Creative Scotland Crowdmatch has provided £832 of match funding
Life in Fife Archive & Podcast
Dunfermline, Fife, United Kingdom
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Aim
I aim to preserve the stories of Fife, past & present, and share them. These stories will be crafted into a creative podcast and archive.
Hey, I’m Lewis. I’m an audio producer and have a wee business called Time Capsule Productions where I create life story recordings and podcasts. I believe that everyone has a story to tell and I want to help share these stories rather than only the famous ones you usually hear.
What is Life in Fife?
Life in Fife is an online archive and podcast documenting Fife and all its people, from ex-miners to artists and everything in between.
Why? Because I’ve seen that Fife has so much to offer and there are so many great stories in this Kingdom that never get told. So, I want to prevent the loss of local knowledge, highlight groups that people can get help from or volunteer with and connect local communities.
It's an Archive!
Recordings will be kept in an online archive about Fife's people for anyone to access, listen to and learn from. The archived recordings can also be accessed for others to use in any creative media or for educational/informative purposes.
And it's a Podcast!
On top of this there will be an accompanying podcast to spread the word of Fife, past and present. The podcast episodes will be like mini audio documentaries about each subject, creatively produced with the interviews and archive content that have been edited into shorter, enjoyable and easy-to-listen-to episodes. These will either be focused on one interview recording or combine multiple recordings if they relate to the same story.
The podcast will contain licenced music by local musicians, soundscape and additional sound design to create an immersive experience. Episodes will be 20-30 minutes long.
This is a great way to connect different generations of people to local stories.
Who could be involved?
Anyone in Fife with a story to tell! I’d record local anniversaries, discussions about former industries and local creatives, musicians and artists. I'll be talking to local businesses, from someone's side hustle to high street names. As well as shining a light on the charities and community groups helping Fife's people in the background. Everyone has stories and unique skills that are valuable to share. And I’d love to make that happen.
I already have a few people and places interested in being part of the project, The Hive, the Carnegie Birthplace Museum, Kirkcaldy Gaming Society, the Levenmouth Project, the last living ferryboat captain, Leslie Town Hall, CLEAR Methil & Buckhaven and so many more.
What are the benefits?
Life in Fife is:
- A platform to learn more about the past and present of Fife and for entertainment, so people can escape from their everyday lives and immerse themselves in the stories of others.
- It's a tool for education in schools, colleges and universities to access real-life stories from people and organisations across Fife. This will help to share creative skills and knowledge.
- A place where people can find out opportunities to volunteer with local groups or charities, or even find support where they didn’t know it existed.
- A way to document the changing economic landscape of Fife from mining to creative endeavours.
- A place where businesses, small or large, can promote what they do, including artists, writers, musicians and performers.
- A safe space for everyone and inclusive of race, gender, sexuality, economic background, etc.
- And it’s a community for people to engage with, start their own conversations and find those with similar interests.
How it works!
I’d use my portable recording set-up to go out to participants and record them in a space they feel comfortable. They tell their story and I ask additional questions to round out the interview. I'd also record sounds relating to the subject and use these to illustrate the story. Then I publish it to the online archive and edit together a podcast episode to share it with the world.
This crowdfunder is for an initial 10-episode podcast series with 10 interviews being archived.
The Life in Fife website will be at the heart of this project. Not only will be the home of the archive and podcast but it will also contain all of the information relating to each episode's subject. This means listeners can access any supporting links signposted in the audio.
The online archive will essentially be an exhibition for the stories recorded and associated photography and video, created in collaboration with additional creatives and the people of Fife.
LifeinFife.com will also be essential for accessibility as this is where episode transcriptions will be available and all pictures will have alt text. This is where the people of Fife can come together, share their stories and photos in a blog and help build this archive of knowledge, skills and support.
Websites are also a key part of establishing and growing an audience for podcasts, though SEO and will be a place where any funders and sponsors can be featured.
Goals:
For me this is a way to give something back to my local community. I love creating audio documentaries and I always like to push the boundaries of what I can do with the audio.
Through this project I'll grow my skills and I aim to be able to pass on these creative skills with the next generation of audio producers by also giving them a chance to work on the project.
If I can do all of this and increase the awareness of what is going on in Fife, help local businesses out and provide a hub for sharing help and skills then I've done this project right.
Your Support:
Life in Fife has already gained some support through winning the People’s Choice award at the Create in Kirkcaldy Creative Soup in November last year, and I’ve also had a letter from my local MP in support of this project.
I need to raise £5000 to bring this podcast and archive to life. This funding is essential for creating an identity for the project, providing a welcoming online home for the archive and podcasts and time and equipment for myself and volunteers to go out and record with people.
To keep Life in Fife going, people will be able to donate when they access the archive. There will also be sponsorship opportunities for the podcast, archive and website.
Any donations will help so much and there are some great rewards you can claim.
Please share the project if you can and get in touch if you want to take part.
A launch event & exhibitions (stretch goals).
If we reach the first target, I’d love to extend the goal so I can host an event as part of the archive launch. Those involved would come together and take part in a stories/skill share, like a human library. People can ‘loan’ select people for a limited time at the event to chat to and learn from. (don’t take the person home). It would also include a listen-along of the first podcast episode and stations where people can listen to snippets of the archive recordings.
I'd also love to take the audio recorded for Life in Fife and work with Fife-based artists and photographers to create an exhibition that can be featured in galleries and community spaces.
Thank you, I hope you’ll be listening to stories from Life in Fife soon.
Life in Fife, it’s stories from the people of Fife, past and present, to take into the future!
Thank you to Mojo for recording and editing the video and donating a reward and to Leslie Town Hall, Fife Painter Kerry for also donating rewards.
Funding method
All or nothing – this project will only receive pledges if it reaches its target of £5,000 by 22nd July 2026 at 8:42am