1. What do you see as the connection between art and technology/digital media? Last year I think that you mentioned that you were originally an artist before transitioning to technology, so I was wondering what inspired you to transition to computers/digital media and how are they still
connected?
In this century, all media is digital. Music, video, and a wealth of visual arts have become digital and
increasingly other art forms incorporated digital media
such as theater, graphic design, dance, Opera, television
and film. Video editing and game design, have all been
"digitized". Virtual reality, augmented reality, hologram.
Lenticular prints and the use of enhanced human technologies promises a plethora of new artistic possibilities that are only now taking form.
Social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Vine and even Facebook constitute artistic forms themselves. YouTube is definitely an art form; it is a great means of self-expression and is inherently tied to the digital ecology and economy.
I was teaching Mechanical Drawing which is a form of architectural drawing using traditional tools such as pencils, T-squares, triangles and French curves along with dividers and scale rulers. With the advent of CAD which is computer aided design, we threw away those tools and use the computer to create floorplans elevations and perspective drawings. Architecture was the first industry to effectively utilize computers in a way that increased productivity minimized mistakes and was cost-effective.
So when the early 1980s I was teaching mechanical drawing and I studied CAD and gradually change my classes at Poly Prep high school from mechanical drawing to cat. New technologies emerged to such as Photoshop and Adobe illustrator transformed how artist and graphic designers created. In addition, the desktop publishing revolution with tools such as PageMaker and Clarke transformed an entire industry. I was involved with transitioning both of the
school year book in the school newspaper into the digital century. Our class and
architectural drawing also transformed into a graphic design and multimedia of course as a result.I was always interested in computer graphics and was inspired by NASA animations of satellites moon landings and
rocket launches which I had seen on television as a
child.
2. What inspired you to work on Quest For Learning and what did you want for students to take away the most from their experience? I remember that you said that you worked on this school that focused on game design as a way of teaching. I thought that this is a really cool idea and that I think that it would be great to have you talk about it possibly because it is really inspiring.
"Learn how to learn"