Is high school education a valuable source of learning? Does it help us reach our full potential as human beings, or to become part of a “normalized” society? Wired to Learn is a documentary media website, and a site-specific mixed-media installation that addresses these questions and invites the audience to partake in the conversation. While the website invites the audience to follow the production of the installation, it is also a space that is used to share stories about Ayoup’s own learning experiences, disseminate audio and video interviews with educators and learners regarding their feelings about education, and aggregate Web sources that offer innovative ideas and opinions about learning and instructing.

The mixed-media art installation which takes place in a high school is a means of infusing Ayoup’s audio and video media with nostalgia and sensory experiences which a two-dimensional screen cannot reproduce, in order to heighten the memories and conversational urges about one’s own educational experiences. Within the installation, learners and educators from seven schools—from the public, private, and alternative sectors within Montreal and Toronto—share their views about how their institution is, or could be, a success or a failure. They also reflect upon their own behaviours as high school participants. The media within the installation are intended to act as mirrors for the subjects and audience within a high school milieu. Ayoup’s hope is that they see and hear one another’s opinions, observe their own, and bridge a communication gap that typically exists between learners and educators.