Artistic interfaces

Alex Coolman

Caitlin Whelan fine-tunes the animation sequence she has created on her

computer as pictures flow smoothly across the monitor’s glowing screen.

A sound clip of her digitized speech rattles off snippets of enthusiastic

narration. But it seems to Caitlin that the motion and the sound are not

synchronized quite as well as they should be. Is a six-second delay what

she wants here, or would nine seconds work better?

She plays the sequence again, testing. The voice piping through the

speaker sounds like that of a child, which is what it is.

Caitlin, the computer animator, is 8 years old.

“Eight and a half, actually,” she is quick to point out.

Caitlin put together the animation sequence--the sort of thing that would

baffle most adults--because she attends the Art Center, a Newport Beach

summer school and after-school program developed by two Orange County

teachers to bring together kids, art and computers.

The center was started in June by Molly and Patricia Stark, who are

sisters-in-law, with the goal of helping children enhance creativity and

problem solving.

The center teaches children skills in the arts, and it also introduces

them to the challenges and rewards of working with computers.

“They kind of go hand in hand,” Patricia Stark said of the integration of

technology and art. “They both build creativity.”

The center offers a “kinder-art” program for children ages 4 to 6 in

addition to its after-school classes. Even the 4-year-olds are introduced

to the digital cameras, scanners and the Internet.

It all seems like rather advanced material, but the Starks say it is wise

to teach children to be cyber-literate.

“These are going to be the kids who are going to grow up and make the

software so they might as well learn to do that now,” Molly Stark said.

Just down the road, at Lisa Albert’s Art School in Costa Mesa, more

familiar childhood activities are on the agenda. A class of young

sculptors begins a mask-making exercise, and the room resounds with the

sound of clay being vigorously whacked and kneaded.

On the walls of the studio, Picasso prints are hung next to students’

colorful, fish-filled renderings of snorkeling scenes. In the center of

the activity, distributing pieces of newspaper to her students and

slicing off fresh slabs of clay, Albert is a whirl of activity.

“I have quite a different way of teaching,” Albert said. “I’m from

Australia. In Australia, art is a big part of the school curriculum.”

Albert’s art school offers after-school and summer classes. They involve

work in various media, from paper mache and plaster to oil pastels and

tempera paint. Underlying all the projects, Albert says, is a philosophy

that encourages individual expression.

“I want everybody to be themselves,” Albert said. “One child might want

to make the trees pink with yellow fruit. That’s fine with me.”

As for technology, Albert leaves it outside the classroom. “I feel the

kids are getting it in abundance from Nintendo and computers at home,”

she said.

But to the Starks, there is a crucial difference between the kind of

mindless fidgeting induced by video games and the experience they hope to

create for their students.

They are interested in computers because they believe that interacting

with complex programs is an effective way to develop children’s

analytical abilities.

“It’s a lot of problem solving and critical-thinking skills to do that,”

Molly Stark said, gesturing at the animation flashing across a computer

screen.

“For everything they do, they have to make a decision,” Patricia Stark

said.

The Starks’ convictions come from their backgrounds as educators. Molly

Stark taught Gifted and Talented Education and bilingual courses for

eight years in the Newport-Mesa, Laguna Beach and Placentia Yorba Linda

school districts. Patricia Stark, who was trained as an architect,

developed “Student Visions For Architecture” for the American Institute

of Architects. It introduced students to basic ideas of architecture and

design. These experiences gave rise to a hands-on teaching approach that

emphasizes complex groups of skills rather than memorization of isolated

units of information.

“Kids learn best when you give them the whole picture and not just

pieces,” Patricia Stark said. “It allows children to make connections.”

Albert, too, draws on a considerable educational background for her

lessons. Her studio opened three months ago, but she has been teaching

art for a decade and has developed art programs in Orange County and Los

Angeles.

Ultimately it may matter less what sort of art education children are

exposed to than that they are at least exposed to something. The arts are

an essential piece of a child’s intellectual development, said Joan

Bissell, the director of UC Irvine’s Collaborative After-School and

School-Age Care Learning Project.

“The arts are important in themselves, but they’re also used as a vehicle

for enhancing children’s understanding in other disciplines,” Bissell

said.

“When we focus only on literacy or mathematics, these youngsters won’t

have the opportunity not only to develop these [artistic] skills, but to

use these skills as a foundation for their understanding of literacy and

math and science.”

A major way that this education reaches students, Bissell said, is

through after-school programs, whether they are publicly run or privately

arranged like those offered by the Starks and Albert.

“After-school programs have become part of our social and educational

fabric,” Bissell said.

This is good news for parents who can send their children to special

programs.

Cindi Dupuie, whose son Ryan attended the Art Center, said the Starks’

program was a perfect fit.

“I work, and I have another child, and I’m just in and out,” Dupuie said.

“I think what [the Starks] offer is very well-rounded. Those women have a

good thing going and a lot to offer.”

A one-month session at the Art Center runs almost $200.

Albert, who charges $80 for four weeks, says that she tries to keep her

prices low because she wants students from all economic backgrounds.

“My priority is to keep the cost down in the classes to where everybody

can afford it,” Albert said.

Even for children in public programs, Bissell said, new opportunities for

enhancing art awareness are developing because of technology.

Bissell says that UCI’s Learning Project has developed a CD-ROM and

companion Web site, www.gse.uci.edu/afterschool/ca, to bring educational

resources to all classrooms. Students using the programs can follow links

to the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art or hundreds of other free

art resources.

Of course, in order to do this, children will need to know how to use a

computer.

“It’s a new essential literacy,” Bissell said. “Technological literary.”