AUC Academic Conference 'From Virtual to Reality' The University of
Queensland 1996AUC Academic Conference 'From Virtual to Reality' The University of
Queensland 1996
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Paper Title:
Flash Out!: Hyper-Education and the role of the instructor in computer graphic design
Presenters:
Jeffrey Gaither and Shawn McKinney, Wanganui Polytechnic
Authors:
Jeffrey Gaither, Lecturer, and Shawn McKinney, Lecturer
School of Art and Design, Wanganui Polytechnic
Keywords: Design, Education
Faculty area: Computer Graphic Design
from a vocation to a profession
The latter part of this century has seen both graphic design practice and education struggle to reflect the shifting nature of their subject. Graphic design-and by association, educational systems which feed it-has undergone an awkward transformation. Where once commercial art was thought of primarily as a vocation, now that which replaces it, graphic design, demands consideration as a maturing profession, along with recognition for having developed more broadly defined social and cultural roles within the communities which it serves. Advances such as these assume increased levels of responsibility, particularly with regards to education. Evidence of this can be seen in the struggle to balance an emphasis on theory and methodology with a focus on advanced skills training in current design curriculums.
1984, introduction of the Macintosh personal computer
One event of the past twenty-five years may be seen as pivotal in the development of the profession of graphic design. Ironically, this same event involved the democratisation of what has become widely accepted as the graphic designer's tool of choice. Before the Apple Macintosh personal computer appeared in 1984, few design entities or educational institutions displayed necessary courage or funds to invest in the new digital "graphics tools" beginning to appear. Following its dramatic introduction on television that year, during the National Football League's Super Bowl in the United States, the Macintosh quickly went to work dispelling public perceptions which limited computers' effective roles to number-crunching and related non-creative uses. The last 6 years have witnessed rapidly accelerating usage and demand, over a wide spectrum of society. From government and business leaders to students of every age, from employees of institutions small and large, public and private, educational and industrial-most have taken the plunge and reaped at least some of the benefits made available by this new technology. And in the areas of graphic design education and practice, first individual machines, now networks of personal computers represent the digitisation of the profession.
education must benefit from change
To date, most educational programmes in graphic design have done a fair job integrating computers into existing curriculums. Students now enter the workforce boasting a deeper knowledge of software programmes and their productive applications than do many of their future employers. Yet as the potential and utilisation of computers in graphic design continues to grow, the skill base required also grows-at an alarming rate. Concurrently, widespread dissemination of its new tools threatens to damage and demystify the still maturing profession of graphic design and return it to its former vocational status. Graphic design educators therefore must demonstrate anew their abilities to cope with and even exploit current rapid technological change. Otherwise they may be called on one day to account for a diminishing record of success in preparing students to enter the digital workplaces and communities of the future.
the computer is just a tool
In the meantime, an ongoing debate targets the computer's status within the realm of graphic design. One line of argument suggests that the computer is just another-if the most sophisticated and conspicuously dominant thus far-of several tools we employ to produce our work. According to proponents of this view, the computer is not altogether different from the pencil, the rapidiograph pen, the process camera, or the XActo blade which preceded it. Simply, the computer offers designers more options and more time to develop ideas and concepts, as did previous advances in technology. Additionally, these same proponents tend to blame the computer for what has been perceived as a breach in tradition. The progress of years and the development of design institutions has born witness to inch after inch of precious studio, darkroom and desktop space being subsumed by computer equipment. Rapidly vanishing are many of the graphic designer's stocks in trade: copyfitting rulers, proportion wheels, tubes of paint and tins of coloured pencils, standing rolls of rubylith film and acetate, stacks of black board and sheets of mylar. Increasingly distant are the once familiar sights and smells: sticky sweet printing inks, darkly pungent photographic chemicals, atomic clouds of mounting spray, instantly vanishing streaks of cleaning fluid.
the computer is not just a tool
Interestingly, graphic designers of today employ the term studio less frequently to describe their work spaces. Most of us no longer work in spaces best described as studios, but rather, as computer labs. Accordingly, the other argument postulates that the computer must now be perceived as more than a tool. In the case of the computer, as Wendy Richmond suggested in a recent article (Communication Arts, March/April 1996), "the tool becomes the process which is also the end." The computer is the tool which serves to replace (all?) others-the typesetting machine, the photstat camera, the printing press; the tool into which others collapse. And within the technologically enhanced spaces which we increasingly frequent in order to create and produce our work, the machines that surround us, more than any other piece of equipment or architectural detail, create the very environment which we inhabit. These ubiquitous machines in their uniform grey plastic shells now deliver forth the very medium with which we create, the medium into which other mediums collapse.
from content to context
Ultimately, we must side with the latter argument. Today's graphic designer lists her/his area of specialisation as either graphic design or computer graphic design, in some instances both. At the Wanganui Polytechnic where we teach, the student to computer ratio is 1.5 to 1. Presently, we award a bachelor's degree in Computer Graphic Design. Both ratio and degree title reflect a tightly focused research and development component in our programme, as well as a close alignment with today's marketing needs. However, in the (not-too-distant) future we may feel it prudent to alter that name. To continue to believe, or even suggest, that the computer is simply another tool for the production of graphic design is to believe that we still have the choice to embrace or reject it. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we have passed the point of choosing whether or not computers will enter and influence most aspects of our lives. And as educators facing a digital future, we must now find more effective means to provide students with a broad, sophisticated set of skills to enable them to thrive in the field of digital graphic design. We must continue to assist each and every student in the development of his/her abilities to solve problems and express ideas, to produce effective products and to theorise about their making. Students should also be further encouraged to develop personal methodologies by which to troubleshoot computer problems (involving hard- and/or software) much like they overcome obstacles in designing work for a client. Finally, we must address the issue that designers no longer design merely objects (or contents), but rather, environments, situations, and virtual experiences (or contexts).
from multimedia to hypermedia
Enter: sound and motion, or time based media. The graphic designer of today is frequently called on to utilise sound and motion in the creation of hypermedia environments. Hypermedia represents a kind of quantum leap in the nature of graphic design practice and education. Hypermedia has emerged as significantly different from multimedia, with which it is often confused. Multimedia, in the sense we refer to here, involves the use of more than one medium in the production of creative work, such that the separateness of individual media and their territories remains distinct. For example, in designing a multimedia performance project, a dancer might collaborate with a graphic designer who projects typography on a screen behind the dancer, a fashion designer who designs costumes the dancer wears during the performance, and an architect who designs the performance space. Individual roles remain clear and distinct. Hypermedia, alternatively, involves merging several different mediums into one, through the use of computers. For instance, in a CDROM project, a graphic designer might collaborate with a computer programmer, a writer, and an illustrator. Judging the final product, it becomes difficult if not impossible to determine exactly who did what and where roles did or did not overlap. Thus, in the new, digital, perpetually unfixed environment of the computer, sound and motion merge with more traditional territories of graphic design to create, in effect, a new medium. Such developments have created opportunities and demands for graphic designers to assume more roles in, and influence more directly, the world they inhabit. One result: design educators face increasing and relatively equal new pressures from leaders of industry and incoming students. Now is not the time to shrink from such challenges. We must accept that graphic design has changed, rapidly and permanently. We must refine or replace outmoded educational structures and accommodate the changes taking place. We must renew within ourselves and our communities a commitment to forward-looking leadership and innovative education in order to further develop new technologies and markets as they become accessible to us.
skills versus(?) theory
But how do we do all this? How do we balance skills-the ability to make the most of computer hardware and related software, with theory-the ability to reason and reflect about what those skills are enabling us to make? At Wanganui Polytechnic, and presumably at other educational institutions equipped with wall-to-wall, state-of-the-art technology, the needs and desires of students seem by and large to favour skills over theory, practical application over critical analysis or discussion. Conflict arises from such a situation because tertiary teachers-increasingly MFA graduates armed with a fairly extensive foundation in critical theory-generally favour the opposite. Helping to perpetuate this, rapid growth spurts and sudden changes characteristic of the personal computer industry serve to further upset whatever precarious balance can be negotiated between skills- and theory-based education. Further, with only three years now required to complete a bachelor's degree in design programmes in many countries (New Zealand, Australia, England, etc.), how are to achieve or maintain such a balance?
collaboration points towards the future of hypermedia
One answer may involve an increase in activities of collaboration. Collaboration, in the sense in which we use it here, involves individuals working together, especially in some literary, artistic or scientific undertaking. Many design educators feel that collaboration may prove a key component in the future of hypermedia, especially as it pertains to interactivity. This multidisciplinary (and potentially interdisciplinary) approach constitutes that many participants, with respect to individual areas of specialisation, would collaborate on a project and pool their expertise. An example might be a typical CDROM interactive project, calling for the collective skills of a graphic designer, a filmmaker/videographer, an interactive programmer, an audio specialist, a photographer/illustrator, and a writer. Their activities would be further assisted and coordinated by a producer and/or project director. The products of such a team structure often exceed results achievable by an individual, or individuals, working alone. In fact, such a collaborative model mirrors current practice for producing interactive hypermedia projects in the real world.
specialisation, as it is usually understood
Surprisingly, perhaps, such a model would still also depend on specialisation. Consider present curriculum models. Presumably, most design programmes by now offer areas of study in both print based media and time based media. We propose-as conventional wisdom generally dictates-a student entering such a programme must indicate one of these tracks as an area of primary specialisation. Thus, by the student's third (and last) year in the programme, time could be devoted mainly to more particular studies and experiments in the broad area of their choice. Many current graphic design (or visual communication) curriculums function similar to this. Areas of particular specialisation often include: graphic design, interior design, package design, electronic media (video, audio), film, photography, etc. Unfortunately, once a student chooses a broad area of specialisation, such as graphic design, or even print media-within graphic design-it is often difficult, or virtually impossible, to take classes outside that area. Programme directors tend to blame this on such entrenched conventions as enrolment limitations, prerequisite or staircasing structures, or the territorial nature of academic politics.
specialisation, as a partner of collaboration
Can we pursue collaboration in design education, as we in turn promote specialisation? We believe curriculums must be (re)structured, so that students from different areas of specialisation can collaborate on joint projects, in order to better prepare for the collaborative environments many will inevitably experience upon entering the digital workplace. Given that we live in a world where boundaries between disciplines and areas of study appear to be dissolving rather quickly, emphasising collaboration then, might seem to be a logical choice in developing and contemporising today's curriculums. Yet experience tells us that many programmes, hindered by territorial insecurities and protests, will remain resistant to such changes. It is even possible that some educational institutions will choose to further divide, rather than consolidate, the areas of graphic design and electronic media. One wonders where (and whether) hypermedia will fit into such partitioned environments, considering that hypermedia by its very nature stresses the interrelationship between these areas.
is broad(er) exposure the answer?
Surely another direction for curriculum reform would endeavour to expose students to all potential mediums that exist within a hypermedia environment. However, this suggests a massive undertaking and threatens to graduate students who are too broadly trained with little more than a cursory knowledge of any particular design activity. To what degree do students value or benefit from the broadest possible exposure? Regarding the acquisition of skills, we must accommodate the needs of students and respond to the demands of industry to the best of our ability. But the grand investment of time and effort required to teach skills necessary for navigating most mediums leaves scant time for students to develop other abilities, such as the ability to think critically about process and products. The fusion of skill, content, and process seems to be at a disadvantage in this model.
skills in partnership with theory
With regard to hypermedia, design educators have little choice but to accept responsibility for teaching (and helping to prioritise) as many new and additional skills as possible. In the process, we will redefine traditional graphic design skills and roles. This may infringe on what many of us feel are the most vital interests of higher education: namely, theorising and experimentation. Nevertheless we cannot (re)turn an analogue gaze onto a digital world. A balance, a co-existence, a dialogue, even-between skills and theory-must remain a primary goal.
a curriculum based on the computer
In designing a curriculum to meet all these needs, perhaps we would do well to re examine the nature of the computer itself. The computer is randomly accessible and interactive. Hypermedia and hypertext structures allow for multilinear content. The computer allows users to create work integrating multiple mediums and platforms. Computers are upgradable and constantly evolving, forever in a state of flux, quickly adaptable to a rapidly changing environment. Generally, computers-by design-aim to provide flexible models for learning, and a means of equal access to learning, rather than privileging one particular ideology or group over another. It seems it would make sense, then, to model curriculums on the computer-on hypermedia-to mimic the very nature of the (new) medium. Therefore we wish to propose not the new graphic design curriculum, but a model for curriculum development, which stresses design fundamentals, yet provides for a balance between skills training and application, and critical analysis and theoretical consideration. We offer a curriculum upgrade which enables students to designate an area of specialisation, yet actively collaborate with others.
computer problem solving, troubleshooting
The attached curriculum upgrade attempts to strike this balance. This model both mirrors, and yet does a few things quite differently than, traditional graphic design programmes of study. One significant addition: students enrol in a learning module called computer problem solving. This would empower students with a basic set of experiential skills to tackle the numerous technical and other obstacles presented by the computer in a variety of working situations. This would also address students' difficulties and/or reluctance in teaching themselves new software packages. In the future, designers will be required to continually demonstrate the ability to grow and develop alongside the technology with which they work. Students should learn not only to solve immediate and pressing problems. They should develop the means with which to troubleshoot unexpected or relatively unfamiliar problems as they arise. Upon graduating, they should possess a broad understanding of computer systems enabling them to teach themselves new technologies as they emerge. Computer training presents unique challenges, to both educators and students, unlikely to diminish anytime soon.
computer practical, time based media
Another change: under our proposed guidelines, students will enrol in four semesters of computer practical, a skills-based class which centres on specific types of computer programmes used in hypermedia, including: page layout, graphics, imaging, interactive authoring, and time based media software. Another change would expose all students to time based media beginning in year one of the programme. One of the most difficult transitions for many curriculums will be introducing time based study into tradition-conscious, print based environments. However, it is essential that students are exposed as early as possible to time based media studies, and on equal footing with units of study generally seen as print-related such as photography, colour theory, 2D and 3D design, and typography. Why? Because all of these design fundamentals underpin the foundations of hypermedia education and practice as well.
collaborative workshop
We further propose that the final year of study bring the separate elements of hypermedia together in a workshop atmosphere stressing collaboration. This multidisciplinary class would be team taught, further enhancing the collaboration process. During the year spent in this workshop, students will also be strongly encouraged to complete electives of their choice, developing further their individual area(s) of specialisation and providing them with more unique skills, boosting their effectiveness as collaborators.
from graphic design to intermedia
Can a curriculum of this nature still qualify as a programme in the study of graphic design? Does the integration of sound and motion-of time based media-into the graphic design programme disqualify use of the term graphic design? Perhaps hypermedia design stands poised to replace graphic design as a more appropriate term for the various activities of designers working within a primarily digital environment. But the term hyper references specific technology, in what may soon be considered an unnecessary and nagging referent. With respect to the traditional connotations embedded in the original term, we hereby suggest the term intermedia design as a more apropos alternative to what was once known as graphic design. In doing so, we intentionally resurrect the spirit of those innovative and convention-bashing figures of the 1960's, the artists of the Fluxus movement. As a key part of the Fluxus lexicon, the term intermedia described the Fluxus way of working, the results of a piece and the materials utilised as part and parcel of a process. Fluxus artists often combined media-language, music, commentary, sculpture, image, etc.-in a effort to mix those same media beyond recognition. In essence, they aimed to create a singular medium, into which others would collapse. Intermedia is similar to hypermedia in this respect. In addition, intermedia implies a special concern for ideas, and thrusts part of the responsibility for creating meaning or communication back onto a viewer, who is encouraged to function as an active participant in the creative or communicative process. Intermedia, then as now, attempts to involve a viewer in a process such that the process can then be described as an interactive experience.
intermedia design: a curriculum upgrade
This model is based on contact hours, in keeping with most existing curriculums. This allows programs with differing credit hour requirements to adapt it to their specific, preexisting structures.
possible electives
Some electives would represent an advanced version of a core module. Others would feature a specialised investigation of a particular subject. The size, range and expertise of the faculty would constitute a major factor in determining the scope of offerings each semester.
illustration
3D modeling
online media
interface theory and methods
designer as author
narrative strategies
internship
image making
package design
publication design
exhibition / environmental design
book arts
letterform design
systems design
interactive media scripting
traditional animation
digital animation and special effects
video post production techniques
typography in motion
motion graphics
sound design
special topics
In addition, a design programme with strong ties to a fine arts department could benefit greatly by offering students the chance to take electives in classes featuring more traditional graphic and other processes. Courses might include: printmaking, lithography, serigraphy, letterpress printing, sculpture, and painting.
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Jeffrey Gaither and Shawn McKinney
School of Art and Design
Wanganui Polytechnic
53 Campbell Street
Wanganui, New Zealandph 64 6 345 0997
fax 64 6 347 6412
email: jgaither@whanganui.ac.nz
shawnm@whanganui.ac.nzBack to Home Page ...... by Presenter ...... by Paper Title ...... by Keyword
