Faculty Burnout Panel Notes

Symposium:


Session Title:
  • Faculty Burnout?

Presentation Title:
  • Faculty Burnout Panel Notes

Presenter(s):


Abstract:

  • This paper will focus on that aspect of center/periphery relations which concerns the status of the electronic artist/professor in the educational system. Many will claim that the second industrial revolution, the computer revolution, has abolished the distinction between center and periphery in the art field. And, indeed, the marriage between communications and computers has produced tools that may allow us to carve a new shape for the art field. In my paper I will seek to sketch the contours of this endeavor and point out where educational institutions and electronic artistprofessors active in them may provide a crucial foundation for this reshaping of the art field. And, indeed, the marriage between communications and  computers has produced tools that may allow us to carve a new shape for the art field. In my paper I will seek to sketch the contours of this endeavor and point out where educational institutions and electronic artistprofessors active in them may provide a crucial foundation for this reshaping of the art field. I will focus the importance of developing a theoretical framework and critical concepts for the electronic arts. Such a conceptual framework will serve as a guiding apparatus for the art field, in order to make it accept electronic arts as an equal but different  art form, and not merely as a rather creative work produced by computers. The existence of this panel attests to the conceptual collapse of the centerperiphery perspective by raising identical problems for different geographical and cultural locations. Still, I will consider my geographical location as periphery. In Israel there are NO art (as opposed to art history)  departments in Universities; there are only art schools. Only one of those art schools grants the BFA degree and there are no MFA programs. However, the art field is thriving, and there are many indications that this anomaly in the educational system may soon change. The tension between the educational institutions and the few teachers of electronic art do exist in Israel.
    Since here we are at the beginning of the development of electronic art as a legitimate component of art education, however, it seems to me that we can draw on the experience of the center and present programs that will take into consideration the lessons learned in the center. In presenting this as an international panel, I think we can empower ourselves in our profession and present the educational systems with our unique and different role as artists/educators.

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