WORKSHOP: CORE CIRRICULUM: BASIC TRAINING FOR ARTISTS
Saturday, March 28, 1:30 - 2:45 p.m.

PRESENTERS: DR. TIMOTHY BINKLEY, Former Chair, Graduate Computer Art Department, School of Visual Arts; LOSS PEQUENO GLAZIER, Director, SUNY- Buffalo Electronic Poetry Center; and DAVID SMITH, Professor of Sound, New York City Technical College
By: Kathleen Masterson

Three presenters from three disciplines - visual art, poetry and music - discussed implementation of a ‘core cirriculum’ for the arts in public and private universities during this workshop.

The first presenter, Dr. Timothy Binkley, commented that “Digital technology is based on nothing material, only abstract information... but interacting with a computer is [more] like interacting with a person in that you have to have a dialogue. So we have to teach people differently.” To this end, he stressed the cultivation of two qualities in the teaching in computer art: equanimity and resourcefulness. The former applies to developing skills to manage ones emotions in order to survive among computers; the latter to the importance of consulting documentation and experimenting when trying to accomplish something on a computer.

Loss Pequeno Glazier spoke next, focusing on language as transmission and about practice and materials. He described his vision for a website, or a “subject village” for poetry online. Such a site would not “collect everything.” He postulated instead the collection of an edited group of texts which would collect according to an editorial policy; disseminate print publications; serve as a gateway to electronic resources; provide ready availability of text; and consider the web itself as an instance of writing. He commented on the limitations of distribution channels for poetry, and the rise of bookstore chains, and discussed how online electronic space pages are an instance of writing in and of themselves, a collection or sequence of files, codes, and URLs. Electronic poetry, he said, both expands poetry’s range and transforms it from a paper- based medium to a more malleable form.

The third speaker, David Smith, opened with two questions to the audience. “Do technology and art impact each other?” “Yes,” the audience responded. “Has art always used technology?” “Yes,” they yelled again. “Okay,” Smith continued. “That cuts seven minutes off my presentation.” He went on to discuss his work as a composer and technologist, using slides to present some statistics about economic realities in music. One-third of opera budgets go to the orchestra, he pointed out, and music is the only area of operatic production that has not been impacted by technology. Ticket prices are driven up in part by the inability of orchestras to increase productivity, but the educational thrust at conservatories continues to be the training of orchestral players. Between eight and fifteen thousand violinists graduate every year in this country, he said, but only a tiny fraction find work as violinists. He then discussed the lack of course requirements at conservatories, in such disciplines as acoustics, for example. “The focus in music education,” he said, “needs to move to thinking about music more generally, and to use technology as a tool in helping us move our art forward.” He predicted new types of jobs and labor divisions for musicians such as Music Score Interpreter, Sequence Programmer (inputting actual notes), Sample Editor, and Hyper-Instrument Designer.

Smith then described his invention, the virtual orchestra, which integrates a network of computers and playback hardware intended to simulate, in real time, an acoustic orchestra. Its purpose is to support onstage performance in situations where costs prohibit the use of an orchestra, and he played a demonstration of the Nutcracker overture.

Questions from the audience prompted a discussion of the cost-benefit ratio of the “virtual orchestra” and what the benefits are of using electronics to simulate 19th century compositions. Smith pointed out that the machine can simulate any sound; orchestra is only one example. Cost effectiveness of the computer was also behind the transformation of the field of graphic design, as Binkley pointed out. Glazier remarked that in academia, the notion of cost effectiveness is a dangerous one, since the departments that earn more money - namely computers - tend to get more money. Communication in general, the panelists agreed, is becoming more and more digitally-based; Binkley noted that the first computer art class he taught had 40 students, and that SVA now graduates 300 computer arts students each year, most of whom have little trouble finding job placements. SUNY- Buffalo is launching a Masters program in Digital Arts next year; one audience member said that what happens at the college level is critical to what happens in K-12 level classes, commenting: “When I think about preparing kids to be your students, I’m astonished.”