EDUCATING ARTISTS FOR THE FUTURE: Learning at the Intersections of Art, Science, Technology, and Culture
Mel Alexenberg, Editor
(Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press, 2008)
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: EDUCATION FOR A CONCEPTUAL AGE
Learning at the Intersections of Art, Science, Technology, and Culture
- Mel Alexenberg, Professor and Head of the School of the Arts, Emuna College, Jerusalem, Israel. (author of The Future of Art in a Digital Age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness, Intellect Books, 2006)
BEYOND THE DIGITAL
Beyond the Digital: Preparing Artists to Work at the Frontiers of Technoculture
- Stephen Wilson, Professor and Director of Conceptual/Information Arts Program, San Francisco State University, California, USA, (author of Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology, MIT Press, 2002)
Pixels and Particles: The Path to Syncretism
- Roy Ascott, President, Planetary Collegium and Professor, University of Plymouth, UK. (author of Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology and Consciousness, University of California Press, 2003, and editor of Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research)
Sustaining Creativity and Losing the Wild
- Carol Gigliotti, Associate Professor of New Media, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Making Space for the Artist
- Mark Amerika, Associate Professor of Art and Art History, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA, (author of META/DATA: A Digital Poetics, MIT Press, 2007)
NETWORKED TIMES
Unthinkable Complexity: Art Education in Networked Times
- Robert Sweeny, Assistant Professor of Art and Art Education, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA, USA
Art/Science & Education
- Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss, Professor and Head of the International MA Program in ePedagogy, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland. (author of (e)Pedagogy-Visual Knowledge Building: Rethinking Art and New Media in Education, Peter Lang, 2005)
Learning, Education and the Arts in a Digital World
- Ron Burnett, President of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, (author of How Images Think, MIT Press, 2004)
Afference and Efference: Encouraging Social Impact through Art and Science Education
- Jill Scott, Research Professor: Institute for Cultural Studies in Art, Media and Design, Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Zürich, Switzerland, and Vice Director, Z-Node, Planetary Collegium. (author of Artistsinlabs: Exploring the Interface Between Art and Science, Springer, 2006)
POLYCULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
Expressing with Grey Cells: Indian Perspectives on New Media Art
- Vinod Vidwans, Professor and Head of Departments of New Media and Software User Interface Design, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India
New Media Art as Embodiment of Tao
- Wengao Huang, Associate Professor of Media Art, College of Information Science and Engineering, Shandong University at Weihai, China
Between Hyper-Images and Aniconism: New Perspectives on Islamic Art in the Education of Artists
- Ozgur Sogancy, Assistant Professor of Fine Art Education, Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey
Touching Light: PostTraditional Immersion in Interactive Artistic Environments
- Diane Gromala, Professor and Associate Director of the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada. Co-author of Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art and the Myth of Transparency (MIT Press 2005), and
- Jinsil Seo, PhD Candidate, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University
REFLECTIVE INQUIRY
Media Golem: Between Prague and ZKM
- Michael Bielicky, Professor and Head of the Department of InfoArt/Digital Media, Hochschule fur Gestaltung, ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany, formerly at Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, Czech Republic
Life Transformation – Art Mutation
- Eduardo Kac, Professor and Chairman, Art and Technology Department, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA (author of Telepresence & Bio Art, University of Michigan Press, 2005)
Learning Through the Re-embodiment of the Digital Self
- Yacov Sharir, Associate Professor of Dance and Multimedia Art, University of Texas at Austin, USA
My Journey: From Physics to Graphic Design to User-Interface/Information-Visualization Design
- Aaron Marcus, President Aaron Marcus and Associates (AM+A), and Visiting Professor of Media Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA (author of Graphic Design for Electronic Documents and User Interfaces, Addison-Wesley, 1991)
EMERGENT PRAXIS
Entwined Histories: Reflections on Teaching Art, Science, and Technological Media
- Edward A. Shanken, Assistant Professor of New Media, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (editor of Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology, and Consciousness, University of California Press, 2003)
A Generative Emergent Approach to Graduate Education
- Bill Seaman, Professor of Digital Media, Duke University, North Carolina, USA
Media Literacy: Reading and Writing Images in a Digital Age
- Shlomo Lee Abrahmov, Senior Lecturer in Design and Instructional Systems Technologies, Holon Institute of Technology, Holon, Israel
The Creative Spirit in the Age of Digital Technologies: Seven Tactical Exercises
- Lucia Leao, Professor of Art and Technology, Department of Computer Science, Sao Paulo Catholic University, and SENAC, Brazil (author of Derivas: Cartografias do Ciberespaço, Annablume, 2004)
EPILOGUE: REALMS OF LEARNING
From Awesome Immersion to Holistic Integration
- Mel Alexenberg, Former Associate Professor of Art and Education, Columbia University, Chairman of Fine Arts, Pratt Institute, Dean of Visual Arts, New World School of the Arts, Miami, and Research Fellow, MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, USA
Educating Artists for the Future:
Learning at the Intersections of Art, Science, Technology and Culture
From review by Julia Gaimster
International Journal of Education through Art
vol. 5, no. 1, 2009, pp. 95-96.
This is a timely book that sets out to explore alternative ways of educating artists in an interdisciplinary, networked, global future. The book is organized into sections around the themes ‘Beyond the Digital’, ‘Networked Times’, ‘Polycultural Perspectives’, ‘Reflective Inquiry’, and ‘Emergent Praxis’.
The central thesis of the book is that, in an increasingly networked world and global society, we face new challenges in how we educate artists and this often leads us into new disciplines and ways of understanding. It also argues that the convergence of disparate fields and concepts can lead to enhanced creativity and innovations.
In ‘Beyond the Digital’ the authors suggest that we have gone beyond the purely technical and are moving into an area where digital technology and biology are starting to create new dynamics and possibilities that have the power to transform our world.
‘Networked Times’ explores the relationships between physical and virtual spaces; it examines the notion of complexity and the culture of digital networking and the impact this may have on the way we deliver curriculum.
For me perhaps the most intriguing section of the book was ‘Polycultural Perspectives’. Here the authors draw upon their own cultural backgrounds from countries such as India, china and Turkey. We are asked to look at artistic practice through a series of different cultural filters including Taoism and Buddhism.
In ‘Reflective Inquiry’ writers who describe their biographical journeys highlight how they came by liuck, design or coincidence to be engaged in their current practice. They come from remarkably diverse backgrounds and cultures, adding a richness of perspective to the book that will appeal to a broad global audience.
The final section ‘Emergent Praxis’ describes approaches to teaching that embody the interdisciplinary approach promoted by the book. The central message of this section is that students need to be exposed to a wide range of disciplines and concepts in order to fully engage with contemporary art practice.
The book contains a good balance between theory and practice, and describes approaches and projects undertaken in a range of contexts from the classroom to the laboratory and onto the street. It is well written.
It inspires us to further our understanding of what it is to be an artist in a future where the boundaries between the technological, the biological, the cultural and spiritual are increasingly fluid.
