IT GAVE the world the Scottish indie music scene, the Glasgow Boys and the finest example of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's design. Now Glasgow School of Art has a new progeny: it is set to become the backdrop of a new Channel 4 drama, based entirely online.

Told through YouTube-style video, photo sharing site Flickr, and social networking sites, Central Station will portray the lives, loves and artworks of three fictional second-year art students.

But like the best art, Central Station has ambitions beyond the superficial gloss of teen soaps. Channel 4's new strand for digital content, 4iP, hopes that Scotland's first web drama will act as a hook to draw real-life artists into a new online artistic community, and "discover the new Banksy or the new Warhol" in the process.

"This isn't Tartan TV," said Ewan McIntosh, 4iP's digital commissioning manager in Scotland. "We chose Glasgow School of Art as a backdrop because it represents a world-class heritage of Scottish graduates together with an expanding international student body. This is what Central Station is: coming out of Scotland but, through the web, having a truly international flavour."

The three main characters in the web drama will be: Nikki, a 19-year-old textile student from Chester who sings in three bands and, according to McIntosh, "lives her life as if it was a pop promo" and is "loved by men and resented by women"; Con, from a wealthy family but with a radical social agenda, who uses portraiture to rail against modern injustices; and Sam, an ambitious 20-year-old Glaswegian studying environmental art who, in a similar vein to Tracey Emin, uses her art to explore personal issues such as self-harm.

Casting will begin in the spring. The web drama will begin in September, filmed around the world-famous Mackintosh building, coinciding with the 09/10 academic year.

"The drama will be shot in such a way as to be of the medium'," said McIntosh. "They will reflect the art that the community is talking about most that week or that month. Looking back at them at the end of the academic year, 09/10, we should have a filmed snapshot of what contemporary art the MySpace generation were most turned on by."

The online community begins earlier in the year, however. Going live in spring, there will be monthly calls to action to encourage artists from around the world to post their work online. The best will be rewarded with prizes including studio time and arts-based trips abroad, culminating in "the world's largest and first social media art prize".

A team of professional artists will act as mentors to the online community. 4iP and ISO, the Glasgow-based independent company producing the project, are currently engaged in discussions with several high-profile GSA alumni.

Channel 4 hopes Central Station will make publishing original art on the web much easier and more commonplace.

"This is an attempt to reverse the lack of creativity that young people show online, which has been romanticised," said McIntosh. "Young people tend to upload a lot of snaps to their photo albums, they co-ordinate their weekend activity on their walls', but they don't tend to create art, original authored film or photography. This is something I hope Central Station goes some way to improving: it's going to be a space where people can be inspired, inspire others and have their creativity recognised."

Central Station plans to run for 18 months with a £750,000 budget.

A spokesman for Glasgow School of Art said: "We're very excited about this project. It is very innovative and should be great for the art school and the city as a whole. It shows internationally that Glasgow is a creative and cultural centre."