groups made their films under the professional guidance of MediaShed artists and film makers and were on hand to answer questions from event guests. The film project was funded by First Light Movies and Simon Marshall, Senior Programme Manager at First Light spoke about the scheme. Other guest speakers included Vicki Costello, Development Manager from NESTA, Donatella Grillandi, Area Business Manager from Centrepoint and Louisa Benjamin, Centrepoint Youth Worker. Vital Regeneration Chair of Trustees, David Bowler was delighted to introduce the event.

FreqOUT! hits local news

This week young people's achievements were recognised by the Paddington, Marylebone and Pimlico Mercury. They have been working on the 'Video Sniffin' project with artists from MediaShed to make a film using wireless cameras. The project is supported by the Lottery through the UK Film Council's First Light Movies initiative. The film will be screened at Vital Regeneration's Awards Ceremony on the 27th of November at the Cockpit Theatre.

Reaching Excluded Communities Successfully

The final showcase of 'Being Connected' at the Science Museum was truly inspirational! 13 young women from the London Tigers gave a musical presentation using their 'singing sculptures' made with artists from the 'Scrap yard challenge'. 50 members of the Bangladeshi community supported the young people on the night, many having never been to the Science Museum previously. One participant commented, "At first I thought hmm.. Science.. that is not for me, I don’t want to do it, it sounds boring! But then Jenny and Ruth showed us films and took us to the Museum to see the Listening Post and I thought it was amazing! I had never seen anything like it before and wanted to join in the project!"

Innovation Exchange - Share Your Idea

The Innovation Exchange is dedicated to fostering innovation within the third sector and as part of this, finding ways of improving relationships between third sector social innovators, public service commissioners and investors. The Exchange works through events, research, facilitation and online exchange. The Next Practice programme, provides the best innovations with support and access to a £200k fund from NESTA. This programme will enable evaluation, knowledge-sharing and seek to draw in further resources, helping cutting edge projects to develop and grow. FreqOUT! have launched a blog on the Innovation Exchange website where you can see an overview of our project and comment on future developments: FreqOUT! Innovation Exchange

Mobile Movies - Team Building Days

FreqOUT! hosted a corporate team building day on Friday 2nd May 2008. This was a pilot for a future project that will give corporate companies across the UK the chance to work with new technologies whilst developing key team building skills. The staff of Vital Regeneration were the first to try out this new team building experience. They started the day with a treasure hunt that involved taking photos and solving clues by texting back the answers to HQ. The afternoon was spent in groups making mini mobile movies that were edited and later showcased to the whole team.

“Great activities, nice to be out and about and getting to know the local area” (Fiona Black)

“I have learnt what blue tooth is and how to edit film clips on my phone” (Judith McKee)

The day was a success and marks a new venture for FreqOUT! Once we have developed and refined the pilot, phase two will be to roll out to other companies. Lookout for more news on our team building days here on our blog and if you’re interested in taking part contact Jenny Irish jirish@cwh.org.uk and we’ll put you on the waiting list.

Handheld Histories

Freqout! Design Intern Daniela Boraschi recently undertook a research project to build a ‘Mobile History Walk’ around ‘The Devils Acre’ in Victoria. The project entitled ‘Handheld Histories’ used a PDA device donated by BT. Daniella devised the walk using the ‘Create-A-Scape’ software developed by Future Lab which was downloaded onto the PDA. Using the software and PDA she was then able to successfully access the Wireless City Network.

After the first phase of research the next step is to work with young people to help them to develop their own bespoke walks based on their local area. Young people will be able to log on wirelessly in the centre of London so they can access information remotely, they are then free to learn on the move without having to return to their youth club or base. The project creates new and innovative learning opportunities outside of the traditional school environment and opens up discussion and debate through interaction with location.

Inspired Mobile Films

Artist Melissa Bliss and the FreqOUT! team worked with young people from Churchill Gardens Youth Club this week to create short films inspired by a trip to the Tate Gallery. Four short films were made on the day and the group devised innovative ways to use mobile phones to capture issues of importance to them. This method of low fi film making is encouraging young people to think more creatively what they can do with technology that is accessible to them.