Partners Involved

The Egg, Bath Spa University, Bath Festivals, House of Imagination and The Holburne.

When

2020-2021 (ONGOING) - Initially triggered by the effects of the Pandemic and the National Lockdowns.

artists

Lucy Cassidy (The SPMC) & James Baldwin (Innocentville).

In response to the pandemic, members of BCEP: Bath Festivals, the Egg Theatre, House of Imagination, Holburne Museum and Bath Spa University, came together to create Unboxed. A project that delivered beautifully crafted imagination boxes to hard-to-reach children and young people in Bath & North-East Somerset.

Together we have worked with artists to create a box for 5-9 year olds and a box for 13-15 year olds which invites them to experience a sense of wonder, profundity of thought, and curiosity.

Unboxed begins as a physical project where 3D boxes are delivered to a child’s home. The boxes are designed as experiences, where a participant/player is sent a box and instructions to complete several challenges and move through different stages/levels. Both projects transition from a physical form into a digital experience.

Innocentville

Innocentville is all about unpicking the threads and making sense from the tangle - it’s about perspective and there are multiple viewpoints. In a world full of uncertainty, people make sense out of the knowns; encourage your participants to focus on the concrete clues and then use their imaginations to tie up any loose ends.

The aim of the experience is to stimulate creative thoughts about real-life-feeling, challenging situations; inventing character motivations and back stories is the major focus. As the facilitator, these conversations are held in a safe way, guiding the discussion so it remains respectful whilst enabling the participants to test boundaries.

This experience is about widening participants’ sphere of awareness by thinking about socioeconomic issues and the consequences linked to actions.

The experience is definitely about having fun using creativity and imagination. Getting it wrong’ is a vehicle for discussion and experience. It's possible to keep replaying the game and for something entirely new to be discovered.

Innocentville exists as a physical exploration inside the Unboxed 3D world with the guided assistance of our offline app, making this experience accessible to those participants with no access to the internet in addition to an online experience using our website. However the participant wishes to play, there are a million stories in Innocentville and a role of the dice will help you choose yours!

SPMC

Due to the secret nature of this project and to protect the welfare and existence of the invisible magical creatures that have been appearing around Bath and North-East Somerset we cannot disclose too much information about the secrets that lie within these boxes.

Young people and children have been carefully selected to become a Guardian of a magical being and these Guardians have been very busy communicating with our partners who are a Secret Agency about what these creatures are like and what behaviours they possess.

Throughout various lockdowns families have been sharing images with the agency of how their magical being has been settling in to life at home and how their presence has been uplifting for children and young people during a somewhat isolating time, having to conduct their learning at home and missing their friends and loved ones.