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Valentino Catricalà, Alessio Tozzi
When we talk about the education system, we have to get to grips with a very broad theme which allows us to take several possible paths, bringing together multiple discourses, theories and models. These paths have long been explored by scholars and critics. So, in this text our concern is not to propose educational models. What we can do, however, is highlight certain practices that have been developed within universities, museums, companies and research centres, which are gradually bringing to light a new educational perspective in which artistic practice and the role of technology in society are combined with new theoretical models.
To this end, we will focus precisely on the relationship between art and technology. But one might ask – why?… We make this choice for two main reasons: the first is that today technology has a dominant place within artistic practices. In fact the new generations are, more or less directly, heavily influenced by a pervasive media system that is at work within our everyday lives. The second is that the technological medium, unlike more “classical” media, brings with it certain novelties that cannot be ignored: the fact that it is complex, conceived not only for artistic purposes, but also for many other uses and, therefore, inextricably linked to social uses and the world of technological development (made up of companies, research centres, engineers, technicians, etc.). To put it simply: artists, who are increasingly immersed in a hyper-technological context, working with digital technologies, themselves incorporate this new world, thus opening up new potential synergies between the worlds of culture and innovation.
Here, another question arises: what does this have to do with education? One first answer is that the emerging synergy between the artistic, cultural and technological dimensions could open up interesting vistas on possible new educational paradigms. Universities, research centres, museums and companies, which were previously separate entities, are now coming together to offer laboratories and research and production hubs where new artistic practices and innovative models of study can be tested practically. We need only look at what big corporates are doing, as they become ever more involved in building research centres involving artists and universities. We see this with Microsoft’s Artist in Residence project: in the Microsoft Research department of the US corporation, we find artist residencies, researchers at the service of artists, relationships with universities and study centres. So, too, in the Adobe Creative Residency, or in the Google Tilt Brush project.
This is not a new story. During the 1960s, at Bell Labs — scientific research laboratories owned by the AT&T Company (today owned by Nokia) — electronics engineer and researcher Michael Noll tried to create very basic abstract images generated by algorithms and mathematical equations with the aid of computers. When Noll presented the work at New York’s Howard Wise Gallery, AT&T public relations officers and lawyers called for the exhibition to be closed down, because the exhibition could have detracted from the important scientific work being done by the laboratory.[1] Times have changed a lot since then.
Art, Research, Innovation
Universities are educational institutions that need constantly to be brought up to date. In English-speaking countries, the strong connection between more practice-based and more theoretical modes has led to several interesting new forms of research. Take the List Visual Arts Center at MIT, in Massachusetts. The centre is a creative laboratory that offers artists a space to experiment freely, collaborating with engineers, scientists and technicians. Founded in 1985 as the MIT contemporary art museum, the List today has three exhibition spaces in which six to nine exhibitions are presented each year. In addition, within the university proper, there are many centres, laboratories and multidisciplinary programmes that bring experts together to explore new intellectual frontiers and address important social issues.
Another interesting example is the Arts at CERN programme in Geneva. Founded in 2011, its mission is to foster dialogue between artists and physicists, both of whom are invited to experiment with current hot topics. They are both called on to take a common path: from investigation in the context of new research to the production and sharing of results. It also has a programme of artistic residencies, exhibitions and events to propose a broader dialogue. In France, there is also Le Fresnoy — Studio national des arts contemporains, an institute for training, production and the distribution in the field of audiovisual and digital arts. It aims to enable young artists from all over the world to create using professional technical resources, in an environment without departmental barriers and open to all forms of expression. Its field of theoretical and practical work is open to all audiovisual languages, from traditional, optical and electronic media (photography, film and video) to digital creation.
In the UK, there is the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University, which opened in 2021. SODA aims to create a dynamic and innovative environment for art, design and digital production, in which people can express their ideas through different creative languages. Also associated with the SODA project is Modal, an art centre spread across several spaces. It corresponds to the school’s more strictly artistic development section, offering exhibitions, co-productions, workshops, etc.
Mention should also be made of the research and development platform of the Serpentine Gallery in London, which aims to bring together the back-end and front-end operations of the gallery in a single incubator, in order to facilitate a reflective dialogue that can lead to conscious progress. Meanwhile in the United States we can point to NEW INC, a project founded in 2014 by the New Museum in New York: it is the first museum-run cultural incubator that promotes innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship of people working at the intersection of art, technology and design. Through an annual programme of workshops, roundtables and working groups, NEW INC hosts creatives from different fields who want to expand their capacity to promote and support their work. Here, they can explore and catalyse new ideas, contributing to their own personal development and that of the NEW INC ecosystem. They moreover have the opportunity to present their research to industry experts, funders, creative directors and curators during the Demo Day. Also very important is the European Commission’s S+T+ARTS programme, a platform that aims to address social, environmental and economic challenges through the close link between technologies and artistic practices. S+T+ARTS is born of the conviction that collaboration between science, technology and art can open up new visions and perspectives for research and business. For this reason it also offers artist residencies and supports pilot projects.
Perhaps it is more difficult to develop these types of models in Italy, given its more rigid legislation, which still divides practice (fine arts academies and conservatoires) and theory (universities). However, we do find some example of excellence, such as the IULM in Milan. It is pursuing an innovative approach in the contemporary arts, capable of combining the more classic academic model with an activity that sinks strong roots in the local territory, with the promotion of research activities building on projects involving companies, museums, etc. In this sense we need only mention the IULM Open Space building, a Contemporary Exhibition Hall of some 800 square metres dedicated to exhibitions and events, and the IULM AI Lab.
Another interesting example is Bocconi University, which chose to invest in the Bocconi Art Gallery (BAG) to bring the university world closer to the cultural and artistic world.
Another Italian case worth mentioning is the engagement made by the MEET— Digital Culture Center in Milan. Over the years it has developed special research projects in collaboration with universities, academies and tech firms.
It almost seems like we can see a force pushing art (galleries, museums, art centres, etc.), research (universities, academies, etc.), and innovation (tech firms), toward a central point of unity. We see this in the growing number of projects oriented in this direction by each of the three types of actors, such as the Re:Humanism project launched by tech consulting firm Alan Advantage, or the projects of the Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Paris and Rome, and major events like the Maker Faire Rome — The European Edition, and so on around the world. All this points to a new educational model, in the hope that (if suitable structures are created), funding and vision for the future can be promoted in Italy, too.
[1] M.A. Noll, ‘The Beginnings of Computer Art in the United States: A Memoir’, in Leonardo, 1, XXVII, 1994, pp. 40-41.
