Now that I know things, where do I go from here? is the debut immersive audio experience by Analo Kanga, Lanaire Aderemi, Millan Tarus, Precious Narotso and Mollie Davidson as part of Youthful Cities: Digital Storytelling Lab, a British Council Project in partnership with the Coventry City of Culture and The Space.

Challenged with producing a project that addressed issues affecting young people globally, this group of artists from Coventry and Nairobi came together to examine rites of passage, and the process of moving from the systems and structures of educational institutions to the wild open possibilities of adulthood. 

Now that I know things, where do I go from here? uses a dynamic series of interactive soundscapes and audio poetry to explore the anxiety and ecstasy of Aisha, a law student and Sara, an English student on their graduation days. Jumping between Nairobi and Coventry, each sequence explores Aisha's and Sara's thoughts and feelings as they reflect on the future and in the process - discovering each other as allies in the epic journey of life.

Aisha's and Sara’s relationship with sound and spoken word explores the complexity of major life changes and the battle between the heart and the head. The spaces within and around the two young women are explored as the discourse of their inner monologues wrestle with themes of hope and fear, limitation and empowerment and success and failure.

This experience uses Audio Orchestrator to create a sea of ambient, recorded and invented spatial soundscapes that the characters and audiences inhabit. Through the use of connected smart devices, Audio Orchestrator disperses sounds amongst the available speakers to create a 360-degree listening environment that envelops the listener in sound.

Now that I know things, where do I go from here was commissioned as part of the Youthful Cities Programme and is part of the Coventry UK City of Culture 2021-22 celebrations. The British Council and Youthful Cities facilitated a cultural and creative skills exchange between young artists (age 18-25) in Coventry and Nairobi to develop projects that creatively respond to important, urgent and youth-focused issues in their cities, encouraging more active civic participation. The Digital Storytelling Lab was supported by the Coventry City of Culture Trust, British Council, The Space and BBC R&D.