ARC Linkage grant success – last week moved so quickly that some amazing things did not quite have time to land.
Between Digital Design work, national media interviews for our End Food Waste project (QSR Sector Action Plan) and everything else in between, this news sat quietly in the background for a few days.
I’m very happy to finally share that I am part of the successful ARC Linkage project Young Creators’ Lab: Gaming the Curriculum (LP250200607), led by Professor Daniel X. Harris at RMIT School of Education.
For me personally it’s a very significant milestone – my first ARC grant.
I started my academic career over 20 years ago deeply teaching-focused and over time moved across digital design, research, industry engagement and leadership. Along the way there have been many amazing projects and collaborations, but this feels like one of those quieter moments that marks a new chapter.
It still hasn’t quite fully sunk in – there’s still too much happening this week to stop and celebrate. Perhaps I need to deliberately make time for that soon – to slow down, sit with it properly and appreciate it.
In parallel with leading the discipline as Associate Dean of digital design, in research I’m also always working with interesting people within and beyond design, across schools, disciplines, universities and sectors. In both cases, many of the most meaningful work happens at those intersections.
The road ahead feels a little less foggy now.
Now back to work – there is still much to do.
More about the project. I am so looking forward:
The project builds on the existing RMIT University + ACMI Young Creators’ Lab initiative, which connects young game makers (aged 10-16), industry professionals and schools through game creation. With ARC support, the project will expand from a Victorian in-person model into a national online program open to young people across Australia.
The project explores the pedagogical value of digital game creation and aims to generate new knowledge around curriculum design, game-based learning, student-led learning and cultural production through an interdisciplinary approach.
Team: Daniel X. Harris (lead, Creative Agency lab, RMIT School of Education); Assoc. Prof. Li Ping Thong (RMIT School of Design, Digital Design); A/Prof Jen Scott Curwood (Uni of Sydney); Christine Evely, ACMI; A/Prof Danah Henriksen (Arizona State University); A/Prof Christian Ehret (Uni of North Carolina Chapel Hill).
Industry partners: Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI); Design and Technology Teachers’ Association Victoria (DATTA); Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria (DLTV).