{"id":3999,"date":"2023-06-29T15:49:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-29T14:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningspaces.dundee.ac.uk\/dundeeuniculture\/?p=3999"},"modified":"2025-09-15T10:46:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T09:46:31","slug":"localising-philosophy-exploring-technology-and-identity-through-philosophy-and-art-with-local-primary-school-pupils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/localising-philosophy-exploring-technology-and-identity-through-philosophy-and-art-with-local-primary-school-pupils\/","title":{"rendered":"Localising Philosophy: exploring technology and identity through philosophy and art with local primary school pupils."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Localising Philosophy is an ongoing education project since 2018, co-led by Dr Dominic Smith (Philosophy) and Dr Anna Robb (Education). Using art and philosophy, Localising Philosophy asks big philosophical questions that the project\u2019s partners are facing. The project takes inspiration from a 1932 educational radio play for children, \u2018The Railway Disaster at the Firth of Tay\u2019 by the German philosopher, Walter Benjamin. In it, Benjamin uses the Tay Rail Bridge disaster of 1879 to weave together philosophy, history, technology, and fantasy to engage young children in Berlin to think about the development of technology.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to this podcast for more information about Benjamin.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Resident Resonance Episode 1 by Resident Resonance Podcast\" width=\"1290\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F597798837&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxheight=1000&#038;maxwidth=1290\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In 2022 the team were asked to support a Dundee secondary school cluster with their transition activities for Primary 7 pupils moving into their first year of secondary school after the summer. The project was deemed a success by the secondary school, resulting in the school increasing their transition programme in the summer from two days to three days and the team being invited back this year to deliver the workshops to a new cohort of Primary 7 pupils. Between May and June 2023, we therefore completed another successful iteration of the project exploring these big questions: \u2018Why do things change?\u2019, \u2018Where is your place?\u2019, and \u2018How do we connect today?\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4000 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/263\/2023\/06\/Picture1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"362\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/263\/2023\/06\/Picture1.jpg 362w, https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/263\/2023\/06\/Picture1-300x226.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 362px) 100vw, 362px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Phase one of the project saw the research team, joined by the project\u2019s attached PhD student, Jodie Williamson, visit each primary school twice to conduct on-site workshops in the classrooms. Using an image of the Tay Rail Bridge and a mobile phone both labelled as \u2018this is a bridge,\u2019 Session One focused on the present. Pupils were asked to reflect on the different ways they connect to others and the world around them, followed by an oil pastel mono-printing activity to draw a piece of technology which they thought helped them stay connected. In the second session, we time travelled back to the past and asked pupils to imagine what life would be like if certain technologies did not exist, using comic strips to tell their story.<\/p>\n<p>For phase two, the team, now also joined by two 4<sup>th<\/sup> year Philosophy students, met with the Primary 7\u2019s as part of their third day of the transition programme at the secondary school. The day was a culmination of the themes we had been working on together in the primary classes, thinking about how the pupils connect their past, present, and future selves. The activities for this session involved\u00a0leaving messages in their footprints to themselves in the past and future and a digital mind map of \u2018technologies of the future\u2019 using Padlet. Over the last two years the team have worked with around 500 pupils and their teachers across the whole project.<\/p>\n<p>After summer, we continue with phase three of the project which sees us return to Morgan to meet the P7s in their newly settled S1 classes. Before they left our sessions, we left them with a thought for summer: <em>How is AI changing our world, and how do you, as young people who will shape the future, and interact with AI, feel about it?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4001 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/263\/2023\/06\/Picture2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"364\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/263\/2023\/06\/Picture2.jpg 364w, https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/263\/2023\/06\/Picture2-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 364px) 100vw, 364px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The project has impact and engagement components and acts as an employability platform for Philosophy students.<\/p>\n<p>Find out more about the concept in this short <a href=\"https:\/\/creativedundee.com\/2020\/04\/pkn26-dominic-smith\/\">talk<\/a> or have a look at the following film<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SPIRIT AND LETTER\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pseCprT_SSY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Full details here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.localisingphilosophy.com\/?fbclid=IwAR26LC-J0F0OMxU8YgeLe3DjdOBQQTWz4rEPtGAbfYYw7KlvVrIDArTDVmo\">https:\/\/www.localisingphilosophy.com\/ <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Jodie Williamson for this blog!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Localising Philosophy is an ongoing education project since 2018, co-led by Dr Dominic Smith (Philosophy) and Dr Anna Robb (Education). Using art and philosophy, Localising Philosophy asks big philosophical questions that the project\u2019s partners are facing. The project takes inspiration from a 1932 educational radio play for children, \u2018The Railway Disaster at the Firth of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":550,"featured_media":4000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,14,19,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","category-art","category-history","category-philosophy","category-technology"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/550"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6180,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999\/revisions\/6180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}