Homelands - Part of HOME MCR's Homemakers Series

Homelands was an interactive digital and physical project, created during the first lockdown, exploring what happens when everything you know has been turned upside down. Participants were thrown into the centre of an imagined world and asked to creatively respond to the upheaval they found themselves in. Each member of Plaster Cast created an original fictional world and recorded an audio feature to provide the participants with an introduction to the world they had selected. We then wrote 10 unique stories each, for 50 participants overall. These stories were written by hand and each member of the Homelands community received an original story in the post. Once the participant had listened to the audio and read through their individual letter they were then asked to respond creatively. We ended up with a range of responses, from stories to photos to drawings. Homelands was a collaborative way to catalogue human ingenuity and provide escapism during a time of crisis. It was for anyone who needed a creative outlet and sense of connection during the complicated time of Covid-19. The worlds we created were: Gnome World, Underwater World, Spaceship World, Fantasy World and Zombie World. I created the Underwater World, consisting of a seven minute audio piece with an original script and music which provided an introduction to the world, followed by 10 original stories. My section of the project was aimed at a younger audience and as such my individual stories and audio script were family friendly. It was my hope that the project could be used as a way to bring families together through lockdown and to engage children in a creative environment that would spark their imagination.