from the 12th to the 21st of june 2003, we conducted a workshop in paris in association with the ADOS organization located in the 18th district, more precisely at "la goutte d'or".

we worked with 6 kids, aged between 11 and 13. after introductions and discussions with them, each teenager would do a test run to get acquainted with the camera, and then was left to take the tool out for up to an hour. they were not given any specific editorial direction except that when we talked with them before their session, we tried to help them find a particular theme they might want to explore, mainly focused on the district they were living in.

the results of these sessions were encouraging. each teenager’s record had an distinctive individual voice. one teenager captured impressions of things inside her home, another captured construction sites and mainly architectural features of his district, and another focused almost exclusively on random people he met on the street while walking around. most of our participants seemed most comfortable taking the tool out together with another friend who typically walked beside and had conversations with them, all of which were captured on the audio track.

on the last evening of the workshop, we set up a public exhibition that other teenagers, many of them friends of the participants, attended. We were gratified to observe several young teenagers put the headphones on for several minutes at a time, interacting and changing the image only very infrequently. something clearly caught and held their attention longer than we were expecting. when asked informally what they liked about the experience, we received answers relating to interest in the documentation produced by one’s friend, especially in the sound track, as well as interest in the sound and feeling like they were in the shoes of that friend.