Knolo
Knolo lets young people develop and gain accreditation of their soft skills, by using gamification mechanics to leverage their hobbies and interests to develop their skillset and increase their employability. The team is a highly creative, proactive and flexible team that has a collective background in technology, design, apps and innovation. Between them they have created and launched several physical and digital products for a variety of large companies, alongside a few start-up projects of their own!
THE NEXUS
THE NEXUS fuses project-based learning, workshops from five specialist practitioners and authentic work experiences, supporting six local charities through the co-production of digital media assets (logos, UI, photography, social media, podcasts, 360 video, AR maps), by young Londoners, aged 15-25, within Olympic Boroughs.
Situated within the inspiring Plexal complex, and grouped by shared interests to promote meaningful experiences and motivation, 18 participants will research, pitch and deliver these projects, populating online portfolios to reflect on their activities, processes and experiences.
Supporting participants, the team will foster and formatively assess the development of fusion skills, namely communication, critical thinking, problem solving, creative thinking, collaboration and empathy. Academic research and frameworks will be embedded into the programme materials, delivery and assessment processes to ensure transferable and reliable competencies are developed by participants, who will be awarded digital open badges, which will also be created in line with international standards and frameworks.
Additionally, an open-source toolkit will be produced to support programme iterations, accredited by HEIs, for use as part of the East London Framework. Finally, projects will be showcased, in order to celebrate the achievements of the participants, which will be attended by digital industry professionals.
The diverse team of experts spans a range of interdisciplinary practice, with strong connections and partnership opportunities, comprising: Atif Mohammed Ghani (Producer), Creative Director Martin Percy (BAFTA Director), Dr. Janghir Hussain (Senior Educational Advisor), Jay Younes (Chief Technical Officer), Peter Collis (VR Cinematographer), Amber Ghani (Research Director), Sofia Siddiqui (Executive Director) and Ian Hurd (Digital Learning Specialist).
The Great Create
The Great Create is a whole-school approach to embedding a culture of creativity in a school and its wider community. A group of 10-15 young leaders will be trained to facilitate co-creation workshops with teachers and students, designing a bank of over 100 responsive creative challenges that will be taken on daily over a 6-month period.
Individual students and teachers, whole classes and whole schools will compete to see who can be the most inventive and collaborative, and bring the most diverse approaches to embedding a creative life in their school.
The team includes Jo Hunter, Laura Saxton and Jemima Frankel from 64 Million Artists, educational consultant Ed Watson, Head of Community and Cultural Learning at Westminster Adult Education Service, Sabirah Ali, and Filip Hnizdo, the co-founder and director of Octophin Digital. Also Michaela Tranfield, a student at King’s College London and the Director of the Education Policy Centre at King’s Think Tank, Dominic Abrokwa a student and creativity ambassador at ELAM and Simon Throssell, the Communications and Content Officer at Common Vision.
AWAKE
AWAKE is a new initiative led by BitterSuite and Dr John Fass, designed to nurture a new wave of socially conscious experience designers. AWAKE will help this new generation make sense of the world around them through the realisation of innovative, human centred experiences.
AWAKE is a process leading to the design of experiences and events that take inspiration from urgent social issues and are oriented towards social and personal transformation. AWAKE will offer a foundation style programme aimed at 18-25 year olds who are experiencing barriers to creative opportunity or who have felt uninspired by the exam-led, tick-box approach taken by UK schools.
Experience Design is an emerging creative sector with experience designers working on brand management, government services, in protest groups, and in science communication. Experience Design requires new types of thinkers and makers, people able to move between traditional disciplines, consider the collective issues and individual concerns of society, express new realities, foreground new voices, and push at the boundaries of current practice.
The Pattern
The Pattern is a cultural production incubator using the power of co-creation and peer learning from subcultural leaders to empower young talent from fringe communities. Giving them the power to co-produce events, which bring their creativity and their communities to the forefront.
This will include peer learning workshops with subcultural leaders who are at the forefront of cultural shifts in the city; seminars exploring the theories behind creating change in community groups; and helping the cohort to programme a series of live projects that allow young people to build inclusive spaces for their communities.
The Pattern follow them as their projects evolve @playniceldn on Instagram. Ayo Fagbemi (Strategist at Wieden + Kennedy) and Nate Agbetu (Freelance Creative Strategist + Cultural Producer, Ex Nike) will come together to make Play Nice, a studio working to build intersections between communities, focusing on the people making change; developing creative communications and moments that highlight the culture, heritage and the future of fringe groups.
Muted Media
Muted Media is taking a new approach to creativity, discourse and journalism, one that nurtures a new type of talent and changes the landscape of the media industry. Muted Media intend to engage with and showcase creative skills from the margins of society, highlighting perspectives anywhere from inside the care system to the criminal justice system, via the curation and production of various types of content, including podcasts, documentaries and music.
Arguments for ending austerity and tackling inequality are gaining ground, but it is still rare to hear from individuals who have experienced them first-hand. Both members of the team met at HMP YOI Isis in Greenwich offering different interventions and support to prisoners. Jason Mitchell has extensive experience in the music and Radio industry (National Prison Radio, BBC Radio 1Xtra) whilst Rachel Rigby’s experience lies mostly within the NHS, therapy and counselling, addiction and the care system.
