AIMS
The aim of undertaking Doctoral Studies at TAIK/Media Lab is to reflect on two deeply intertwined parts of my life and praxis — the first, 13 years of teaching the creative use of technology-based tools to artists and university-level art students, and the second, near 15 years as a networking artist. This period of intensive engagement has, for several reasons, not allowed for substantial organized research although it has been an exceptionally rich period of experience, exploration, and exchange.
Art, at its social and human core, is an action centered on the exchange of creative energies as they are attenuated by an infinite number of mediative (material) carriers. The artist is that person who seeks to engage in a dialogue of energies with an Other. These two proto-definitions are the basis of my praxis. The experience and wisdom gained in that praxis will directly inform my research.
Creative activities at the confluence of art and communication (science and technology) are taking on an increasingly important role in cultural production. The territory mapped by these activities, especially their impact on rapidly changing social structures and systems, is an area generally not well understood. Occupying the dynamic field of that intersection, while focusing on specific threads of interest, is a primary task of the doctoral research plan.
There are two general areas of research interest — 1) the creative learning experience as it affects the technological literacy of art students and artists, and 2) the use of networked computers and the conceptual space they offer as a locus for creative production. Drawing a closer focus are several specific research areas based in previous pedagogic and artistic praxis — they are outlined in the following paragraphs.
The areas specific to learning situations are 1) what media literacy means — that is, a developed critical viewpoint combined with a deep understanding of networked media — how it can evolve, and what are the results, 2) the development of critical contextual viewpoints on cultural production within “new media,” 3) the development of historical perspectives at the intersection of art and science, and 4) techniques for stimulating applied technical learning.
Between the speed of technological development and the evolution of a proactive media literacy within the population of the developed world, there is a significant and alarming gap. Despite endless media hype about the state of advanced technological systems in the developed world, there is still a definite lack of creative literacy about those very systems and their powerful role in society. It has been a constant challenge during the past few years to bring students to a holistic awareness of these issues. Creating situations for the relatively uninitiated art student to come to a principled understanding of technological issues demands an approach that embraces social, political, economic, moral, and creative issues simultaneously. Ideally, immersion in a broad synthesis of ideas and practices appears to be the path to follow — creating this principled context requires a high degree of awareness and sensitivity to an array of multi-disciplinary knowledge.
Specific areas of interest within the context of creative uses of networked media include 1) understanding the effects of tele-presence, 2) understanding the process of creating dialectic spaces within the virtual domain, 3) fundamental principles of energy exchange between humans, and 4) a deep awareness of the social process of networking.
One natural extension within engagement of technological systems is the creative occupation of the conceptual and real space they offer. How the artist enters and occupies this space is, of course, critical to the potential of creative energy movement in these public and social spaces. The precise characteristics of these spaces and what actually occurs within them affects the creation of dynamic content. Creating open events where the participant faces a set of technically and aesthetically defined possibilities often facilitates applied engagement. The presence of predefined conceptual thematics as is often found in traditional art practices seems to make a zone of exclusion that stifles creative action. It is possible to draw a conceptual parallel by saying it is like the artist carefully considering the process of constructing of a gallery space before creating the works that will then occupy it. This factor alone generates a challenging social dynamic in the networked creative process. Within a flux of communicative energy, definitions of content, author, and audience subsume and transform.
METHODOLOGY
To realize the goals outlined above, several strategies will be employed simultaneously: the creation of a custom bibliography on the issues; creating a “curriculum” or path of action; applying such a path in learning situations in the context of specific trans-national projects and workshops; and examining the results of these situations.
A good starting point for the research will be the creation of a pertinent and exhaustive bibliography specific to the areas of interest. Entries will cover pedagogic subjects, applied arts education, media theory, telecommunications, history of technology, cognitive science, creativity, linguistics, among others. (Please refer to the attached reference list that identifies some material as a starting-point.)
As formal knowledge of pertinent literature expands, the results of that research will feed directly in to my concurrent international teaching efforts. The classroom has always been one locus of my creative explorations, and the process of doctoral research will be a direct creative input. The specific goal is not to create a formalized curriculum, but rather to define ways of facilitating collaboration in a collective learning situation. Rigid curricular systems frequently place rote knowledge over wisdom and acquisition of information over experimentation. It is easy to teach the practicalities of technology — the challenge arises when attempting to stimulate students to explore creative possibilities at that complex intersection of art and communication.
The focus on dialogue and the construction of conceptual spaces wherein dialogue might take place “successfully” has been a developing theme in my work predating the creative use of digital network technologies.
For example, the MFA thesis project at the University of Colorado, entitled “Antithesis: Dialogue” took a critical stance on the social position of the artist by creating an alternative space (my personal living space) and inviting people to occupy it during a period of two weeks. There were no particular objects created to mediate the communication between the participants and myself, rather, it was the space that was created and subsequently occupied by over one hundred people.
Deeply intertwined with the networked and nomadic teaching — a project in itself — is a constant engagement in creative networking projects, either as initiator or participant. The action of network-building as a form of personal context construction is absolutely important in my whole role as artist-educator.
Three more recent projects in an ongoing developmental stage, neoscenes occupation, Cafe9, and Virtual Teams deal with the long-term construction of collaborative situations and human networks. These constructs become the locus of creative energy concentrations.
Neoscenes occupation is a very long-term project that has autonomously gathered former and continuing students from my various workshops as well as interested third parties in a part-virtual and part-real domain of collaborative networking. The experience of teaching in more than 30 university-level arts programs has left me with the overall impression that the effects of oppressive local hierarchies are directly destructive to localized creative environments. Neoscenes occupation is a delocalized forum where students may organize virtual and real events, share information and experiences, and engage in creative praxis — a positive answer to a predominantly negative situation.
Cafe9.net is an ambitious networking project sponsored by Helsinki2000 and Bologna2000. With eight partner cities, Cafe9.net will be a series of physical networking venues that will be the locus of participatory content provided by local and global organizations and individuals. Without describing the entire project in detail, as the global Content Coordinator, it offers significant opportunities during the summer and fall of 2000 to incorporate initial results of research.
Virtual Teams is a cooperation between the University of Lübeck and the Muthesius Kunst Hochschule (Kiel)/FORUM program. The initiators of the program — whose goal is the development of innovative paradigms for on-line collaboration — invited my participation as a facilitator and adviser. This situation presents a well-developed platform for the review and implementation of techniques developed during research.
All three of these projects and my international teaching are long-term network-building situations that offer ample opportunities to create smaller, shorter-term projects (or situations) of a creative nature that will reflect on the pathway and results of the doctoral research.
Clearly, there needs to be effective feedback mechanisms within the learning situation itself. Constructed on a philosophy of open dialogue and the establishment of a personal rapport with students that allows for open engagement and critical analysis of the learning situation, my teaching style directly addresses the issue of assessment. The establishment of dialogic spaces with a greater degree of openness stimulates the development of a more interactively critical view of the learning process. Research will examine other systematic sociological and pedagogic methods for analyzing learning situations to ascertain their pertinence in the assessment effort.
FRAMEWORK
Media Lab’s ongoing project, Future Learning Environment is a possible collaborative situation that could benefit from my applied pedagogic experience and technically literate background.
As a frequent participant in New Media festivals, conferences, and on- and off-line events and publications as an invited artist, writer, and participant, there will be ample opportunities to publicize the results of my research. My global professional and personal network of artists and educators as well as my on-line presence also forms both a potent resource and a field for the dissemination of results.
For practical (economic) reasons, my participation in seminars at TAIK in the year 2000 will be irregular, partly because of a lack of fiscal opportunities in Helsinki, my role in the Cafe9 project, and prior commitments to numerous workshops around Europe. For this reason, the first year will be used primarily for bibliographic research and simply exploring specific research opportunities within and around Media Lab. Timetable (contingent on my variable teaching schedule)
Jan 2000 – December 2000
creation of the working bibliography (concurrently engaged with neoscenes occupation, Virtual Teams, and Cafe9.net as well as international lecturing)
Jan 2001 – Dec 2001
creation of several pedagogic pathways
August 2001 – May 2002
application of these pathways in workshop-specific projects
June 2002 – May 2003
critical examination of results in the form of a hypertext resource
REFERENCES
Bey, Hakim, T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism, autonomedia, Brooklyn, 1991
Bohm, David, On Creativity, Routledge, London 1998
Buber, Martin, essay, Genuine Dialogue and the Possibilities of Peace, Frankfurt, 1952
Daniel, John, Mega-Universities and Knowledge Media: Technology Strategies for Higher Education, Kogan Page, 1996
Dovey, Jon, ed., Fractal Dreams: New Media in Social Context, Lawrence and Wishart, 1996
Friere, Paolo, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Sheed and Ward, 1972
Hannula, Mika, ed., Stopping the Process? Contemporary Views on Art, NIFCA, 1998
Shermann, Tom, The Finished Work of Art is a thing of the Past, 1995, https://www.artnode.dk/text/text_uk/sherman_t1.html
Shor, Ira and Friere, Paulo, A Pedagogy for Liberation : Dialogues on Transforming Education, 1987
Taylor, G. and Saarinen, E., Imagologies: Media Philosophy, Routledge, 1994
Vygotsky, L. S., Thought and Language, The M.I.T. Press, 1962
Vygotsky, L. S., Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes, Harvard University Press, 1978
Wood, John, ed., The Virtual Embodied, Presence | Practice | Technology, Routledge, 1998