Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

Singapore teenagers draw on improvised humor, erudite playfulness, and enculturated mindfulness to transform school art into a potential dialogic space to construct meanings, develop autonomy, and enhance learning. Digital animations created in school become a way to integrate private concerns and personal interests, translate public and social agendas, resolve complex technical and formal problems, and discharge transgressive fantasy as age-appropriate curiosity. Based on the juxtaposition of students’ stories and visuals, research findings also illustrate hidden aspects of adolescents’ artistic schooling and demonstrate how advanced technology art offers them opportunity to negotiate existential angst and lived experiences.