(4.) Media Art Teacher: artismessy.org

paper relief, by Petra

While the above work isn't exactly new media, I thought it was too awesome to resist. This instructor (name is unknown!) is an art teacher is Shanghai, China and an alum of the Art Education program at NYU Steinhardt. Her previous background was in graphic design, and she's been keeping a blog of her interests, student work, and other miscellany while teaching. Currently, she teaches a graphic design class, Art 2, and yearbook for high school students. 

Not only does she teach media art, she also has created different websites for each class to display their work on the web, inform them of their assignments, and include other links that might be useful for their projects - for graphic design for example, she has included free font sources, additional add-ons for photoshop and illustrator, as well as other online resources to help out her class. 

On her sites, you can see the different requirements for projects, objectives, and vocabulary. It's a great resource for us teachers and students alike.

Below, please find links to student works in digital media.

CD Cover Project: Graphic Design 1

More Paper Reliefs: Art 2 Class

(3.) Someone who uses technology

Sibel Deren Guler is a maker/doer/artist who incorporates technology with everyday objects to create interactions that inform, interrupt, or create new perspectives of these daily tools - among other things. It's hard to say exactly- Deren studied physics in her undergraduate year and following received a grant from the Sprout Fund to create playground equipment that taught children how energy is created. This is a simplification of her concepts/what she does, but she incorporates "technological" devices such as sensors, motors, and lights to objects like a cutting board (so it can "scream") or using a simple motor/gear system to reflect a biological property. You can see her online portfolio here.

Her projects tend to take something as simple as a light switch and use that interaction to ask us: what happens with the switch? How do we turn a light on, and what is the mechanism that causes it? In her energy playground, children spin a wheel and the faster it goes, the brighter the light. Often, especially now, we take for granted the technology available to us and what we can do with it; Deren uses these mechanisms to nudge us a little and ask, how does it work? How can we change it?

(2.) OFF/ON PROJECT

For the Off/On project, I turned off my computer and cell-phone and used post-it notes to record the things I wanted to do with my computer and phone - while brainstorming analog solutions to those thoughts. Further exploration might be creating physical analog solutions to communication, or documenting how they might be resolved.

(1.) Technology and My Practice

taken from the Google LIFE image archive

In Photography

In the past, I've used negative scanners and photoshop to create digital negatives to make "old technology" prints (i.e. cyanotypes - it's advanced yet backwards cheating!). It makes it easier to enlarge negatives and make larger prints. It's also an interesting way for kids to learn basic print processes - for example, when I was at the Carnegie, I did a workshop with my students where we took a field trip to the natural history museum and posed with different animals in different exhibits - similar to the first travel photographers in the 1800s (well, supposedly anyway). I then printed them as digital negatives (using Photoshop) and we exposed them onto cyanotype paper in the sunlight (old technology) to learn about photography pre-digital. I don't think they understood completely, but it was amazing how amazed they were about cyanotypes and printing in the sun.

Now, I use the internet to inform my image-making process - I like sifting through the LIFE archive on Google Image to find pictures of figures or strange beauty rituals. For a time, I made drawings with figures that were often in "submission" or in positions of in-ability. Old photographs of hair salons and rural life seemed to contain imagery that resonated most with my work. It reminds me of the image archives they have at libraries, but online - still, it can be problematic because the imagery is so recognizable.

I don't feel strongly that either "ways" I use technology are concurrent with new media practices. 

always plenty of fish in the sea, gouache and walnut ink on paper, 26 x 40 inches. 2010.