[iDC] sharing "new media" curricula/potentials
Shawn Lawson
lawsos2 at rpi.edu
Mon Jan 22 13:57:05 EST 2007
Hello, I'm Shawn Lawson, new/digital media artist, teaching at
Rensselaer.
I'd like to add another question by extending from Tiffany's
questions and Blanca's post. Then relate my own experiences as a
student and professor at Carnegie Mellon, a student at School of the
Art Institute of Chicago, and professor at RPI.
In relation to new media literacy, theory and technique; what is the
expectation of admitted graduate and/or PhD students? What is the
expectation of faculty to keep current?
The CMU curriculum has primarily two major parts: technique and
concept. All undergraduates regardless of focus are required to take
all of the drawing, painting, sculpting, electronic media, etc. Then
they can build a concentration of either (Painting, Drawing,
Printmaking) or (Sculpture, Installation, Site Work) or (Electronic
Time Based). All undergraduates must take concept development
courses, where students are presented with a topic or theme and asked
to explore without media restriction. This course progression leads
to a full year senior project, where a student is expected to
carryout self-directed work and exhibit in a final show. Many of the
students will mix new media with other media. And several will
explore campus looking to build interdisciplinary relationships, most
commonly with Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, or
Robotics. The graduate program is very reliant on the student's self
motivation, and is mixed in primary media discipline. Graduate
students acquire new media theory from class and personal research,
while technical skills are learned from individual studio advising
and personal research. Graduate students are required to engage the
local community with their work. The art school has a strong presence
on campus and is active in reaching out. CMU is also home to the
Studio for Creative Inquiry, which is a residency for artists to
connect with any academic discipline on campus.
My SAIC experience is only from a graduate perspective. The Art and
Technology Studies department mixes new media theory with technique.
And, personal research is highly encouraged. Students are pushed to
be active in Chicago, the surrounding area, and beyond. I think that
there are some isolationist tendencies due to the size and
competitiveness of the school. There are opportunities for
interdisciplinary collaboration with other artists, although other
collaboration disciplines becomes more of a challenge. Established
relationships and networking with through faculty and administration
can be successful.
RPI also mixes new media theory with technique at both undergraduate
an graduate levels. There is a core se of courses that undergraduates
complete before choosing a concentration of: Visual Arts &
Animation, Computer Music & Sound Art, Video & Emerging Media, and
Art, Technology & Culture. We have been discussing what exactly the
core should be for a base literacy, and we're trying to be more
inclusive than exclusive This is complicated further by fact that new
media is constantly changing. The Arts Department here has strong
ties with many other departments on campus and has active
collaborations with Architecture, Language, Literature &
Communication, Cognitive Science, and Biotechnology to name a few.
Additionally, many students from other departments on campus come to
our department looking for collaboration. The program has outreach to
the local community with the iEAR lecture and performance series, and
connections with WRPI and The Sanctuary for Independent Media. The
graduate students are widely mixed group of different intentions and
media; although they all use new media as part of their practice.
Aside from these, siggraph has an education committee that has been
working on a curriculum. It is quite extensive, although it focuses
almost primarily on computer graphics media solely. And, it looks
almost exclusively at technique.
On continuation of Blanca's thoughts. My opinion of computer
programming is that it's no harder than any other media. It's a
learned skill as painting or sculpting is. I could see argument
around the quality and accessibility of programming tools to artists
and the lack usable feedback when writing code. I find that students
who begin programming assume the computer knows what they want it to
do, because the computer has always felt like an extension of their
cognition. Whereas, we know that the computer must be told what to do
in the finest of detail covering any possibility. The combination of
these two creates lots of frustration. The accustomed nature of on-
demand results with the tedium of programming creates a tension. Yet,
I believe that an artist must know their tools. The artist should not
be absent from the creation of their own custom software.
One more point of perception. The computer's presence and
ubiquitousness is very intoxicating. One device for web, phone,
radio, tv, email, writing, messaging, gambling, gaming, and more. My
concern is for students of new media who live this singular point of
multi-connectedness. I find that level of attention and focus of
"multi-tasking" students is low. The availability of internet access
in the classroom is a blessing and a curse at the same time. Should
curriculum look at addressing this?
I'm looking forward to reading more posts.
Best,
Shawn
-------------------------------------------------------
Shawn Lawson, Assistant Professor
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
518-276-2206
http://www.crudeOils.us/shawn
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