Part of the activities of CitizensLab are mobilities which allow members to visit each other to learn more about the work CitizensLab members are engaged in all over Europe. End of October I visited Vilnius in Lithuania.
The Lithuanian organization Laimikis Lt. is working with the people of Šnipiskeše a community in the "wooden area" of Vilnius. I met Jekaterina Lavrinec of Laimikis at Europe Square which is part of a high-rise development area at the northern bank of the river Neris in Vilnius.
The so called "wooden neighbourhood" is in immediate proximity to the high rise development area. Šnipiskeše has been a village close to Vilnius before it bacame part of the city.
Characteristic for the neighbourhood are the wooden houses. Some of them used to be pottery workshops and many of them have garden plots where flowers, vegetables, and fruits are grown. Many of the houses are in a derelict state but are still rich of details.
Laimikis is using art based urban intervention to work with the local community. The urban game URBINGO is played in teams or by individuals. Players receive a map of the “wooden neighbourhood” on which locations are marked by round dots. Each team or individual also draws an equal number of cards from a stack. On each card is a photo which has been taken at one of the locations marked on the map. The task is to find the locations where the images on the cards have been taken and to take a picture showing the location and the card. The game finishes when the teams or individual players meet again to compare their results.
To learn more about the "wooden neighbourhood" and the work of Laimikis Lt. check out
Learning outside of the school building
I am currently looking into pedagogic approaches with a focus on learning processes which „take pupils out of the school building“. I am especially interested in methods which motivate children and young people to perceive public space in a different way to encourage them to reflect their own experiences in a broader context.
Connect children and young people to the communities they live in
Art based urban interventions are a method to connect people to the community they live in in a different way.
URBINGO is an urban game. As a teacher you can use the concept of URBINGO to explore the neighbourhood they live in with your students. To produce a set of URBINGO cards, will make them more aware what is special about the community they live in.
The blog entry has been posted by Lilian Jüchtern. Lilian is a board member of effe and a board member of Freie Comenius Schule in Darmstadt (Germany).
