Based on the Stockholm Survey, which examines young people’s use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs, as well as their mental health, Smart Kreativ Stad entered into a major project, Danderyd is Listening, initiated by Danderyd Municipality. The purpose was to listen to young people. They were encouraged to attend workshops focused on listening and storytelling through sounds.  

What does it mean to listen actively and what do we then hear? In the move from statistics to artistic processes, we get hold of young people’s own stories. Their reality is conveyed through their own words, then recorded with actors and youth from other environs so as to anonymize the people behind the stories.

Process

September 2018 → July 2019

In public

Viktor Rydberg High School, 4 December 2018


Danderyd High School, 4 April 2019

Living on 

Audio files on the website and two mobile 3D models in glass of each school with requisite sound technology. These are designed to spread the young people’s stories and the project outcomes of the pilot to other schools and in public settings.
 
There is also an interactive map that links the sites to the young people’s stories. This is on Smart Kreativ Stad’s website.

In a workshop format, the students were given a process that differs from the tasks they receive in school. They were asked to capture sounds in their local environment. They were also given questions concerning what it is like and where it is they feel good. The stories, shaped both in writing and through sounds, were then shared with the rest of the group. The main work was just to listen inwardly and hear their own voice.The larger framework project Danderyd is Listening organized evenings events to which parents were invited. In these contexts, the young people’s stories were presented anonymously.

By using methods other than quantitative, young people were offered creative processes designed to place the focus on listening. To lend support in leading them away from attending to accomplishment and expected responses, process managers provided tools that could reflect their degree of well-being. Stories emerged about anxiety, stress, overachievement, demands and an absent adult world—but also about longing and memories. 

The project has provided knowledge about the circumstances of young people. With the method employed, we can continue to listen and to hear people from different environments and in different places.