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i've always been interested in how effective interdisciplinary
activities/classes are in helping students make a meaningful connection to
one area through the medium of another.  For instance, i know of classes
where the kids used microscopes and then wrote a story based on the
anthromorphisis of the micro-creatures....

so what is the value from a constructivist (or neo-constructivist)
standpoint?
less anyone take me wrong, i'm very interested in the boundaries between art
and science, but they are essentially different.   our next show is going to
be built around robots (no pun intended).  the artistic director for
artspace is william joyce, an author and illustrator of children's books,
including "george shrinks" and "Rolie Polie Olie."  he has a new animated
movie coming out this march called Robots.  While the exhibit is going to
tell the story of contemporary animation, the programmatic activities we are
looking at include making kinetic art using lego mindstorms (an idea i
freely admit stealing from SMM, one of the partners in the pie network).  so
the science, in this case, applied science, really becomes a subservient
tool, rather than allowing for some transformative integration of science
and art.

on the one hand, it reminds me of getting my dog to take a pill by putting
it in a dollop of peanut butter (which is worth it in itself - watching her
reacting to something which has such an alien texture to a dog).  on the
other, it seems to be a great way to excite a child (or an adult) enough
about the outcome (something I made) to overcome any inclination to say to
themselves - "engineering? don't you have to be an adult or a specialist to
do that?"

I welcome your insight!

Jeff Courtman
Project Manager
artspace in the West Edge
710 Texas Street
Shreveport, La  71101
318-673-6535

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