Generation Animation

• Published in: Screenworks (Online) 2020-09, Vol.10 (2)
• Main Author: Adrian Hickey
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: animation; identity; participatory action research
• ISSN: 2514-3123; 2514-3123
• DOI: 10.37186/swrks/10.2/2

Adrian Hickey’s contribution Generation Animation used participatory action research to empower school children, facilitated by undergraduates and tutors, to co-create animations based on their own chosen articles from the UNICEF Rights of the Child convention. Giving children ownership of subject matter, character development and story, empowered their creativity, and offered an interesting insight into how the children made sense of their feelings about belonging, justice and friendship. The animations themselves offer a unique appreciation of how these children might understand their place in the world, and give an understanding of how they handle social relationships, and of their self-regulating behaviours. There has long been recognition that identity and practice are profoundly connected – Hickey’s project reinforces the idea that practice can allow us to know how and what it is to be a human being. Generation Animation encouraged a community of practice to help the children to negotiate their own identities, and offered genuine insight to tutors and parents.