Fly’s Eye View: Introducing Young Children to Digital Art through Virtual Reality

This paper describes ‘Fly’s Eye View’, a project devised and directed by David Smith and supported by a grant from the UK Techniquest Pantechnicon Millennium Awards (intended to help bridge the gap in public perception between science and art). ‘Fly’s Eye View’ was specifically aimed at young children, aged 7–11 years (Key Stage Two of the UK National Curriculum). The project used a low-level VR fly-by system to represent a garden scene as it might be experienced by a dragonfly. The analogy between the mosaic visual ‘perception’ of insects and image representation in computer systems allowed some interesting explorations into what may be involved in ‘seeing’. This analogy was used as the starting point for a series of exploratory activities using digital art work. The paper reviews the outcomes of the project and discusses their possible significance in the context of current approaches to art education and the stimulation of creative thinking in young children.