Art Flow Activity 🎧 Audiovisual Workshops with OutSide Team – "Sound, Light & Experimentation"
What if a banana could play a melody? What if your voice could control a synthesizer? And what if a paper sculpture could become a canvas for light and music? During the ART FLOW Youth Exchange, the OutSide team brought participants into the world of experimental audiovisual creation — no prior experience required, only curiosity.
Facilitated by: OutSide Team — members of a solidarity project supporting young artists in developing creativity, operating a recording studio in Zvolen, Slovakia
About OutSide
OutSide is a solidarity project under the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) programme, dedicated to supporting young people facing disadvantages through access to art, music, and creative tools. The project operates a recording studio in Zvolen and runs audiovisual activities for young people from diverse backgrounds.
The OutSide team was involved in ART FLOW from the very beginning — already during the preparatory phase, they co-designed the audiovisual workshops together with the organising team and planned a presentation of their project for the international group of participants. Their involvement was a direct embodiment of the ART FLOW philosophy: young people not just attending, but actively shaping the programme.
Educational Approach
The OutSide workshops were built on the principle of radical accessibility — the idea that music production, sound design, and visual art should be available to everyone, regardless of technical background or prior experience. Each session was designed to lower the threshold of entry: using everyday objects as instruments, the human voice as a MIDI controller, and paper as a projection surface. The methodology combined hands-on experimentation, peer learning, and cross-disciplinary thinking — connecting sound, technology, and visual art into a single creative experience.
Objectives
🎧 Demystifying Technology: Making music production and audiovisual tools accessible and approachable for participants with no prior experience.
🎧 Experimental Thinking: Encouraging intuitive, playful approaches to sound and image — prioritising exploration over technical perfection.
🎧 Cross-Disciplinary Creativity: Connecting music, visual art, and digital tools into a unified creative practice.
🎧 Solidarity & Community: Presenting the OutSide project as a model for how solidarity-based initiatives can support young people through art.
🎧 Digital Skills Development: Building practical competencies in music production, MIDI technology, and projection mapping.
🎧 Team Collaboration: Creating shared audiovisual experiences that required coordination, communication, and collective decision-making.
Activity Process
The OutSide workshops unfolded across three distinct sessions:
Session 1 — Presentation: OutSide & the European Solidarity Corps
Before the workshops began, the OutSide team presented their project to the international group of ART FLOW participants. The presentation covered the core goals of the OutSide project — supporting creativity, community collaboration, and access to art and music for young people from diverse backgrounds — as well as the principles behind solidarity projects within the ESC programme.
Participants gained an understanding of how such a project comes to life: from the initial idea and application process to the day-to-day running of a creative studio. The presentation opened a broader conversation about how young people across Europe can use solidarity frameworks to build meaningful, community-rooted initiatives.
Session 2 — Experimental Music Workshop: Playtronica, Dubler 2 & Hardware Sequencers
The first hands-on session plunged participants directly into experimental music creation — combining digital tools, physical objects, and the human voice.
Playtronica introduced participants to the idea that anything conductive can become a musical instrument. Using fruit, plants, and everyday objects connected to the device, participants triggered tones and melodies simply by touch — turning a banana into a piano key and a leaf into a percussion pad. The session was playful, surprising, and immediately accessible.
Dubler 2 took experimentation further — this tool converts voice and vocal intonation into real-time digital MIDI data, allowing participants to control software instruments using only their voice. Humming, singing, or simply making sounds became a way to play synthesizers, trigger samples, and explore the full range of vocal expression in music production.
In the second part of the session, participants worked with hardware sequencers and analogue instruments, building their own musical loops, rhythmic patterns, and sound combinations. The goal was not technical mastery but creative freedom — supporting intuitive approaches to music-making and proving that production tools can be expressive, immediate, and fun.
Session 3 — Projection Mapping Workshop: Space, Light & Live Visuals
The final OutSide session brought together space, light, and digital visuals in a live projection mapping experience.
Participants began by creating their own 3D paper objects — geometric forms folded and assembled by hand. These individual sculptures were then arranged together into a collective geometric installation on the floor of the workshop space.
Using a projector and mapping software, digital visuals were projected directly onto the paper installation — responding to changes in light, movement, and musical input. Participants could control visual effects in real time, adjusting colours, intensity, and dynamics as the session evolved.
The mapping was synchronised live with a DJ set, creating a fully integrated audiovisual experience — music, light, and space merging into a single unified whole. The result was not just a technical demonstration but a genuine artistic performance, co-created by the entire group.
The workshop developed teamwork, digital skills, and creative confidence, while opening participants to the possibilities of new media and interactive art.
Results & Impact
🎧 Live Audiovisual Performance: The projection mapping session culminated in a real-time audiovisual experience — a collective artwork created by the whole group, combining music, light, and handmade sculpture.
🎧 Accessible Music Production: Every participant engaged with music production tools — from Playtronica to hardware sequencers — regardless of prior experience, demonstrating that creative technology can be genuinely inclusive.
🎧 Voice as Instrument: Through Dubler 2, participants discovered their own voice as a production tool — a shift in perspective that many found genuinely surprising and empowering.
🎧 Understanding Solidarity Projects: The OutSide presentation gave participants a concrete model for how ESC solidarity projects work — inspiring several to explore similar initiatives in their own countries.
🎧 Cross-Disciplinary Skills: Participants left with practical experience spanning music production, sound design, 3D paper construction, and live visual mapping — a genuinely cross-disciplinary skill set.
🎧 Youth-Led Programme Design: By involving the OutSide team from the preparatory phase, ART FLOW demonstrated that meaningful youth participation begins long before the exchange itself.
