The following are links for my teaching materials:
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
As an instructor in installation art and digital media, I find that ideas generated by students may be powerful tools to enhance their future careers and provide a richer context for presenting their work in other curriculums. Fortunate throughout my career and studies, I have been privy to a vast range of professional, artistic, and progressive technological expertise regarding the visual and spatial arts. My experience has guided me through a process that fulfills the common goals of each of the institutions that I was assimilated within, with purpose and responsibility to the outcome of creative and research oriented endeavors.
Digital media art and technology progress rapidly in a constant state of flux, software and hardware capabilities are leap frogging each other at the rate of every nine months. The basic principles to these programs and technologies have parallel structures and conceptual models, thus one may learn to utilize the basics of these software and hardware technologies and assert principles relating to design, external interaction, software engineering principles, and real world validity.
Class demonstration and discussion is an open ended participation judging on the skill sets and knowledge of the students. I provide an environment of open communication, rewarding participation amongst the class to share ideas and provide insight into their experience and analysis for the material. This is a combination a traditional lab and lecture exercise, fortifying a culture that hopefully raises the individual investment, teamwork, and personal relationships between the students
Immersion within art and technology is an art form and skill unto itself. The digital realm has a new context for problem solving, an untraditional introspection that provides emphasis for analysis distinct to the scope of the software or online web based tools. As an instructor I attempt to engage the curiosity of students aiming their goals toward an aesthetic form or ideal to induce a desire for solving these manifested aspirations. This process provides each student the opportunity to think independently and raise their challenges.
As a teacher I attempt to guide the students into unfamiliar territory, providing connections to external elements and interests relevant to the subject matter. I provide activities, topics, and readings central to the immediate interests of the students, while utilizing these interests to explore the critical context of the inherent properties for the material. I attempt to identify the classes ability as a whole in the pursuit of advancing their knowledge and abilities, believing the virtuous mean lies between the two extremes. Each student’s progress is assessed by daily attendance to lectures and class discussion, participation, and the richness and elegance in which they perform class exercises.
Creative ideas and digital media education have grown in economic value; the power of the technological expertise of an individual may solidify a fruitful career both creatively and financially. Hence the gambit in front of a student must be an in depth knowledge of the practical application of the technology, the history of different genres and their use, and the professional motivations and applications of that result. As a professional in the industry and installation artist, I feel that the tools for students today have never been more powerful. I encourage students to set their creative aspirations high, as their own personal energy is the only inhibitor to their creative dreams and aspirations.