work::sounds – Sound Images of the Working World 2020-2022
A creative workshop series on behalf of the Vienna Department of Labor
Professional orientation and competence acquisition through cultural education
In this three part workshop series “work::sounds – Sound images of the Working world,” students, mainly at vocational schools, wrestle with changes in the work world and through creative work learn about different career fields. Through their independent aesthetic research in companies, they gain career-oriented impressions of working environments and discover their own creative thinking and acting through work with artists. At the end of the project, each class will have participated in an introductory workshop, a visit to a work site, and a studio session, during which they will have produced visuals and sounds; these are then compiled into a video which is published online. Alongside developing potential career trajectories “work::sounds” promotes creative interaction with the work world as well as competence acquisition. It also allows for networking between future employees and interesting workplaces.
Target Group
9th grade classes or above, particularly at HTL schools. There are no musical or technical requirements for the participants – the young people will be guided and supervised by the workshop leaders and artists.
Implementation
Since the 2012/13 school year, over 1000 students from various schools and around 25 businesses have taken part in the “work::sounds” project. Now the three-part workshop series will take place for the ninth time from February to June 2021 and will present itself to schools and companies in an adapted form. This year – in addition to the musical design with renowned music producers – special attention will be paid to the visual processing of the company impressions through the first-time involvement of the video artist nita. On the one hand, this allows for an extensive exploration of the working world and, on the other hand, a versatile artistic process. In addition, a media company will be involved in the presentation of the project results and experiences.
From February to December 2021, the project offers 3 workshops for participating classes, each of which builds on the last.
After the introductory workshops, in which changes in the working world are discussed, a central moment of the project is getting to know a medium-sized or large technical company, which the young people explore in small groups under guidance. Equipped with photo/video cameras and audio recorders, they explore the working conditions and environments and interview the employees. They go in search of work tools that are typical for the company and examine their appearance and sound.
In the last workshop, the studio session, the materials collected through the company visit (audio/photo and video recordings of concrete work moments, interviews with employees) are processed. With the guidance of a visual artist and a professional musician, the students create a video clip of their own consisting of visuals and original music compositions. The clips that the participating classes create will finally be presented in a public presentation with the involvement of a media company, and then published on the Internet.
Implementation under COVID-19 Restrictions
In order to plan an implementation of the workshop series that can proceed at any time, we will offer customization which allows the workshops to meet any COVID-19 guidelines. If the introductory workshops and the company visits cannot take place on site with physical presence, we will offer them in revised digital form. This gives students the opportunity to participate in varied and skill-building online workshops with experts from the fields of cultural education, business and the Vienna Chamber of Labor. Through the involvement of companies and a digital guided tour, young people will nevertheless get to know the working environment in a creative way.
Music Videos from the Workshop Series 2020 – 2022
Music Videos from the Remix Workshops 2022
