Teaching Philosophy.

In my experience of teaching, there are five things which are critical to working with art and technology. These are prioritizing research over software, contextuallizing practice within the historical and contemporary art world, emphasizing the collaborative nature of working in new media, facilitating community, and empowering the student's relationship to technology.

In the atmosphere of constant change, learning a specific skill set or software is not enough. The software students learn in school will most likely be obsolete by the time they graduate. I consider it of critical importance to teach students how to find and contextualize the knowledge they need, rather than mastering any particular body of knowledge. Finding and researching the information used to produce technology based art is a skill that can be be taught, and one that can be infinitely more valuable than learning whatever programming language currently in fashion.

Art, created with a computer or with a paintbrush, draws its concerns and content from lived experience and art history. It's critical to remember that new media art is deeply intertwined with the art that has come before, and is in constant dialog with the work being done in sculpture, in painting, in drawing, in performance and in writing. The ability and willingness to think critically and historically about ideas is indispensable in new media art. I work directly with my students to challenge, contextualize and realize their ideas in relation to the larger art discourse

Because of the complex skill sets needed for working in new media, it's seldom possible to create ambitious projects in isolation. In large scale projects that I've worked on with C-level, collaborations between teams of modelers, programmers and engineers (all with their own art practices, world views and conceptual approaches) have been necessary to bring ambitious projects into the world. At Machine it's not uncommon for five to ten volunteers to work together make projects come to fruition. In my teaching I encourage collaboration because for those interested in art and technology, collaboration is not a abstract concept, but the concrete, challenging and often exhilarating way to make ideas real.

Just as collaboration provides a method for production, community is a powerful model to conceptualize about how art is received and distributed. From my work with students, my collaborations with C-level, and my experience at running Machine, I have become convinced that the strongest art comes out of a community of artists. The conversation, critique, dialog and support that comes from being part of a community of artists has been incredibly important in the development of my practice. I attempt to convey to my students the possibilities of creating and participating in an artistic peer community during and after school.

Finally, almost every aspect of culture that is created today is deeply dependent on technology for it's production. Through litigation, the digital millennium act, and laws against reverse engineering, there are forces which attempt to turn the individual into a passive consumer as opposed to an active creator of culture. My interest in teaching unexpected, creative and unsanctioned uses of technology in the production of art is in direct support to the idea that technology is a tool which can be used by any motivated individual. It is not my expectation that every student I work with should or will become an expert electronic engineer, but by conveying the idea that technology is a medium which is available to anyone with interest and research skills, I attempt to empower the individuals relationship to the use of technology in cultural production.