Just a quick announcement – currently the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation ICRA 2013, organised by the Institute for Anthropomatics at KIT, takes place in Karlsruhe, Germany. On May 10 a full day workshop on Art and Robotics: Freud’s Unheimlich and the Uncanny Valley will be held at the Kongresszentrum. See here for the programme, the list of speakers can be accessed here.

The Web stream of the main conference be accessed here.

photos/source via ICRA Website at ira13.org and http://uncannyvalley_icra2013.sssup.it/index.html

The research project MediaArt@Edu at KIT’s Institute of Vocational Education and General Education will be hosting the Hands-On workshop “moves make music” with the artist Onyx Ashanti over 27 to 28 February at KIT.

The workshop was developed in the framework of the BMBF research project InformAttraktiv of the “Digitale Media in Education” research group at the University of Bremen. It is part of the study profile on “artificial intelligence, cognition and robotics”, one of 3 study profiles in computer science in Bremen.

See here for Onyx Ashanti’s performance on the TED conference.

For further information please see here

Here is some information about Onyx Ashanti published on TED:

“Why you should listen to him:

Onyx Ashanti is a musician, geek, open-source advocate, Maker, collaborator … and we come back around again to musician. The intrumentation he has created fuses technique and technology into a full-body musical system, playable with hands, arms, mouth and body. As he says:

I am what can only be described as a cyborg musician. in other words, the music i create live, can not be replicated without technology. My music is called “Beatjazz.” It is a mix of sound design, live looping and jazz improvisation. My instrument of choice over the years has been a Yamaha Wind MIDI controller, but now the limitations have started to stunt the growth of this new form, so i designed an instrument that can take it into future.

He is now working on the next iteration of his instrument, codenamed Tron, and built around a helmet-mounted controller.”

It has been silent here for a while, which has to do with the ongoing research and teaching activities related to new projects such as the research project „MediaArt@Edu“ (ACRONYM), which looks at artistic approaches to support media literacy of young people in vocational preparation and vocational orientation programs.
It aims to develop new concepts to enhance digital media skills of young people. The project is co-ordinated by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology’s Institute of Vocational and General Education and realised in collaboration with the Center for Art and Media ZKM’s department of Museum Communication, the German Federal Agency of Employment Karlsruhe as well as the Hardtstiftung e.V. Karlsruhe, a youth welfare service for young women.

The project is funded for 3 years under the German research programme entitled „strengthening media skills for sustainable media education in vocational qualification” of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
It aims to scrutinize artistic approaches and new mentoring and portfolio concepts to be applied in media technology education with young participants of vocational preparation and vocational orientation programs. In vocational preparation measures outside of vocational schools, young people are prepared for work or to take up a formal vocational training place. They are placed in a transit situation, hoping to get employed in the future.
However, in the project, a new concept to support digital media literacy of young people is developed, tested and evaluated. It brings together concepts of art, technology and vocational education as well as a specific mentoring model including portfolio research books to improve processes of self-reflexion of the learners.

In the project students of pedagogy, vocational education, engineering pedagogy as well as art and technology education accompany the young participants of vocational preparation programs. We intend to realize an education-through-art approach to technology by means of introducing artistic processes with digital media as well as didactic concepts of art education to vocational preparation. By improving media literacy of the young participants, the project aims to motivate them imagining and shaping pathways towards their own vocational biography and a perspective of future employment.

For further information, the (German) Web site can be accessed at http://www.ibp.kit.edu/berufspaedagogik/media-art-edu.php
English information will be available soon as well.

Call for Papers

The Culture of Digital Education: Innovation in Art, Design, Science
and Technology Practices – Leonardo Electronic Almanac

Senior Editors for this volume: Lanfranco Aceti, Nina Czegledy and Oliver Grau
Editor: Wendy Coones
Junior Editor: Manuelle Freire

In an era of fast technological growth and transforming art forms there is an increasing need for educational flexibility by academic
institutions. It is essential to keep in mind that the profile of higher education in the 21st century is going to be very different to
what it used to be.
What is our role in this changing environment and how do we proceed? Deliberations on the prevalent trends and the future of education indicate that “innovation” combined with breakthrough partnerships are considered keys to the future.
The Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA) is inviting proposals from academics, critical theorists and artists for this special issue investigating the changes and innovation in the new culture of digital education. Relevant areas of interest addressed by the issue’s contributors could include, but are by no means limited to:

• Education, art, science and technology
• Education and social media
• Innovation at the intersection of interdisciplinary teaching and learning practices
• Crisis in the digital classroom?
• e-learning: give me that video link of your recorded lecture and let me be!
• Learning and teaching in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practices
• Ownership and copyrights of learning materials
• Economic crisis and classroom crisis: rethinking the economy of learning
• Brain Gain/Brain Drain: who gains and looses in the contemporary classroom
• Emerging countries, emerging universities and emerging interdisciplinary practices
• Hacktivist class: the class as research center
• Hybrid educational models
• Tactical Media and its progeny
• Histories of classroom methodologies and contemporary innovative approaches

For further information please go to: http://www.leoalmanac.org/the-culture-of-digital-education-lea-call-for-papers/

Abstract deadline November 1, 2012

via Roger Malina /LEF

This year’s Leonardo@Ars Electronica 2010 symposium focuses on the dual issues of interdisciplinary research in art, design, science and technology as well as relevant models of PhD degree studies. It is organized as a public event for media and art educators, teachers and researchers to take place on September 6 at the University of Art and Industrial Design, Hauptplatz 8, 4020 Linz, A&B rooms (see here for venue). The symposium is coordinated by Nina Czegledy, Leonardo/ISAST and Dr. Daniela Reimann, KIT, in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Angelika Plank, University of Art and Industrial Design, Linz and in conjunction with Ars Electronica. Please find below the preliminary program:

10.00
Welcome. Prof. Dr. Angelika Plank, Head Departments of Art Education and interim of Media Design /Teacher Training Program, University of Art and Industrial Design, Linz

10.15
Greetings: Representative of the Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture

10.30
Welcome: Nina Czegledy on behalf of Leonardo/ISAST

10.40
Introduction: Educational research and new models of knowledge transfer.
Nina Czegledy, KMDI University of Toronto, Concordia University Montreal

11.00 DI Christopher Lindinger, Ars Electronica Futurelab, Visiting Professor Media Design/Teacher Training Program, University of Art and Industrial Design, Linz Future Elevation

11.30 Dr. Daniela Reimann, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT, Institute of Vocational and General Education, KIT-focus “Humans and Technology”, researcher, and consultant of the Media Design/Teacher Training Program, University of Art and Industrial Design Linz:
Crossing the borders of arts, science and technology in education

12:00 Prof. Dr. Jillian Scott, Head Head, Karmen Franinovic, The Zürich Node of
Plymouth University in the Institute of Cultural Studies, Zürich University of the Arts
- www.z-node.net

12.30 Lunch Break

13.30 Dr. Lanfranco Aceti, Associate Professor, Contemporary Art & Digital Culture Sabanci University, Istanbul, Artistic Director and Lead Curator ISEA2011, Istanbul:
Transmediation of content and people across disciplines: The challenges of hybrid teaching and Hybrid Students.

14.00 Karen Lancel, artist and educator, HKU Utrecht, Academy Minerva, Groningen
currently developing a policy paper on practice based PhD studies. New parameters
for an online practice based phd.Case study: TELE TRUST

14.30 Michael John Gorman, Founding Director of Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin:
The Art-Science Interface and the public face of the research university: Lessons from the first two years of Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin”

15.00 Open discussion.

15.30 Closing Remarks

16.30 end of session

Symposium Abstract
An increasing need is manifested to develop new curricula informing innovative qualifications, new job profiles in the field of media design research and education, that is design inspired research, and design strategies including a research approach.
Working towards a sustainable convergence between educational research in design, science and technology remains a burning issue. The introduction of new forms of art practice and design at the intersection of media, arts, science and technology requires the introduction and application of distinguished qualification for educators. Yet in several European countries PhD degrees are not yet available in media arts and interdisciplinary studies.

What kind of new art genres are being developed by artists’ creative use of mixed media technologies, visual culture and communities and what is their impact on education? How is design research and education being embedded in the new modular curricula structures? What are the most effective elements of curricula to educate artists as well as art teachers for the future? Media design today is not only a means for research, but also an overall approach towards research shaping new possibilities opening up through design, design research (Laurel, 2004) as well as learning through (game) design (Kafai, 1994). The artistic aspects of interaction have been gradually explored and implemented within the framework of Interface Culture by Sommerer and Mignonneau (2008). An emerging tendency towards research orientation can be also observed as a broader trend in the field of arts and design. Interactive media art is blurring disciplines and has been reflected as a means to trigger and inspire creative processes in education (Reimann, 2006). The tool of design as social intervention is also becoming a hot topic for scholarly research as well as applied studies.

The changing media and art education institutions require an interactive debate on the conditions and evaluation criteria for developing new models for institutional networks and qualifications that allow implementing the media arts across curricula structures. Thus the symposium investigates through international presenters and open discussion the increasingly important issues of interdisciplinary research and higher teaching qualifications, including the initial art and design teacher training programs.

Aims and objectives:
To inspire an open discussion by educators and the public on burning issues towards developing an international dialogue.

For updates please access the Ars Electronica Web site here or the Web site of the Media Design Teacher Training @ the University of Art and Industrial Design for program details.

Please find the Web site of Ars 2010 here at:

One thing that does annoy me is the throwing around of unreferenced assertions. All these example are taken from papers I have reviewed recently:

“Many researchers say…… ”

“It is unquestionable that…..”

“Most students are…….”

“We have rapidly come to a point where….”

“There is a perception that….”

I like papers with attitude. And papers jammed full of references at the end of every sentence are extremely hard to read. Even so, I think that assertions of this kind need some evidence to back them up. Furthermore what does ‘most’ or ‘many’ mean.

In that respect I like the approach of the Welsh agency, Estyn. The purpose of Estyn is to inspect quality and standards in education and training in Wales. Estyn’s reports follow its guidance for the writing and editing of reports, which is available on the Estyn website (www.estyn.gov.uk). Estyn also publish a table, reproduced below, in the introduction to their reports, showing the terms that Estyn uses and a broad idea of their meaning. Whilst such an approach may seem pedantic, it greatly helps in understanding what they are saying .

Deschooling society introduced by Illich (1926-2002) who also taught at the University of Bremen, is a big issue in the current debate on reforming education and changing educational institutions (cp. Graham Attwell’s numerous posts on re-thinking schools and education on Pontydysgu.org). However, as we can see the concept of deschooling is not only discussed by pedagogues or in the framework of hacking and redesigning education, but has also become an issue in the arts, art education and curating:

“This two-day conference brings together international artists, curators, and writers to discuss and debate the changing relationship between art and education. Speakers have been invited to present critical ideas on collective and participatory practice, pedagogical experiments and how such art can be understood and discussed.

Deschooling Society takes its title from Ivan Illich’s seminal 1971 book, one of the most influential radical critiques of the education system in Western countries. Issues at the heart of that critique have been increasingly debated within the art world in recent years, and the subject of education has attracted renewed attention from artists, curators, academics, and collectives. Pedagogical models are currently being explored, re-imagined, and deployed by practitioners from around the world in highly diverse projects comprising laboratories, discursive platforms, temporary schools, participatory workshops, and libraries. Simultaneously, progressive globalization has led to a revaluing of the collective knowledge and agency of local communities.

The conference is a collaborative event marking the start of a Hayward Gallery research project culminating in the transformation of the gallery space into an alternative art school during Summer 2012. It also addresses the urgent issues that have arisen from the Centre for Possible Studies, part of an ongoing Serpentine Gallery project in the Edgware Road neighbourhood, and is the second part of the Serpentine’s collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, following the conference Transpedagogy: Contemporary Art and the Vehicles of Education at MoMA in May 2009.

Speakers include: Christopher Robbins (keynote), Martha Rosler (keynote), ARTSCHOOL/UK, Lars Bang Larsen, Dave Beech, Claire Bishop, Tania Bruguera, Marcelo Expósito, Harrell Fletcher, Jeanne Van Heeswijk, Pablo Helguera, Hannah Hurtzig, Suzanne Lacy, Pedro Lasch, Carmen Moersch, Nils Norman, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Paul O’Neill, Marion von Osten, Adrian Rifkin, Irit Rogoff, Ralph Rugoff, Terry Smith, Lisa Tickner, Gediminas Urbonas, Mick Wilson.

Panel session topics include:
- From Discursive Practices to the Pedagogical Turn
- Insertions, Alterations, and Rearrangements within Existing Institutional Frameworks
- Protest in Art School: Rituals of Power and Rebellion Since the Sixties
- Performative and Participatory Models for Exchange
- Presentations of artists projects and alternative art schools”

Click here for further information and check Hayward Gallery and Serpentine Gallery here.

text via e-flux, photo via www.southbankcentre.co.uk

However, in the context of arts&science and technology, I ran across the below conference entitled “ART AND TECHNOSCIENCE – Practices in transformation”. It is a conference organized by the Academy of Fine Arts in Finland, in collaboration with the Finnish Bioart Society and Pixelache festival, to take place over 24-25.3.2010 in Helsinki:

“The beginning of the 21st century is characterized by an overwhelming awareness of environmental issues. Facing the threat of global warming, the findings of scientific research have become a subject of intensive political debate. The ethical questions traditionally discussed in the green-wing marginals have become mainstream, as science has become a coffee-table topic.

The field of art that interacts with the practices of science and its technologies is commonly referred to as ART&SCIENCE. During the past decades, this hybrid field has become more or less established, with landmark works, major institutions and written histories. However, with the new wave of environmentalism, a further wave of artists working with methods and questions related to scientific research has also emerged.

The conference seeks to contextualize the practices of ART&SCIENCE both in the contemporary political atmosphere and the history of contemporary art.

The first day of the two-day conference focuses on the practices in transformation as a result of research-orientation and cross-disciplinarity, characteristic to the field of ART&SCIENCE.

The second day of the conference looks at the technologies of encounter between human and non-human worlds. The aim is to address the ethical discourse taking place in art practices which look at the interaction between humans and non-humans.

Speakers include Roy Ascott (artist, researcher, UK), Jill Scott (artist, researcher, AUS/CH), Andy Gracie (artist, UK/ESP), Ingeborg Reichle (art historian, DE), Adam Zaretsky (artist, US), Tuija Kokkonen (theatre director, FI), Terike Haapoja (artist, FI), Pau Alsina (researcher, ESP), Ulla Taipale (curator, FI/ESP), Anu Osva (artist, FI), Erich Berger (artist, coordinator ArsBioarctica, AUT/FI), Leena Valkeapää (artist, FI), Laura Beloff (artist, researcher, FI), Manu Tamminen (microbiologist, FI), Eija Juurola (forest researcher, FI), Raitis Smits (artist, curator, LV), Jan Kaila (artist, professor, FI), Antti Sajantila (professor, medical doctor, FI), Minna Långström (artist, FI), among others.”

Contact:
Erich Berger
Coordinator ArsBioarctica
eb@randomseed.org
+358-50-4338898

http://kilpiscope.net

Terike Haapoja
Artist, Phd researcher
mail@terikehaapoja.net
+358-50-4058341

http://kuva.fi

via sprectre

I would like to introduce you to Sandrine Han who holds the International Art Education Association (InAEA) in SL, a non-profit organization located in the virtual world of Second Life (SL) and on the Web.
She just developed the InAEA’s constitution and statement documents. Sandrine is a doctoral candidate at Northern Illinois University. Her dissertation is about distance learning and visual culture in 3D visualized virtual worlds. Her SL name is Kristy Handrick in Second Life. We had the pleasure to meet her with the students in InAEA’s representation in Second Life.

The International Art Education Association (InAEA) is a non-profit organization located in the virtual world of Second Life and on the Web. The goal of InAEA is to build bridges among art educators around the world and promote the importance of art education. InAEA is a free membership organization. Everyone around the world who loves art, education, and art education is welcome to join. All members are encouraged to devote their knowledge to the association, attend the monthly meeting, and post related articles on the InAEA website.
InAEA has held monthly meetings since October 2007. The InAEA meeting time was change to every Month the First Tuesday, at 7AM SL time.

For more information, please visit the InAEA Web site at: http://www.inaea.org/ or access InAEA in SL, or join the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=166051974787#/group.php?gid=165766354265

Since I work at the intersection of arts, design, computer science and media technology, am following the increasing interest in trans-disciplinary approaches being embraced by the research community in the field of arts, science and technology. As I addressed in earlier posts, there is an increasing interest of introducing the art practice based PhD in the framework of new study programs at art academics at the international level. However, one example of current trans-disciplinary research conferences I came across is the symposium entitled Claiming Creativity: Art Education in Cultural Transition presented by the Columbia College Chicago in partnership with The European League of Institutes of the Arts.

Interestingly the symposium includes a program strand on Arts, Science and Technologywhich outlines the following questions:

“-What are disciplines?
- What is between the disciplines?
- What is beyond the disciplines?
- Is art a discipline?
- Can disciplines talk to each other?
- Is technology a medium?
- How active is technological interactivity?
- How creative is science?
- Will the hype for social networking tip over into a desire for much more intimacy and privacy?
- Who is still interested in the millions of pictures of ‘my’ dog with a bent ear?”

What do you think about the questions? Are those the ones of most importance when looking at future education and development?

In the Leonardo Education Forum community, there is big debate on the issue of Arts&Science, especially addressing the impact of nano technology on the arts as well as nano arts.
However, the symposium is outlined as follows:

“Claiming Creativity seeks to re-position creativity as a driver not only for our economies, but also for art making, for transformational processes, and for social and cultural development and change. The working assumption is that the vitality of our common future is linked tightly to creative practice in many forms. This symposium will place artists, designers, architects and other active “creators” and those who teach in the creative disciplines squarely at the center of these important conversations along with leaders in industry and commerce who share an interest in the life of the imagination and its value to society.

Educators and other leaders in the arts, business, science, commerce, industry, public policy as well as other areas relevant to the symposium topics are invited to submit proposals to present research, works in progress, case studies, or summaries of research already completed that have the potential to stimulate lively and productive debates among symposium participants. Proposed presentations must include room for participant interaction so that the symposium sessions will be as interactive as possible.

A special feature of Claiming Creativity is the symposium online forum, which will be available beginning January 18, 2010 and will lead into the Chicago event. Successful proposal abstracts will be posted to the online forum for discussion by other symposium participants. These online discussions will provide additional ideas for special sessions at the symposium in Chicago designed specifically around the web forum discourse. Additionally, a symposium “journal” will be published through Columbia College Chicago’s academic press.
the workshops attached to it address Networked Realities / Receive and Respond:
Art paradigms exist on a continuum from the individual voice creating objects for contemplation to the engagement of groups in the performance of shared, responsive environments. This workshop tackles the notion of art as conversation, and considers the implications of interactivity on contemporary art practice.”
Further it addresses the topic of Unlikely Cohorts:

“How does Art compute Science? How does Science grapple with Art? Scientists and artists mediate the world with similar methodologies. They pursue inquiries with no preconceived answers. Research and artistic production lead both to creative analysis. As technologies thrive, more information is available for interpretation and scrutiny creating new arenas for scientists and artists to work collaboratively. This workshop will look at these areas of intersection to consider ideas of research, creativity, and new untraditional partnerships.”

What are your experiences in cross-disciplinary working and learning and how do you cope with working in between disciplines and learning cultures with students and pupils in formal and informal education settings? Looking forward to your comments.

For details about the symposium and the submission requirements please visit http://claimingcreativity.com

Here is the detailed information on Leonardo Education Forum , LEF @ARS Electronica 2009

Broad goals of the Leonardo Education Forum
The Leonardo Education Forum LEF is a working branch of the “Leonardo/ISAST – International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, San Francisco. Leonardo ISAST serves the international arts community by promoting and documenting work at the intersection of the arts, sciences, and technology, and by encouraging and stimulating interdisciplinary collaboration.
The Leonardo Education Forum LEF promotes the advancement of artistic research and academic scholarship serving practitioners, scholars, and students who are members of the Leonardo community; LEF provides a platform for collaboration and exchange with other scholarly communities.

Recent initiatives
Currently, a LEF group is working on an international initiative to interrogate the gap between arts, science and technology in education, with a focus on questions such as: “Media Art Education in the 21st Century – what can be done? What are the most inspired educational goals for the 21st century?”
Initial focal areas were identified as;

• The role of Curricula: Mapping the terrain
• The role of Institutions: Institutional / Organizational Capacities and Benchmarks
• The role of Research in media art & science & technology

A culture of research orientation can be seen as a wider trend in the media arts. What kind of new art genres are being developed by artists’ creative use of mixed media technologies, visual culture and communities and what is their impact on education?
New curricula have to be developed, which inform new job profiles of artist researchers and new qualifications. Innovative forms of art practice are being introduced at the intersection of media, arts, science and technology. What are the most effective elements of curricula to educate artists as well as art teachers for the future?
The changing media and art institutions require an interactive debate on new conditions and evaluation criteria for developing new models for institutional networks, which allow implementing the media arts across curricula structures. In January 2009 a short strategy summary, outlining focus issues and an action plan for a white paper on policy analysis and planning in media and new media education, was circulated. This was based on international meetings of experts and educators at Mutamorphosis, re:place, ISEA 2008 and ARS Electronica 2008. These meetings revealed that, although most of the sub questions in the identified focal areas overlap to one degree or another, there is also the need to add a discussion of,
• network-centric and intercultural learning methods and processes.

The LEF@ARS09 education session continues this process of international consultation and aims to further the development of a trans-national approach to research, looking at innovative models for educating media artists in the future.

Outcomes
This meeting will provide the opportunity to summarize the participants’ input on the focus issues (by means of working groups) and to identify a Steering Committee with leaders for each of the focal areas (which may be modified in the course of the discussions). After the meeting(s), the steering group will, among other things, lead the development, via email forum discussions, of longer papers containing strategic recommendations on policy analysis and planning in media art education in each of the focal areas. These recommendations are intended to outline a vision of education transformed by the context of new learning cultures, rather than one that relies on tweeking traditional models of pedagogy. This material will then be edited into one document intended for stakeholders in the field (practitioners, educators, researchers, theoreticians, historians, etc, as well as administrators and policymakers. The text will also be submitted to the Leonardo Journal of the International Society of Art, Sciences and Technology.

Hosts
Nicoletta Blacher (AT), Head of the Ars Electronica Center, Head Education Programme
Angelika Plank (AT), Head of Department of Art Education, Kunstuniversität Linz
Christa Sommerer (AT), professor, Department of Media, Interface Culture
Ars Electronica Futurelab

Organisers
Nina Czegledy (HU), LEF co-chair, board of Leonardo and Leonardo/Olats
scientific committee,
Daniela Reimann (D/AT), LEF representative Germany; Kunstuniversitaet Linz, Art Education
Lynn Hughes (CA), LEF representative, Concordia University Montreal

LEF @ ARS 2009 program

Friday, September 4, 2009, venue: ARS Electronica Center AEC, seminar room

9.00
Welcome by Leonardo Education Forum
Nina Czegledy, Ellen Levy, Andrea Polli, Daniela Reimann, Roger Malina, Victoria Vesna
on behalf of LEF

9.10
LEF initiative: state of the art & the White Paper
Lynn Hughes Nina Czegledy, Daniela Reimann
(presented by Lynn Hughes)

9.30
Keynote host: Nicoletta Blacher, Head of the Ars Electronica Center,
Head Education program

10.10
Patricia Olynyk, Director, Graduate School of Art Florence and Frank Bush Professor of Art; Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis/USA: Research/Creative work in Media Arts, Technology and Science in Academic Environments

11.00
Change of venue: University of Art and Industrial Design, Kollegiumsgasse 2, Audimax
see here on the map

11.30 Welcome by LEF: Nina Czegledy, Daniela Reimann Lynn Hughes

11. 40 Presentation of “Media Design” (“Mediengestaltung”) the new Teacher Training Programme for secondary schools of the University of Art and Industrial Design, Linz
Angelika Plank, Head of the Department of Art Education, Kunstuniversität Linz
University of Art and Industrial Design, Linz

12.30 lunch break

13-13.30
Presentation “Migrating Art Academies”, Mindaugas Gapsevicius, Vilnius Academy of Arts/ top e.V., Berlin

Discussion
14-15 Introduction to Working Groups – Daniela Reimann

Working Group Session (3 Rooms)
1. The Role of Research in media art & science & technology (Lynn Hughes, Dusan Barok)
2. Curricula: Mapping the terrain (Claudio Rivera-Seguel, Monica Bello)
3 . Institutions: Institutional / Organizational Capacities and Benchmarks (Maria Cristina V. Biazus, Annette Wolfsberger, Virtual Platform, NL)

15-15.15 Coffee break

15.15- 16 Working group session (3 rooms) continued.

16.15- 17 Working group summary session

19.30 Prix Ars, Brucknerhaus

Saturday, 5 September, 2009
venue: Kunstuniversität, Kollegiumsgasse 2, Audimax

10.00 Welcome by LEF: Nina Czegledy, Daniela Reimann Lynn Hughes

10.10 Christa Sommerer, Professor for Interface Culture, Department of Media,
Kunstuniversität Linz – university of art and industrial design,
The Cultural Interface

11.00 Coffee break

11. 10 Erika Pasztor, Head, Media Design Department, Budapest College of
Communication and Business: The future of media art and design is in the hands of education, but who will hold in hand the future of (this) education?

12.00 -12.30 Concluding session

Daniela Reimann, Nina Czegledy, Lynn Hughes

here is the detailed program as PDF file for distribution.

…and here is the Weather Pixie for Linz..

Dear colleagues,
As you are aware, we are working on an international initiative to interrogate the gap between arts, science and technology in education, with a focus on questions such as: “Media Art Education in the 21st
Century – what can be done? What are the most inspired educational goals for the 21st century?” The changing media and art institutions require an interactive debate on new conditions and evaluation criteria for developing new models for institutional networks, which allow implementing the media arts
across curricula structures.
In January 2009 a short strategy summary, outlining focus issues and an action plan for a white paper on policy analysis and planning in media and new media education, was circulated. This was based on international meetings of experts and educators at Mutamorphosis, re:place07, ISEA 2008 and ARS Electronica 2008.
The LEF@ISEA09 education session continues this process of international consultation and aims to further the development of a trans-national approach to research, looking at innovative models for educating media artists and art educators in the future.

This meeting will provide the opportunity to summarize the participants’ input on the focus issues (by means of working groups) and to identify a Steering Committee with leaders for each of the focal areas (which may be modified in the course of the discussions). After the meeting(s), the steering group will, among other things, lead the development, via email forum discussions, of longer papers containing strategic recommendations on policy analysis and planning in media art education in each of the focal areas. These recommendations are intended to outline a vision of education transformed by the context of new learning cultures, rather than one that relies on tweeking traditional models of pedagogy. This material
will then be edited into one document intended for stakeholders in the field (practitioners, educators, researchers, theoreticians, historians, etc, as well as administrators and policymakers. The text will also be submitted to the Leonardo Journal of the International Society of Art, Sciences and Technology.

Please find below the program of LEF@ISEA2009 Belfast, to take place at ISEA09, the 15th International Symposium on Electronic Art, on 29 August 2009 from 13.45- 16.45h, venue: BT Riverside Tower, Groundfloor

13.45 Welcome
Kerstin Mey Director of Research Institute of Art and Design,
University of Ulster. Artistic Director ISEA2009
Nina Czegledy LEF co-chair

13.55 Keynote Andrea Polli, Director, Interdisciplinary Film and
Digital Media Program, University of New Mexico,
LEF outgoing co-chair

14.15 LEF international initiatives & the White Paper
Nina Czegledy, Senior Fellow KMDI, University of Toronto
Adjunct Associate Professor, Concordia University, LEF co-chair

14.35 Introduction to LEF working group session
Daniela Reimann, University of Art and Industrial Design, Linz
LEF correspondent, Germany

14.45 Working groups
Focus:
1. The Role of Research in media art & science & technology
2. The role of Curricula: Mapping the terrain
3. The role of Institutions: Institutional / Organizational
Capacities and Benchmarks

16.15 Summary

We loook forward to seeing you. The next LEF event will take place at ARS Electronica Linz, 4-5 September at AEC and Kunstuniversitaet Linz.
LEF@ARS is hosted by AEC and the Department of Art Education at the Kunstuniversität Linz

Nina Czegledy and Daniela Reimann

…and here is the weather pixie for Belfast…

As we know, art and science are still organized rather separate from each another in most education systems both at school and university level, which is an internationally recognizable phenomena. However, innovation rather seems to be facilitated through bringing together diverse approaches, thinking models, learning cultures, qualifications as well as skills of people working together in multi-teams.  I am quite interested in more systematic approaches (as opposed to the single project initiatives which usually stop as soon as the project money is spent but the research still has to be done and reports have to be written) linking the arts, aesthetic processes and artistic strategies to (computer) science and technology, in order to innovate (media and art) education. Education is still strongly characterized by the ongoing reproduction of the old curricula as well as education and thinking models referring to a teaching tradition focused on single disciplines rather than facilitating interdisciplinary team based learning arrangements.  – Actually that’s why Nina Czegledy and LEF I introduced the Leonardo Education Forum’s initiative on media art, science and technology in education we currently work on , in conjunction with media art festivals and conferences I reported and will report about here).

However, in the context of the introduction of new study programs and trans disciplinary curricula, I came across the European School of Visual Arts POITIERS’ MASTER in ART AND SCIENCE program which is currently on call for applications. I am quite curious about the project based approach.  Hubertus von Amelunxen, the rector of the European School of Visual Arts/ École européenne supérieure de l’image Poitiers,  was the former director of ISNM Lübeck, International School of New Media, which he founded together with Michael Herczeg (director of IMIS/Uni LÜBECK) . In 2000 they initiated the research model project Theory and Practice of Integrated Arts and Computer Science in Education” (ArtDeCom) bringing together art, design and computer science in general education, which was then funded for 3 years under the German “Cultural Education in the Media Age“  (KuBiM) program.  It was followed by the KiMM initiative which started in 2004).

Here is the call:

”Unique in Europe, this Master’s permits motivated students who have a study project in art or science to do courses in art and epistemology and to :

- acquire a high level of competence in a specialization (art and science, epistemology, history of science, cybernetics, history and culture of techniques, cognitive sciences, phenomenology, text/image relationships, the use of digital devices in film making and live performances, in cinematography and in interactive writing and multmedia….)

- become independent in their research, with the possibility of developing a project in keeping with the main axes of the FORELL and XLIM-SIC laboratories, the European School of Visual Arts (ÉESI), the University of Québec in Montréal (UQAM), and the Centre de recherche en épistémologie appliquée (CREA, Paris) where they will attend team meetings, work presentations, meetings with researchers, seminars and meet visiting professors…”

Applications must enclose a concise description of the project.

Deadline for application : August 31, 2009
Contact person : Sophie Chrzaszcz, s.chrzaszcz@eesi.eu
http://www.eesi.eu – http://www.univ-poitiers.fr ”

Via art&education