NORTH WEST LIVERPOOL CLUSTER RESEARCH REPORT

Report on research undertaken by FACT, folly and Cornerhouse in collaboration with the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Liverpool John Moores University and the commissioned artist.

Final report by Sandra Hiett, Liverpool John Moores University in collaboration with trainee teachers (LMJU), Karen Hickling, Laura Sillars (FACT), Sarah Perks, Marisa Draper (Cornerhouse), Claire Gannaway (folly), Simon Robertshaw (International Centre for Digital Content), Sara Maguire, Connexions, Deborah Chan (coordinator) and Dan Fox (commissioned artist).

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Research aims and objectives

3 The wider context

5 Research context

8 Theoretical framework

10 Research methodology

12 Ethical considerations

13 Process

14 Analysis of findings

23 Conclusions

23 References

Virtual Lives: Introduction

This project emerged out of agendas and concerns shared between the five participating organisations across four institutions, all of which develop work with new technologies and with young people in the North of England. In different ways, each is involved in the dissemination of contemporary art that uses new media and all are engaged in educational activities with individuals, groups and the wider community both on- and offsite.

Each of the participating centres had strong pre-existing working relationships with at least one of the other institutions and most had previously established links with several of the partners in this project. The group, however, had no prior experience of working together as a whole. Individual constraints of geography and time presented significant challenges for the project. Communication through virtual sites (base camp) and periodic face-to-face encounters (usually workshops) have contributed to this report and to the project as a whole.

Having established a strong working relationship through this research project there is a firm commitment across the team to continue to work collaboratively on further projects. The sharing of expertise, facilities, artist networks, mutual support and the extending opportunities for young people has enriched this work and offers great potential for the future.

The project took place between September 2006 and January 2008 and had two distinct stages: stage 1 starting in September 2006, ran until March 2007, and stage 2 continued from March until January 2008. The project involved fourteen young people in total, although never more than twelve at any one time during either stage. Research developed by twelve trainee teachers in stage 1 was extended and developed by six trainee teachers in stage 2. Key members of staff from each of the five organisations took part in both stages, although there was some necessary change in personnel in organisational teams because of the nature of short-term contracts and associated funding. There was, however, a core team that saw the project through from inception to completion, giving a sense of continuity and stability throughout – and with the potential to extend this work in the future.

The overarching question driving this project has been, ‘How can we develop a better understanding of the new media technologies being used by the young people of today, and how could this information influence and challenge the long-term programming of media arts organisations?’ Further questions emerged from the research. Stage 1 was particularly concerned with issues of voice and looking for ways of giving young people an authentic voice in developing opportunities for them within new media arts education. Stage 2 was concerned largely with facilitating young people to act upon their collective voice, meeting their professional development needs in taking a lead role in developing and realising a project from initial idea, to commissioning an artist to work and curating of the final work.

This paper argues that young people’s new media capabilities are more sporadic and diverse than current rhetoric would imply. Giving young people a voice in the programming of new media art education requires a substantial shift in established practices and roles. Collaboration between the participating organisations was essential if this project was to be sustained, given that no one organisation could have fulfilled all the needs or provided the personnel necessary for it to be successful across the timescale. Opportunities for young people to make creative decisions and pursue an engagement with new media art at the highest level was made possible through cross-institution collaboration. This research claims that there is significant scope for extending this model to schools and colleges as well as offering a way forward for the now-established project team.

Research aims and objectives

This project evolved to give young people a greater voice in the content and delivery of new media arts education across the collective organisations taking part. More specifically, the project aims of stage 1 were:

·  to deliver a deeper understanding of young people’s technological skills and application

·  to develop working practices that use as a starting point the technical language of the young people with whom we work (as opposed to us ‘teaching’ them)

·  to develop shared approaches to good practice across a digitally rich and experimental region

In stage 2 these aims were extended:

·  to develop a model that allows young people and the organisations to learn more about each other by working together

·  for young people to take a lead role in the decision-making and development of their engagement with the organisations involved

·  to use new media technology effectively and creatively with young people

·  to challenge traditional approaches to working with young people and be innovators within the field

·  to investigate how young people’s opportunities to engage with new media differs between new media arts organisations and school

Young people’s brief: stage 2

The evaluation of stage 1 identified a need for the project team to relinquish a large part of the decision-making but also recognised the need for structure and pace within the activity. The project team decided to give young people autonomy over their project in the second stage and to set them a brief. The residential three-day programme at the start of this stage ensured that there was plenty of time for the group to get to know each other and let their ideas develop rapidly through a prolonged exposure to new ideas and opportunities. In addition, the project team was on hand to consult, and new media artists were invited to share their work and provide short workshops throughout the event.

The young people were allocated £5,000 with the clear understanding that this would need to cover all their expenses, including travel, refreshments, materials, hire of equipment, technical and artistic support etc. The group were informed that their project could be about developing a product, activity or commission, giving them as much freedom as possible to develop their ideas and concepts, but with the expectation that it would needed to be ambitious and challenging.

The objectives for the young people were:

·  to develop and carry out a media arts project as a group of twelve young people based across the North West of England

·  to organise the project themselves, including how to communicate with each other; how to spend the budget; and what to create

·  to create something that might contribute to the future education programmes of the participating organisations (something that other young people might use, for example)

·  to recruit artists and/or technicians or anyone else necessary to achieve the project

·  to obtain the resources to complete the project within the budget

·  to carry out evaluation and dissemination of the project

The objectives for the organisation were different but closely related:

·  for the organisations and young people to work together, sharing skills and resources effectively

·  for young people to come to our venues to work with us on their own terms

·  for there to be a creative engagement with new technologies for the development of young people in relation to their aspirations

·  for young people to be empowered to organise their own project(s)

·  for innovation within new media arts education at the highest level

The wider context

Underlying theoretical perspectives

Theoretical perspectives, such as Popcorn’s concept of ‘cocooning’ (c. 1990) and Prensky’s (2001) ‘digital natives’, have contributed to the creation of certain mythologies surrounding the new media capabilities of today’s young people. Hanman (2005) suggests that the digital age has driven young people into their bedrooms, living in isolated reality while actively engaging in virtual worlds. Contact with friends being continuously available from these domestic bunkers through electronic means without parental intervention or supervision, alter egos are created and evolved to sophisticated levels, we are led to believe, while real-life personas are left under-developed and immature.

The breakdown of the family unit is further fragmented, it is supposed, through the self-imposed isolation of the teenage population, exaggerating the generation gap between young people and their parents, exacerbating the opportunities for individualism and conflict. Obsessive tendencies, unhealthy levels of introspection and a lack of social skills are associated with Popcorn’s claims of behavioural trends among young people within the developed world. Prensky’s (2001) division between those that have grown up with new media technologies (digital natives) and those that have adopted these in adult life (digital immigrants) encourages attitudes of social distinction between these two groups. Arguing that young people have developed different thinking and language patterns from preceding generations, Prensky claims that significant problems arise when ‘digital immigrants’ attempt to develop an appropriate curriculum for ‘digital natives’.

The proliferation of new media technologies

Evidence of new media technologies proliferate in the Western world. Paul (2003) describes the 1990s as a ‘technological development of unprecedented speed’, while Tribe and Jana (2006) talk of the 1990s as the era of the ‘.com boom’. Manovich (2001 p. 20), on the other hand, resists defining the present moment as the Digital Age, arguing that ‘new media represents a convergence of two separate historical trajectories’ – computing and media technologies – that both have their origins in the 1830s. Casual observation, however, reveals that email, the internet and the digital image have become commonplace tools in recent years. These tools are used across generational groups, from ‘early years’ to ‘the third age’, among professionals and amateurs alike.

The role of galleries and arts organisations

There is a long tradition of contemporary artists appropriating new media technologies, subverting them and applying them in unorthodox contexts as part of the creative evolutionary cycle. Galleries and arts organisations play a vital role in supporting and showcasing ground-breaking work, and providing access to a wider audience. FACT, Cornerhouse, folly and LJMU are just some of those institutions that actively support new media arts innovation but are examples of leaders in their fields.

Supporting audience participation is a significant role of public galleries and arts organisations with many providing educational support, workshops and interpretation for a wide spectrum of visitors and participants. Modern art and contemporary practices are often criticised as elitist, and cutting-edge new media arts work can be particularly challenging for audiences and arts educators alike. Highly successful and established models for de-mystifying works of art and accessing artists employed by arts organisations and galleries are often undervalued and unsung. More recently, however, these been given a greater profile through designated organisations such as engage (www.engage.org). Joint projects and publications (such as Taylor 2006) are providing forums for the sharing of local success on an international scale. The climate of divisive competition is giving way to one of collaboration and community. The time is right for projects like this to draw upon collective skills and knowledge to meet the challenges inherent in creating a contemporary new media arts curriculum that moves beyond existing practices.

The role of the artist–teacher

Many visual artists work in an educational capacity as freelancers, artists-in-residence and workshop leaders in galleries, museums and through arts organisations. Every year literally hundreds of contemporary fine artists, crafts people, designers and new media artists enrol in more formal training as teachers for primary and secondary education and FE. Selected for their subject expertise and their aptitude for teaching, these highly experienced individuals have much to offer in developing contemporary art and new media technologies in the curriculum. Why is it, then, that schools fail to engage young people in contemporary art and new media practices (Downing & Watson 2004), given that galleries and arts organisations succeed so well? While the Times Education Supplement regularly reports examples of schools making creative use of mobile technologies (mobile phones, MP3 players, ipods etc.) the vast majority are busy enforcing bans on such items being brought into school at all!

The broader educational context is changing. The Education Reform Act of 1988 and the introduction of the National Curriculum for Art in 1991 resulted in strong working relationships between educational institutions such as schools and colleges and arts organisations. The development of applied and vocational learning in recent years and the 14–19 White Paper demands a reconceptualisation of the school curriculum to embrace the world outside the classroom, making explicit and effective links between what young people learn and the world of work. The New Curriculum currently being implemented by secondary schools in England (not statutory until September 2008) places an emphasis on young people’s creativity that has been sadly lacking in children’s entitlement up until now (DFES 1999). All these changes present school-based artist–teachers with significant challenges and opportunities to work with outside agencies, including new media arts organisations.

Research context

There is recognition among the project team that new media arts educators can find themselves teaching to the converted: ‘new tools’ may not be quite as new for the young people as they are for other participants. The issues that this raises for artists, arts venues and educationalists providing new media education for young people are important and relevant to all the institutions represented within this study.

The particular perspectives and rationale for each of the five institutions are related but distinct and are set out below.

FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology)

FACT is the UK’s leading organisation for the commissioning and presentation of film, video and new media art forms. Founded in 1988 (formerly known as Moviola), FACT has commissioned and presented over 100 digital media artworks and artists, including Mark Wallinger, Barbara Kruger, Tony Oursler and Isaac Julien. FACT exists to inspire and promote the artistic significance of film, video and new and emerging media. FACT believes not only in the ability of individuals and communities to express themselves creatively but also in the value of them being able to see themselves reflected in the world around them. The FACT centre hosts four cinemas, two exhibition spaces, a media lounge and a media lab, two artist digital workspaces and a transition suite.