– Local 5th-grade classes on a journey into the future point the way to 2032
At a workshop supported by the Spar Nord Foundation and the Helsingør Business and Industry Fund, we sent the children on a journey to 2032. Actress Charlotte Bøving served as their guide in Stengade’s old theater hall as she took the fifth-grade classes from Grydemoseskolen on a “journey into the future” throughout Helsingør.
In this interview, Charlotte explains what children gain from imagining the future—and what we adults can learn from listening to them. The workshop is part of the association’s development work, which will culminate in an application for Elsinore to become the European Capital of Culture in 2032.
What was the purpose of the time travels?
They focused on the future physical spaces for communities. Essentially, they aimed to open up the children’s inner worlds as a starting point for viewing their outer world with fresh and innovative eyes. Opening up to the inner images or ideas we don’t usually come into contact with because we’re so busy stuffing ourselves with images from the outside.
Today, more than ever before, children are being fed the imagination of others—adults who create content from their generation’s perspective. To a certain extent, this is necessary so they can get ideas about what’s possible, but conversely, we must be careful not to serve them everything, lest their own imagination remain dormant amid the buffet of streaming services and digital games. A lot of creativity happens online, so where does the craftsmanship go? Society is crying out for more people trained in manual labor. That’s why it was important that the journey into the future also became a creative process that resulted in physical products.
What does the method involve?
We all need to feel included in communities. It is a fundamental need to be part of a tangible, present community in a physical space. The children’s dialogue and reflections with one another and the adults involved take place in a physically creative space where they create posters and models. In addition, there was also an assignment that involved photographing squares and places in Helsingør that they believed could be utilized differently. All of this with a focus on the communities of the future.
It was heartening to let the children sit with a stack of quality magazines—old-fashioned, printed publications—and watch their thirst for knowledge and curiosity be sparked. Or the curiosity that was sparked when they were sent out into the city with the task of taking photographs.
Now that the students are gathered in a group as large as a class, they can inspire one another—provided we design learning activities for them that allow them to think innovatively and exercise their imagination. Just like with anything else, it’s all about doing it often enough.
The workshop also included a trash can where the children were asked to throw away anything they didn’t want to take with them into the future. At the end of the workshop, we lift the lid off the trash can and ask them what might be reusable—perhaps in a more sustainable form or given new life in a more imaginative way. In this way, the workshop is just the first step on the journey as we explore and develop our vision for the Capital of Culture in 2032.
So what do the children tell us?
It varies greatly, although they are, of course, also guided by the prompt we give them. If I mention Putin’s war as something that might end up in the trash, I end up steering their focus. Both urban environments and nature were recurring themes when I asked them to reflect on the kinds of environments where communities thrive. In their own words, sustainability and animal welfare also came up repeatedly. Finally, incentives play a big role too. Soda and candy. And ideally, these should be free and constantly available.
I was a little surprised that so many people dismissed school out of hand. And when we opened the discussion to reflections on how school could be reinvented, they had a hard time seeing concrete possibilities. Suggestions were made for technological solutions where knowledge could be transferred directly from a source, so that knowledge wasn’t something they needed to acquire themselves. There were also suggestions that school should be a soccer field. As an adult, one could interpret this to mean that learning and personal development in and of themselves are not goals for the students. So why learn things when technology can provide the answer? As for the soccer field, one could interpret it as a desire for a more physically oriented school with clear rules of the game.
The sea also played a major role in their visions of a better future—both for recreational purposes and as a place to live. Sometimes their ideas get really fantastical. “The harbor is a place where cars can fly three meters above the ground.” “The pedestrian street should become a river with dolphins.” So we have to ask: Why is it important for cars to fly three meters above the ground? What kind of space on the ground are they taking away from the children? It was also suggested that rooftops should be parking lots. Why is it so important to the children that cars are removed from street level?
How does the workshop contribute to Elsinore’s bid to become the European Capital of Culture in 2032?
A common thread running through the core narrative of Elsinore 2032 is community. Not only does the association view culture as “community-building,” but its activities are also intended to take place within communities. A two-hour workshop gives us some insight into what’s going on inside the children. The workshop was just a brief encounter, which I believe we should develop into a lasting partnership.
Culture is about communities centered around creative and artistic experiences. The Journey into the Future is an example of how we can work creatively together, reflect on communities, and enrich our dialogue through physical creations. Conversation becomes an integral part of the process, a method that can easily be adapted for both young people and adults. There are already many youth communities working in this way. A brainstorming session isn’t just in our heads and on little yellow sticky notes. It also takes shape between our hands.
