In your dreams

Children have an incredible sense of imagination, and it only takes a small amount of encouragement to turn this into creative outcomes in the classroom. Technology can have an important role to play in this creative process if it is applied appropriately. One of the most powerful approaches I have seen in recent years involves the use of interactive narratives. From the time of the early book based 'choose your own adventure' stories such as the classic Cave of Time by Edward Packard, the ability to plough your own furrow through seemingly endless possibilities is a captivating idea, not least because it mirrors real life decision making. Turning the pages to find your next scene was part of the process, but with new digital media, the task has become easier and quicker. What place could such tools have in the classroom?

While visiting the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art on the South Bank in Brisbane a few weeks ago, I was impressed by the installation artists exhibiting at the venue. One in particular caught my attention. It is entitled 'You were in my dream', was created by Isobel Knowles and Vanessa Sowerwine and consists of a box with a face shaped hole in it. You place your face in the hole, and a video camera captures a live feed of your features. It then incorporates your face into a wonderfully created stop motion animation which is located in a fantasy dream world. The idea behind the installation is that by using a mouse, you choose what your character will do next, and in doing so, you see your character transformed into a variety of fantasy characters, some ideal, some distopic. I was transformed slowly into a rabbit and then had to run for my life through a forest, with a ravenous wolf chasing. No matter how dangerous or dystopic a setting your character finds themselves in though, they always wake up from 'the dream'.

I can see such approaches being very valuable in the classroom for a lot of reasons. If similar setups were available at a reasonable price, lessons could be enlivened and children challenged in new directions, as they learnt decision making, problem solving and the consequences of their actions. It goes beyond role playing, taking on the nuances of identity construction and the complexity of moving through endlessly changing terrain. To quote from John Hedberg and Barry Harper: “....by enabling learners to be co-constructors of narratives, narrative-centered learning environments can promote the deep, connection-building, meaning-making activities that define constructivist learning.”

If you want a definition of Modern Art, there is one on the wall of the gallery: Modern Art is art that is created within the time period it represents. Such digitally mediated interactive narratives certainly capture the need for today's students to see how they fit into the world and interact with it - changing and being changed by their environments.

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