This project focuses on innovations in digital literacies using the Adobe Creative Cloud suite to embed technology literacy, critical literacy and information literacy into learning and teaching. Supported by an Adobe Innovation Grant, ‘Today is Tomorrow—Art-generates-Art’ addresses these pillars through industry-focused teaching.
Industry Focused Teaching
Professional and Creative Writers, Animators and Filmmakers are required to engage with collaborators in other arts’ disciplines, as well as potential publishers, production specialists, industry professionals, and other stakeholders. We asked ourselves: How can we provide learning opportunities that replicate transdisciplinary arts’ practice, in order to equip students with the skills they need to be successful and industry-savvy in the contemporary workforce?
Concept
‘Today is Tomorrow: Art-Generates-Art’ provides students with the opportunity to produce individually assessed creative artefacts in their preferred discipline, while also engaging with students in other arts’ disciplines: springboarding from the work of other students to produce new work, complementing their own output with creative work in other mediums.
Academic staff model best practice for transdisciplinary practice: providing students with an exemplar artefact showcasing the academics’ own output (across Creative Writing, Animation and Film), illustrating the generative intersections between these individual outputs, while modelling best practice for attribution and copyright.
Presentation of Creative Artefacts, across a variety of artistic mediums, involves skills that are directly transferable to workplace environments where individual and team accountability is expected. A professional arts’ practitioner who can communicate their creative ideas to other practitioners, industry professionals and stakeholders, is a valuable asset for any organisation. Through a variety of tasks, students present both work-in-progress as well as completed creative artefacts, engaging with students in other disciplines as they progress.
Academic staff model best practice for transdisciplinary practice: providing students with an exemplar artefact showcasing the academics’ own output (across Creative Writing, Animation and Film), illustrating the generative intersections between these individual outputs, while modelling best practice for attribution and copyright.
Presentation of Creative Artefacts, across a variety of artistic mediums, involves skills that are directly transferable to workplace environments where individual and team accountability is expected. A professional arts’ practitioner who can communicate their creative ideas to other practitioners, industry professionals and stakeholders, is a valuable asset for any organisation. Through a variety of tasks, students present both work-in-progress as well as completed creative artefacts, engaging with students in other disciplines as they progress.
The Project
Students in Creative Writing, Animation and Film produce individually assessed task in their respective disciplines. Students in Creative Writing produce a Creative Writing Folio showcasing work-in-progress and a Presentation of their Creative Artefact (showcasing their developing Creative Artefact), using Adobe 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.
In a generative workflow cycle, the work produced by Animation students is made available to students in Creative Writing and Film. Work produced by Film students is, in turn, made available to students in Creative Writing and Animation. Students are encouraged to generate new work, drawing inspiration from the work of other students. Students are permitted to include the work of other students in their final Creative Artefacts, provided they duly acknowledge the work of those students using established, discipline-specific, citation conventions.
The interaction between students across three primary 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. Individual tasks include:
• Adobe Spark Creative Writing Folios | Adobe Spark Presentations showcasing developing Creative Artefacts (Creative Writing)
• Animated Outputs including story panels and Story Reels set to audio (Animation)
• Immersive Media: Cinematic VR, interactive 360° video and AR (Screen Production)
• Online exhibition via Adobe Portfolio (featuring all disciplines).
Students are supported to practise and evidence technology literacy (by the use of appropriate digital tools to create content and communicate effectively), information literacy (by using research and analysis appropriately within a digital context) and critical literacy (by using reflective practice).
In a generative workflow cycle, the work produced by Animation students is made available to students in Creative Writing and Film. Work produced by Film students is, in turn, made available to students in Creative Writing and Animation. Students are encouraged to generate new work, drawing inspiration from the work of other students. Students are permitted to include the work of other students in their final Creative Artefacts, provided they duly acknowledge the work of those students using established, discipline-specific, citation conventions.
The interaction between students across three primary 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. Individual tasks include:
• Adobe Spark Creative Writing Folios | Adobe Spark Presentations showcasing developing Creative Artefacts (Creative Writing)
• Animated Outputs including story panels and Story Reels set to audio (Animation)
• Immersive Media: Cinematic VR, interactive 360° video and AR (Screen Production)
• Online exhibition via Adobe Portfolio (featuring all disciplines).
Students are supported to practise and evidence technology literacy (by the use of appropriate digital tools to create content and communicate effectively), information literacy (by using research and analysis appropriately within a digital context) and critical literacy (by using reflective practice).
Digital Literacies
Information Literacy
This project facilitates a healthy dialogue between diverse practitioners and learners, encouraging students to embrace multi-modal practice and fostering a technological savvy academic community. Information literacy is further developed by managing data assets in a collaborative environment using the Adobe Creative Cloud. It allows Creative and Professional Writing students to produce stories and essays using Adobe Spark, fostering an understanding of the ways that creative and critical writing expands beyond traditional publishing, while facilitating learning through collaboration and the development of translatable skills.
This project facilitates a healthy dialogue between diverse practitioners and learners, encouraging students to embrace multi-modal practice and fostering a technological savvy academic community. Information literacy is further developed by managing data assets in a collaborative environment using the Adobe Creative Cloud. It allows Creative and Professional Writing students to produce stories and essays using Adobe Spark, fostering an understanding of the ways that creative and critical writing expands beyond traditional publishing, while facilitating learning through collaboration and the development of translatable skills.
Critical Literacy
Students in Creative Writing exploring themes of individual and collective Australian identity, mapping the diversity of Australian writing through multi-modal practice. Through ‘Today is Tomorrow: Art-Generates-Art’ they have the opportunity to see how traditional forms of writing can be utilised by students in animation, film and screen production. In turn, this encourages students to explore new forms of media as a way of telling stories using diverse forms of technology. In Screen Production, students embrace reflective questions and mobile creativity (Schleser 2010) when analysing the creative process and its documentation using Adobe Spark. Analysis of the process and outcomes, within in each unit and across all units, prompts an awareness of critical literacy by focusing on the ethical dimension of digital media use and reinterpretation across mediums (Wheeler 2010).
Students in Creative Writing exploring themes of individual and collective Australian identity, mapping the diversity of Australian writing through multi-modal practice. Through ‘Today is Tomorrow: Art-Generates-Art’ they have the opportunity to see how traditional forms of writing can be utilised by students in animation, film and screen production. In turn, this encourages students to explore new forms of media as a way of telling stories using diverse forms of technology. In Screen Production, students embrace reflective questions and mobile creativity (Schleser 2010) when analysing the creative process and its documentation using Adobe Spark. Analysis of the process and outcomes, within in each unit and across all units, prompts an awareness of critical literacy by focusing on the ethical dimension of digital media use and reinterpretation across mediums (Wheeler 2010).
Technology Literacy
By means of practice and open-ended inquiry (Dooley, Schleser, et al. 2020), students in Screen Production participate in explorative applications of AR (Adobe Aero) and VR (Adobe Premiere Pro). This project supports the growth of (already expansive) teaching methods presented at ‘Adobe Max’ and ‘Adobe Inject Creativity’, with the development of new resources and expertise in AR. This reflects the industry’s trend and direction towards XR (extended reality), which combines AR and VR. The inclusion of the Adobe creative suite into Creative Writing gives students the opportunity to extend the possibilities of traditional forms of storytelling and essay writing through creative entrepreneurship: focusing new modes of sharing work in development. In Animation, a wide scope of technology literacies are introduced, with students learning Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Media Encoder and Portfolio. This software is introduced in a practical setting, providing a set of tools for creating compelling animated outcomes and a creative portfolio.
By means of practice and open-ended inquiry (Dooley, Schleser, et al. 2020), students in Screen Production participate in explorative applications of AR (Adobe Aero) and VR (Adobe Premiere Pro). This project supports the growth of (already expansive) teaching methods presented at ‘Adobe Max’ and ‘Adobe Inject Creativity’, with the development of new resources and expertise in AR. This reflects the industry’s trend and direction towards XR (extended reality), which combines AR and VR. The inclusion of the Adobe creative suite into Creative Writing gives students the opportunity to extend the possibilities of traditional forms of storytelling and essay writing through creative entrepreneurship: focusing new modes of sharing work in development. In Animation, a wide scope of technology literacies are introduced, with students learning Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Media Encoder and Portfolio. This software is introduced in a practical setting, providing a set of tools for creating compelling animated outcomes and a creative portfolio.
Outcomes
‘Today is Tomorrow: Art-Generates-Art’:
1. Establishes guidelines for transdisciplinary interaction among students.
2. Provides an exemplar: a model for transdisciplinary engagement using the academic team’s own work (Creative Writing, Animation and Film).
3. Provides a transdisciplinary Process Timeline
4. Showcases exemplar products (students’ work) through an online exhibition.
1. Establishes guidelines for transdisciplinary interaction among students.
2. Provides an exemplar: a model for transdisciplinary engagement using the academic team’s own work (Creative Writing, Animation and Film).
3. Provides a transdisciplinary Process Timeline
4. Showcases exemplar products (students’ work) through an online exhibition.