The Network Jamming team in conjunction with CreActive are running PowerJam workshops using the AV-Jam system as part of the Brisbane Powerhouse's school holiday program. This time around the sessions are being run by Tyson from CreActive.

Participants planning and collaborating.

This may be one of the few times he gets to tell the big girls what to do :)

Network Jamming project leader, Steve Dillon, and ACID CEO, Suzannah Conway, watch proceedings.

Parents and Kids design band logos and images for video remixing.

Groups perform at the end of the workshop.

Workshop coach Tyson finds a quiet moment to play with AV-Jam.

QUT have released a press release about the jam2jam software. A number of the Network Jamming team who work at ACID on the project are staff at QUT. Below is the copy from the release.

Kids get in touch with their musical side

Children will learn about music while jamming like pros with new software developed by Queensland University of Technology researchers.

Associate Professor Andrew Brown, a music and sound lecturer at QUT's Creative Industry Faculty, said Jam2jam was designed to let children aged nine to 14-years-old create their own music and video clips.

Professor Brown said, like music producers, children would be able to create and control the melodies and rhythms of algorithmically generated, multi-track music.

"The good thing about Jam2jam is that it allows children to create fairly sophisticated music without a high level of skill," he said.

"They don't have to have several years of guitar playing to be able to play music with others.

"It also allows kids to create their own music videos fairly quickly and there are a variety of popular music styles to choose from, including pop, rock, hip hop and r'n'b."

Professor Brown said the software would be available to schools to use and a website would allow children to review each other's uploaded creations.

"Jam2jam teaches children about rhythm, pitch and musical structure and will demystify the music video clips they see on television," Professor Brown said.

"The idea is to get children very excited about making music, which may motivate them to take music lessons."

He said children had the option to either use the video footage provided by the software or record their own using a web cam, which was a cheap and easy piece of equipment for schools to use.

Jam2jam research is sponsored by the Australasian Cooperative Research Centre for Interaction Design (ACID) which is based at QUT.