Abstract:

In the last decade, Art education has experienced important changes due to the introduction of entirely innovative forms of expression and communication. Digital technology is the critical factor to give birth to these forms.

In the digital era, the artistic laboratory and thus the entire Art education system is equally dynamic as the artwork itself.

Digital interactive artworks, and even traditional artworks subject to digital processing (e.g. video montage), require innovative approaches in their creative process structure, with this effecting seriously their aesthetics. These entirely new approaches also reflect on the educational methodology.

On the other hand, digital technology has created new facts regarding artist’s identity and relation with society. Social web and collaborative authoring platforms have removed the artists’ isolation and have established artistic communities that join forces towards batch modes of expression and production. This reflects on the educational process through collaborative and distance learning practices.

The Multimedia-Hypermedia laboratory of the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA) is built on the above ideas and has always dynamically acted towards the development of a new generation laboratory that faces the new challenges.

The basic principles that have evolved through 10 years of research are the following:

A.The artist is a member of an interdisciplinary group, in an interconnected laboratory.
B.The space for artistic experimentation, communication and life-long learning of this artist is a virtual space that we call meta-space. It is a special platform allowing the investigation of innovative concepts and structures that the digital environment encapsulates in its core. This is achieved by defining a conceptual multidimensional space that manages elements (e.g. sounds, images, texts, actions) and their ontological relations, rather than a virtual 3D space imitating real world through realistic landscapes and avatars. Special courses on programming concepts and structures complete and upgrade this meta-space. In other words, this meta-space is a self-evolving educational system.
C.In addition to handling artistic elements and concepts, this meta-space has the potential to act as a knowledge-space. This knowledge-space provides the artist with tools for theoretical (artistic and scientific) research. These tools enable advanced searching, as well as organization and classification of information. This knowledge-space is important as it allows linking of the artistic thought with other human thought disciplines (e.g. philosophy, mathematics etc). It communicates with external evolving systems, such as PLM systems, the semantic web.

Since the establishment of the ASFA Multimedia-Hypermedia laboratory, these ideas have moved on through personal research of its members, and collaborations with other universities, namely the Department of Art and Technology of the Image of University Paris-8, the Department of Sculpture of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the Tourcoing School of Fine Arts, the Digital Studios of the Goldsmiths University of London, the School of Arts and New Media of the University of Hull, and the College of Fine Arts of the University of Shanghai.

This paper presents a) the gained experience from these actions and b) the results and directions for further research towards a complete proposal for a future digital creative laboratory structure.

Keywords:

Future creative laboratory, virtual meta-space, collaborative experimentation, knowledge-space, self-evolving educational system.