Big hART : The Drive Project

WHO
BIG hART is a group of professional artists, arts workers and producers who have been making work together since 1992 – creating theatre, film, television, painting, photography, dance, new media and radio.                   

WHAT
The DRIVE project is a multimedia performance event, working with at-risk young men through a series of workshops using the skills of professional artists who specialise in digital, mobile phone and web based technologies.

The DRIVE project aims to engage young men who are at risk of autocide (deliberate one person car fatal crashes) to create a multimedia art installation and website to explore the issues associated with autocide.

The project will also engage the community in discussion and will promote a means to seek information, assistance and support to the young men.

The project is based on five years of research, evaluation and intergenerational strategies undertaken by Big hART in a number of different states.

WHEN 2008 / 2009

WHY
Big hART has been running a series of projects in the North West Coast region of Tasmania for the last three years, with a variety of groups.

In this time Big hART identified a destructive car culture amongst young men in the region involving ‘hooning’, driving under the influence and other risk taking behaviour.

Over a period of eighteen months there had been several incidents involving car crashes that shocked the community.

Alcohol and other drug abuse has been strongly linked to the loss of life of young men in car accidents in the region.

HOW
The DRIVE project incorporates a series of workshops where participants develop skills in web based processes such as: listening skills, sound recording, composing, editing, graffiti art, graphic design, set design and construction.

Developing these skills also provides an increased capacity in life skills, literacy and numeracy.

The material generated through the workshop and story sharing processes will be woven together to form a multimedia installation which will then be presented in communities across the North West coast of Tasmania.

The DRIVE project will have three community launches in Burnie, Wynyard and Smithton, where the young men who participated will raise awareness around the issues of dangerous driving, risk taking behaviours and autocide.

This Case Study was originally produced by the Australia Council's Community Partnership Section as documentation of its Creative Producer grants.
The Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body.
It supports and promotes excellence in the arts and community engagement with them. www.australiacouncil.gov.au

Download the PDF of this Case Study here.