Media Arts Education

Archive for March, 2007

Workshop Mixed Reality – information meets energy

Sunday, March 25th, 2007

Iâ€™d like to point out the following call to you. Prof. Dr. F. Wilhelm Bruns, professor of computer science at artecLab – art, work, technology at the University of Bremen as well as Dr. Bernd Robben kindly organised the Mixed Reality workshop entitled “Mixed Reality – information meets energy” which will take place in the framework of the annual meeting of the German Association of Computer Science (Gesellschaft fuer Informatik e.V. (GI),
to be held in Bremen over 24 to 28 September 2007.

The call can be accessed here
(see here for the German version).

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Posted in Across the curricula, Conferences and events, Interface cultures, Reality-Virtuality Continuum, Uncategorized | No Comments »

documenta12 – The final question concerns education

Monday, March 12th, 2007

Documenta 12 Logo

In response to the 3rd Leitmotif of education, the CG arts conference to be held in Kassel during documenta 12 will focus on media art education. I support Tressa Berman, arts conference director, San Francisco as well as Marianne Wagner-Simon from Berlin. I will keep you posted on the details of the conference here on the blog.

Reading the texts about the 3rd Leitmotif of education again, there seem to be slight differences in the translation. Both texts seem to address education of artists as well as the education of the audience. Whilst the German text explicitly uses the term of aesthetic education (“Ã„sthetische Bildung”), the English text seems to look at a wider definition of education, perceived as an â€œalternative to the devilâ€ and the â€œdeep blue seaâ€. The latter becomes the â€œWarenfetischismusâ€œ in the German text. However, check it out. Here is the English version:

â€œThe final question concerns education: What is to be done? â€“ Artists educate themselves by working through form and subject matter; audiences educate themselves by experiencing things aesthetically. How to mediate the particular content or shape of those things without sacrificing their particularity is one of the great challenges of an exhibition like documenta. But there is more to it than that. The global complex of cultural translation that seems to be somehow embedded in art and its mediation sets the stage for a potentially all-inclusive public debate (Bildung, the German term for education, also means â€œgenerationâ€ or â€œconstitution,â€ as when one speaks of generating or constituting a public sphere). Today, education seems to offer one viable alternative to the devil (didacticism, academia) and the deep blue sea (commodity fetishism). â€œ Roger M. Buergel, December 2005 (source: http://www.documenta12.de/leitmotive.html?&L=1 )

â€¦and here is the German text:
â€žDie letzte Frage gilt der Bildung: Was tun? â€“ KÃ¼nstlerInnen bilden sich selbst, indem sie Formen und Inhalte durcharbeiten; das Publikum bildet sich, indem es Dinge Ã¤sthetisch erfÃ¤hrt. Wie man der jeweils singulÃ¤ren Erscheinung dieser Dinge gerecht wird, ohne sie in Schubladen zu stecken, ist eine der groÃŸen Herausforderungen, denen sich eine Ausstellung wie die documenta zu stellen hat. Aber es geht noch um mehr. In der Kunst und ihrer Vermittlung spiegelt sich der globale Prozess kultureller Ãœbersetzung, der wiederum die Chance einer allumfassenden Ã¶ffentlichen Debatte bietet. Ein Publikum zu bilden bedeutet, nicht nur Lernprozesse anzustoÃŸen, sondern fÃ¼r eine Ã–ffentlichkeit tatsÃ¤chlich zu sorgen. Heute erscheint Ã¤sthetische Bildung als die einzig tragfÃ¤hige Alternative zu Didaktik und Akademismus auf der einen und Warenfetischismus auf der anderen Seite.â€œ
Roger M. Buergel, Dezember 2005 Source: http://www.documenta12.de/leitmotive.html?&L=0

Posted in Across the curricula, Arts, Conferences and events, Interdiciplinary Arts Education, Teaching & Learning, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Inspiring New York

Monday, March 5th, 2007

At least my body seems to be back from inspiring NY â€“ still full of it. (I attended the Common Ground Arts conference held in NYUâ€™s Tisch School of Art last week end, see previous post).

Apart from linking up with inspiring colleagues and friends, there was a reception at Art in general where they also have a school program bringing together artists and education. Art in General works with two schools in Lower Manhattan, MS 131 Dr. Sun Yat Sen Middle School and HS 615 Chelsea High School:

â€œOur goal is to encourage collaboration between teachers and teaching artists through art projects that highlight and enrich existing curriculum. Our program exposes students to unconventional art practices and provides both the materials and guidance to make their own original artwork and the unique opportunity to show this artwork at Art in General.
Through collaborative lesson plan building, teaching artists work with classroom teachers, one day per week, for a period of twenty weeks. Together teaching artists and classroom teachers create lesson plans that enrich classroom curriculum and integrate the concepts and techniques of exhibiting artists at Art in General. Class fieldtrips to Art in General introduce the students to New Commissions artists. The program culminates in a final project designed by the student artistsâ€ (link: http://www.artingeneral.org/ education)

Very impressive â€“ the work and the initiatives of the education department of The American Museum of Natural History
where my colleague and friend Roberta Altman works in Education projects at the intersection of art and science and place based learning.
(The current exhibition is entitled â€œWhat makes us human?â€

I also attended a teacher training there of the education department. She introduced how to use the museum as an environment for learning. I was quite impressed not only about the size and the figures (about 35,000 visitors on a weekend, 600 pupils a day). It is such a rich resource for interdisciplinary learning. In NY, science is taught as a subject at elementary school level.

The Moveable Museum school program

Robertaâ€™s work links museum to education projects with underserved populations of elementary school students from low-income neighbourhoods in the South Bronx, N.Y. :

â€œThey participate in an ongoing interdisciplinary program with The American Museum of Natural History involving art and science in community and place-based learning. A program designed to link classroom, neighbourhood, and museum in a continual cycle of inquiry and learning engages children and teachers in expeditionary learning adventures culminating in artistically expressive exhibitions using the museumâ€™s model of integrating art and science as communication. While visiting the museum, children are exposed to the artwork, practices, and techniques of museum-based artists, getting ideas and experiences in the arts that can then be implemented back in their own schools.” (See also here).

BANK Street College of Education NY

She is a professor of art and museum education at Bank Street College, a private College of Education in NY. http://www.bankstreet.edu/ Bankstreet also has a Center for Urban Teacher Education & Technology (see also the Bank Street Bookstore on http://www.bankstreetbooks.com/)

Bank street Logo