Atelier of Digital Landscapes

“Digital landscapes are only one possible experience, in which encounter between simple digital tools and different materials produces optical phenomena with great visual and emotional impact, stimulating curiosity and breathing life into new worlds and imagery.”

(Bordercrossings Exhibit, Loris Malaguzzi International Centre, Reggio Emilia, Italy)

The impacts of the Bordercrossings Exhibit (March, 2018) stayed with me, I needed a space to be able to explore some of the ideas, and I wanted others to have this experience of immersion, of our bodies moving into the digital languages. I contemplated the equipment and materials I had, and in response to the ideas Gretchen and I had been talking about, I saw this opportunity to share these ideas with Ottawa area educators.

25 brave educators came to try out some of these installations. (September 29, 2018)

Small World Movie Making, Shadow Plays, Digital Landscapes and Interactions, Projection and Materials Connections, and Light Box Engagement with Colour were five installations created for this Atelier.

Sue Stacey had been with us in the morning speaking about the Cycle of Inquiry and then, Gretchen Reynolds and I, with Creativity and Thinking with Materials, this Digital Atelier, gave us all the opportunity to explore, inquire, re-invent, and think creatively. This installation was fourteen hours set up with five people.

I wish I had been able to document the responses of the educators. I wanted to play too…this has led me to the last few years digging deeper into the digital languages and how the interplay between languages can be amplified and offer us new ways of seeing and interacting with the world.

Nicole Pierce, an incredible educator with toddlers, at the Seneca College Child Lab (Newnham Campus), engaged with me over a longer period to study the work of wethinkeverywhere. We tried out ideas, discussed possibilities, and let our imaginations connect with digital spaces. We hope to continue thinking together.