Author: Olivia Armstrong

A Interactive Day of Fun with SoundPlay Projects! 📟

Our Summer of Fun project comes to an end with another collaboration from SoundPlay Projects as part of Conversations with Installations!

Partnering with Soundplay Projects, last week saw the display of a digital mural at Paisley YMCA for the general public to interact with and experience the science and technology of creating it. This is one of the many projects from Soundplay that integrates art and sound with moving pictures to create an interactive experience.

Founder of Soundplay Projects and Musician, Bal Cooke states, “We are really happy with the results – we weren’t quite sure how people would react to something like this out on the high street but the reaction has been so positive, across all age groups too.”

It shows the impact of combining the technology with natural artistic creativity in order to inspire our young people and get them thinking about the impact they could make. Soundplay Projects and Paisley YMCA emphasise the importance of accommodating new audiences and inclusivity, especially young people to encourage them to begin thinking about the way these methods can be used, as Cooke explains;

“I think young people like seeing technology used in unexpected ways like this – combining elements like sensors, sound and digital visuals. It can really fire the imagination and I hope it inspires young people to think about creating their own digital work.”

For more information regarding Soundplay Projects, please check out their website for details.

Partnering With SoundPlay Projects for a Spaced Out experience! 😊

Throughout our Summer of Fun project this year, we have organised many new activities and ways for our young people to spend their summer with Paisley YMCA, such as our Summer Gaming Cafes and our VR training projects in various schools and community centres throughout the Paisley area.

Many of these projects also featured collaborations with other youth organisations, who are just as invested in creating a fun and educational environment for Paisley’s youth as we are. One example of this was through our partnering with SoundPlay Projects to run two separate workshops on the 4th and 5th August. These projects gave our young people the chance to combine their scientific side with their musical creativity to create their own imaginative works.

Founder of Soundplay Projects and Musician, Bal Cooke explains, “These workshops combined low-tech ways of sound making (using ping pong balls, paper cups and elastic bands) with high tech video manipulation of the clips we filmed. It was brilliant to see what the young people came up with, creating sounds and objects that we’d never have thought of. “

These projects utilise the technology provided by youth organisations to encourage young people to develop new skills and ideas that will go on the serve them later in life. As Cooke explains:

“I think these kind of projects can open up creative possibilities in digital technology, beyond the world of games, smartphones, social media, etc. All those platforms are totally valid but are so much part of young people’s lives already.

“We are keen on the idea of playing with technology to create something unique and think that really can inspire others to try new things or even just to look at technology in a different way.”

Collaborative projects between youth groups such as this allow for a greater expansion of creative projects to engage our young people and working together allowed us to really bring this project to life. Cooke states:

“Paisley YMCA bring so many benefits; they have great facilities and staff, as well as brilliant connections with the community. They also share our ethos that projects should be driven by the young people rather than try and impose stuff on them. We hope to work with them again soon!”

Likewise, we are also extremely thankful to Soundplay Projects for this collaboration and we’re very excited to see what we can do next!

For more information regarding Soundplay Projects, please check out their website for details.

Bringing Virtual Reality to Paisley! 🎧

Our adventures with VR continue throughout our Summer of Fun programme!

Throughout the summer, we have been setting up our young people to experience the growing technology of virtual reality headsets. Our youth workers work with our young people to set up and explain how to use the VR headsets, enabling them to understand and experiment with the technology.

In local Paisley schools and community centres, both the worlds of gaming and virtual technology are open for our young people to explore. Youth Worker Kieran McPhail states that the project has struck a cord with Paisley’s young community:

“I think the VR experiences have went well and were well received and enjoyed by the young people who came along. The young people really took to VR really well and a lot of them kept coming back for more!”

He states that the VR offers young people the experience working with the new technology and allows them to get to know it on their own terms;

“I think VR offers young people really a window into something they may not have the chance to experience. Walking along the Grand Canyon in VR, taking in the sight of the Northern Lights in a dimly cabin in Norway or just sitting in a nice cosy room with your friends who are also in VR in their own homes.

“VR has so much to offer especially when it comes to seeing new sights and allowing people to connect and interact without staring at a flat screen. It also allows them to play some video games and -from personal experience- burn a lot of energy and get some exercise while still enjoying some gaming!”

We’re thrilled with the results our VR project has brought and we hope to see its success continue in the future!

Tickets for our Summer of Fun projects are available on Eventbrite.

Our Summer of Fun continues with our Healthy Relationships project! 😊

Our Summer of Fun continues with our healthy relationships project! This is a project we have been building over the past several months with the intention of showcasing the talent and inner workings of our young people as they show us what they believe about nurturing bonds with others.

This project has been about exploring healthy relationships and what makes a relationship fulfilling and equal for our young people. Our weekly club Social Circle explores this in great detail, with our young people having important discussions through both talking about their feelings and expressing themselves through arts and crafts at the Tannahill community centre.

Our young people’s projects and discussions help to nurture a healthy and productive way of letting them express their feelings and build upon their relationships with each other and themselves. It is an invaluable teaching method that will serve them hugely later in life, showing that social development is equally as important as learning subjects and solving problems. We are so excited for the other projects we have coming up and we have been thrilled at the support and enthusiasm our Summer of Fun has received!

Tickets for Social Circle and other Summer of Fun projects are available on Eventbrite.

Culture Academy/ Visual Arts – Designing Paisley’s new Interactive Mural

Our Summer Schedule continues with our online exclusive Culture Academy/Visual Arts events every Monday!

With our new culture academy/visual arts group, members will be designing and creating an interactive mural that will be displayed in Paisley. Our friends from Create Paisley will also be collaborating with us on this project.

Since its launch, this club has proven to be a popular pastime, with our talented young people eager to show off their artistic and creative abilities to create a mural that sums up the diverse and exciting talent that Paisley is home to.

This is a great chance to get creative and show off your design abilities! Tickets are available from Eventbrite.

Our Summer of Gaming has begun! 🎮

Our summer of gaming has begun! Last week, we opened our doors to the public for the first time since the lifting of lockdown restrictions in Scotland and the summer schedule has begun with our Summer Gaming Café!

Every week, our young people are invited to spend the day playing games, chatting to our youth workers and having fun with their friends. Ever since the event was announced, both the first and second week have sold out, with a strong following of young people already committing to the new programme.

Youth Worker Jordan McDonald states that the success of the first week proves the need to in-person socialising and fun summer activities for young people, “Since it was the first week back I think there was a lot of apprehension, with the way the world is with Covid. But the young people are happy just to get back out and start socialising.

“When you return to meeting in person, you don’t know if it’s going to be popular or if people are anxious to come in. But seeing that it’s been sold out every session, it just shows that it’s been needed for the young people.”

The opening of the new Paisley YMCA building in Paisley High street also marks a new step in setting up new equipment and an area for young people to move freely after the easing of Covid restrictions.

Fellow Youth Worker John Gore is also impressed with the success of the opening week and hopes it will set a standard for the rest of the summer, “I think with the limited amount of equipment we have; it couldn’t have gone better. As long as there’s young people showing up, we should try and accommodate for that as best we can, over the whole summer if they still want to come. I think that’s a great thing.

“I was concerned about how we would set up just for the young people being in here, how we would section everything. But I think it’s been done to the best that it can be. Everyone seems to be showing up.”

Our Summer Gaming Café events occur every Tuesday and Friday. Tickets are available from Eventbrite.