SPEAK UP YEAR ONE
National Theatre & Theatre Royal Wakefield 

At Outwood Academy Hemsworth, students created an imaginary town named ‘Hemworth’. They designed their town with myself and Speak Up Rep, Carla Addyman. Using augmented reality AR from writing and sketches in Speak Up sessions, they built a model version of their designed town from found materials. A mixture of 3D scanning and 3D modelling placed them within the digital landscape.

Inspired by their home, Hemsworth, the students thought about their real town during the design. They discussed how they can make where they live better, not just for themselves but for generations to come.

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For the group’s celebration in the summer, they invited guests to come and explore their town through AR technology. Each student took on a role to guide guests around the space and shared their ideas with an invited audience. This was a crucial step as it offered a chance for designers to see a prototype and try out their ideas.

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The students now in year 2 of the project are developing this further and creating a performance based game that allows visits transport directly in to 'Hemworth' 

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For more information on the National Theatre and the SPEAK UP schools program visit 

https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/news/speak-up-story-so-far/