‘Today is Tomorrow—Art-generates-Art’ is a project that leverages the power of the Adobe Creative Cloud to bring together Creative Writing, Animation and Screen Production students in a generative workflow cycle that simulates industry practice.
The project is designed to provide students with the opportunity to produce individually assessed creative artefacts in their preferred discipline, while also engaging with students in other arts’ disciplines. Students springboard from the work of others to produce new work, complementing their own output with creative work in other mediums.
Acknowledgements
‘Today is Tomorrow—Art-generates-Art’ was created by Dr. Max Schleser, Dr. Julia Prendergast, Dr. Darren C Fisher and Dr. Steven Murdoch of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, who were recipients of an Adobe Innovation Grant (2021). This project was supported by the Digital Literacies Hub at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia.
‘Today is Tomorrow—Art-generates-Art’ was created by Dr. Max Schleser, Dr. Julia Prendergast, Dr. Darren C Fisher and Dr. Steven Murdoch of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, who were recipients of an Adobe Innovation Grant (2021). This project was supported by the Digital Literacies Hub at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia.
The Process
The project is underpinned by the following philosophy: a professional arts’ practitioner who can communicate their creative ideas to other practitioners, industry professionals and stakeholders is a valuable asset for any organisation. In creative arts' education, this involves students developing discipline specific skills as well as skills that are transferable to workplace environments where individual and team accountability is expected.
The project involves transdisciplinary interaction between students: 'Creative Writing > Animation > Screen Production'. This architecture facilitates a generative workflow cycle where the works produced by Creative Writing students are made available to Animation students, who in turn make their works available to students in Creative Writing and Screen Production. The work produced by Screen Production students is then made available to students in Creative Writing and Animation.
All students are encouraged to generate new creative works, drawing inspiration from their peers in the other disciplines. Recognising the collaborative nature of their outputs, students are encouraged to include their peers’ work within their own creative artefacts, provided they duly acknowledge such works using established, discipline-specific citation conventions.
The interaction between students across the three disciplines replicates contemporary industry demands: where professionals are required to navigate the multi-faceted requirements of transdisciplinary arts’ practice, using digital literacy proficiencies to communicate and present their work in new ways. The ‘Today is Tomorrow—Art-generates-Art’ project includes the creation of:
• Creative Writing Folios, Creative Writing Presentations, Creative Writing Artefacts (short stories, poetry, creative non-fiction, non-fiction and hybrid work that crosses genre boundaries)
• Storyboards, Story Reels and Online Drawing Portfolios
• Cinematic VR, Interactive 360° video and Augmented Reality (AR)
• Storyboards, Story Reels and Online Drawing Portfolios
• Cinematic VR, Interactive 360° video and Augmented Reality (AR)
Through discipline-specific curriculum, students were supported to practise and evidence technology literacy (by the use of appropriate digital tools), information literacy (by using research and analysis appropriately within a digital context) and critical literacy (by using reflective practice).
A model of the transdisciplinary Art-Generates-Art workflow
Creative Writing
Second-year Creative and Professional Writing students produce a Creative Writing Folio showcasing work-in-progress and a Presentation of their Creative Artefact (showcasing their developing Creative Artefact), using Adobe Spark. Creative Writing students have the option of submitting their final Creative Artefact using Spark. Students in Animation and Film access the output of Creative Writing students in order to produce a sequence of artwork in a video format in their respective disciplines.
Adobe Spark Creative Writing Folios | Adobe Spark Presentations showcasing Creative Artefacts (Creative Writing)
Adobe Creative Cloud Software:
• Adobe Spark
• Adobe Spark
Animation
This project introduced first-year Animation students to some of the fundamental digital tools, techniques and collaborative workflows that underpin the digital animation and filmmaking process.
Upon sourcing an original text from Creative Writing students' Adobe Spark pages, Animation students used pencil on paper to sketch and explore how to best tell their story visually through rough but iterative 'thumbnail' storyboarding. Using a blend of Adobe’s introductory software tutorials and classroom-based instruction, students were guided through a 'learn by doing' creative workflow.
Students utilised Adobe Photoshop to clean up and refine their hand-sketched story panels as digitally rendered story panels; Adobe Premiere Pro to assemble a story reel through the synchronisation of their story panels with 'scratch' audio and sound effects (that could be recorded in Premiere Pro); Adobe Media Encoder to export their story reel to sharable video formats, and finally Adobe Portfolio to exhibit and share their work online.
Adobe Creative Cloud Software:
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Premiere Pro
• Adobe Media Encoder
• Adobe Portfolio
Upon sourcing an original text from Creative Writing students' Adobe Spark pages, Animation students used pencil on paper to sketch and explore how to best tell their story visually through rough but iterative 'thumbnail' storyboarding. Using a blend of Adobe’s introductory software tutorials and classroom-based instruction, students were guided through a 'learn by doing' creative workflow.
Students utilised Adobe Photoshop to clean up and refine their hand-sketched story panels as digitally rendered story panels; Adobe Premiere Pro to assemble a story reel through the synchronisation of their story panels with 'scratch' audio and sound effects (that could be recorded in Premiere Pro); Adobe Media Encoder to export their story reel to sharable video formats, and finally Adobe Portfolio to exhibit and share their work online.
Adobe Creative Cloud Software:
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Premiere Pro
• Adobe Media Encoder
• Adobe Portfolio
Screen Production
‘Today is Tomorrow—Art-generates-Art’ introduced second-year screen production students to XR (extended reality) as an approach to creating immersive and interactive storytelling experiences. Leveraging the tools and file sharing capabilities of the Adobe Creative Cloud, Screen Production students learned how to use Adobe Aero to create AR (Augmented Reality) digital compositions, and Adobe Premiere Pro in conjunction with omnidirectional/360° video cameras to craft Cinematic VR (virtual reality) experiences.
Drawing inspiration and influence from the works shared by their peers in Creative Writing and Animation, the emerging screen producers embedded written prompts and artwork into their narrative strategies. Their outcomes are an exemplar of how transdisciplinary art-generates-art processes result in innovative digital storytelling.
Drawing inspiration and influence from the works shared by their peers in Creative Writing and Animation, the emerging screen producers embedded written prompts and artwork into their narrative strategies. Their outcomes are an exemplar of how transdisciplinary art-generates-art processes result in innovative digital storytelling.
Adobe Creative Cloud Software:
• Adobe Aero
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Premiere Pro
• Creative Cloud
• Adobe Aero
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Premiere Pro
• Creative Cloud