Fishtastic is the name of the web site created by the young people who took part in The Scalloway Moving Image Project. The project combined art, science and technology to enable a multi-disciplinary team of visual artists, writers, marine scientists and web developers to work with young people who were pupils at Scalloway Junior High School to use digital media to create animations for the Internet.

 

The team included teachers Brian Henderson (artist), Anne McKee (writer) and Danny McNeill (web developer); the Shetland writer, Christine De Luca; the boatman and environmental guide, Dr Jonathan Wills; marine biologists, Karen Hall (Scottish Natural Heritage) and Gregg Arthur (North Atlantic Fisheries College).  The web designer John Walsh traveled from Aberdeen to help us use Dreamweaver to design the web site and to meet the young people to discuss the principles of web site design in relation to what we wanted to create.

 

The project received grants from Scottish Natural Heritage, The Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund, Leader + (Shetland Enterprise), Shetland Islands Council and Scalloway Community Council.  It was acknowledged nationally as an example of innovative practice and a film crew traveled to Shetland to film the group working together in Scalloway for inclusion on a web site. Unfortunately the Fishtastic web site was only active for three years, but I am hoping we can get it back up again.