[ISEA2009] Panel: Joonsung Yoon, Dongho Kim & Keumsun Son – Educational and Artistic Practice for the Convergence of Art and Technology in Korea

Panel Statement

The Convergence of art and technology, and art and science has been pronounced loudly for a long time globally and locally. While the artistic practice of the convergence has been done practically and still goes on actively, the educational practice and its result are problematic and various following local contexts, which are educational systems, academic traditions, social understanding and cultural recognition.

Here, we, three professors will introduce and talk on the Korean college education of the convergence of art and technology using our practical experience for almost 10 years since 2000, and bring out problems in the education with our artistic-scholastic collaborative practices in media art. South Korea has been known as a well-IT-equipped country, but the traditional academic and educational system keeps two major divisions of art and science exclusively. Simply put, mathematics-based and nonmathematics-based, literature-based and non-literature-based, and art-based and non-art-based since the high school education.

We, educators and scholars, have made efforts to overcome the mutual lack at the college-undergraduate level education with our own actual collaborative practice. Various attempts include simultaneous obligatory classes of programming and art-expression in a semester, collaborative team projects for the mandatory final exhibition, and professors’ collaborative governmental, commercial and fine art projects. Those attempts have also been partly applied to the graduate programme that was established in 2004, and the graduate programme was selected as the Digital Media Division of Brain Korea 21 by Korean Ministry of Education in 2006, which supports the program for 7 years. The major issue of the suggested programme was the convergence of art and technology.

In the panel, conventional barriers and their sensitive breakages for the convergence will be discussed.

  • Dr. Joonsung Yoon ,Global School of Media, Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea: Introduction to Educational Programs for the Convergence of Art and Technology in Korea
  • Dr. Dongho Kim Global School of Media, Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea: The Technologist’s View on the Convergence in Education and Practice
  • Keumsun SonThe Media Artist’s View on the Convergence in Education and Practice