‘Voice Notes’ is an international creative writing and sound arts project working with displaced communities in Nottingham and Slemani in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Engaging young people with creative writing and digital technology, the project facilitates new pathways for knowledge exchange using innovative approaches to the telephone with a broad range of international cultural organisations. Responding to the changing ways that we use the telephone, and the increasingly popular transmission of audio files by smartphone, the project invites international participants, writers and members of the public to contribute to and shape the co-creation of a range of multi-media outputs by recording and sharing their own voice notes exploring the relationship between technology, creativity and exile. These events and outputs are designed to explore the ways that collaborative voice notes can open up our understanding of ethical networks and transnational communication, as well as shaping different modes of talking, writing, reading and listening across cultures.
Workshops run in Nottingham, in Slemani and online. We welcome all participants aged 16-30 to join us for free, fun and creative sessions taking place in 2023 and 2024. To find out more, choose an option below.
The project ‘Voice Notes’ is funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council. Led by poet Dr Sarah Jackson from Nottingham Trent University, in collaboration with sound artist Hardi Kurda and refugee arts charity Compass Collective, the project is delivered in partnership with Counterpoints Arts, New Art Exchange, Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, Refugee Roots, Slemani UNESCO City of Literature and STEP.
