Guildford College took a leading role in a transatlantic satellite lesson which was the opening act in the world’s first Mobile Digital Art Conference held in New York recently.
The first part of a collaborative image was created using classic Disney animation techniques brought up to the moment with the use of an art application on handheld touchscreen devices. Thirty media, IT and graphics students from Guildford College took part in the historic conference alongside students from the respected London creative arts college Central St Martin’s, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and the New York Institute of Fine Arts. Networking experts from Cisco Systems supported the project.
Students travelled to Central St Martin’s to link up via satellite with Tisch in New York where artists, designers, art app developers and musicians from around the world gathered for the MobileArtCon, organised by iAMDA (International Association of Mobile Digital Artists), to explore mobile digital technology and its impact on contemporary art.
Guildford College lecturer Paul Clarke, who taught part of the transatlantic tutorial, said: “Together we worked on a series of lessons based on the iDevice application ‘Brushes’. Students enjoyed creating what, for most of them, was their first piece of artwork on a mobile platform. Students from both colleges were integrated and each table produced an image of a tree which will eventually be assembled to create a forest picture.”
Students also interviewed Benjamin Rabe, a visiting artist from Hamburg, for the student magazine. Benjamin told them: "The UK hook-up was like a perfect glimpse at the future of what we're trying to achieve and what mobile art might have to offer to education: connecting people by collaboratively creating and sharing art. It was a joy to have this exchange with such a great group of open-minded and interested students. That bridge between America and Europe created by Paul and visiting artist Nettie Edwards carried the essential spirit of the whole conference."
The transatlantic session was filmed and the IT students made web pages about the day as part of their design brief, so that the content can be shared by other students at the college.
Paul Clarke said: “The students were completely engaged by the project and it was an exciting introduction to iPod/iPad art for them, bringing a medium which has a pleasing immediacy into the classroom.”
Solutions inc. were pleased to support Paul and the College in this exciting venture through the loan of iPods and iPads.
The UK students and lecturers, including the Guildford College contingent, link up via satellite link with their peers in the US.
