birth of image – media literacy for youth » Supervision: Everyone has a message to tell

Supervision: Everyone has a message to tell

December 17, 2010

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Iedereen heeft een boodschap te vertellen

Italiano

A unique European media competition has reached its closing date this week. The Supervision youth media contest was running online for a period of 6 months, with over two hundred submissions from young people around Europe.

A competition in its name, it hardly resembled one. The target group was non-professional image-makers (that is, everyone) aged 15-30. We used the event wall of the most popular social networking site, Facebook, for submitting photos and graphic designs, and Vimeo for videos. There was no usual iPhone or cash prize to be won, just a candlelight dinner in Italy. There was no media institution backing up the project. Commercial sponsors and brand shine was also absent. The tagline of the project, “Be the Change You Want to See” was borrowed from Mahatma Gandhi.

Apparently nothing cool. Entertainment value zero.

And that’s why the results are absolutely exciting.

The quality of visuals, personal messages, the diversity of insights, choices and observations made by Supervision’s imagemakers is breathtaking.

Predictable glimpses of nature, urban landscapes and everyday objects. Context-ridden portraits of people and animals used effectively to convey feelings. Photographs that transcend routine and magnify the unnoticed aspects of daily life.

Most of non-professional video projects in youth work remain unfinished. That makes the videos that were completed all the more glorious. The musical joyfulness of Play Life and Life Is, the charmingly manipulative soundtrack of The Globe, the aliveness of the boys in Women are… Oh yeah!, and the famous video-game experience by blind director & actor Sorin Tata are giving me the strong impression that making these videos simply brought people enjoyment.

Supervision is a sample of photography and video that is made every day, everywhere, by everyone. And social networking means it’s out there for eternity. It’s the art of young people and the expression of aliveness.

I personally want to thank these imagemakers for sharing their vision with the rest of the world.

Miki Ambrózy
Birth-of-Image founder and Member of the Jury

Download the Press Release