Podcamp - a residential for young carers in Grizedale forest

Podcamp is an art project based in Grizedale Forest, providing the unique opportunity for young carers across Cumbria to engage with digital technology and explore the forest environment. Carers aged 18 and under will take part in two residential camping weekends in the forest in June.

Artist Lisa Roberts will work with the carers to create a virtual art trail through Grizedale Forest, using text poetry and mobile phones to reflect on the caring lives of the participants. The trail will become part of Grizedale's renowned forest art trails, and the public will be able to follow it via a map distributed at the Grizedale visitor centre. Podcamp participants will also learn about forest wildlife – including the Red Kite (bird of prey) release project; and how to build forest hides for shelter and observation.

Lisa is an artist who works with technology in the public realm. She is committed to de-mystifying technology and initiating new forms of democratic, user-led experience. As director of Blink (blinkmedia.org) she developed unique film and mobile phone based projects and a Bluetooth kiosk to share short-films made for small screens. Now, as director of We Love Technology (welovetechnology.org), she curates an annual conference celebrating the misuse of old and new technologies and continues to develop new ways to use text messages as site-specific poems in unexpected places.

A young carer is a young person, under the age of 18, whose life is affected by looking after someone with a disability or long-term illness. Podcamp aims to offer young carers a respite from the responsibilities and pressures of caring, the opportunity to creatively share and explore issues relevant to their own lives, and the chance to develop confidence, skills and new friendships; in addition to showcasing their artwork to local or visiting audiences in the Forest and wider audiences through the web.

Podcamp is presented in unique partnership by folly - a digital arts organisation based in Lancaster (www.folly.co.uk), Art Locates Me - a digital art and media project ran by Connexions Cumbria, working with young people across Cumbria (www.artlocatesme.org), and the Forestry Commission at Grizedale – a government department responsible for the protection, expansion, and promotion of understanding of Britain's forests and woodlands (www.forestry.gov.uk/grizedale).

The project is funded by a grant from the Northern Rock Foundation and the National Lottery through Big Lottery Fund (Community Wildlife Programme).