PMUK Blog

For some of our new volunteers there was no time to rest as they were given the chance to put what they had learnt at the Summer School into action as we led two iGNiTE’s, Salvation Army in Dundee and City Chambers in Dundee. Our Team in Salvation Army worked with a group of people in Strathmore Lodge to explore the theme of What Dundee Means to Me. They started the project by showing them the work that takes place at Pure Media UK and what was possible for them so feeling inspired they set about making a film of them dancing across Dundee and leaving it open for members of the public to get involved, they also had portraits taken and printed off so they could write what Dundee meant to them and finally one of guys in the group was a keen photographer so put together his own exhibition of Dundee. Our second group worked in City Chambers with a group of young people who are preparing for a meeting with young delegates from Dundee’s Twin Cities. We split into three groups, film, performance and event to also explore the theme What Dundee Means to Me. The film group worked to produce an introductory film to Dundee showing many points of interest accompanied by facts. The performance group created a piece title Dundee a Divided City, they would present different scenarios and the audience had to decide the outcome. The events group organised an event called One City many Discoveries which combined the work from the Salvation Army and City Chambers, it took place in City Chambers and they generated interest by spending time in City Square asking people to design t-shirts with their views on Dundee and interviewing people. These t-shirts were exhibited at the final performance and the audio was mixed with music and played as people arrived. There was a real excitement at the event and the audience enjoyed all the work that was produced. To end the proceedings both groups made their way to city square for once last dance and even members of the public got involved. All this was caught on film so watch this space for the DVD.

In July we embarked on our first iGNiTE Summer school in which our newest volunteers came to the Workshop to work with our core team and experienced iGNiTE volunteers to prepare them for leading their own iGNiTE workshops. During the three days we took time to look at the paper work and planning that goes into organising an iGNiTE and we spent the afternoons running an iGNiTE. For our iGNiTE we used a performance piece created by Ashley Christie (Musicians), Gregor Christie (Musicians), Mark Monteath (Dancer) and Yang Gang (Dancer/Chinese Volunteer) as a stimulus. Their piece collaborated both Scottish and Chinese creative forms. We then separated into four groups to explore the themes presented in this piece. The film group produced a documentary that detailed the iGNiTE journey from Scotland to China. The creative writing/ art group created a sculpted a bridge made from driftwood, decorated with pictures of Chinese and Scottish bridges this was presented with a poem in Scottish and Chinese, this represented bridging the gap between Scotland and Chinese. The performance group celebrated being Scottish by combining traditional Scottish music and Dance and the piece ended with the audience joining in a rendition of Auld Lang Syne. Finally the events group worked together to put together all the work produced by the groups and advertise the event. They named their event ‘Who we are’ and transformed the Workshop with Chinese decorations. On the final day the Workshop was packed out with an audience who appreciated all the hard work invested by each group. All in all the Summer School was a great success, enjoyed by both participants and workers and more importantly it was a great learning process.