National Arts Standards Coalition Considers Media Arts

      The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) is considering the inclusion of media arts as a distinct arts discipline in their revamping of 1994 national art standards. This is my position of advocacy, refined over the past year:
      This inclusion would authentically reflect 21st century culture and creativity. The “traditional” disciplines have not, and are inexperienced in representing the full breadth and depth of media arts from cinema and animation to virtual and interactive design, let alone emerging "intermedia hybrids". In fact, it is highly questionable whether they would be able to do so with authenticity and coherence in fulfilling media arts potential as a distinct form. 

     If left under-defined, the rapid ascendance and proliferation of media arts outside of educational institutions and from other subject areas will continue to erode the perceived relevancy of traditional arts education. For example, STEM already includes multimedia production and game design through readily available devices and software, with little consideration of their cultural, artistic and aesthetic-design aspects. 

     The declaration and development of media arts as a distinct arts discipline will ultimately reaffirm the arts' “core” PK-12 status, particularly in 21st Century transitions. Media arts’ trans-disciplinary, “nexus” capacity will enhance learning for students by incorporating aesthetic perception and modalities through project and design-based learning that can integrate the arts and all subject areas. Furthermore, media arts specifically addresses critical literacies in media, technology and digital culture.

     Traditional arts educators may hesitate to embrace this inclusion, due to a perceived loss, or extraction of media arts practices out of their disciplines. But media arts is an overlapping form that creates a multiplying dynamic. It is both distinct and pervasive.  Its pure specializations within virtual and interactive design do not inflict on the other disciplines. And its forms can still be utilized within any and all arts disciplines and subject areas. Certainly, every teacher would benefit from some inclusion of media arts in their instruction. 

     This greater, comprehensive assembly of the arts is an embodied, cultural vehicle within education with great potential to benefit learning. Thus, this is a gain for students and for a more aesthetically astute  and media literate global culture. 

Unbinding Learning

      Fostering creativity, the naturally present capacity for effective adaptation, requires “unbinding” opportunities rather than constrictions. The artist’s studio is a completely open environment, shaped to inspire and promote internal dreams and motivations. The closer we can get to this “play-based" model, where we can discover what we truly want to do, the more students will become self-generative, self-reliant and self-directed in their learning.
     Media arts intrinsically promotes this creative-based, unbinding learning environment. It opens many more avenues for discovering, applying, practicing, manipulating and presenting content. And it is capable of adapting to and interconnecting any and all subject areas and arts disciplines. It is literally, the “intermediary” that can integrate them all.

   This has parallels in recent discoveries in cognitive science.

Creativity and Learning

     “Creativity” is biological. It is adaptation and innovation, or “learning”. It is how we find within ourselves the reserve for change and novelty towards unifying with our dynamic environment. Artists are continually involved in the essence of this process. If there is one word that describes the studio method of the artist, it is evolution. Artists' works evolve. I can’t think of one great artist who doesn’t embody this process of problem solving and adaptation towards new forms of unity. Artists are unique in living almost purely within this process in free-form as individuals with internal dreams and compulsions. Therefore, they have a certain expertise in the matter. Inventors and designers would come close to this, but they remain attached to practical and utilitarian outcomes. Any other “creativity” existing in society is in relation to a system or organization, be it an environment, family or a corporation.

      We should not mystify “creativity” as an elusive principle entirely exclusive to art, because everyone is certainly capable of it. Learning and creative invention is continual and pervasive for humans, even when we sleep. Our brains are hardwired to continually scan the environment, to find pattern and anomaly, to “make sense” out of chaos, and to solve the dilemmas of complexity. Ironically, this is compelled by our desire for complacency and security. These two forces, comfort and discomfort, are in constant, dynamic tension. Educators must master their dual representation in instruction. The classroom must be both safe enough and open enough for students to take the risks that foster the creative impulse.

Child-centered Learning

By “child-centered”, I mean that all learning originates purely from internal motivations. It is the intrinsic impetus towards adaptation, as a biological and social necessity. Human beings are highly adaptive creatures, evidenced by their capacity to adjust towards any environmental condition. Over millennia, we have evolved to be learning machines. Thus, it is virtually impossible for us not to learn.


Watching children unbounded in play provides ample evidence of this natural activity. Right now, Elijah (8) and Aksel (6) are setting up their new Pokemon board game. Intensive learning is fun, invigorating, riveting. Aksel demands to learn the game. If Elijah neglects Aksel’s involvement in setting it up properly and learning the game, Aksel is infuriated. He demands to know as much as Elijah. Elijah keeps reasserting his greater knowledge. He must negotiate with Aksel to both maintain control, and to let Aksel know enough to meaningfully participate. Otherwise, Aksel threatens to quit.

Holistic Learning and Media Arts Part 1

There are a number of novel scientific, philosophical, social and aesthetic principles that can dramatically shift the current industrial paradigm in education. I describe these principles as “holistic”, because they coherently nurture a multi-dimensional child at their center, and are based on improved understandings of the mind. This blog will present some of these precepts and demonstrate their implementation in the 21^st century creative practice of media arts.

Media Arts Institutionalized in LAUSD

“Media Arts” Teachers’ Specialized Status Board Delineated and Defended for Priority Rehire

From Ginger Fox, Elementary Arts UTLA Rep:

• Today the Board of Education met to approve the final budget for 2011-12. They also adopted the following:
• Board of Education Report No. 420 – 10/11

Human Resources Division

(Reemployment of Certificated Employees based on Special Skills and Training) Recommends

approval to first reemploy certificated employees with special skills and training from the

reemployment lists for the 2011-2012 school year; specifically, certificated employees who have

served in Dual Immersion language programs, arts educators as specified, members of design

teams at Public School Choice schools, and certificated employees who have specialized training

and experience in the International Baccalaureate program.

• This specific rehiring criteria was created due to the fact that Dance, Theatre, and Media Arts teachers do not currently have our own Single Subject Credentials, and therefore the District has historically placed us on other seniority lists. This action will give Human Resources the authority to pull Dance and Theatre teachers off of the English, PE, and Elementary/Multiple Subject lists. It will also separate Marching Band teachers from Choral teachers, and Media Arts from Art. This info is delineated in the 6-30-11 Board Materials, Tab 2, at http://laschoolboard.org/06-30-11RegBd