Karl Erickson

School of Art – Alumnx – video art and experimental animation

Three Short Education Lessons depicts a puppet-like monster encountering a world of letters and numbers. These encounters offer an absurdist take on educational programming for children, from Sesame Street to algorithmically produced content on Youtube. The animations present lessons designed to challenge traditional educational objectives. The end goal is to create and learn new languages, to forge new connections, and to find new ways of being right. A segment on the letter “R” highlights the letter in the formation of a variety of words (“are,” “green,” “three”), none of which, of course, start with “R.” The monster wanders through a world of alphabets, encounters the word “blue” and attempts to play it like an instrument. In the end, the monster has a nightmare encounter with a series of letters and numbers. The aspects of education are present: language, demonstrations, repetition, engagement, but the learning outcome is obscure.

http://www.karlhugoerickson.com