Banlieuz'art

Workshop result

→ Download the Banlieuz'art newspaper as a PDF (in French)

Day-by-day report

Day 1: Visiting the exhibition La science à la poursuite du crime (Science on the trail of crime)

On the first day, to dive right into the workshop, the whole class visited the exhibition La science à la poursuite du crime at the Archives Nationales in Pierrefitte.
The exhibition was about Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914), a major figure in the history of knowledge about crime. It presented the methods Bertillon devised to identify criminals and to map crimes.
After this enriching exhibition, marked by the architecture of the Archives Nationales building and by the profiling of certain populations, we went back to class. The students’ first hands-on use of do.doc: uploading the photos taken during the visit to the online software. Then, in pairs, the students measured each other’s bodies the way Bertillon did; the goal of this exercise was to get familiar with the text feature of do.doc, which would be very useful later in the workshop.
We then prepared the next day’s visit: routes, schedule, groups, and questions to ask the people welcoming us in each venue.

Day 2: Visiting cultural venues in Seine-Saint-Denis

The class was split into 3 groups, and each group was assigned a town in which to explore a few cultural venues.

Visit in La Courneuve:

• L'Abominable: a film lab
• L'Étoile cinema
• the Jean Houdremont cultural center

Visit in Aubervilliers:

• La maison des langues et des cultures (house of languages and cultures)
• Le Houloc: artist studios
• La Villa Mais d'Ici, a venue for artist residencies and events

Visit in Saint-Denis

• Le 6B: artist studios
• The Gérard Philipe theater
• The Rajganawak big top: shows and circus

During the visits, the students documented the venues by taking photos, gathering documentation (flyers, brochures, programs, etc.), interviewing the people working there and talking with them.

Day 3: Starting to make the newspaper

We start the day with an editorial meeting to decide on the elements needed for the articles (title, author, text, photos, etc.). We also list the elements for the front and back pages.
After a few disagreements, compromises and finally agreements, it is time to write about the previous day’s visits. Each group writes the articles about the venues it visited. Groups have to get organized and share the work: 3 venues, so 3 articles per group.
The room was rearranged into 3 large islands to work comfortably. The students carefully write their articles on paper from their memories and the documentation they gathered. They then type them into do.doc and pool the photos taken on site with their phones.

Day 4: Layout

Most of the articles are now written, and we start the day with an editorial meeting to decide on the layout of the articles. Everyone agrees on a shared layout and structure. We decide on the size of the titles and texts and where to place the authors’ names. The students start laying out the pages in do.doc; they quickly get the hang of the software, and even write a bit of CSS code to adjust the font sizes properly.
We give the remaining tasks to the groups that have finished: writing and laying out the editorial, making the front page and the elements of the back page.
We end the day with a long debate about the front page: a student made a drawing the whole class likes, but the background color, layout and text still need to be chosen. I try options live under the criticism of students who disagree; we can’t really reach a compromise, the workshop ends, and I will make the final call later.

What came next

We send the finished newspaper to print at Newspaper Club. It is delivered to the school a few weeks later. A presentation of the workshop, with the newspapers handed out in the presence of local partners, was planned for the end of March; unfortunately, the lockdown prevented us from meeting for this event.