Listen. Amplify. Repeat. is our 2019 exhibition and screening event. This year Wide Angle launched a Student Planning Committee aimed to share more ownership of the annual event with students - after all this event is about sharing their voice! The group met bi-weekly for four weeks over the summer. They used human-centered design, a creative process dedicated to understanding people’s needs and designing interventions that better serve people’s needs. This included interviewing different event stakeholders (parents/caregivers, students, teachers, etc.), finding themes in the research, identifying opportunity areas, brainstorming ideas, and testing them with prototypes. Student Planning Committee member Bryce spoke with us about his experience. 

Our process started by reflecting on last years’s event. Students expressed that parts of the event seemed awkward if you’re not social or extroverted. This led the committee to ask, how can we make socializing more comfortable for students?

Students brainstormed dozens of ideas around this question. Bryce’s idea was to have party hats for everyone. “Say if we have someone in a business suit, others might be intimidated to go talk to them. So if you see them in a business suit but they have a party hat on it looks funny and you feel more comfortable to go and talk to them. It takes down that barrier that we put up ourselves to keep us isolated or with people we already know.”

Part of the design process is to iterate - to test your idea and continue to make changes until it’s just right. From party hats the idea evolved to trading different ‘90s flair wearable items. Throughout the event attendees are encouraged to trade their items with others that have different ones. “I like where it is now a lot better. At a certain point I thought the hats might be too much. Now that people can trade different items it’s easier and hopefully they start a conversation about the items that they have and it allows them to talk more.”

Bryce also played a significant role in the event title selection. Students and staff met for a two hour brainstorming session. Words were flying around the room and the whiteboard was filled with different title ideas. 

“When we were in the meeting I was just listening to everyone else. I kept hearing three words repeat separately. One student was saying ‘we need to amplify our voice’ and then I heard someone else say that they wanted people to listen. Then something clicked in my head. We need to amplify ourselves, we need people to listen, and if they don’t hear us the first time we need to repeat ourselves. I played with that idea and then it hit me: Listen. Amplify. Repeat.”

“It was challenging to come up with a title that’s easy to say, easy to remember, and stays with a person once they read it. Since it was a group effort, it was hard to get everyone to agree on a title.“ Just like that, after two hours of literally hundreds of titles, Bryce came up with a title that everyone agreed on. “I was surprised by the amount of people that worked on the title. You’d think it’d just be one person but it was a group effort. We included everyone so we could get all different points of view. 

Bryce reflected on his experience on the Student Planning Committee. “The entire process of planning an event in the committee was all new to me. I got to see what the steps are in making an event. Usually I’m just there and I don’t know the steps that everyone has taken into putting it all together. I learned it takes a LOT to make an event work and I was surprised. I learned how to plan an event in general, how to budget for one to make sure you have enough money for everything that is needed, like for food - well mainly food (laughs). I’m using what I learned to plan my own event. Being on the planning committee helped me figure out the location and weigh the pros and cons of what different venues offered vs what I would need to fill in the blanks for. I’m most proud to see how my point of view has taken it this far. Coming up with the title is exciting! For the party favors, I’m an introvert and I don’t like to socialize. I think this will allow myself to just go up to someone and start a conversation.”

We are grateful to all the students that participated in the first ever Student Planning Committee to truly make this a youth-powered event. “I think it’s beneficial to involve so many people in the planning process. I want to do this again.”

Listen. Amplify. Repeat. is on Thursday, November 14, 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM at MICA’s Brown Center. We are honored to share this work, and hope you can join us as we commemorate youth voice and progress towards a more inclusive city, fueled by creativity.

Space is limited, tickets are required to attend. Price is price is pay-what-you-can to ensure the event is accessible to all community members, with a suggested donation of $35.

For more details and to purchase tickets, visit bit.ly/ListenAmplifyRepeat.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Hannah Shaw is the Communications Specialist at WAYM. She is a multidisciplinary designer and received her BS in Marketing from UMD and MA in Social Design from MICA.