Created through a series of co-creation workshops with the Art Forum Youth Group at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, this triptych of fine art prints forms part of the wider shemza.digital roots project by Aphra Shemza, inspired by Anwar Jalal Shemza’s Roots series. Rooted in the visual traditions of Arabic calligraphy, the works were generated using bespoke fractal growth software, allowing the young participants to explore repetition, pattern and organic digital form through a process that merged technological experimentation with cultural heritage.

The students played an active curatorial role in selecting the final compositions to be realised as archival fine art prints, shaping both the aesthetic and conceptual outcome of the series. The completed works were subsequently gifted to the Computer Arts Archive, a not-for-profit collection dedicated to preserving and promoting the history and future of computer art and digital culture. Their inclusion within a public collection ensures that the voices and creative contributions of these young artists become part of a lasting cultural legacy, recognising participation, collaboration and shared authorship as central to the future of digital art.

ArtForum members who contributed to this project: Michael, Joy, Olivia, Mickey, Jenna, Anna, Lizzie, Emily.

ArtForum youth group is led by RAG arts Rosalind Manasseh as part of Wolverhampton Art Gallery’s youth programs and supported by Dinosaur Kilby Creative Producer: Digital.

shemza.digital roots is supported by Arts Council England and the Estate of Anwar Jalal Shemza.