These are the preparatory notes I made for a talk I gave to a group of Art & Design Teachers in Llandudno, for the WJEC Annual Teacher Conference organised with Ffoto Gallery.

I was trying to situate artists working with computer games in the historical lineage of Artists working with new mediums, and introduce logo as a tool which was initially developed with a focus on maths/& science and now, incarnated as Starlogo TNG can be used for cross curricular projects.

 Intro

• I used to say I was involved making  Digital Media Art - but... now I just call it Art, but more about that in a second.
• I'm here today to talk about a Computer Game project called 'War is Not a Game' which I worked on with a School in Haydock in St Helen's, which was part of the Fact centres Enquire programme.
• Intro the Fact Centre & Enquire Project
• With a trainee teacher, Anthony Bennet & a group of Middle set year 9 young people.
• First I'm going to give a bit of context both in the world of Art & the world of Education

What have Computer Game got to do with Art?

I used to call myself a Digital Media Artist - but...

Then I realised that Art has always been about New Technology, so now I just call myself an Artist.

Historically Artists have always experimented with new technology,

• The Van Eycke Brothers developed (or at least pioneered the use of) the most amazing new technology, that revolutionised Art in the 15c.
• 
• If Michealangelo was around today, it could be argued that he would would be sculpting with computer code, as well as more traditional materials.
• Anyone who walks around Rome is treated to the most amazing multimedia spectacle - the Sistene Chapel, the Trevvi Fountain.

• Abstract Expressionism  - Obsession with Paint & the technical specifities of the medium
• 
• Modenist Painting particularly, Cubism - Parallel to open source - allowing people to see the artists working outs
• 
• As Nintendo has transferred its approach to games from cards to consoles
• Digital Art is firmly within the mainstream canon of Contemporary Art
• Computer Games as a grown up Artform e.g. Steven Poole, John lancaster (london Review of Books), Steven Johnson,
• Artists using Computer Game Spaces as an artistic medium e.g. Jodi, Anita Fontaine (below), 

Cory Archangel (below),     Mark Essen

What have Computer Game got to do with Educating Young People?

• We are living in an era of Digital Convergence - every Art form is being made across a variety of platforms & this includes Art
• The Young People we are working with now are digital natives, don't see technology as new technology, to them it is the air that they breath.

 How does this relate to the Education?

• Talking about the future Jobs Market, - Ken Robinson - Creativity guru said. "70% of jobs that young people you are teaching have not yet been invented." Which dosen't mean that we have to train young people up in the right software, but to encourage them to develop the transferrable creative problem solving skills 
• Employers are saying that young people haven't got the necessary communication skills, independent thinking skills, and problem solving skills a lot of these skills can be gained as young people work in teams with a medium that necessitates Storytelling, Designing, Programming and Problem Solving.

How Accessible is this technology?

Starlogo TNG

One example of a kind of software that can be used to develop these skills to create games is Starlogo TNG.

Initially a program to enable yp to create simulations of Complex Systems in a scientific context, has evolved into a tool to create computer games with.

Starlogo TNG Overview 

• Seymore Papert - Funny little robots, kids, maths & creative problem solving
• 
• Logo & Starlogo - Visual Programming Language
• Thinking like Programmers, Procedural Thinking & Creative Procedural Thinking 

This is a screenshot of a simulation created in Starlogo

This is a screenshot of a simple game made in Starlogo TNG

This is a screenshot of the coding blocks used in Starlogo TNG, with which people click construct their programs

Starlogo TNG compared to Logo,  Complex Systems

Boids Intro 3 to the 3 flocking rules

    ▪    Separation

    ▪    Alignment

    ▪    Avoidance

Lots & lots of small, local, interactions between dumb agents add up to emergent patterns on a larger scale 

How easy is it to use?

Starlogo Interface

Quick intro Just show on main projection

Spaceland

• 3d Space
• Agents

Blockland

• Canvas
• Pages
• Bocks

'War is not a Game' Project

Program Your Friends

Single agent Programming

• Debug Program a cup of tea
• Program Robot- Zombie

Many agent Complex Systems

• Find your Breed
• Program Lots of Robot- Zombies
• Click here for futher activity guides on my Just Association Website

Isn't this going to get in the way of me delivering the National Curriculum?

• Particularly not if it is used in a cross curricular way
• If used cross curricular it can be used to double the amounts of curriculum achieved in a timeframe, as you can deal with e.g. Art & Biology at the same time.

Futher Research

Starlogo TNG website    http://education.mit.edu/drupal/starlogo-tng

Books

Mitchel Resnick, Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams: Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds (Complex Adaptive Systems)

Steven Johnson, Emergence, (A bit over American, but really still amazing,  a dead easy read)

Vanessa Stevens Colella, Eric Klopfer & Mithel Resnick, Adventures in Modeling: Exploring Complex, Dynamic Systems with StarLogo