Machinima as a learning tool

Abstract

This article proposes that machinima is a practice-based approach to learning digital creative practice. It features excerpts from key informant interviews with six prominent machinima artists: it is the first time they have been brought together to consider the role of machinima as a learning tool from their different perspectives. The article begins with a review of machinima as an example of digital creative practice, akin to mashup and remix genres. The nature of machinima is presented through interviews, providing an overview of its authenticity, roles of networks and communities of practice, transdisciplinary creative practice, transliteracy, transferability and accessibility as a learning tool in developing competency in digital creativity. It is suggested that machinima is ‘digital clay’ that has the potential to add value to practice-based learning in a connected world. The article concludes with a summary of the unique contributions that machinima gives the creative learning process.

Keywords:

• machinima
• transdisciplinarity
• practice-based learning
• digital creativity

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the interviewees for their contribution to this article.

Additional information

Dr Tracy Harwood is senior research fellow at the Institute of Creative Technologies and a National Teaching Fellow. She has published on virtual worlds research, ecommerce, online communities, relationship marketing and consumer behaviour, and uses mixed method research techniques and novel technologies. She is a regular speaker at machinima events, and was the director of the Machinima Europe Festival in 2007. She currently manages the Usability Lab and is founding research team member of the Retail Lab at De Montfort University, Leicester.