Project Rationale:
In completing this project, participants will create a series of files in response to a stimulus provided by their instructors. The students will explore creative and artistic solutions related to their own vision of how to take a stand against corruption and bribery in a simulated real-world context.
It is expected that participants will do considerable original research outside of class hours. Each group will consist of 2-3 participants with each participant expected to collaborate at each stage of the project.
Project Summary (SCENARIO)
ON MY OWN Project is an exciting opportunity to reflect on and develop young persons’ abilities as activists and influencers. It starts by shedding light on a seemingly never-ending tradition of corruption and bribery in the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It will also show that there is always a choice and a way how to prevent or fix this anomaly using positive reinforcement and creative power. By applying themselves to the challenge of this project students develop the thinking and writing skills necessary to present themselves and their projects in creative language convincingly. Diligently working as part of a group and completing each task, this project allows participants to simulate an invaluable situation in which learning meets life.
The project aims at the following core values to be transferred to our participants:
– Introducing the basics of civic engagement – the framework, possibilities and methods of action.
– Enabling the participants to become aware of their own motivation for work in the community, as well as the importance of civic engagement.
– Importance of solidarity, mutual support and inclusion of less powerful entities in the community.
– Importance of the role of an individual, group, activists, media in the development of the community and social changes.
– Introducing examples and varieties of corruption in communities.
– Explaining basic terms related to corruption as a major disturbance in the society.
– Learning how to map the community for the production of the mural and main event.
– Gaining basic skills and knowledge about planning activities for the community, as well as producing plans for cooperation.
– Learning about murals, stand-up comedy and comics from respective experts.
– Exchanging experience and knowledge, as well as a successful practice about previous work about activism in the community.
This lesson is a translation (Self-Translated) and you can find it in the original language here.
Prior Art:
The project “On my own” started with working on training curriculum and purchasing a website that we would use for the promotion and visibility of all activities within the project. We announced open calls and published the on the website, after which we worked on the selection of activists for future training and work.
We promoted the project by using social media FB and Instagram.
The training consisted of eight one-day sessions, usually on weekends: five at Code HUB, two online, and one in American corner in Mostar. We used the power of art and culture to encourage students to fight corruption.
The training aims were not only to transfer knowledge, but also to empower students, activists to be more effective in their efforts to influence the involvement in the fight against corruption.
After the trainings we had many meetings for preparation for final event. Our team allowed the activists to choose methods and techniques, length and intensity of work, and we just channeled and encouraged their energy.
The idea came to life as a logical stand against a never-ending corruption practice in our society. As generations and generations grow in a country where bribing and being bribed is a regular thing, we thought that it was important for young people that there are ways to fight back, and still make an impact. Our philosophy and strategy in this project was oriented towards social and artistic activism. That is why we chose a diverse group of young, gifted, artistic-savvy individuals, without any prejudice or political affiliation.
The final event was preceded by media campaign in a form of a video number, announcing the event, and in just one week it had more than 30000 views.
The inspiration for the final event was, that apart from corruption, there was a real-life shortage of covid-19 vaccines and the students decided to make their final performance a current, topical warning which cannot but resonate strong in people’s ears.
The final event was the mutual product of our team, having finished all training on how artistic activism can produce strong and original messages to the entire B&H public on fighting corruption. It was entitled “the anticorruption fair” and it took place on March 31st in Mostar, on the Spanish square. The performance included vaccination against corruption as the main feature. After the vaccination, citizens were issued a certificate, and they would share their personal experience regarding corruption, and placed it in a box, election-style. A part of the event included an exhibition of related works, such as comic strips done by our team and messages on cardboard panels. Then, the citizens were given a chance to have their own photo taken including an appropriate message that can remain them of the day. The event was accompanied by anticorruption song blasting from the speakers.
The preparation and realization of the final event attracted the large interest of the media. The final event turned out to be top news in the country and region. More than 50 members of the media, including, radio, TV, and social media wrote about the event. Almost two months after the event, there is still large media interest about the project, notably FaceTV, one of the most popular TV stations in the country. Apart from the media, myself, the project leader, was honored to speak about corruption during the 30th anniversary ceremony of the Open Society in the Balkans. I accepted this invitation as recognition of all my work and efforts in Mostar and the region. Also there is large interest of international organizations such as OSCE Mostar in the project “On my own” and their potential involvement in it. Other artistic forms of expressions we used in the event, the comic book and the mural, were used to send a strong message to the public, as permanent markers of activism, particularly as they had not been used before in similar projects. The mural can be found in one of the most frequent streets in the town. It contains a QR code that can directly take all interested parties to our webpage, where they can find more information on the project.