?Wonderful: Visions of the Near Future? is a collaborative project between the Wellcome Trust and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), writes Juliette Buss. The project includes a national touring exhibition curated by Clare Cumberlidge, and its interrelated strands explore the languages and assumptions of art and science and what happens when these research interests fuse.
Developed in partnership with Arnolfini, ?Wonderful? aims to encourage creativity and increase understanding of the connections between art and science in formal education. Luke Jerram, a NESTA Fellow whose own practice crosses boundaries between art and science, has been working with teachers and pupils from Hengrove Community Arts College in Bristol, a school with specialist arts college status. Together, they have been investigating ways in which ideas in art and science lessons are researched, developed and presented, and exploring the common ground shared by both subjects. Using ?Wonderful? as a starting point to devise a work programme relevant to pupils and the curriculum, Luke has facilitated pupils? investigation into the artistic and scientific properties of light, their understanding of visual perception, and the different uses of photo-media in art and science ? taking these as a foundation for questions and research. The material produced by pupils was submitted as coursework in both art and science.
Originally the project was intended as a GCSE/A level project. However, due to exam pressures and a packed science curriculum, the school felt that a risk-taking venture such as this could only be delivered with Year 8, as this is a less intense period. There were also issues to overcome in finding time and space to work with pupils (in the art room or the science lab). Along with this, busy teachers only had a limited amount of time to dedicate to planning and meetings, resulting in numerous delays. Some of this was addressed by ensuring the project was embedded into teachers? existing term plans as much as possible. It was helped by the fact that a dedicated arts co-ordinator at the school (funded through the school?s specialist status) assisted in organising trips, supply cover and timetabling.
These issues are common to most projects with schools, and they emphasise a real need to build-in thorough planning time and provide appropriate resources. Initial feedback shows that the project promoted cross-curricular working and creativity in science by encouraging a more open-ended approach. It enabled pupils to identify creative activities common to both art and science, such as research, enquiry, experimentation and investigation, and make connections across different areas of learning. Pupils also engaged directly with artists and scientists, including visits to the ?Wonderful? exhibition, a camera obscura and an electron microscope at Bristol University; and the project highlighted the importance of taking pupils out of school and exposing them to professional practice.
Juliette Buss is Wonderful Education Project Co-ordinator and a freelance arts education project manager. t: 07980 669079;
e: juliette.buss@talk21.com. A CD-ROM from the project sharing information about processes and principles as well as ideas for teachers to draw on will be launched in September 2004.