digital-works was part of an exciting project in the London Borough of Camden this summer. A group of children produced short films exploring the concepts of change and sustainability, linked directly to their own living environment (Camden), with the help of experts in the fields of environmental science, art interpretation and film-making.

Participants developed their understanding of the impact of climate change on their local environment using film as a vehicle to communicate their ideas and extending their visual and verbal literacy skills’ through interpretation, script writing and film-making.

November 2008 saw the launch of a new website designed and developed by digital-works. ‘Til I Die is a website of writings about football from football fans. The ‘Til I Die project aims to publish over 30 club-based books with stories from fans of those clubs. Supported by the National Literacy Trust it aims to reach people who do not normally write and encourages their use and improvement of literacy.

The website is used to encourage fans of all clubs to get writing and publishes stories on the site which may not appear in one of the books.

Visit the site: ‘Til I Die  and why not make a contribution yourself!

From the community’s words, thoughts, dreams and feelings, digital:works have created a giant artwork, on the hoarding of BBC Media Village.

digital:works have just completed their latest project ‘My Future City’, working closely with Artswest and the BBC. This work, which involves a website (www.greatwhitecity.com), a 30meter banner around the BBC and supporting publicity. This was launched today with the help of pupils from St Stephens School and Cllr Anthony Lillis, Cabinet Minister for Children from Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

Pupils from St Stephens School, Shepherds Bush attended the launch told us how, “The project made me feel like I have some responsibility over the way things might be in the neighbourhood.”

They said, “digital:works let us express what we think about the neighborhood.” Going on to say, “I like the way our thoughts are displayed in a different way and how the imagery on the hoarding came from our ideas.”

The work is about how the area of West London, ‘White City’, has developed over the last 100 years. In 1908, the Franco-British Exhibition transformed this part of West London. In fact, it gave the area its name: ‘White City’, taken from the fantastical, white stucco exhibition palaces created for the event. One hundred years later, we are on the brink of another major transformation of White City, so we asked local children and young people to say what they wanted their future city to be.

Robert Seatter, Head of BBC History, said, “We really wanted this community hoarding project to capture the thoughts, feelings and dreams of the children and young people of White City. The design from digital:works perfectly matched this aspiration, creating a dramatic and colourful artwork, with a contemporary, urban feel, which I’m sure will get the whole community thinking about what they want their future city to be.”

Sav Kyriacou, a digital:works member, said, “After visiting the site at the BBC it was clear the images had to be on a human scale as you can’t stand very far back from it. We felt the young people’s words needed to be read but not in a linear fashion and new things had to be seen when walking past for the second, third or fourth time.” Sav added how “This was a challenging brief and the fact we’ve had very glowing responses from everyone involved has been very pleasing.”

Clare Burnett, a member from the Artswest organization said, “I think it looks fantastic and is really fun and interesting to look at and read.”

You can see the hoarding artwork here.