The BioYouToon project aims to utilize the power of storytelling and comics to raise awareness on Biodiversity conservation.
The local worshops are of particular importance, because they serve as a training session that introduces the participants to the BioYouToon training modules.
They are also of significance, because the stories and comic ideas to be developed out of the workshops will be used as a basis for the creation of comics, one of the main outputs of the project.
An inspirational workshop
We don’t like to toot our own horn, however many of the participants felt inspired by the workshop and did not refrain from letting us know. The workshop combined an overview of the training modules and their implementation (focusing on vital subjects such as the services and benefits of biodiversity, causes and consequences of biodiversity loss, EU politics, policies and international conventions, conservation solutions and using storytelling and webtoons as a tool to raise awareness.)
Participants were from diverse backgrounds: Biologists, artists, illustrators, park rangers, social workers and game designers, and to be honest, we were quite impressed with the involvement and exchange.
We not only dealt with some important (and difficult) themes and topics, but also discussed how to navigate these challenges and work towards a more bio-diverse future.
Using the Vienna Biodiversity Corridor as inspiration
Together with our trainers, we also took a brief walk around the Bio-diversity islands created throughout the area in Vienna’s Meidling district. The Vienn Bio-diversity corridor is an initiative that seeks to create islands of bio-diversity throughout the city, and has already created quite a few, rich and impressive plots that serve as home to a wide range of plants and insects. Participants were inspired by the realization that bio-diversity exists within the city as well, and numerous species already use these islands as their base. Our trainers, biologists Corinna Ehn and Florian Etl helped participants identify the many species, and even interact with them.
We’ll also be creating a video expose/documentary on the activities of the Wiener Biodiversitäts Korridor, so stay tuned.
Enriching perspectives through storytelling
The workshop also devoted time towards storytelling and creating one-shot comics on the topic of bio-diversity awareness. Following an overview of storytelling methodology by trainer and artist Danny Nedkova, participants broke into groups (making sure to balance having one biologist and one artist in each group) and began developing their stories. They then, worked on creating one-shot comics that had a storyline and worked as a comic. We didn’t have time to complete them all, and participants requested to continue working on their creations before forwarding them to us for further development.
As X-arts, we’re looking forward to receiving the output from other local workshops, so we can get to work with our illustrators and create digital comics that promote awareness on bio-diversity conservation. We will also be working on the creation of a publication out of the experiences obtained during the workshop, including an exploration of the methodology and the experiences of our participants.