Animating the Underwater World

ROXANE PERMAR reports on the Scalloway Moving Image Web Project in Shetland.

FISHTASTIC is a new web site created by secondary pupils from Scalloway Junior High School.  It is the outcome of their work for nine months on the Scalloway Moving Image Web Project.  Seventeen young people participated in the project since it started in October 2003.

The web site features nine animations created by pupils, from Secondary 1 through 4, aged twelve to fifteen years.  All the work focuses on the sea with characters drawn from all sizes and shapes of sea creatures.  There is also a quiz, underwater videos and a section on sea life with a twist.

All the animations are hand drawn and animated by using Flash software.  Some have original sound tracks.  The content of the site reflects the different activities in which the pupils engaged on The Scalloway Moving Image Web Project.  It will be on-line for three years.

The final stage of the project took place in May and June 2004, when we staged an exhibition at the former Scalloway Woollen Mill in Shetland, only a few minutes walk from the school. The exhibition launched the web site and introduced the project to the wider Shetland public. The show gave people a chance to look at the web site on a large scale projection and to see examples of preparatory material and photographs documenting all the different aspects of the project. 

The project has attracted very enthusiastic response from the wider Shetland public and from people who have seen it on-line from all over the world.  Over eighty people attended the opening when the pupils were interviewed for BBC Radio Shetland and photographed for the newspapers.

A film crew from London came to Teaching and Learning Scotland came to Scalloway to film us working and the project will be included in a presentation on-line about interesting and innovative IT projects in schools.  We are exhibiting it again in Shetland during the Book Festival in September 2004 as well as at specialist events.

“The project … is already attracting attention for its innovation and ambition.”

The primary aim of the project was to use digital animation techniques to enable a cross-disciplinary team of artists, writers, marine scientists and web designers to work with young people to create artworks for the Internet.  It focussed on Shetland’s sea life for its subject and aimed to exploit the unique characteristics of the Internet for global communication, drawing on interactivity as a part of the work.

The project came about almost by chance.  It was conceived in early 2003 and built on the experience I had acquired in 2001 through the SNH Young People’s Digital Art Project, Shetland’s Cauld Waters.  I was aware that some of the young people I worked with on that project were interested in doing another project and was interested in finding a way to develop a new one.
 
I met Archie Green, Head Teacher at Scalloway Junior High School, at the Amenity Trust’s Environmental Awards ceremony in early 2003.  We were chatting, and the idea emerged to work with Brian Henderson, an artist and teacher at the school, on a digital animation project at the school.  We met and began to develop the project together.  Since then the whole project has been a team effort, with Danny McNeill joining us at an early stage.

The project has provided a unique opportunity for the school to work with agencies and organisations in the wider community and for pupils, teachers and professional practitioners based in Shetland and mainland Scotland to work together, sharing knowledge and expertise.  It is already attracting attention for its innovation and ambition.  Teaching and Learning Scotland is planning to visit Shetland, and they are filming the pupils at work on this project.

The project was based in the school’s Art Department.  Three of us led the project, Brian Henderson, Danny McNeill and myself. Brian is an artist and teaches in the school.  Danny is a geography teacher who has experience of building web sites. We formed the core team who worked with the pupils throughout the project, with other specialists working with them at different stages of its development.  

“Early on the pupils decided they wanted to include a combination of factual information and imaginary stories.”

There were three stages to the project. Brian, Danny and I began by working with two web designers and developers from Robert Gordon University, Iain Morrison and John Welsh, who came to Shetland four times to give us and, on the last occasion, the pupils, training in Macromedia Flash, Freehand and Dreamweaver software programmes.  One of the unexpected benefits of working with them was the possibility for positive comparison of our group’s work with their experience of their art and design students’.

While we were learning our way around the software programmes, the pupils began their work by investigating aspects of underwater life. They had boat trips on Dunter III with Dr Jonathan Wills, sessions with Karen Hall of Scottish Natural Heritage and visits to the North Atlantic Fisheries College with Gregg Arthur where they were also able to use the library.  The writers Anne Dickie (also known as Anne McKee, the English teacher at the school) and Christine De Luca, helped the young people develop their stories.

In the autumn the pupils also began to think about ideas for the web site and, ultimately, their stories.  Early on the pupils decided they wanted to include a combination of factual information and imaginary stories.  Since January, in the second stage of the project, they have been working after school two days a week to learn how to animate their drawings.

While the young people enjoyed the project generally, there are some aspects of it that they seemed to enjoy more than others.  They enjoyed animating their drawings, or “making the drawings move”. Some recorded special sound tracks and particularly enjoyed that process.  The pupils enjoyed their visits to the North Atlantic Fisheries College and the Saturday sessions with our visiting writers and web designers. 

The young people especially liked the boat trips on Dunter III.   We went out on four days, with two boat trips each day.  Our group was 50% larger than we’d anticipated, so we had to go on twice as many trips in order to give everyone a chance. We explored different aspects of Lerwick Harbour and the islands of Bressay and Noss on each trip.  On our first trip we lost one of Jonathan’s underwater cameras, an event which proved very memorable and has inspired one of the animations.  In the spring we were able to go out with his new ROV (remotely operated vehicle) and saw extremely clear and bright underwater images.

“We have all enjoyed working on the project, even though it has been hard work, mostly done outside school hours.”

We plan to keep the web site itself on-line for three years.  There are no plans to change it, for we see the web site as an autonomous work, created by the participants in this project.   Development work will take the form of the pupils’ on-going opportunities to work in the classroom with the new equipment and software acquired through the project.  Some have already told us they would like to do more projects like this one.  We all have much further to go as the technology is so complex.  In many respects we are still at the exciting stage of having established a foundation upon which to develop further new work.

The pupils have learned a lot, and we are hoping that in the long term they will be able to develop their new knowledge and skills and also share it with others.  It has been clear to everyone who has seen them present their work publicly that they are proud of the website and have a strong sense of ownership over the whole project. 

The teachers and I will be able to share our new skills with pupils and students in the future as well as create new works of our own.  In this way the wider community of Shetland will benefit from our project through an ever-expanding field of developing skills and knowledge.  The professional links between the school and outside bodies have also been positive and can continue to grow.

We have all enjoyed working on the project, even though it has been hard work, mostly done outside school hours.  Everyone has shown enormous enthusiasm and commitment, especially parents and the Head Teacher, Archie Green.  Support from the community has been very strong and encouraged us throughout.  The project has been made possible by funding from a variety of organisations, including Leader +, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund, Scalloway Community Council, SIC Education and Community Services and SLAP Developments Ltd. 

The project has been ambitious.  Although we have yet to step back and evaluate it, it is already clear that there are many positive outcomes from it.  We are especially proud of the work the young people have produced, which displays a huge pool of creative talent and skill. I hope they will continue to develop their potential, perhaps one day even pursuing careers in fields related to this project.

© Roxane Permer, 2004