Shared visions: Child + adult artists light up the Digital Bricks
What if the walls of Science Gallery Melbourne could show us worlds we’ve never seen before?
This September, the Digital Bricks are transformed by Playing with Paper: Collage & Connection, a collaboration between University of Melbourne students and young artists from Ringwood Heights Primary School and the latest iteration of the Child+Adult Art Response Project (C+AARP).
A dialogue between generations
Now in its 11th year, C+AARP brings together Grade 3/4 children and undergraduate students from the subject EDUC20077 (Playing with Paper) to create artworks in pairs. Each child-adult duo begins by creating the top half of a collaged artwork for their (adult or child) partner to respond to. The partner then responds by completing the bottom half, sparking a visual conversation across age, experience and perspective.
The 2025 brief:
Scientists say only a tiny part (about 5%) of the world is known to us. Many believe children can see or imagine the world in ways adults may no longer be able to. There is the possibility that strange and beautiful creatures are all around us!
Can you and your artist partner speculate on what one of them might look like. Reimagine and transform an ordinary animal into a new and extraordinary, imaginative creature that might dwell among us!
This year, primary school and university student pairs created 126 collaborative collages, which were digitally transformed into shifting animations using AI Deep Dream Generator. These works now take on new life across Science Gallery Melbourne’s award-winning Digital Bricks – a dynamic canvas of more than 200 LED screens embedded behind glass.
Creativity in conversation
For project co-lead Dr Marnee Watkins, C+AARP is about more than the final artwork:
“At the heart of C+AARP is the joy of child+adult artists generating visual dialogues through reimagining and layering images and paper to create unexpected connections. This richly relational, artful encounter continues to reshape our understandings of artistic expression and creativity across age groups.”
Her colleague Gina Grant reflects on the moment of exchange:
“Other than the act of creation, the transformative moment was when the adult artists saw their partner artworks. They were surprised as to the creativity and the narrative that was expressed.”
At Ringwood Heights Primary School, the value of the project runs deep:
“The project encourages students to think beyond ‘art in the art room’ and allows them to explore artistic expression and their thinking about key concepts or big ideas. It is a dialogue of ideas and concepts, a connection to community and professional learning for teachers.”
– School Leader, Ringwood Heights Primary School
And the children themselves say it best:
“We feel lucky and grateful to be able to do art with adults from Melbourne University.”
“It was amazing to connect with our adult artist and find things in common.”
Art, imagination and community
Since its beginnings in 2014, C+AARP has grown into a long-standing collaboration that positions children as artists with agency, while giving University students a rare chance to step outside their academic routines and immerse themselves in creativity and play. The project has been exhibited in schools, universities and now on a city-scale public platform at Science Gallery Melbourne.
As the Digital Bricks light up with these collaborative animations, they invite everyone passing along Grattan Street to imagine: What strange creatures might exist in the world we cannot yet see?
