Fresh Air World, Alberta University of the Arts and 15lb Pink Productions
This project is an international co-production with participants from the UK and Canada. It is focused on giving university students in Plymouth and Alberta the opportunity to work on animation and interactive illustration projects mentored by instructors, scientists, and animation artists, with the goal of promoting healthy thinking about our relationship to our environment and to inspire the possibility of change for the better. As part of their course of study students will do the research and visual development phase for the project, with volunteer participation by interested alumni. The production and post-production phase will be entered into pending receipt of appropriate funding to expand production roles for students and alumni and to engage professional resources towards completion of a final animated anthology film. The length of the final project is to be determined depending on project development, participant selection, and funding.
Fresh Air World Uganda
Illustration students worked with Honorary Associate Professor Rupert Jones from the Community and Primary Care Research Group team at the University of Plymouth and Dr Bruce Kirenga and team at the Makerere University in Uganda, on a GCRF funded project (LINK) that resulted in student work being adopted by the WHO as key training materials in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. The illustration work has proven to be a powerful way of engaging the audience and delivering the important messages on household air pollution and respiratory health in rural communities.
Watch the animation on YouTube.
Fresh Air World & Breathe Easy
Between December 2020 and January 2021, four individuals engaged in oral history interviews with students from the History and Illustration BA (Hons) programmes. As members of the Breathe Easy Support Group (Plymouth), they all suffer respiratory conditions, some of which are debilitating and long-term, and all of which have been exacerbated by the Pandemic. The opportunity to share their memories and stories and speak about their conditions helps to amplify ‘hidden histories’ and ‘histories at risk’. In addition, contact with these young students generated inter-generational knowledge transfer, while having a critical effect of breaking imposed social isolation for these especially vulnerable individuals in what was a particularly difficult Christmas season for many because of lockdown restrictions.
