Workshop Overview
The activity aims to re-imagine the narratives and perceptions of Europe created by migrants, bringing together shifting narrative voices, migrants’ points of view, responses from broader audiences and geographical frames of reference. It reshapes public opinions about migration. This interactive activity develops new ways of thinking about migrant journeys to avoid reductive interpretations used by policy-makers and front line practitioners that often oversimplify both fictional worlds of migration and lived experiences. It helps the public learn to be affected by the experiences of migrants in the PERCEPTIONS project, develop collective articulations and prompts them to tell their own stories of invisibility, lostness and confusion.
Description of Activity
The Animation Workshop centred around digital storytelling and animation around the key themes emerging from the PERCEPTIONS migrant interviews. It includes image-making, creating short stories, crafting migrant avatars, creative writing and re-imagining migration narratives, an audio recording of the narrated text and short video recordings in the Android app, Chatterpix Kids.
Outcomes
Outcomes of this activity included a collection of images produced by migrants to Swansea/Wales that reflect the key themes in the PERCEPTIONS project (faith, (In)visibility, Disorientation, Loss, and Hope). These images are attached to a specific geographic location so that migrant experiences are emplaced in specific infrastructural and institutional contexts. Beyond this, the activity produced a series of short videos that evoked alternative perceptions of migrants, migration and Europe, which can be shared in accessible formats (for example, in the virtual map of Swansea).
Impact
This activity delivered a whole-community impact by bringing together children and migrants from a broad range of economic, social, and cultural backgrounds who may never have otherwise encountered each other. Together the children enjoyed the creativity of the activity; the exploration, experimentation and making-together of materials, which can be used as community educational resources, reshaping public opinions about migration.
This highly experimental, participatory approach positioned previously unheard voices at the centre of this activity. The migrants and children were able to take full ownership of their input to the project and steer the research to represent their experiences. Therefore, this approach challenges existing narratives by avoiding reductive interpretations used by policy-makers. This approach makes the previously invisible highly visible and orientates the disorientated, highlighting the complex everyday lives of migrants in Swansea.
This activity provided a unique opportunity for children to creatively experiment with animation software, imparting new, creative skills. Furthermore, as the animation was set in the familiar location of Swansea, the stories were highly relatable for the children. In the discussions and reflections on the themes of migration and community and the many challenges for migrants, the children expressed an understanding and open-mindedness towards migration.
As well as showing the perceptions of migration held by young people, the figurines, stories and films also serve as evidence of the knowledge and understanding of migration gained through the creative activity. The outcomes demonstrate a change in attitudes and values, exhibiting empathy and an increased capacity for tolerance towards migrants from all backgrounds. Therefore, this approach provides an interdisciplinary, interactive toolkit which reveals alternative perceptions, challenges dominant narratives and produces educational resources for further conversations on migration in the broader community.
Children’s Feedback
“it was really fun, it was a unique kind of workshop, really fun!”
“my favourite part was designing the characters and getting to write their backstories, and learning about other people’s backstories when they moved to Swansea from a different country.”
“I feel like this workshop is very educational; it helps you learn about how migrants feel when they’re going through the process of moving countries.”
Team Involved
Swansea University: Sergei Shubin and Alan Bilton