An Singapore art magazine launched in January has a mission: to teach kids about the internet in these trying technological times, all while doing its education in an engaging style.
That’s just one facet of the first issue of EYEYAH!, an eye-catching art magazine produced by counterculture stalwarts in Singapore. The organizers of the magazine are looking for a wider reach than just their print edition, which is only being produced in Singapore, for now. They are also contracting with artists — the goal is to have more than one thousand contributors — to produce multimedia content to engage with children who are increasingly spending more time online and on social media. The magazine’s organizers also have plans to inspire these children through meaningful art programming and events, drawing them away from the more toxic and time-consuming online content and teaching them how to stay safe and well informed on the internet.
The magazine contains lessons that schools have already embraced. Teachers and other educational officials have begun handing out printouts of some of the pages of the magazine in classrooms, especially since they do a good job to entertain and inform children about some aspects of the internet. One one colorful and richly illustrated two-page spread, children are encouraged to scour the insides of a computer, looking for cookies. What are cookies? The magazine spread provides that definition in a fun and accessible way: Cookies are little spies that help the internet see what you have been looking at when you browse online.
Another page in the magazine features an open call to artists of all ages. The project? A poster that illustrates and informs about some dangers of the internet. The magazine is offering T-shirts as prizes if the poster gets picked, as well as a chance to be featured in the next issue. The hand lettering and illustrations of the page layout are indicative of classic art magazine design, adding an air of originality while paying tribute to a lasting art genre.
A third page of the first issue features a number of illustrations about internet usage and other facts that children and others might not realize about being online. Some of them are cautionary, including one simple line drawing of a person studying a smartphone screen. It might be a common sight, people staring at their phones, but in this illustration, arms reach out from the screen and are in the process of strangling the viewer. In another illustration, a muscled, sweaty, hypnotized, drooling figure holds a smartphone in each hand while staring at a computer screen, commenting on an overabundance of screens. Another illustration features a girl turned into a zombie by a smartphone, while another drawing shows a monster receiving a chat message on a computer from a little girl.
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To learn more about EYEYAH! magazine, go to https://boingboing.net/2018/03/25/cool-new-art-project-magazine.html.