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14 ICT Age range 5–10 Years Rebecca Sinker a Digital Art Education Research Fellow at Middlesex University explains the thinking behind Digital Art Resource for Education ‘DARE’, a CD ROM for primary schools DO YOU DARE? Using ICT in primary school should be about more than data processing and digital encyclopaedias. Multifunctional multimedia tools and resources can have both creative and critical applications. They have the capacity to cross subject boundaries, enabling children to connect ideas and processes for a more holistic understanding of how art, language, work and play exist and interact in school and society. But they are of most value when integrated into a broader learning environment. A recent action-based research project, linking children, artists and designers has produced a new art and ICT resource, though collaborative production and a rich mix of old and new technologies. Following the creation of the secondaryfocussed Digital Art Resource for Education (DARE) web site www.dareonline.org, the DARE CD-ROM has been developed through a series of workshops with children from three classes at Columbia Primary School in Tower Hamlets, East London. In the Autumn term, two artists – Maria Amidu and Barby Asante – came into the school to develop ideas and make a variety of artworks with the children. With the exception of the digital video camera, all the resources, materials and tools used in these workshops, were found within the school. Over the Spring and Summer terms, this material was transformed into an interactive multi-media environment, which the children, tested, critiqued and helped design. The resulting CD-ROM draws on and reflects young children’s knowledge of digital media conventions, as well as referencing more traditional gaming rules, narrative structures and learning strategies. Its design was led by the ideas emerging from the collaborative artists’ workshops, where children were encouraged to think outside the traditional frameworks of the classroom, the subject divisions or the computer screen. The DARE CD allows children to explore and discover a host of themes such as play and performance, space and place, language and translation, through the work of other young children and a selection of international artists. This resource is not only designed to introduce young children to culturallydiverse contemporary artworks, it also aims to provoke critical engagement with associated social and cultural themes, in an interactive, accessible and playful form. With children’s voices and simple graphic menus to help guide users through the screens, the examples of children’s work encourage ideas for similar projects, while the on and off-screen activities stimulate talk and making beyond the multimedia environment. By introducing the various themes through artworks, interactive exercises, games, wordplay, role-play and drawing activities, the CD-ROM is visually dynamic, creatively challenging and accessible to a range of ages and abilities. Aimed at children between 5–10 years the CD comes with a supporting booklet for teachers and parents to explore and extend the ideas it contains, through discussion and further activities for KS1 and 2. So how might children relate the diverse practices of contemporary artists to their own experiences and activities in and beyond the classroom? Within this project there is evidently a complex set of relationships between the artists and artworks which the children encountered, the ideas and questions these raised and the work they went on to make themselves. Their work has now been embedded in a digital resource for a whole new audience of children to encounter, which is an obvious source of pride and achievement. The experience of working with professional artists and designers both validated their opinions and provided an opportunity to explore forms and ideas which broadened their conception of art. As luck would have it, the Year 2 children were able to visit a Helio Oiticica installation at the Whitechapel Gallery, in the summer term. For their teacher this was a great opportunity to build on the artist’s workshop. During the gallerybased activities several of the children commented that they had created similar ‘play spaces’ in their classroom with Barby, earlier that year. Not only had that experience stayed with them, but they were able to find connections between their own creative activities and the work of a contemporary artist in a gallery space. DARE is an ongoing research and development collaboration between The Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) and Middlesex University’s School of Lifelong Learning & Education (LLE) with the Landsdown Centre for Electronic Arts (LCEA). The CD was designed by The Institute of Digital Arts and Technology (i-DAT) at Plymouth University and produced by inIVA and Middlesex University, with support from The Arts Council of England and LloydsTSB. For further information or a copy of the CD contact: DARE Research Fellow, Rebecca Sinker (dare@mdx.ac.uk) or inIVA Marketing Manager, Natasha Anderson (nanderson@iniva.org) Tel: 020 7729 9616 THE NEW MAGAZINE FOR PRIMARY AND PRE-SCHOOL TEACHERS OF ART, CRAFT & DESIGN
Further information or a copy of the CD contact: DARE Research Fellow, Rebecca Sinker dare@mdx.ac.uk or inIVA Marketing Manager, Natasha Anderson nanderson@iniva.org Tel: 020 7729 9616 15 START 1. Artist Maria Amidu explored the theme Space and Place with a year 3 class, culminating in the production of a huge floor piece, covered in drawings, writing, photographs and other memorabilia relating to the children’s sense of self and location. 2. This giant ‘floor map’ has now become the interface for the ‘Space and Place’ section of the CD, where you scroll across it’s surface, discovering links and hotspots leading to children’s artwork, artist’s work and a range of games and activities. 3. Maria also worked in Reception where the children tried a range of activities related to translation and interpretation including storytelling, word-play, collage, speaking, listening and memory games. 4. Artist Barby Asante worked with a year two class, who explored the themes of play and performance. They made photo, video and performance pieces including ‘one minute sculptures.’ Erwin Wurm, ‘Wrong/Right’, 1996. From the ‘Do It’ series. 5. Looking at the work of contemporary artists, such as Erwin Wurm, who work with live art, time-based media and performance gave the children ideas for their final video work, ‘Famous for 1 Minute.’ 6. Working with the multimedia designers, the children gave their responses to the developing CD-ROM. Their ideas and criticisms informed the navigation design while their artwork and voice-overs helped integrate the form and content. THE NEW MAGAZINE FOR PRIMARY AND PRE-SCHOOL TEACHERS OF ART, CRAFT & DESIGN
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