About Media Art Lab
The Media Arts Lab is a natural extension of Agastya’s multisensory approach to learning. The value added is unmistakable: a picture is worth a thousand words, and seeing really is believing.
Media is a part of our daily life; we are in a day and age where we get most of our information through an interwoven system of media technologies. It influences the way we see ourselves and those around us. As we are constantly receiving information, media literacy can be a powerful tool to empower people to analyse, create, access and evaluate information in an ethical and responsible manner. Be it for artistic expression or visual communication, children perceive, comprehend and get influenced by these images. Therefore, it is essential to employ media literacy as it is a unique approach to applying critical thinking skills to a wide range of issues. Children in schools particularly need to be encouraged to do so.
The MediaArts Lab’s efforts in media literacy is an initiative to cater to all these needs. Activities to fulfil these needs in a fun and engaging manner are designed specifically for children of various age groups. All these pursuits have a holistic approach, ensuring that children have a comprehensive knowledge of both the scientific theory as well as an artistic eye.
In this quarter (April 2022-June 2022), Media art Lab focused on post-productions of phase-II for students in twelve villages and gave the final touch of students' productions. The also released Aha! Katha, a publication containing a compilation of the final products created by children. The book can be found on Issue using the link below.
https://issuu.com/agastyasparks/docs/agastya_media_lab_publication_digital_version
Activities conducted in April 2022
- Completed production works and started post-production works with the help of workbooks and a community of villages in twelve schools.
- The Media Arts team took part in a workshop focused on art integration in STEAM subjects at the Agastya Kuppam campus conducted by Ms. Chithra Sriram. The workshop was for 4 weeks and helped the instructors at the Lab hone their stop-motion animation and video shooting and editing skills. It also offered them helpful tips on how to incorporate scientific topics in videos and other productions by children.
Activities conducted in May and June 2022
- Organised media sessions in summer camps for children from Operation Vasantha centres. Sessions took place at Kuppam campus and in Operation Vasantha centres of surrounding villages.
- Conducted planning for the next academic year.
- Conducted training for Instructors from Maharashtra and Karnataka. Two week-long program took them through the curriculum and activities at the Media Lab.
- The Media Arts team went on a 3-day study tour to Kerala.
- Plan for the next cohort program was finalized and assigned roles and responsibilities to team members.
Links: