Session Information
ERG SES G15, ICT and Education
Paper Session
Contribution
I will discuss a timeline that presents the successive changes in predominant directions of undergraduate Media Arts education in Europe and North America, in relation to the evolution of media technologies, from the ‘80s until today. This timeline reveals how higher education adapted through techno-scientific changes and related socio-economic contexts, for training artists in New Media – an area of study and practice that is constantly shifting, and ever more significant in our culture and economy.
The main research question of this study is: What media, technologies and related socio-economic contexts have been associated to the theory and pedagogies of Media Arts and Art, Science and Technology (AST) undergraduate education?
I analyzed texts, publications and institutional documentation on Media Arts education and Media Arts curriculum, specifically programs in Art practices that intersect with either or both Science and Technology. These innovative models of art education are discussed (usually celebrated) in the recent art education literature, as necessary directions in the field, in response to expanded notions of creativity and new art forms that explore new technologies and media (Scholz, 2004; Alexenberg (Ed), 2008; Wilson, 2010). Additionally, these new areas of art education, and new approaches to the education of artists will presumably raise artists’ contributions to the contemporary global knowledge economy and contribute to renew the place of Art in the university’s knowledge production, reproduction and dissemination scheme (Marginson, 2008).
The timeline begins in the '80s, the decade of the emergence of mass multimedia technologies; it was during this decade that we assisted the transformation of cell phones into multimedia devices, the beginning of global access to the World Wide Web, and later in the decade and into the ‘90s, the popularization of the digital camera (Burnett, 2007). Artists versed in techno-scientific knowledge and skills have, throughout these last three decades, become increasingly important contributors to the growth of techno-scientific industrial and economic sectors. Potts (2011) elaborates on the interconnected roles of Arts, Science and Technology in view of industrial and economic growth. He explains that whereas science and technology develop new material forms attending to economic opportunities, “the arts, cultural and creative sectors deal with the human interface” (p.2). The arts operate at the level of the technology-human mediation. They operate on the demand by suggesting new ways of being and interacting, while science and technology operate mostly on the supply side.
The design of this study builds on existing research about the historical relations between technological innovation and artistic creation. Ongoing research projects like the Technological Timeline project, by the Documentation and Conservation of the Media Arts Heritage (DOCAM, n.d), documents the history of media technologies and the development of new media-based art forms through selected case studies that demonstrate how artists have adopted new technological media into their practice and in some cases, continued to adapt their practice through successive generations of new technologies. Other such timelines are even more comprehensive. Hoetzlein’s timeline of the 20th Century Art and New Media (Hoetzlein, 2009) includes not only prominent artists and artworks, but also marks the emergence of commercial entertainment genres (comics, animation and video games), and the publication of seminal media theory works.
As I analyze the evolution of Media Arts and AST education, and juxtapose my timeline to the existing ones, I detect relationships, predominant themes and identify key moments of institutional and pedagogical change for training artists in these areas, associated to the evolution of technologies, media and changes in the socio-economic contexts. This addresses my second research question : What is new in new Media Arts education?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Alexenberg, M. (Ed.). (2008). Educating artists for the future: Learning at the intersection of art, science, technology and culture. Bristol: Intellect Birks, M. & Mills, J. (2011) Grounded theory: a practical guide. Los Angeles, California, Sage Publications. Burnett, R. (2007). Projecting Minds. In Grau, O. (ed) (2007) Media Art Histories. The MIT Press. Cambridge. pp.309-337 DOCAM (n.d.) Documentation and Conservation of the Media Arts Heritage. Retrieved December 16th 2013 from http://www.docam.ca/en/technological-timeline.html Hoetzlein, C.R. (2009) Timeline of the 20th century Art and New Media. Retireved December 12th 2013 from http://www.rchoetzlein.com/theory/2009/timeline-of-20th-c-art-and-new-media/ Krippendorff, K. (2013) Content Analysis : An Introduction to its Methodology. Sage publications, Los Angeles. Marginson, S. (2008) Clark Kerr and The Uses of the University. Revised paper from the proceedings of CSHE Ideas and Issues in Higher Education seminar. Retrieved September 20th from http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/research/res_seminars/issues_ideas/2008/docs/ClarkKerr15Dec08.pdf. Potts, J. (2011). Creative Industries and Economic Evolution. New Horizons in Institutional and Evolutionary Economics. Edward Elgar, MA. Scholz, T. (2004). It’s New Media Art, but is it Art Education?. In The Fiberculture Journal. Retrieved September 30th 2013 from http://three.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-013-its-new-media-but-is-it-art-education/. Wilson, S. (2008). Beyond the Digital: Preparing Artists to Work at the Frontiers of Technoculture. In M. Alexenberg (Ed.) Educating artists for the future: Learning at the intersection of art, science, technology and culture (pp. 29-45). Bristol: Intellect Wilson, S. (2010). Art + Science Now. Thames & Hudson, NY.
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