The development of new technologies have continually changed and challenged our perceptions of cultural contexts and their resulting representation. From Leonardo da Vinci to EAT [Experiments in Art and Technology], artists have utilized the technology and media of the day to explore, process and express their world view.

Within the development of a digital media and technology program two key issues serve to defi ne our curricular focus. The fi rst issue is an analysis of the function of media within culture and the second is a defi nition of digital media. In Marshall McLuhanʼs 1964 essay, “The Medium is the Message,” he posed a signifi cant paradigmatic shift from a focus on the content that media disseminate to a focus on media and new technologies as shapers of social organization and interaction within the culture. This new social interaction was the ʻmessageʼ of the medium. While McLuhan was mostly referring to television, his emphasis on social structures can be applied to new technologies and specifi cally digital media.

Defi ning digital media is crucial for understanding how and why digital mediaʼs structure shifts its direct application and its resulting metaphors. In particular it is important to parse the unique aspects of a medium that so often appears in the form of traditional analog media. Lev Manovich has been instrumental in defi ning principles of digital media. Manovich underscores how digital information, while representing text, image, video, audio and code is all constructed from the same binary language. Because these elements use the same language one can sample, combine and process the elements into new forms. The structure of digital information allows for the easy development of multiple variations, nonlinear access, and the use of databases to access the same media elements in a variety of contexts.

With so much new media and new technology being processed and produced digitally, once disparate fi elds and their resulting data/information have become easily exchangeable. For artists this has resulted in a range of new metaphors, strategies and structures from which to develop new works. These strategies include the sample, the remix, the mash-up, distributed networked projects and mediated interactive environments, just to name a few. In addition, digital media have enabled distribution that allow for both localized and global audiences, participation and dialogue.

It was with a focus on the unique opportunities afforded by the study and application of new/digital media that in the spring semester of 2004, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukeeʼs Peck School of the Arts launched an interdisciplinary Digital Media BFA program called Digital Interactivity, Visualization, Animation and Sound [DIVAS]. The program is a partnership between the Departments of Film, Music, and Visual Arts. The inspiration for the program emerged out of the recognition that digital tools have facilitated a convergence in production, distribution and discourse for what had once been largely separate disciplines. Through the sharing of expertise and facilities we have created a program that offers students a structure in which to produce digitally mediated creative works. Now in our fi rst year, we have twenty-two enrolled students.

PROGRAM GOALS:

In developing the new curriculum we had five core concerns.

1. The program should emphasize an open and expansive interpretation of digital media, to include screen-based work, interactive environments, sound, robotics and other emerging technologies.
2. We wanted the program to have a research focus to center projects in content, the solving of problems and an awareness of cultural contexts. Students are constantly required to cultivate topics in other academic fi elds through the development of research bibliographies, writing assignments and reading groups.
3. We wanted students to engage with both programming and commercial software. We believe that students should have experience manipulating code directly because programming teaches students about the underlying structure of data and its metaphors. Later, this knowledge can be used to extend the capabilities of commercial software by developing unique scripts and programs for a variety of contexts including web, interactive environments and stand- alone applications.
4. We wanted students to have an awareness of media and critical theories. Students should be aware of their cultural context and engage in the dialogues of response and responsibility when making works for public consumption.
5. We wanted to encourage teamwork, collaboration and social networking so that students could develop and extend their own community of makers to serve as a source of information, inspiration and support.

The resulting DIVAS curriculum is a self-directed, research - oriented BFA in which students select studio and academic courses based on their areas of interest. Students use these courses to develop conceptual and technical skills to complete a sequence of independent capstone projects. During the second through fi nal year of the program students participate in the DIVAS Forum class in which collaborative learning, projects and research are encouraged.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:

The curriculum has been divided into four levels.

LEVEL ONE::

The first level gives students an introduction to the practices and histories from each of the core disciplines. The courses are Introduction to Experimental Film and Video, Digital Arts: Culture, Theory and Practice, Fundamentals of Music and one course from either Dance or Music. Students must obtain a B- average or better to be considered for level two.

LEVEL TWO::

Level two is a sequence of courses in which students develop skills and projects to be used for the entrance portfolio review. The courses include, Typography, Web Design, Intro to Computers and Music, Basic Elements of Video.

PORTFOLIO::

Students submit a portfolio which includes a web based project, a video, an audio composition, a work of their own choosing in any media, and a statement of intent. Portfolios are evaluated equally on the quality of the work as well as the statement in which students are asked to discuss their interest in the program as well as their anticipated trajectory.

LEVEL THREE::

Also called the DIVAS core, level three is comprised of an array of classes that get organized by loose categories of Two Dimensional, Three Dimensional, Four Dimensional, and Programming. Students are required to take a minimum of one class in each of the categories as well as an additional 4 courses. The intent is for students to develop self directed competencies to be used for their Junior and Senior Independent Projects. In addition students are required to take a minimum of 6 credits in Theory and Context.

LEVEL FOUR::

Junior and Senior Projects are student directed independent creative projects. The Junior Project is evaluated at three credit hours and the Senior Project is evaluated at six credit hours.

DIVAS FORUM::

The DIVAS program was started with a single new hire. As such, most of the courses that students in the program take are preexisting advanced courses within the host departments. The DIVAS Forum was designed to foster a sense of community, to collect common resources, and to facilitate student exchange and collaboration within the program. Forum is a one credit hour course that students take each semester from their second year through graduation. Additionally, students are encouraged to fi nd internship opportunities both in industry and/or within the arts.

CONCLUSION:

In describing the DIVAS program it is my desire to engage in the larger dialogue of how new media, digital media and art and technology programs are being structured. The DIVAS model is like a hypothesis that is just beginning to be tested through having our fi rst group of students move into the program. It is my desire to report about student response to the program as they move through it and complete the curriculum.

Any curriculum and program development is a group process. The DIVAS program was inspired by faculty from the Departments of Film, Music and Visual Art and the Peck School of the Arts Administration. Through a shared enthusiasm for digitally mediated art and technology and the need to integrate theory and practice the faculty and administration came together to shape and implement this curriculum. The following people were integral to this effort. Leslie Bellavance, W. Robert Bucker, Rob Danielson, LeeAnn Garrison, Lane Hall, Steve Pevnick, Jon Welstead, Rob Yeo and Richard Zauft.

More information about the Digital Interactivity, Visualization, Animation and Sound program can be found by selecting the Interarts link at http://www.uwm.edu/PSOA//

Works Cited:

The Language of New Media, by Manovich, Lev, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001
“The Medium is the Message”by Marshall McLuhan, 1964