Full disclosure on this cutting edge course - it wasn't my idea. One hundred percent credit goes to my friend, mentor and colleague Bonnie Baseman, who lost her 25 year battle with breast cancer 2 years ago. A quintessential arts advocate and educator, she identified several big essential questions around art and design and technology, which became the foundation for this class. We continued to grow and develop it together - we loved getting our geek on! One major tenet of the class is that it is always evolving with digital media advances. Embracing and discovering this evolution is, in fact, one of the goals of this class. The other important thing is that Art, Design and New Media IS an art class! |
For example, many have no idea what a file extension is or why it's important. And when they hit save - they have no clue where that file went. (And the ipads and cloud don't really help with that particular issue - but that's a topic for another day...) After sorting out these basics, we are ready to begin the layering of design principles with computer skills!
Here are some of the essential questions we are examining right now:
- How can we best use computers and digital learning experiences to enhance our academic experience and our lives? How can we use them creatively?
- What is meant by “digital citizenship?” What does being a good digital citizen look like?
- What is required to produce a media artwork that conveys purpose, meaning, and artistic quality? How do media artists improve/refine their work?
- How is this relevant for academic applications?
- How does understanding and utilizing artistic concepts enhance and support communication and academic applications?
I currently teach 3 sections of Art, Design and New Media and I amazed by the creativity and innovation I see everyday. So far we have discussed words as image, how color temperature can make shapes appear to advance or recede and how Étienne de Silhouette's unpopular financial policies in 18th century France became the namesake for old-fashioned silhouette portraits! Here's a mini-sampling of our work - and it's only October: