The (digital) revolution comes to the London Barbican

Digital Revolution explores and celebrates the transformation of the arts through digital technology since the 1970s. The exhibition brings together for the first time a range of artists, filmmakers, architects, designers, musicians and game developers pushing the boundaries of their fields using digital media. It also looks to the future considering the impact of creative coding, DIY culture, digital communities and the creative possibilities offered by technologies including augmented reality, artificial intelligence, wearable technologies, robotics and 3D printing.


Ah, those were the days!The (interactive) exhibition (with talks and films) takes place from 3rd July to 14th September 2014, and sounds fantastic. It explores the use of technology in art, music and fashion, to name but three, plus looks at what the future might hold — and the opportunity to go back in time to the first website, created by Berners-Lee, and the video game Pong.

There are concessions for school groups. I think this sounds like a great opportunity to explore, with your pupils, what technology has done and can do — and to move beyond the dry and uninspiring talk of algorithms, coding and computational thinking.

The exhibition website is: http://www.barbican.org.uk/digital-revolution/home/#

Here is a video trailer, which looks fascinating: http://vimeo.com/95007792

This article first appeared in Digital Education, the free newsletter for those with a professional interest in educational ICT and computing. Details of how to subscribe may be found below. Other articles in the same edition included London’s Tech City Week, What computer programmers can learn from magicians, and the role of teachers in a world where “there’s an app for that”. The full list of contents is given here:


cross-posted at www.ictineducation.org

Terry Freedman is an independent educational ICT consultant with over 35 years of experience in education. He publishes the ICT in Education website and the newsletter “Digital Education."