Can you record the creative process? - Digital Art

ChildArt, Jan-March, 2004 by Janice McLaren

Do you think that art is made only with a paintbrush? What about a mouse or keyboard? Artists today use new technologies more and more. Computers, scanners and digital cameras are just some of the tools that are used to explore and make art.

But students studying art are often not encouraged to use digital technology. One example is the United Kingdom. The National Examinations for Art and Design require high school students to clearly show not only their finished work of art, but the journey they took to make that artwork. Now this is easy to show in sculpture--you might have a sketchbook with some drawings, a notebook with information about different artists who make sculpture and perhaps a few photographs of your sculpture as you were making it, trying out different materials, methods and configurations along the way. But there haven't been too many examples or ideas for how you might do this with digital art.

So instead of risking a bad grade from the art examiner, students and teachers have been going for the safer bet, using more traditional media like painting, drawing, print-making and sculpture.

Some educators are trying to improve this situation. They have created a new website to encourage students and teachers to keep using digital technology right up to examination level and beyond. The website is very simply designed. It includes four different project ideas that can take place in the art and design classroom. Each project has been developed by an artist and teacher in four different schools in London, England, then tested out with a group of students.

The website includes examples of in-progress and finished student work, the project artists' own work and, most importantly, four downloadable ideas for digital art projects linked to England's National Curriculum, a program of study which all schools in England are required to follow.

The website was jointly developed by The Photographers' Gallery, an independent public Gallery located in the heart of London, and the Art Advisor, responsible for supporting art and design teachers in schools located in the East London area of Newham. It was funded by Domex, an organization committed to developing the use of the Internet and other digital resources in order to raise standards in education.