Tactical Pedagogy:
Free Classes in Art & Technology

The Plug-In Studio began in 2012 by offering free classes and workshops on video games, wearables, interactive kinetic sculpture and other art with technology. We partnered with community groups, public schools and libraries, social services organizations and arts institutions throughout Chicago, including Breakthrough Youth Network, Harold Washington Public Library, Holmes Elementary, Brooks Middle School and Hyde Park Art Center.

We brought laptops, electronics and art supplies to our partner sites so we could reach young people in the communities where they live. We used Pico Crickets, the Scratch programming language, found materials and cardboard and introduced young people to engineering, programming, design and making. We see our pedagogy as both critical and tactical. Our goal is to foster new media literacies and redress inequities in formal education by activating alternative learning spaces.

Funded by the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Center for Research and Collaboration, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Northern Illinois University and the Propeller Fund.