The 14th and 15th KONTENTA audiovisual studios from Cultural Platform Zakarpattya NGO open in Podilsk and Chornomorsk with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine.
The Cultural Platform team has installed two stationary KONTENTA studios in the Odesa region. It is the ninth region where young people can create their own audiovisual content right from their communities.
KONTENTA is an audiovisual studio that supports teenagers and young people in the sustainable development of creative industries. It provides an opportunity to conduct individual studio work, group educational and cultural events, record vocals and musical instruments, and shoot video blogs, podcasts, and live broadcasts.
The studio setup allows participants to:
- record vocals and musical instruments
- process their own music tracks;
- record and film podcasts;
- launch streams and live broadcasts;
- work with licensed Ableton Live and Native Instruments software.
The presentation of the audiovisual studios took place at the Loft Youth Center in Podilsk on August 5. Podilsk, the city located on the border of the steppe and forest-steppe zones and one of the most important railway junctions in southern Ukraine, is now becoming a digital pin on the map of the KONTENTA youth centers.
Public presentation of the project in Podilsk
Through access to cutting-edge technologies and software, young people have the opportunity to experience the work process of a creative industry representative. In such a way, they can actively implement their projects and better plan different options for their educational and professional paths based on the combination of their skills and values. Cultural products created at the studio can generate additional income for authors and give them greater creative freedom as a sort of ‘investment’ in their development.
KONTENTA acts as a resource that provides a wide range of experiences: from producing your own emotions through sound to presenting your research on pressing issues in the community and finding solutions through constructive teamwork. Agential youth can implement any project with the help of studio equipment and find like-minded people among active citizens who will further form their own small social groups and influence the development of the community.
As a civil society organization, Cultural Platform aims to improve the well-being of Ukrainian society. Building youth social cohesion can be done through a better understanding of their cultural identity and potential for change, their ability to think critically, and their responsible attitude toward the environment (both ecological and social).
On August 6 and 7, the opening of the stationary KONTENTA studio took place in the VibeHUB youth space in Chornomorsk.
Public presentation of the project in Chornomorsk
According to the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Basic Principles Of State Policy In the Sphere Of Establishing Ukrainian National And Civil Identity’ (2834-IX of 13.12.2022), the main tasks of the policy are to form an active civic position among Ukrainian citizens, including children and youth, based on respect for human rights, spiritual values of Ukrainians, and their national identity. At the same time, the law defines it as one of the tasks ensuring the development of the ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious identity of all indigenous peoples and national minorities of Ukraine.
The KONTENTA installation in Chornomorsk as a multinational port city should directly contribute to the formation of social cohesion among local youth through research on local contexts and intercultural dialogue about the Ukrainian musical tradition and the future sound of Ukraine. The exchange of experiences and opinions always crystallizes the understanding of one’s own values and identity. It also increases the level of acceptance of the values and identities of others which is the basis of a healthy democratic society—a civil society whose members have a high level of mutual respect, social engagement, and responsibility toward each other.
As part of the opening events, the Cultural Platform team not only reveals the potential of the studio for the youth center and the community at large but also organizes events where young people can interact directly with studio equipment and gain practical skills free of charge. The program in Chornomorsk also featured a sound design workshop where young people recorded a music track in real time exploring the sound of objects around them and jointly making key decisions about the final format of the audio artifact.
The opportunity to take your first steps toward entering the professions of the future (sound designer, musician, composer, dubbing actor, blogger, streamer, radio host, podcast host, director, journalist, sound engineer, editor, etc.) right from your community is one of the factors that build the mental resilience of youth in times of uncertainty. It operates as additional support to lean on in an era of constant change.
Through mastering competencies in the creative economy as part of the “KONTENTA” audiovisual studies project, young people learn to be creative. They learn to take initiative, manage emotions constructively, assess risks and make decisions, solve problems, and cooperate with others not only in creative tasks but also in social activities. These skills are necessary to build civic resilience as a person’s ability to express their national and civic identity in everyday life as well as in the face of negative external influences. After all, KONTENTA is not only a recording studio, but it also embodies the historical continuity of sense-making through sound. It is a digital infrastructure that enables a dialogue between young people from different communities of Ukraine on socially important topics that will shape the value vectors of the state’s development in the future.
By the end of 2024, Cultural Platform NGO plans to open 20 KONTENTA studios in different communities of the country with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine. The Odesa region is on track to achieve ¾ of this goal.
Photo Ivan Varchenko, Yana Polupanova, Serhio Memento
Anastasiya Mishustina
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