PULP — Turning Paper into Critical Voices

PULP – Turning Paper into Critical Voices

PULP stands for Paper, Understanding, Literacy, Participation, four dimensions that reflect the core of the project: paper as a creative and physical medium, understanding as the ability to question and interpret information, literacy as the development of media and information skills, and participation as the capacity of young people to engage actively in their communities.

PULP is a KA152 Youth Exchange coordinated by the informal youth group MANI/FEST, involving young people aged 18–26 and taking place in Bologna or in the surrounding Bologna area.

The project explores the connection between handmade paper, media literacy, critical thinking and civic participation. Starting from discarded newspapers and paper waste, participants will move through a creative process of tearing, pulping and remaking paper, while applying the same logic to information: questioning what they read, recognising framing and manipulation, checking sources, comparing perspectives and understanding how narratives are constructed.

PULP aims to:

* strengthen young people’s media and information literacy and their ability to critically evaluate the information they encounter;
* develop greater awareness of framing, bias, source reliability and information overload;
* use artistic and manual practices as accessible tools for reflection, expression and non-formal learning;
* encourage young people to move from passive consumption of information towards active, conscious and responsible participation;
* promote intercultural dialogue, allowing participants to compare how information and media narratives are experienced in different European contexts;
* create meaningful interaction with the local community, involving residents and local stakeholders as contributors rather than passive audiences;
* strengthen participants’ capacity to express ideas, collaborate and transform critical reflection into concrete civic action.

Through non-formal education, artistic experimentation, simulations, collaborative editorial activities, fact-checking exercises and community-based experiences, participants will progressively move from being consumers of information to becoming critical readers, creators and active citizens.

The exchange will culminate in the collective creation of a handmade fanzine, produced using recycled paper and shaped by the voices, reflections and perspectives developed during the project and through encounters with the local community.

PULP therefore uses paper not only as a material, but as the central metaphor of the learning process: information can be torn apart, examined, transformed and rebuilt with greater awareness.