aisyalam

1/19

Good news from Alabama is that a preliminary evaluation of the quality of the illustrations that Ben Polsky and I prepared was positive. My editor still has to run them by his production chief, but I am encouraged by his initial response. Now if only I can get the rest of the permissions, and remain clear headed enough to formalize the bibliography and re-read the whole thing one last time I’ll be ready to move forward into new realms.

I'm in the right place for that. Today I attended seven different portfolio presentation sessions of the FCM, and though weary by the end, an instructive set of hours in terms of seeing how the different programs within the FCM function. I was impressed by how clearly the different areas of study are unique and defined (for the most part), and the quality of student work was remarkable. Profoundly struck by the reality that MMU is, without question, a really high-tech art school, with extremely high standards. The first year students (“foundation” level) begin with the basics: learning about color, “temperature” of image, space, order & balance, & about the different types of expression (i.e., “isms”) that artists have historically used. They practice, to begin with, by painting, drawing, making sandcastles, and other analog forms. The teachers make them do “character” studies by taking an everyday object and personifying them with traits of people they know. At the next level, students have the option to do more painting, 3-D sculptural modeling, make crafts, and other types of mixed media (analog) work. Then, a leap happens into technology, and students begin to do all sorts of CAD works, 3D modeling, digital signage, animations, all pretty much directed toward marketing, branding, and promotion of products (keep in mind that MMU was initially set up (in many ways) as a “feeder” school for businesses in Malaysia’s so-called Multimedia Super Corridor.

The projects assigned to the upper-class students are quite intensive, elaborate, and demanding. For the most part they are very well handled, although one professor commented to me that he feels like he sees the same type of aesthetics year-after-year. Despite this, the work on display (and the processes involved with it) goes far beyond the level of sophistication I usually encounter at home. But of course I teach at a public tech school and not a futuristic private art academy. Although it is difficult for me to qualify fairly what I experienced today, the VR and Interface Design projects were really astonishing. The VR students are using 3 different platforms to produce work: VRML (virtual reality modeling language), 3D RAD, and Virtools; 24 different projects were produced, where students created environments such as: driving simulators, virtual campus tours, a virtual Haj, football training, virtual makeup shop, time travel simulator, Batu caves tour, virtual homes, a zoo fo extinct animals, virtual rock concerts, shipwrecks, rainforests, haunted house, philharmonic hall, and human heart simulator. Each project involved a short paper, web page, sketchbook, A1 (oversized) boards, and pre-concept billboard. They each involve multiple subjects, levels, or users. A lot of work goes into researching, ideation, modeling, prototyping, and presentation; 5 principles are used: environment, contact, character, interaction, and integration. Focus, emotion, space/form, and orientation are emphasized. The Interface Design students are also subjected to rigorous standards, also with further emphasis on the treatment and submission of ideas. The skills of concept visualization are wildly demanding, as is the programming they are required to do in AutoCAD and 3D Max (not to mention Flash, which is of course compulsory). And not only are they required to design interfaces that are suitable for presentation on the WWW, but also on PDA – which really throws a wrench into the works, as the interface is so much smaller. This involves inventing new types of data input mechanisms, etc. But design is only part of it: functionality and usability are also stressed. The Digital Media students, who perhaps operate under the most undefined (or amorphous) rubric, are expected to practice accurate, entertaining, interactive design. Creating powerful visual expression and workable installations are the demands put on this group. The real task is to choose and configure, from all of the possibilities for expression available, a combination of different elements, and that is what the professors are teaching them to do. Perhaps the most interesting of all the projects I saw during this group’s session was a new type of DJ booth that one student (with a welding background) had devised: a one-piece metal stand to which a one piece dual turntable was affixed). The problems facing the professors, as it turns out, was to prevent the students from making impractical objects/installations. Most of them were rather large in scale, and would be difficult to easily produce (which becomes their charge in the coming semester). Well, to summarize I have to say that the rigor required of the students was eye-opening, and I was also impressed that all of the professors in the faculty take a day, trudging from studio to studio, to review each others’ student’s works; that the Dean of the FCM also cared enough to attend as many of the sessions as he could, and was stern in his commentary (“we have to be very critical”) was also notable. All in a day’s work, apparently, at Multimedia University.

Back to bibliographizing tomorrow, then a couple of days rest. Aleatory has come down with strep throat, and since we’re all running ragged at this point some down time is needed before the final push on the research project that I’ve been working on forever. OK, mas tardes, CF