Panel Statement
Panel: New Media Art Education in Central and Eastern Europe in the Last Two Decades: experiments and transition
I would like to look at new media education from the point of view of psychological, professional and social problems. It has been possible to see them during last 20 years in the education environment of Estonia and I am afraid that many of them have almost been forgotten. When speaking about psychological problems, is artistic imagination influenced by the medium of expression? Is imagination renewed with new media? I mean new media in general, not only so called “new media”. New technology, new tools, new equipment? Can we say that there is a specific talent, which is connected to a specific medium and if he or she does something else, then it is not good, not as talented as this? Is talent specific to a medium or is it universal? If we call anybody talented, then his talent will appear anyway, despite technological or social conditions, or not? Professional problems. Endless questions about how qualified an artist could be using a technical medium. How skilled should he/she be in using software and computers to work as an artist and author of new media? Social problems. Interconnected parameters of social interaction are the distribution of information, recourses and reputation. There is competition in the field of production of social notion and reputation which influences perception of quality of artistic production.
- Raivo Kelomees, PhD (art history), artist, critic and new media professor. Studied psychology, art history, and design in Tartu University and the Academy of Arts in Tallinn, ET. Presently working as the professor of the New Media Department at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Has published more than 300 articles in main cultural and art magazines and newspapers of Estonia since 1985. Book author, “Surrealism” (Kunst Publishers, 1993) and an article collection “Screen as a Membrane” (Tartu Art College proceedings, 2007). Doctoral thesis „Postmateriality in Art. Indeterministic Art Practices and Non-Material Art“ (Dissertationes Academiae Artium Estoniae 3, 2009).
Full text (PDF) p. 1343-1346