This collaborative digital artwork shows us London through the eyes of school students. It’s made up of landmarks of importance from over 800 students from 11 schools in the City of London Family of Schools.
Created by artist Lauren Veevers and produced by Georgia Dodsworth, Through Our Eyes is a series of animated maps which displays the students' hand-drawn or handmade artworks. Click on each school below to view the animated maps and students’ artworks.
Lauren designed the maps in collaboration with the students who are from both primary and secondary schools. Each school took part in a workshop to learn about being a professional artist and to explore a variety of creative techniques such as drawing with ink or with their eyes closed and how to use collage and oil pastels.
I really loved visiting such a wide variety of schools. It was amazing to get a snapshot of so many different parts of the city and discover what makes London important to everyone. I was blown away by the progress made in the sessions and thoroughly enjoyed watching the students let go of trying to produce conventionally 'good' drawings. Instead of this, they loosened up, paying attention to the atmosphere of a place, and how being there made them feel - ending the session with a huge collection of expressive ink drawings, perfectly capturing everything from the energy of a leisure centre, to the vibrancy and community you find in a place of worship.
Lauren Veevers, Artist
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Exploring your local area is an exciting and fascinating way to discover the history and the changes which have taken place over time. You can find out what stories lie behind local landmarks and discover the different people who lived and worked in your community. Art and archives working together have the potential to peel back the layers of London’s history and to uncover the story of London’s remarkable, diverse, and sometimes turbulent history over 2,000 years, and its evolution into the metropolis it is today.
Symeon Ververidis, Engagement & Learning Officer at the London Metropolitan Archives
Students were also inspired to reflect on the spaces and places in their local area which matter the most to them, so they could see how their area has developed over the years. All the schools also received a pack of archival material about their local area collated by Culture Mile Learning partner, the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA).
Following the workshop, students were supported by their teachers to finalise their artworks before submitting them to Lauren who then created the fantastic maps.
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The digital maps and artwork are accompanied by a short film featuring students and teachers talking about the project. The film was filmed and edited by Williamz Omope and produced by Georgia Dodsworth.
