Every voice builds the world.
Pupils use handmade digital controllers to vote, create, and collaborate—turning conversation into digital art.
Art of Conversation invites pupils with diverse learning needs to shape a shared digital world through art and technology.
Each learner uses a handheld micro:bit “ChoiceBox” to vote on what appears next—trees, colours, sounds—turning every choice into part of the artwork. It’s a joyful mix of coding, creativity, and conversation where everyone has a voice.
The ChoiceBoxes were specifially developed so that pupils are empowered to build their own virtual islands—one decision, one colour, one conversation at a time.
Art of Conversation is an innovative SEND-focused arts and technology project that reimagines how pupils collaborate, communicate, and create together. It combines physical computing, digital art, and inclusive pedagogy through a set of custom-built handheld “ChoiceBoxes” — tactile voting devices based on BBC micro:bits — which allow each pupil to make and register creative choices in real time. These votes feed directly into a shared Unity environment, where pupils collectively build a virtual island filled with the artwork, sound, and design elements they have chosen.
The project turns digital world-building into a structured form of dialogue: pupils express preferences, negotiate outcomes, and see the results of group decisions visualised instantly. In doing so, Art of Conversation develops communication, reasoning, and collaboration skills while grounding them in artistic expression. It also models an inclusive design ethos in which assistive and creative technologies are not separated but intertwined.
While comparable work exists in digital art, assistive tech, or coding education, there is no known programme that integrates physical computing, real-time collaborative choice-making, and virtual art creation within a special-needs classroom context. It is therefore both a teaching innovation and a model for how creative technology can become a genuine language of participation.
Mushroom Meadows links to the second island created by this first cohort, which is called Goat Island
The Year 9 pupils have used their ChoiceBoxes to decide what food can be found on the island to feed to the goats
Unwanted food is put into dedicated recycling barrels
If a pupil’s goat likes the food then they will follow you
If a pupil’s goat does not like the food then they will run away from you
Please click here to read our first Goat Island report!
Every goat has a name chosen by a pupil and markings drawn by the same pupil
The aim of the puzzle on this island is to bring three goats into the pen
When this aim is achieved, the goats will sing and dance before sitting down
One cross-curricular subject that benefits from creative digital art is maths – in this case tabulating the goat food preferences!
This project is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Our sincere thanks to them for making it possible.
