Learning Spaces
Proposal for a Fine Arts Digital Media Lab
Prepared by the departmental chairpersons in Fine and Performing Arts
Downhill, courses that use elements of digital media technology are regularly taught in all our departments, each department has its own small 'in-house' lab dedicated to this purpose or uses other resources on campus aggressively, and sizable numbers of students are creating works in dance, video, studio art, music and other disciplines with these resources. Communication and informal collaboration among students and faculty increasingly occurs in this area.
Fine and perfoming arts faculty desire to increase this interaction, as an area of common interest that blurs distinctions among disciplines and builds bridges among our departments for both students and faculty. To serve even our present pedagogical needs, however, we all feel pressed with too little space for our machines and peripherals in our individual departments. We believe a shared downhill digital lab would provide an environment in which many of our courses could be taught and which our students could use for their projects. We envision an extraordinary level of synergy among our faculty and students as a result of working in such a unique space. Individual departmental spaces could then be more fruitfully used for discipline-specific workstations. Establishing a common downhill lab supported by Computing Services would allow this 'two-track' (in-house and interdepartmental) pattern of digital media use to flourish in a way that is realistic and sustainable.
Such a lab would function as both 'classroom' space and as open 'lab' or studio space. Flexibility of the space is the key to the pedagogical benefits we seek. Soft, movable partitions would allow classes to be held during daytime hours and yet permit students to work on individual projects. Lab use would dominate nighttime hours. We envision thirty computers on movable furniture, placed on a raised floor providing power and networking throughout the space. The computers would be provided with a 'common' software array, and perhaps a smaller number with specialized software for video, music, and still imagery. The movable furniture and soft partitions would allow pods of smaller numbers of machines to be arranged for classes as needed. Multiple start-up options, custom panels with all necessary plugs for data input, and common or individual storage provisions would insure maximum flexibility and usability for machines and space. Ceiling-mounted digital projections units, screens and whiteboards, indirect natural lighting and suitable furniture would complete this ensemble. Fine Arts faculty and chairs are convinced that a space that is large enough, furnished for both classes and lab use, would naturally encourage students in music, art, dance, cinema, and theatre to work cross-disciplinarily with each other in the manner just now emerging. Size equals flexibility, which together create maximum pedgogical effect. A state-of-the-art facility would be a recruiting magnet and a meaningful retention tool as it facilitates collaboration and community among students across disciplines.
Were such a lab in place right now, Cinema students could learn video editing in a classroom designed for this purpose for Cinema 310, 328, and 417/419. At present the program is making do with a small number of machines in its own facilities. Dance students in Dance 132, 232, and 284 are required to create a digital video journal of their performance for critique and creative productions, utilizing Pro digital video editing. At present they are constrained by having to use facilities uphill; a downhill facility would expand their capacity for using digital video for creative projects and documentation, and enhance faculty's ability to evaluate students. Visual art students in photography/digital media would have a facility in which they could more fully exploit video and sound for their projects, and the facility would support new courses such as **Alternative Processes: Historic and Contemporary** and **Color Photography and Digital Printing**, in concert with new printing/scanning equipment just installed in department facilities. Music, too, is limited by its present small in-house facility; it would use the new space to teach Music 216 Sound Recording and Editing, Music 217 Computer Music, Music 224 Advanced Computer Music, and Music Theory Labs (Computer Assisted Aural Skills). New courses might include a creative, technology based FYS and a interdisciplinary Digital Media Course (Art, Music, Cinema). Additional use would include continuous use for independent projects by student composers and computer music majors. Theatre, lacking facilities at present, would use the computer lab in Costume Design, Costuming, Makeup Design, Scenic Design, and Lighting Design. Photographs of different stage configurations, actors and textures can be imported into the design process; lighting and scenic design students will use the computers to see how their sets and light choices will look in three-dimensional views. Introduction to Technical Theatre will use the lab in the drafting process and teaching CAD to students. Visual arts students in Printmaking I, II, and III will use this lab to further explore the contrast between digitally-created and hand-crafted already begun on the small department facility, as Photoshop allows students to explore the nuances of halftones/filters and color separation. The common lab will provide the space and technology to fully exploit the existing Mellon-funded Epson 3000 printer. These are just a few of the immediate, positive pedagogical and curricular impacts of such a downhill digital media lab.
Fine Arts chairs and faculty realize that we assume a sizable responsibility in the scheduling for such a lab. We also realize that security and access issues would have to be addressed, and that qualified monitors would need to be present at night at least. We also realize that in asking for the downstairs 'dining area' in Mulberry House we are asking for trade-offs in our favor among the many groups that use this space. We hope, though, that the front 'living room' space can be retained for use by all groups and can also be outfitted unobtrusively with digital and sound projection so that fine arts classes and students could use it as presentation and discussion space as well. Perhaps also the dorm space in the upper level of Mulberry can be retained but rededicated to the digital interns as has been proposed for inclusion in the capital campaign. Such students are the logical choice as techs and monitors for this facility, and such proximate living spaces would be practical. In these ways we hope to minimize the impact of our request on campus space use.
Footnote (by Scott Siddall):
Imagine if you will a course in digital photography with eight students arriving in the new space. They position themselves each at a computer in a semi-circle to view one of two projection screens in the lab. Prof. Mouton shows examples and discusses the themes of their work as the students begin to create a sequence of imagery. Some students work in pairs, storyboarding their ideas on a white board that can capture their ideas digitally for them to print or download later. Once the students are working on their own, as Alexander moves about the lab advising each, they realize that a dozen music majors working at the other end of the lab are composing and editing audio tracks for their projects. A spontaneous exchange of ideas among several students leads to some to incorporate a sound track into their image sequences. They save their work, reboot their computers into a new configuration more suited for work with audio files, and incorporate a new medium into their projects. Later that day, other students in the printmaking class collaborate with students of cinema to explore digital video as a means to express their themes. Thus, throughout the day the space is used as both classroom and lab, and has provided new ways for our students to explore the relationships of the disciplines in the tradition of the liberal arts. The technology--which can be reconfigured and arranged “on the fly”--has broken down barriers to collaborative work among the disciplines. Students see new possibilities each day they work in this flexible space designed to encourage creativity and exploration.