[iDC] sharing "new media" curricula/potentials

Joel Slayton joel at well.com
Tue Jan 23 23:18:08 EST 2007


Hello everyone,

You might be interested in a conference being organized by one of our  
faculty here at CADRE, James Morgan.   James is responsible for the  
Ars Virtua Gallery in Second Life which is definitely worth a  
visit.   He has also organized Virtual Artists-in-Residence (AVAIR)  
which provided  a $400 stipend, training and mentorship that results  
in an exhibition in the Ars Virtua gallery.  http://arsvirtua.com/

Best

Joel Slayton
Director, CADRE Laboratory

-----

Ars Virtua Conference on Borders April 26-28
contact:   james at factorynoir.com

"Borders, Boundaries & Liminal States", a three day conference in  
Second Life, will explore divisions and shed light on these ideas and  
on the nature of the synthetic environment.

•	Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal  
jurisdictions, such as governments, states or sub-national  
administrative divisions.

•	The boundary of a set (in mathematics) is those points that can be  
approached from within the set and without.  It is all points not  
contained in the interior of a set.

•	The liminal state (in ritual) is characterized by ambiguity,  
openness, and indeterminacy. One's sense of identity dissolves to  
some extent, bringing about disorientation. Liminality is a period of  
transition, during which normal limits to thought, self- 
understanding, and behavior are relaxed, opening the way to something  
new.

--(wikipedia)

Borders are frequently under contention; they are regions that neatly  
separate two entities and enable a form of deconstruction.  However,  
the distinctions formed by borders are not sufficient and we realize  
that often the border begins to represent a third region and  
generates more contentious borders.

It is truly difficult to discern the breadth a border, an  
indeterminate space, and it's depth is dependent on the sphere, there  
is a point when you can cross into the "other." Borders would be  
impossible to cross if this was false and the liminal space would  
disappear.

It is our assertion that the synthetic world is a fundamentally  
liminal space.  This is not because it is functionally transitional,  
except perhaps that it is not a destination, but that it functions  
parallel to 'real' space and remains temporary in its occupancy.

Our interest lies in both the synthetic and the terrestrial world  
though fundamentally one is a subset of the other. A Venn diagram may  
hold visual information about this relationship, but it misses the  
point.  There is a functional liminal space that exists outside the  
terrestrial. We want to emphasize that while there is a relationship  
here the liminal space that is created synthetically doesn't exist in  
a terrestrial sense.  So the atoms and the electrons are terrestrial  
and represented by our friend Venn, the intellectual space is not  
however anything but contained by materials and represents a  
different space.

To that end we are considering sessions relating to gender/sexuality,  
race, architecture, body/technology, body/digital image, life/non- 
life, transgenics, and game/environment. If you have an interest in  
these topics and would like to present, or would like to suggest  
another topic please contact nmc at arsvirtua.com

Conference Date: April 26-28, 2007




On Jan 23, 2007, at 3:02 PM, Tiffany Holmes wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> Thanks to all who have posted a response to the questions about how  
> to create community/interdisciplinary collaborations and innovation  
> in new media curricula.  Thanks to those to who took the time to  
> describe your programs to us!  We'd love to hear more-------Mark  
> Tribe and Michael Naimark created a whole list on their WIKI but  
> we'd like to hear your take on your curricula and its effect on the  
> student population---in particular the diversity of the new media  
> student population.
>
> In terms of strategies to encourage a diverse community and modes  
> of participation in curricula, I'm thrilled to hear Patrick's  
> comment about creating a virtual classroom in Second Life.  Is  
> anyone else working with Second Life as an educational space or  
> performance venue?
>
> Interesting questions have been posed about the ways that computer  
> programming as a medium is approached by both students and their  
> instructors.  Most of you agreed that there is no need for a  
> concrete set of standards or outcomes for a new media program.  But  
> I'm curious about your position on this question: should every new  
> media student learn the basics of computer programming? Why or why  
> not?
>
> Blanca described the difficulty of learning programming in a  
> collaborative group when everyone in the group was working on a  
> project to be produced with a deadline.  She spoke of the challenge  
> of having so many levels of experience in a working group.
>
> Shawn articulated his position that artists should learn to code  
> ("The artist should not be absent from the creation of their own  
> custom software.") and that computer programming was a medium to  
> learn no different that painting or drawing.
>
> Coding literacy takes time to acquire---but if you spend the time  
> anyone can do it.  MFA students at SAIC want to make large-scale  
> projects without having to fool around learning media "basics."   
> Recently, a graduate student informed me that our department should  
> hire an additional computer programmer as technician who would work  
> exclusively with students to "code" their projects from inspiration  
> to installation.  Nancy mentioned this problem of the production  
> costs---the elaborate new media installations one sees these days  
> at festivals require tremendous resources to produce.  The graduate  
> students are hyper-aware that 2 years is a short time to learn  
> programming and produce a thesis piece.  Our MFA population (25  
> total) is incredibly varied in terms of levels of experience and  
> interests.  It is a constant concern, how to get these students to  
> independently solve coding problems and feel empowered by their  
> tool so they can realize their exciting ideas.
>
> In Unlocking the Clubhouse (2002), social scientist Jane Margolis  
> and computer scientist Alan Fischer make recommendations to  
> decrease the gender gap in computer science (CS) programs  
> particularly in those areas that prepare individuals to design and  
> create new software.  This discussion, while focused on CS  
> students, is incredibly relevant to this debate over how to keep  
> new media students engaged in a community of students studying the  
> same medium: the practice of learning programming. The book is  
> based on interviews with over 100 computer science students from  
> Carnegie Mellon University.  The authors' study was a huge success;  
> since 1995 the proportion of women has risen from 7% to 42% in 2000  
> in the undergraduate CS program.  Here are some of the key  
> recommendations:
>
> 1) Level the playing field---give those with less programming  
> experience a background.  Combine a "discovery-based", real-world  
> orientation to curriculum with an introduction to programming that  
> would prepare students for a more advanced course.
>
> 2)  Advertise to everyone---Prior experience with computer  
> programming is not a prerequisite.
>
> 3) Hire a pool of diverse teachers and TAs; equal numbers or men  
> and women in particular, and hire individuals that engage a variety  
> of learning styles.
>
> 4) Create programming problems around real-world issues.  (Molly  
> Steenson described short, 4 to 6 week courses in Ivrea that  
> addressed this need---sounded very interesting!)
>
> I think for the most part these four are good rules to live by.   
> Let us know if there are other strategies you have employed to  
> increase the diversity of your student population.
>
> Thank you to the IDC listers for these resources also:
>
> Andrea Polli-Leonardo Education Forum
>
> Shawn Lawson-Siggraph Education Committee
>
> PAUL D. MILLER aka DJ SPOOKY-Media Sounds course syllabus, and  
> description of the European Graduate School. Thanks for these  
> references.  I want to take the class....
>
> Michael Naimark and Mark Tribe: Wiki Directory of Academic Art and  
> Technology Programs (IDC listers--try to add yours if it's not there)
>
> Kevin Hamilton: Apply, this one sounds fascination!
> Workshop on HCI and New Media: Methodology and Evaluation
> http://orchid.cs.uiuc.edu/HCIandNewMedia/
>
> Molly Steenson: description of interaction design at Ivrea
>
> I look forward to hearing more.  Cheers, Tiff
> ____________________________________
> Tiffany Holmes, Associate Professor
> Chair, Department of Art and Technology Studies
> The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
> 112 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60603
> Phone: 312-345-3760,  Fax: 312-345-3565
> Mobile: 312-493-0302
> http://www.tiffanyholmes.com
> http://ecoviz.org
>
>
>
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Joel Slayton
Director, SJSU CADRE Laboratory








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