media installation from the final exhibition of graduating students in 1995

This article expresses a few personal ideas about changing the educational structure of the Icelandic Academy of Art to stimulate what is presently an introverted and socially isolated program. Although the suggestions are presented in relation to expanding the existing photography and electronic media program, they relate also to the general situation at the Academy in late 1994. (ed: not as prescient a text, at the twelve-year-retrospecting point, given the development of the Internet, but there are some valid points. and, the Academy went through a transition fours years later in which many of the recommendations herein were instituted. pity I had already left Iceland by that time.)

The importance of a challenging media arts program in contemporary art institutions is well known. Almost all academies and departments of art in the developed world are making regular use of photography, computers, and associated digital mediums as enormously powerful and flexible art/design tools.

To avoid the use of computers in the arts is to leave technology to the technocrats and to miss a valuable opportunity for artists to shape contemporary culture. We are living in a transnational world where powerful media images form the dominant system of social values. It is essential that a diversity of people have input into the generation of these modern image forms. At least some artists should take responsibility to first educate themselves (or be educated by others) in photographic and electronic media and secondly to use these media to express alternative views to those of the international market-driven forces. While the use of highly technological media in the creative arts is not necessary or even desirable for all artists, the computer forms the texture of the modern age and there are some students who will find that it is the expressive instrument of choice.

It is my belief that a strong critical program teaching the principles of photography and electronic media is the only way for art students to both understand the complexity of the modern visual world that they live in and to express themselves in the visual languages of the Age. Contemporary visual arts are directly influenced by the ideological trends of the modern media culture. A critical and technical overview of photography as it relates to cultural developments should be taught as a ground study to prepare students to deal with more technological mediums. Imaginative uses of the computer and other digital media should be taught as part of the normal curriculum of studies regardless of department. It is quite clear that most commercial design fields including industrial, textile, ceramics, and graphics are heavily computerized. The rapid pace of the "Digital Revolution" makes it necessary for students of design to have access to computerized design systems or else their education will leave them unprepared to enter the commercial world. Even the more traditional mediums like painting and printmaking have had regular contact with various photographic and digital tools. Of course photography and video are both fully recognized as independent media themselves, and new electronic art is currently an area of intense and eclectic activity. For example, the Internet as a unique social institution is breaking down hierarchical barriers, and itself is a powerful means of cultural change -- Iceland is a part of this trend, and it cannot be ignored!

The computer and the photographic camera are both tools that cross the artificial barriers between the existing "Departments" of art, design, and craft. Introducing these tools into a curriculum has the effect of breaking these barriers down to some degree. This characteristic of the computer and the camera has been used by other academies as a means to open and refresh the various disciplines which have become too self-contained and isolated. However, the camera and computer, per se, will not refresh the Academy program itself -- only a conscious opening-up to the possibilities of free expression and movement across these highly artificial barriers can transform what is presently a relatively conservative, traditional, and limited art and design program.

One possible alternative to the existing structure at the Academy is to establish a series of studios or laboratories loosely organized around the material needs of the existing departments -- that is, for example, a metal-working studio, wood-working studio, ceramics, litho, silkscreen, weaving studios and so on, including photographic, video/audio, and computer studios. These centralized studios, laboratories, and workshops would form the core of a new structure. Students would be free to access these studios outside of regular teaching periods as well as to study different technical mediums based on personal choice. Of course, for organizational purposes, some identification with a major course of studies might be kept, but students should be able to study different mediums throughout their curriculum. They should also be involved in creating a personal study plan instead of being rigidly held to a pre-formed schedule over which they have no control. The action of filling the students like buckets as fast and as full as possible with the "required" course work and technical information is the best way to kill off creativity. For example, it is not desirable for another rigid department (of Photography and Electronic Media) be formed that is isolated and self-contained. As stated before, the camera and computer are tools that can be utilized across many disciplines with parallel but specifically different results.

Having a studio system such as this would open up many kinds of alternative educational possibilities. For example, special short workshops could easily be arranged in particular studios when there are visiting artists. Summer and evening classes could expand the variety of courses offered to students. Continuing education classes would bring members of the community into the facility and also provide the possibility of raising funds to maintain and improve the studios. Regular classes might meet twice weekly for a few hours over a period of months in a particular studio, and students would study a number of different subjects simultaneously. This would require perhaps 20 hours of class time each week total, other times would be available for independent work. Teachers could also use the same studios to produce their own work, working side-by-side with the students. This reformed structure would also open up vital areas of inter-disciplinary studies and create new conditions for creative action.

Implementing such a program (in photography and electronic media) will require substantial material and personnel investment. Personnel hired to oversee such a structure must be well-trained in both technical and art issues. It is imperative to have strong and active management of both the physical facility and the teaching curriculum for such a program to survive and flourish. Any program needs to be ideologically and physically flexible to respond with the changing developments of the different mediums. Finances, always a miserable situation for the Academy, must be secured either from the government, or through various alternative possibilities including fund-raising activities, private donations and subsidies, or a continuing education program.

As an arts institution carrying the weight of Iceland's higher education in the arts, the Academy is entering a critical period in its development and all changes need to be carefully considered with respect to the following conditions (among others):

-- the quality of the creative educational experience for the students, -- the importance of the Academy to the cultural life of Iceland, -- the conditions under which teachers and staff work.

Since the Parliament has passed legislation to give the Academy university status and create a National Academy of the Arts, structural changes are inevitable. As those closest to the reality of the situation, it is important that students and teachers be in active dialogue exploring alternatives. Learning about alternative structures from the other academies in which the Academy is in close contact should be a high priority. There many operating photography and electronic media programs at universities and art academies around the world, as well as institutions with innovative general structures. It is now possible to draw on the combined expertise of many of these institutions through the Nordplus and Erasmus exchange programs, and through the Internet via collaborative projects.

Instituting change at the Academy is a collective process of dialogue between students, teachers, staff, management, and (outsiders!) through to the highest levels of the Ministry of Education. A clear and coherent policy needs to be formed now!

It is my hope that this brief article might add to this dialogue as an expression of action. If, however, in the dialogue, there are only words and no actions, the College will become ever more marginalized in the internal educational/social system of Iceland and in the greater European picture as well.

John Hopkins, Reykjavík, January 1995