My objective in establishing a conscientious teaching practice at an institution of higher learning will be to offer cross-disciplinary classes that combine both traditional studio and theory modes in an attempt to provide well-rounded training that equips students with both a conceptual and structural understanding of the technologies used and to encourage students in the deveolpment of an intelligent art practice in the 21st century.
Artistic practice continuously redefines itself in response to cultural transformations. Currently, these transformations are closely linked to the pace of technological developments and therefore it is appropriate that students begin by addressing the technology on the most fundamental level of its aesthetic and conceptual discourses. In a continuously evolving environment that creates new specialties, the educational process is compelled to incorporate new concepts in the context of the arts making use of new technology. In order for students to embark on an intelligent art practice in the 21st century, a technical understanding of the tools used is essential, as is a critical overview of the relationship between culture and technology. I employ a four point teaching strategy that combines aspects of both traditional studio and theory modes in an attempt to provide well-rounded training in the field. These four strands are overlapping and interwoven.
I. HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL CONTEXTUALIZATION: The development of a critical language base that provides students with an understanding of the technology in a cultural context and the examination of the possibilities of an art practice utilizing digital technologies with respect to the history of art and contemporary work in the field. Unlike traditional art media where tools have changed little in generations, in digital media the tools change by the year. In addition to specific hardware/software instruction, I endeavor to equip students with a conceptual and structural understanding of the technology that is somewhat independent of the specific tools and transferable. I believe this approach to be of more lasting worth as many of the digital tools students currently use are continually revised and some will be obsolete before they graduate.
II. TECHNICAL TRAINING: Hands on experience with hardware/software and the introduction and development of a range of skills and techniques. Electronic-digital media artists depend upon the products of the discipline of engineering in order to make artwork enforcing a very different working environment from that of traditional practice. When artists engage electronic and digital tools, a negotiation occurs between methodologies of traditional art practice and the value system inherent in the tools themselves. This negotiation is implicit and is at variance with conventional understandings in pre-electronic artwork reshaping artistic practice to suit a new set of tools. My approach to teaching software is project oriented. This allows students to develop a critical skill base that informs the use of software as a set of tools to realize the concept and conscience of their work. I view this strategy as different from a vocational instruction and of more lasting worth to the artist as digital tools are continually updated.
III. CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT: The fostering of the creative skills of invention, self-motivation, and self-criticism. There is a lot of discussion in these classes. I believe it is very important because the students are developing a new language and participation in the critical assessment of other people’s work as well as the students own work is a useful creative developmental tool.
IV. STUDIO PRACTICE: The development of a visual literacy skill base and the ability to assemble eloquent conceptually sophisticated images, emphasizing to students that traditional studio practice is critically important to the development of an art practice in this field. As digital technologies have become more visual, there has been an upsurge of interest by the scientific and technical community in traditional skills of the artist (a skill base that has long been ignored by this same community), presenting the artist with new possibilities and a valued role in the development and innovation of emerging technologies. My approach to teaching studio courses is project based. Each project introduces a new set of formal concerns and critical concepts. Students are encouraged to use the parameters of the project as starting points for the development of new ideas. The concept, style, and approach for each project is always the student’s own choice and forms as much of a basis for evaluation as the effect of the finished piece. Students are encouraged to take risks. An innovative approach to a project may be worth more in the development of the students’ art practice at this stage than one that follows a proven or predictable path, even if the result is not immediately effective. I view my primary role in a studio context as one of helping students solve problems and how to ask the right questions (both technical and theoretical) as they try to realize their ideas.