Each has acquired considerable experience working with children and teens during the past five years. If some of their students become interested in art, that's well and good. But the goal isn't to transform the teens into artists. Rather, it's to give them an outlet for expression, perspective and dialogue with their peers. Whatever tool you use introduces the process.
Art is about thinking.
The process of distilling a large body of pictures and videos into an exhibition is part of the thinking Michaelis and Torres are asking of the students as they prepare for their exhibition. They are going to need to cull the most representative and effective pictures, to transform their sprawling visual journal into a public exhibition that conveys the view they want the world to take away of them and their neighborhoods. It's clear the young artists are taking this part of the process just as seriously as creating the images. I feel like the world where I live makes me feel trapped in the middle somewhere. Their friends stand behind fences.