Abertay 25 Memories Re-Animated

The Pandemic Effect

The Covid-19 pandemic changed much of the project, especially moving from face-to-face events, to being conducted remotely via video-conferencing.

The move online meant that we faced new technical issues in connecting with the schools across Teams, and weren't able to connect participants to the archives in a meaningful way to help people tap into their memories.

But the change brought new opportunities. Participants learnt to use new technology, and moving online allowed international interviews to take place.

Stop-Motion Animations

A total of 6 stop-motion animations were produced based on extracts from the memory interviews that were gathered in the project.

Using a mobile phone app it was possible to create the films using simple materials like paper, cotton wool, and colouring pens / pencils.

But the process of creating them also involved choosing suitable extracts, learning how to create a story board, working out how to bring that to life with the materials available - and learning how to use the technology.

The animators did an amazing job especially when they had to do this either remotely, or socially distanced under time-pressure in a classroom. 

You can see all the stop-motion videos by clicking the arrows above.

Craigie High School - William Moheiddeen

“I remember going to the Union Building, the atmosphere was just incredible. And it was like being at a football stadium, that there were so many people there. I thought “This is great!”. Like I’d never been to a place where you’re just like watching the TV and you’re singing the songs like you’re in a football stadium. You know “We’ll be Coming” and “Doe A Deer”, and all that sort of thing. “Oh, we need to do more of that!”. So, as the games were getting more important, I got in touch with the Students Union Building and I thought, “You know, we could do more with this. We could have flags up, we could be selling pies, we could be having the Hampden music on to get more of the atmosphere.” I remember the email I got back, and it was like “Oh, that’s great. Come along to the offices and see what you can do to help.” And they said “Oh, it’s rare that we get feedback that’s positive. Usually people complain, but we like to get the positive ideas about how to make stuff better. Off the back of that, I did my bit to help the atmosphere, but you know, Scotland never qualified!”

Craigie High School - Nick Hamilton

“I was able to do a bit of travelling. As I said, I went to – but I went to another place. I was seconded for a while to teach at a university in Finland. Finland in Scandinavia. And I went and spent a month in Finland in December one year. And if you’ve ever been to Finland in December you’ll find it’s extremely cold. Lots of snow everywhere. And it took me quite a time to adjust to it. And at one point I went on a short trip… And when I got out of the train at the other end the cold was absolutely was intense. And I couldn’t believe how cold it was. And apparently it was minus 30 degrees when I got out of the train. So I got out of a warm train onto a platform at minus thirty degrees. I very nearly collapsed I think. There was somebody there to meet me and they put me in a nice warm car and after that I was OK.”

Craigie High School - Ahmar Ghafoor

Audio is very quiet on this video

“So, Once Upon A Time I was in a lift to go up to the 4th Floor. So, I’m in the lift, and there’s two girls in the lift as well. And at that time a film had come out called “The Sixth Sense”. It was a mystery, thriller film. I don’t know if you’ve seen it or not. So from the first floor to the 4th floor the two girls started discussing the film. They blurted out the whole plot, including the twist at the end of the film that I was going to watch that very night! That annoyed me – so – much! But yeah, that still stciks with me, actually. I should have told them just to be quiet, but – it’s OK. [interviewer] What, you just stood there? [Ahmar] Just listening! Thinking “OK, they’re going to stop. OK, that’s enough. They’re going to stop.” Then by the time the lift approached the final floor they just blurted out the plot twist at the end. [Interviewer] Did you end up watching it then? [Ahmar] Yeah I did watch it still. Still had to watch it [laughs].”

Hope Busák - Sumant Mathure

“So I wrote to Professor, Dr Johnson that I would be joining them on the 7^th. And I travelled on my own. That was the first time that I travelled on my own internationally. And somehow I reached UK -London, and then to Edinburgh, and then to Dundee. And then in the evening I went to the College Halls of Residence. They did not know about me. That I was coming. So I had to explain to them. And January ’87 was the worst winter in the UK. My Academic Supervisor, he was staying in Tealing, which is only a few miles away from Dundee, Tealing. And his whole family, there were only 4 or 5 houses, and his whole family was completely shut down, because all the pipes were broken because of heavy snow. And there was almost four feet high snow and everything. And that was the worst time when I went to Dundee because in Bombay we never see the snow. There is no temperature below 25 degrees, and here I was in minus 10 degrees! So, that was the start of my journey in Scotland.”

Dundee Young Carers - Louise Giblin

"

I did one parachute jump, and I'm never going back in a plane to do that ever again! But at least I enjoyed doing the training and the socializing part of it again but, one time was enough to jump out the plane. But I didn't realize to be honest that I was going to have to jump out the plane by myself, and that was a bit of an eye opener, but I only realized that when I was up in the air, and there was no door on the plane so. But I think health and safety would make things a little bit different nowadays, so. Was it static line or…? Yeah. Yeah, static line. And my parachute got twisted as well, so when I jumped out the plane, you do that kind of “check canopy” thing, and look up, and mines was just like a rope. So the parachute never… inflated? That’s the right word isn’t it? Yeah, it didn't inflate. But you were taught, if that happened, to swing around like you're on a swing, and just kick your legs, so you’re going [whoosh] like this. And I managed to remember to do that and, or I probably wouldn't be here to tell you the story, actually, if I hadn’t. So, yeah. That was the first and last time I ever did that, but. It was still good fun. In hindsight. Maybe!"

Larisa Olaru-Peter - Jenny McNeill

"

And I'd kept a diary when I was at college. I don't have it now, but I do have some pages that I had pulled out, and one of them was a page about the rugby. And we had borrowed Team Rugby’s strips to wear, and so I'd commented that it looked like we were wearing long dresses, and also that we won the match. And we had a Silver Cup for winning, and at the Marketgait, the Union, at night they played “We are the Champions” when we got the Silver Cup, so it was all great fun! And I've made a little note in my diary that it will go down in history as the first match of its kind at the Tech, and it’s interesting to be asked about it all these years later. It carried on in future years. Certainly the first year there was a newspaper article that reminded me the first year the Rugby Team wore wellies, and the second year they wore gloves, so we kind of had a bit of an advantage. That's why we did better than you would otherwise expect!"