From 16 till 20 September, our part in the European project ECLECTIS took place in Amsterdam North. During this week, zeven international artists worked with 150 pupils of the Hyperion Lyceum to research the their environment and experiment with technology. The results were used to create a 'Smart citizens' artwork, proudly presented by the kids at an art route on 20 September.
I assisted Susanne Afman this week in the communication team. 25 super enthusiast pupils worked on different aspects of communication. What is communication? What is a real good promotional act? How do you interview someone? How to use social media?
In just 5 minutes from the start we had our own 13-year old Twitter freak and all of them were thinking of promo stunts. Groups of screaming and yelling girls went the ferry accross the IJ to promote the art route event, while the boys were recording this on tape and started flyering the program. A great beginning of this week.
The rest of the week, most pupils were engaged in reporting and research. Just as the real thing, they went interviewing their fellow pupils and the artists, and made Daily newspapers. I was surprised to see how one pupil would suddenly become a true journalist, while another became a serious web editor. We knew we would be working with bright, motivated kids, but what stunned me most was how easily they could process the results of the week in a creative way.
On Friday, at the closing event, I finally got the to see what kept the other pupils and artists busy that week. Very interesting to watch all their stories of the city come together in so many different ways, and I was truly impressed by their efforts and commitment. They presented it all in such a fun and attractive way.
