Jingle Tales
We describe a project that we did in Mirzapur, India where we sent laptops made of Raspberry Pis to young women; that they could play with, reconfigure and use to explore their interests. The problem we encountered was how we could demonstrate the tactility and adaptability of these devices while having to compete with more ‘complete’ (read blackboxed) devices like phones and laptops. This recipe is a mix of one of these ideas, to be able to OWN your device by customizing the boot-up sound. The process would be an exploration of learning the device, a little bit of sound editing and learning to adapt python scripts. This recipe is a documentation of our way of trying to encourage the young women to customize their devices and play with the more technical aspects of it. This includes getting introduced to python, github, audacity and raspberry Pis.
Published as a “recipe” in the Critical Code Recipes collection, this piece documents a project in Mirzapur, India, where we sent laptops made of Raspberry Pis to young women- devices they could play with, reconfigure, and use to explore their interests. This work ran alongside programmes like the Kishori Film Festival, which used similar devices and approaches to support digital storytelling with the same community.
The central challenge was demonstrating the tactility and adaptability of these open devices while competing with the familiarity of phones and laptops. The recipe focuses on one specific idea: letting the young women customise their device’s boot-up sound as a way to claim ownership over the technology. The process involves learning the device, basic sound editing with Audacity, and adapting Python scripts- a gateway into technical literacy that starts from personal expression. The broader vision for Raspberry Pi as an educational platform is explored further in The Case for a Webinar Pi, and the wider narrative of this community work is captured in Journeys, Dreams and Everything in Between.