The heart of Europe: Belgium unveiled by its contemporary artists

This multimedia archive features the personal stories of established and less established Belgian contemporary artists and introduces students of French to Belgian culture and history through different forms of Belgian contemporary arts. This online teaching resource increases learning about this trilingual country as it is used as an engine for self-discovery and self-teaching activities by beginning to advanced-level students. Indeed, this archive draws the students into the discovery of Belgium on the basis of interpersonal relations and stories told. Thanks to a flexible interface, students can focus on specific interview segments, texts or images and build collections, collaborating with each other and comparing their findings as they are studying a specific theme. The prototype of the archive, currently containing +/- 200 photographs, video clips and text files, focuses on Belgian design, gastronomy and graphic arts among other topics and addresses issues such as bilingualism, multiculturalism, localism and globalism as well as the preservation of Belgian traditions in the 21st century. Topics to be developed in the future include Belgian history, the European Union and Belgium, architecture, painting and literature. This archive has been created in the HyperStudio in close collaboration with Cathy Culot, Lecturer in the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department. It has received funding from the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning, New Haven, and the MIT Contemporary French Studies Fund, Cambridge. The prototype of the archive is available online through the m:media interface. The materials will be used in class during the 2007-2008 academic year.