Journal Article Abstract 2
Arts Education at the edge of the Net: the future will be moist!
Author of Article: Roy Ascott
From: Arts Education Policy Review v. 102 no. 3 (Jan/Feb 2001) pp.9-10.
Roy Ascott is a professor of art and director of CAiiA-STAR, an integrated research platform combining the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts, Newport, and the Science& Technology and Art Research Centre, Plymouth. Mr. Ascott introduces his research by stating that the development of interactive media has transformed the world of print and broadcasting, and the 21st Century will see a major shift in the world of art, calling for a total revision of the practices of arts education. Art will be transformed into the creation of a fluid reality, able to be spread all over the world. This connection will create new realities, artificial life, and intense explorations of unusual states of consciousness. Art and Science will collaborate and undergo a renaissance of world-building, mind construction, and self-creation.
Mr. Ascott says, “The key for students and their teachers to understand this new state of being is to see that language is not merely a device for communicating ideas about the world but rather a tool for bringing the world into existence” (p. 9). Interactive art includes digital programming, genetic coding, interactive performance, imaging, sound work, simulation, and hyper-mediated construction. The author terms Visionary Pragmatism to mean the breaking free of categories, intellectually and emotionally, and constructing new realities, new language, and new practices.
Mr. Ascott believes that current academic disciplines and categories of practice will dissolve by mid-century and be replaced by a new social reconstruction, a theory of society of Roberto Mangabiera Unger, the Brazilian thinker and Harvard professor of law. His theory describes an idea of work termed “transformative vocation”: “It connects self-fulfillment and transformation: the change of any aspect of the practical or imaginative settings of the individual’s life. To be fully a person, in this conception, you must engage in a struggle against the defects of the limits of existing society or available knowledge” (R. M. Unger, Politics: The Central Texts, Theory Against Fate [London: Verso, 1997]).
In my opinion, the world of interactive art may very well have a powerful impact on art and arts education, as we know it today. I believe there is a world of possibilities for the future of art, but equally so, I believe we need to strive to keep the history and the traditional arts alive somehow. Mr. Ascott seems to think that all of this will disappear and arts education will have to adapt or die. What he foresees in the future is fascinating though and I wish to learn as much as I can about interactive art. His idea of Visionary Pragmatism is spellbinding: “it’s about out-thinking present constraints in favor of a dream, then bringing that dream to earth. It’s about flying with your feet on the ground” (p.10). In my opinion, this description can refer to any kind of art, fine art as well as digital art. This philosophy can be taught to art students today, to have them strive to use their own ideas and imaginations in an effort to create original artwork that is entirely their own.
