Digital mapping new perspectives in Vienna

C&T has been using its powerful drama and digital mapping methodologies to engage with young people in one of Vienna’s most deprived districts. Working with local social researchers and two schools the company spent several weeks taking part in the inclusive Spaces 2.0 project.

Children and young people aged 10 to 16 worked closely with C&T to build understanding of the challenges they face in their local neighbourhoods.  From bullying to rising prices, vandalism in local playgrounds and the challenges of living on modern council estates.  Working with local children, C&T used theatre and digital technologies to help them dramatise moments in their lives when they faced these challenges and also used drama techniques to find constructive ways of overcoming these obstacles.

The participants also got their hands-on C&T’s latest Phantom 4 drone.  It enabled them to gain a whole new perspective on their local neighbourhood by capturing a bird’s eye view footage of the local schools, parks and tower blocks, helping them to see their problems from a whole new perspective.

The young participants then used C&T’s stratar.net website to build interactive performance-based maps of these neighbourhoods that catalogued their findings.

These maps were shared with other Citizen Science projects across Austria and with the local district Mayor’s office to enable local decision-makers to take positive action to resolve some of these challenges.  To find out more the use of digital mapping in exploring social challenges contact paul.sutton@candt.org.