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…

“Is this your luggage.com?” is a project by Luna Laboo. Since I am always worried about losing luggage on a flight (especially since we are not allowed to take a survival package in the hand luggage) I like the idea of this project, described on her Web site as follows, very much:

“I COLLECT LOST LUGGAGE, PHOTOGRAPH IT, AND THEN TRY TO FIND THE OWNERS.
IT’S A LITTLE ODD BUT NOT AS ODD AS STAMP COLLECTING, JUST A LITTLE HARDER TO FIND STORAGE SPACE.
WHEN A BAG GETS LOST THE AIRPORT OR AIRLINE WILL STORE IT FOR A WHILE AND TRY TO FIND THE OWNER.
IF THEY CAN’T IDENTIFY THE OWNER OF THE CASE THEY SEND IT TO BE AUCTIONED OFF WITH THE PROFIT GOING TO CHARITY.
I GO TO THESE AUCTIONS AND BUY THE CASES SO I CAN PHOTOGRAPH THEM FOR MY WEIRD VOYEURISTIC PASSION.
THE REASON FOR THE WEB SITE? I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO TRY TO FIND THE PEOPLE WHO OWN MY SUITCASES, SO IF YOU HAVE ANY FRIENDS WHO HAVE LOST A CASE PLEASE GET THEM TO HAVE A LOOK.”

Via www.isthisyourluggage.com

See also: Interview With Luna Laboo: Is This Your Luggage?

German speaking colleagues might know the BR online artmix.gallery series entitled “Hoerspiel und Medienkunst” I recommended earlier on the blog’s side bar (and kept it there as I am a collector). However, BR online now is on call for contributions for the “Techno Fossil” competition of the artmix.gallery:

“Media of communication usually disappear behind of what they’re trying to express: music, sounds, pictures.
Only when they refuse working, the machine itself attracts attention. Distorted pictures, noisy sounds, diffuse and disparate signals testify to the independent existence of the old apparatus. For this reason the new competition was created.

Dictaphone, cassette recorder, tape recorder, super 8 camera, rotary dial telephone, polaroid, shellacs, vinyls, commodore 64, cell phone: anything the analogue and digital range of technical devices offers.

By using allegedly “dead media” – reactivated, manipulated, maltreated – there are many possibilities to produce new radio dramas and videos, to create new stories and compositions.”

Please see here for terms of entry

Web site: http://www.br-online.de/hoerspiel

via BR Hoerspiel und Medienkunst-Newsletter

Please have a look at the below exhibition on Shared Robotics to take place from August 21th to November 29th 2009 in Odense, DK:

“RoboDays are proud to present the exhibition “Shared Robotics” at Kunsthallen Brandts in Odense from August 21th to November 29th 2009. In “Shared Robotics” two fields: robotics and contemporary art are fused.

Today robot utopias and dystopias have collapsed: Robots are neither slaves nor doomsday machines; on the contrary robots are an increasing part of our everyday lives. The exhibition “Shared Robotics” displays artworks that incorporate custom built robotics and converts industrial robots for new purposes. The exhibition seeks to show, how the actual coexistence between humans and robots can lead to creative developments.

The exhibition presents four very different art installations, each offering their take on, how the fusion of technology and art can create works that speak of our high-tech society and the technological and social implications it brings with it. For the exhibition a website has been developed: http://www.sharedrobotics.com, which takes you back in time and show, how robotics in a cultural perspective has been interpreted over time. The site is presented as a multi-touch wall in the exhibition and gives the audience a chance to explore and examine the various works.

Several of the participating artists are working directly from the idea that knowledge should be shared, not locked in copyrights and patents. It allows others to develop new projects based on the artist’s original ideas without restricting their use. At the same time the visitors get the opportunity to recreate and build on the art from the manuals that can be found at the exhibition.

Artists:
Sabrina Raaf, http://www.raaf.org resides in Chicago and has previously worked with robotics in her art. For this exhibition she cooperates with Danish industrial robot manufacturer Gibotech A/S, based in Odense to create an installation, where one of Gibotech’s robots is reprogrammed to cut corrugated plastic in large patterns. Over time, the patterns will transform into a sculptural installation spilling out on the floor or the exhibition space, evolving through the exhibition period. Sabrina Raaf is a DIVA residency artist supported by The Danish Art Council and is therefore staying in Odense, and working at Gibotech until the opening of the exhibition. Afterwards she will be present and work on the project during the exhibition opening hours. Visit http://www.robodays.dk to see when.

The Danish artist collective Illutron, http://www.illutron.dk, show their work “N7331227″ that brings an old industrial robot back to life. Using computer vision the robot has been equipped with the ability to see and have been programmed to read and reproduce the visitor’s drawings on a big wall consisting of 96 light bulbs.

The German artist Ralf Schreiber, http://www.ralfschreiber.com/ experiments with what he calls minimal robotics. Schreiber’s contribution to the exhibition is called “Living Particles # 58″ and consists of a room filled with rows of small robots hanging from the ceiling and creating an impression of life kept in a strict order.

Douglas Repetto, who resides in New York, is participating with the work “Foal”. “Foal” is a very simple mechanical robot, which in shape and movement resembles a newborn foal, staggering around trying to gain control over its legs. In the exhibition several small foals will stagger around on their uncertain legs. The artwork is an open prototype that can be built by anyone who wants to grabble with robotics and simple mechanics. In the exhibition you can also find instructions on, how to build your own foal.

About RoboDays
The exhibition is part of RoboDays Robot Festival from 10 to 12 September in Odense. RoboDays is an organization established in cooperation with RoboCluster at University of Southern Denmark and gathers knowledge about robotics in Denmark: http://www.robodays.dk/

Shared Robotics is supported by By- og Kulturforvaltningen in the Municipality of Odense, the Arts Council, the European Regional Development Fund and RoboCluster.”

Shared Robotics
August 21th – November 29th 2009

Kunsthallen Brandts
Brandts Torv 1
DK-5000 Odense C

Forside

Photos and text via e-flux

I just came across some new e-books available for download @MIT Press and thought to share the sources with students and colleagues.  You might know the White Paper version , we used it during the last semesters. However, here is the e-book:

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture, Media Education for the 21st Century by Henry Jenkins :

”Shifting the conversation about the “digital divide” from questions of technological access to questions about opportunities for being involved in participatory culture and acquiring the necessary skills.”

The  Future of Learning Institutions in the Digital Age by Cathy N. Davidson and David Theo Goldberg:

“Cathy Davidson and David Theo Goldberg focus on the potential for shared and interactive learning made possible by the Internet.”

Living and Learning with New Media – Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project, by Mizuko Ito, Heather A. Horst, Matteo Bittanti, danah boyd, Becky Herr-Stephenson, Patricia G. Lange, C. J. Pascoe and Laura Robinson:

“This report summarizes the results of an ambitious three-year ethnographic study, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, into how young people are living and learning with new media in varied settings—at home, in after school programs, and in online spaces. It offers a condensed version of a longer treatment provided in the book Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out (MIT Press, 2009). The authors present empirical data on new media in the lives of American youth in order to reflect upon the relationship between new media and learning. In one of the largest qualitative and ethnographic studies of American youth culture, the authors view the relationship of youth and new media not simply in terms of technology trends but situated within the broader structural conditions of childhood and the negotiations with adults that frame the experience of youth in the United States. The book that this report summarizes was written as a collaborative effort by members of the Digital Youth Project, a three-year research effort funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California.”

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 [dot] chrzaszcz [at] eesi [dot] eu
http://www.eesi.eu – http://www.univ-poitiers.fr ”

Via art&education

Google was yesterday, as they say, the new generation of future search engines which aims to contextualize terms and meanings, is on its way. I am currently playing around with EyePlorer, which is a graphical knowledge engine. “It provides an easy to use interface for exploring and interacting with a database of structured knowledge that contains more than 160 million facts.” EyePlorer (beta) is available at: http://www.eyeplorer.com

In the context of media literacy Nik Peachey wrote a blog post on “Note Taking Tool for Digital Literacy” and produced the video
BTW I recommend the De:bug magazine’s current special issue on search engines such as Wolfram Alpha and Eyeplorer. I am looking forward to seeing the De:bug magazine being embraced by the German media and art education research communities.

Here is the video:

graphic via Twitter/eyeplorer

This year, Ars Electronica celebrates its 30th anniversary and as you might know, the city of Linz is Europe’s 2009 Capital of Culture. However, the invitations for this year’s festival on Human Nature have been disseminated and I’d like to share the following abstract on HUMAN NATURE by Gerfried Stocker, artistic director of Ars:

“We are entering a new age here on Earth: the Anthropocene. An age definitively characterized by humankind’s massive and irreversible influences on our home planet. Population explosion, climate change, the poisoning of the environment and our venturing into outer space have been the most striking symbols of this development so far.
But to a much more enormous extent, the achievements of genetic engineering and biotechnology are the truly indicative markers of this transition to a new epoch. Now, we’re not only changing our environment; we’re revising the fundamentals of life itself—even our own human life.
Humankind has appropriated the mantle of Creator. Though we just barely understand how this functions, we’re already modifying entire genomes, constructing new organisms, cloning, creating and inventing new life.

We’re using innovative high-tech methods to observe the human brain while it thinks, so that we can now look behind the veil of our consciousness and see how our mechanisms of perception and decision-making capacities are reflected in our neurons. The long-established boundaries segregating nature and culture are breaking down, and we are once again confronted by the question of the essence of humanness and the nature of the human being.

Thirty years after its founding, this globally established festival’s mission remains the same—we are steadfastly dedicated to the pursuit of the curiosity that is so deeply rooted in humankind’s nature, and we continue to intrepidly peer far into the future. Our immediate objective: to once again foment a fruitful, fascinating dialog at the interface of art, technology and society.
The new Ars Electronica Center that debuted at the outset of this year plays a key role in this endeavor, in that its extraordinary exhibition concept is totally focused on the question of how scientific findings and methods are changing the way we see the world and our views of humankind.

Linz is Europe’s 2009 Capital of Culture. As a major contribution to our city’s big year, the festival’s first project is already being launched on June 17, the day the 80+1 Base Camp is being set up on Linz’s Main Square as the point of departure of a virtual ‘round-the-world journey that, following completion of its 81-day itinerary, returns to Linz just in time for the festival. There, 80+1 will culminate in a globally-networked symposium on cloud intelligence.

2009 also brings us to a joyous milestone: Ars Electronica’s 30th anniversary! As befitting this occasion, an intense retrospective look at the dynamic development of media art will be a key component of the festival program.

Led, curated and produced by artists and scientists—and inspired by their work—the festival’s jam-packed lineup of fascinating events constitutes, as ever, an expedition into hybrid reality and the future of our world.

So, just what is this going to be like, this new nature that human beings are going about engendering?”

See also for the virtual around the world journey 80plus1.org project.

via ARS

Web site: http://www.aec.at/humannature/index_en.html

Concerning LEF: We are about to finalize the program of LEF@Ars, the Leonardo Education Forum, a working group of Leonardo/ISAST, the International Society for Arts, Science and Technology. Soon there will be an update on our LEF@ARS09 panel to take place over 4-5 September, hosted by AEC (Nicoletta Blacher, head) as well as by the Kunstuniversität Linz – university of art and industrial design, Department of Art Education (Prof. Dr. Angelika Plank, head of the Department of Art Education).

Last year the media education students developed a teacher training about using wikis in education realized in collaboration with Department of Museum Communications at ZKM as well as the Ministry of education. Therefore we were discussing Semapedia software in the first place, as it links Wikipedia contents to the physical environment realized through the generation and reading of bar codes. However, a variety of educational scenarios for situated learning opens up using such technology with students and pupils at university and school level.

In the meantime even in Germany bar codes are to be seen in urban space. Some time ago, when I published a post on Semapedia in March 2006 and even 2007, things were different and we were struggling to solve the bar code reader problem, that is, providing all students with either a device or the reader compatible with his/her own cell phone was rather difficult. However, in the meantime technology improved in the field of online devices and mobile media. (For example you might access Media Arts Education on your mobile reading the barcode provided above).

BTW: Information of the ZKM Mobile tagging project is available at:
http://on1.zkm.de/zkm/e/projekte/mobiletagging