digi_club

archive.digi.folly.co.uk

digi_club was a two-year project aimed at young people, through which folly explored new ways of working to engage teenagers in high quality digital arts experiences and encourage young talent to thrive.
 
In January 2007 folly launched digi_club as a digital youth club for young people aged between 12 and 16. It aimed to encourage young people to create their own digital art. digi_club was a place to meet artists and be inspired.
 
Digital art is often created and presented using tools and media that are familiar to young people, such as the internet, digital video and even games. digi_club was developed by folly in the belief that this makes digital art an accessible 'way in' to art appreciation and creation for young people as well as a way to introduce new, creative ways of using technology that may already be familiar to them. The younger generation frequently referred to as Digital Natives has grown up with and readily takes for granted all the different devices, platforms and tools used to access, create and play with digital technologies.
 
digi_club aimed to increase the skills of young people and encourage them to think more creatively about their use of new technology through a programme of workshops, online activities and facilitated forums.
 
The digi_club website was the central platform for activity - an online space where young people could find inspiration from each other and artists. They could submit their own artistic work, comment upon each others work and ideas, meet new people and learn from one another.
 
digi_club was a unique online space, focused on encouraging young people to create their own digital art. It hosted a membership area of young people's work, access to professional artist's projects, a forum for discussion and facilitation and pointed young people to free tools and resources to develop their own work.
 
It was a safe and secure environment for 12 – 16 year olds, monitored on a daily basis by folly according to our Child Protection Policy and government standards for communicating with children online.
 
Although the delivery of digi_club as an offer to young people has now ended, the digi_club website now exists as an archive of all this activity.
 
folly also commissioned an online work of interactive art from internationally acclaimed artist duo boredomresearch, especially for digi_members: The Forest of Imagined Beginnings was a new type of experiential online forum, an online landscape vulnerable to the whims and wants of the digi_club community who could adopt this digital terrain as their own.
 
A physical digi_club workshop programme was developed in collaboration with a range of partners across England's Northwest including The Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston, Cornerhouse in Manchester, More Music in Morecambe, The Adult College in Lancaster, The Marsh Community Centre in Skerton, BBC Radio Lancashire, and Lancaster City Council. These artist-led workshops introduced young people in the Northwest to Free and Open Source software which they could use to get creative, and explore the potential of the technology they use everyday. Work produced in the sessions is showcased on the digi_club website. Workshops have covered topics such as digital sound, digital animation, interactive art and pocket movie making.
 
The delivery of digi_club was not free of challenges, and folly has learnt a number of lessons through the development and realisation of this project. We believe in the value of digital art and culture to young people and that we have something to offer young people in the field of “getting creative with technology”. Throughout 2009 our aim was to step back from digi_club in its current format and current age restrictions. Through research and consultation we undertook an in-depth evaluation of our commitment to young people, developing new priorities for our role in young people’s lives, and new programmes of work for 2010 and beyond.