101           USES         OF         DIALOGUE.

101 Uses of Dialogue (working title) is a new participation artwork aimed at working with groups of young people across the East Midlands.

Presented by artist and educator Graham Elstone, the work will encompass a workshop designed to engage young people in the creation of digital and video artwork, and will culminate in an interactive video artwork created from source material and presented at events and venues across the region.

 The stimuli for the workshop and the final work will be group communication; in the workshops groups of young people will create statements, for example

‘Everyone has equal rights’ or ‘The young are tomorrows leaders’. These statements consist of 4 and 5 words respectively, in small groups the young people will have a word to say to camera, only the mouth will be on camera, each word /person will be filmed, then the clips edited together to create a montage of the mouths and words saying the statements. This in itself creates a video work, but through the process of working with the differing groups of young people 101 most popular words will be used in the creation of an interactive artwork.

 All the 101 words, and mouths saying those words, will be entered into a database, any audience member or member of the public, depending on the sitting of the work, will be able to create their own statements by choosing which words and combinations they desire.

Some may be humorous, some serious, some short, some long, the choice is with the creator. The resultant work will either be projected/screened in real time or will form a larger database of responses to be utilized at a later stage, either in a video format or online.

 This project is designed to work with extra curricular activity in schools, youth groups and other organizations working with young people, right across the East Midlands; City, Town, Village and Hamlet!!

 A Grants for the Arts application will ideally fund most of the activity, but I am looking for;

• Extra Financial Support (aren’t we all, but any contributions would be welcomed).
• Support with identifying groups to work with, I’m ideally looking to work with 32 groups and up to 500 young people.
• Venues and events to show the final work; youth/young people events, galleries, arts centres, schools, village halls.
• Partnership working, any groups, organizations, individuals who may want to get involved.
• Positive feedback, support in words, support in kind.

 For more info; Graham Elstone, graham@lowbrowtrash.co.uk, 07768 048113.