The Big Byte
The Big Byte is a year long-programme of events aimed at introducing digital art and creative technology to a wider audience. The programme is produced by the Sheffield based digital arts organisation Lovebytes and supported by Arts Council England and Screen Yorkshire.
Lovebytes is taking a year out from its annual festival to concentrate on developing creative digital skills and digital media literacy amongst the local community, working with The Sheffield Children’s Festival, Sheffield Libraries and Off the Shelf, Sheffield’s Festival of Reading and Writing, adding a digital dimension to these established cultural events.
The Big Byte kicks-off with Avatars, a series of hands-on creative workshops taking young people ‘behind the scenes’ of video games and interactive media. A group of 7-8 year olds from Hunter’s Bar Junior School will explore creative computer programming, interactive technology and graphic design by making their own multimedia projects. Avatars aims to introduce children to some of the fundamental principles of computer programming and develop their digital literacy and IT skills through creative activities. The project will culminate in an exhibition at the Sheffield Children’s Festival and will feed into a further series open public workshops in June/July 2009.
