Medialab-Matadero Madrid
Approach to Medialab-Prado: Simone Jones
I had the opportunity to participate in two Interactivos workshops: Interactivos?07: Magic and Technology and Interactivos?08: Vision Play. Both of these experiences were extremely rewarding for me. Although, my role was as a teacher, I felt that the environment and the MediaLab gave me a unique opportunity to learn about contemporary trends in media arts and culture. The MediaLab fosters and promotes a collaborative learning environment. It does this very successfully on a variety of levels:
1. Teams of teachers are invited to participate. This provides student/participants with multiple viewpoints. It also encourages teachers to work in a team/collaborative environment. I found this to be very stimulating. I valued all of the teachers that I had the opportunity to work with.
2. Student/participants work in teams. This promotes healthy group dynamics that contribute to the execution of projects. Teamwork also reflects contemporary working methods that many media artists need to practice in order to realize complex projects in the real-world.
3. Invited speaker/lecturers provided invaluable conceptual stimulus (based on the themes of the workshops). I thoroughly enjoyed attending the lectures and felt that they got people thinking about ideas. Often the speakers would reference historical themes that related to the contemporary topics addressed by the workshops. This was a fascinating addition to the workshop experience because it provided a framework for participants to think about their work and ideas in a larger cultural context not just in terms of media and technological tools.
I would evaluate the MediaLab-Prado as one of the top places to develop and explore ideas within a workshop environment. Two weeks is a short time but it also forces people to work in a very intense way. This has many benefits: projects do get completed and relationships between participants have time to be established. It is wonderful that so many participants came from diverse backgrounds/cultures. This was very important to me as a teacher and I believe it was very important to the participants also. A diversity of cultures adds to the dynamic, intellectual capacity of the environment.
If I could improve anything about the experience it would be related to the ?physical computing? side of the workshops. It was difficult at times to actually ?build? anything that was object-based (not just existing on a computer screen). I spend a lot of my time on a computer, but I also value turning my ideas into objects. A space dedicated to the production of objects (perhaps a simple shop? A ?dirty space? for making things) would be appreciated. Also, I am biased about this, but I found that many students were very adept at working with programming and software but they lacked electronic design skills and fabrication skills. If I had the opportunity to teach at the MediaLab again, I would like to design an ?electronics workshop? to teach people the basics of electronic fabrication and circuit design. There is a fertile relationship that can be established between software/programming concepts and electronic/analog/digital concepts.
Is the MediaLab moving to a new space? If it is, perhaps the new space could have a production space??as well as a clean space!
I don?t think the MediaLab should change how it runs the Interactivos? workshops. I think that it is important that the workshops are theme-based and projects are selected based on ideas. This is very important. If this model was to evolve, perhaps a second-tier type of workshop could be established for more experienced artists, not just young artists at the beginning of their careers. Perhaps this second-tier model could function as a form of ?master class? and it could be a smaller version of Interactivos?. This could be very exciting. Projects could be developed to a more advanced level and the results of the workshop/residency could be shown as an exhibition. Also critical writing about the art work could be produced by an invited theorist or curator. This would form an archive that could be published by the MediaLab and made available to scholars and the public.
On a final note, I want to congratulate you on your fantastic website. I visit it often to see what is happening at the Lab and to watch video of the lectures. I find it to be a valuable resource.
1. Teams of teachers are invited to participate. This provides student/participants with multiple viewpoints. It also encourages teachers to work in a team/collaborative environment. I found this to be very stimulating. I valued all of the teachers that I had the opportunity to work with.
2. Student/participants work in teams. This promotes healthy group dynamics that contribute to the execution of projects. Teamwork also reflects contemporary working methods that many media artists need to practice in order to realize complex projects in the real-world.
3. Invited speaker/lecturers provided invaluable conceptual stimulus (based on the themes of the workshops). I thoroughly enjoyed attending the lectures and felt that they got people thinking about ideas. Often the speakers would reference historical themes that related to the contemporary topics addressed by the workshops. This was a fascinating addition to the workshop experience because it provided a framework for participants to think about their work and ideas in a larger cultural context not just in terms of media and technological tools.
I would evaluate the MediaLab-Prado as one of the top places to develop and explore ideas within a workshop environment. Two weeks is a short time but it also forces people to work in a very intense way. This has many benefits: projects do get completed and relationships between participants have time to be established. It is wonderful that so many participants came from diverse backgrounds/cultures. This was very important to me as a teacher and I believe it was very important to the participants also. A diversity of cultures adds to the dynamic, intellectual capacity of the environment.
If I could improve anything about the experience it would be related to the ?physical computing? side of the workshops. It was difficult at times to actually ?build? anything that was object-based (not just existing on a computer screen). I spend a lot of my time on a computer, but I also value turning my ideas into objects. A space dedicated to the production of objects (perhaps a simple shop? A ?dirty space? for making things) would be appreciated. Also, I am biased about this, but I found that many students were very adept at working with programming and software but they lacked electronic design skills and fabrication skills. If I had the opportunity to teach at the MediaLab again, I would like to design an ?electronics workshop? to teach people the basics of electronic fabrication and circuit design. There is a fertile relationship that can be established between software/programming concepts and electronic/analog/digital concepts.
Is the MediaLab moving to a new space? If it is, perhaps the new space could have a production space??as well as a clean space!
I don?t think the MediaLab should change how it runs the Interactivos? workshops. I think that it is important that the workshops are theme-based and projects are selected based on ideas. This is very important. If this model was to evolve, perhaps a second-tier type of workshop could be established for more experienced artists, not just young artists at the beginning of their careers. Perhaps this second-tier model could function as a form of ?master class? and it could be a smaller version of Interactivos?. This could be very exciting. Projects could be developed to a more advanced level and the results of the workshop/residency could be shown as an exhibition. Also critical writing about the art work could be produced by an invited theorist or curator. This would form an archive that could be published by the MediaLab and made available to scholars and the public.
On a final note, I want to congratulate you on your fantastic website. I visit it often to see what is happening at the Lab and to watch video of the lectures. I find it to be a valuable resource.
Tipo de post
BlogPublication date
11/05/2010