Re: [-empyre-] ~~NMR

[Anna Munster <A.Munster@unsw.edu.au>]

This is a very interesting and useful discussion and I'm hoping to take
some of it away to my never-ending attempt to rejig what I teach students
these days.  The question of whether to teach some computer science in a
new media course would, I think depend upon the orientation of the new
media course. That is, some new media courses are media and communications
based, some are robotics oriented, some are creative practitioner focussed,
some are design based. I know alot of the discussion on the list around the
NMR has been to try and hone down what new media is - as a field...and
hence what a new media course might consist of, and then  what kind of
texts and resources we use to supoort such a field.

But the actual growth of nm in artistic, media and institutional contexts
has been transdisciplinary...which tends to mean that a decision about
including intro to computer science in a course or not must rest upon
whether the course itself sees a collaboration with computer science as
part of the field out of which it has already grown.  I'm not entirely sure
that a new media course in an art school (which is where I work)
necessarily benefits from that kind of course. As Henry says, there are
already a number of *programming* environments that students find easyish
to use and are already working with them in their art. I tend to think that
a course in basic electronics, with a bit of extra tech hardware stuff like
how to hook up sensors, infra-red tracking etc - might be more useful...I
see alot of students struggling with end-display (and hence basic
conceptualisation of new media spaces for projects). But that's just from
an art school viewpoint. Having said that I do think there are some very
good 'computing for artists' courses around.

I'm also of the opinion that given new media is a transdisciplinary set of
fields, much more needs to be done to set up the infrastructure for genuine
collaborative learning situations. Instead of new media students having to
do everything ( in the degree I teach into there's a ridiculous expectation
that students master image, sound, video, 3D, web and interactivity) there
should be projects and units that bring new media and computer science or
robotics or database designers together to work on things. I know this
tends to happen at later stages - often in graduate courses - but I think
this needs to happen right from the start.  In addition this needs to be
backed up with theoretical and historical investigations of collaborative
practices in art, moving into what other models there exist for working
collaboratively - including film industry, networks, artistic couples
etc...this may seem self-evident to many of us who perhaps have experience
of all or some of these, but it isn't self-evident to students at an
undergraduate level.

I'd be interested to hear from people who have been involved in anything
like this - how successful it might have been, etc
cheers anna


all bodies are in a perpetual flux like rivers, and parts are entering into
them and passing out of them continuously.
Leibniz

Anna Munster
Lecturer in Digital Media Theory/
Postgraduate Coordinator
School of Art History and Theory
College of Fine Arts
University of New South Wales
PO Box 259
Paddington 2021

Phone: 612 9385 0741
Fax: 612 9385 0615