“Mapping the atmospheric in school buildings: Digital art-based participatory inquiry with youth” presented by Trafi-Prats and Freitas
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Participatory Practices and Institutional Change
Presentation Title:
- Mapping the atmospheric in school buildings: Digital art-based participatory inquiry with youth
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
Creative experiments with wearable technologies and speculative engagements with digital sensory data foreground the need of reinventing learning environments to reclaim sensory and somesthetic relationality, while interrogating the passive collection of sensory data by sensors ubiquitously embedded in everyday spaces and learning processes. This paper discusses an arts-based project of mapping the sensory-affective dimensions of school environments in collaboration with a group of participating-students (16-18 year-olds). The mixed media maps offer dynamic digital representations of staff and students’ experiences of the school buildings, shedding light on problematic spaces in the built environment. The paper discusses processes in which digital-sensory devices allowed young people to further their attunement towards previously unconsidered aspects of school atmospheres, while exploring the pliability of their sensory capacity in reconfiguring and reimagining those environments.
