Minutes of the first meeting between the TNP for Arts Education (ELIA) and the TNP on Advanced Computing in the Humanities (ACO*HUM).

Amsterdam, April 17, 1997.

Present: Carla Delfos (Coordinator TNP for Arts Education / ELIA), Gerhard Jan Nauta (Area Committee on History of Art, ACO*HUM), Koenraad de Smedt (Coordinator ACO*HUM).

The meeting was intended as a preliminary exploration of possible cooperation between the TNPs. The desirability of such cooperation is apparent from the close relation between education in the creative arts on the one hand and history of arts scholarship on the other hand. The participants not only envisage a more efficient joint approach to selected goals, but also a fruitful transfer of knowledge between the different learning environments in order to match the creative viewpoint and the scientific viewpoint, especially with regards the use of advanced computing.

The following common points of attention and possible joint actions were established:

Learning about computing in art.

Artists and scholars are no longer passive users of technology, but actively develop new technologies for their own purposes. New computer techniques for the scientific analysis of art can also be applied to art creation, while creative techniques can also be used in analysis (e.g. image processing in visual arts, tempo quantization in music). Learning such techniques needs a transfer of current advanced practice between the scientific and creative environments. Both in art schools and history of art departments, however, teaching staff currently faces a lack of competence in advanced computing. Teacher training programmes in advanced computing and art need to be established, among other things.

Learning with computers about art.

The widespread use of multimedia technologies is starting to allow the efficient delivery of ODL courses which incorporate different art representations, including pictures, sound, and film. In addition, hypermedia makes it possible to design courses in more flexible ways such that it allows for different trajectories and perspectives with the same material. The specific potential of these new technologies for both art and history of art courses needs to be explored.

One concrete joint action could consist of the development of material for a course on European history of art, with suitable trajectories and perspectives for art students as well as for history of art students. DG X has expressed an interest in stimulating such development (Kaleidoscope programme?). If the steering committees of the two networks express an interest in such a project, the possibilities for it can be further explored.