4 - New media III

The aim of the New media module is to gradually upgrade the student's creativity and artistic expression through computer techniques and technologies, mobile technologies, internet, the various modes of words digital processing, images, sounds and movement, or to create within the digitally supported premises' installations (galleries, exhibitions) or performative contexts (stage, events). At the same time, the module aims to provide the students with knowledge and skills for a successful work in creative industries, when it comes to various possibilities existing within the media as such, and new media creative and artistic practice.

The students will obtain the following general competences within the module: * ability to analyse, synthesise and predict solutions and consequences (through case studies and practical assignments); * ability to use the acquired knowledge and skills in practice (through the close link between lectures, on one hand, and seminars and workshops, on the other hand); * communication skills in online, combined, and face to face communication situations; * ability to co-operate and take part in group work in online, combined, and face to face communication situations; * ability to create one's own argument and defend one's own point of view, and to consider the viewpoints of one's study peers or production colleagues.

The student is placed in the centre of his own project's production process, in which he will need to use all the, up to that point, acquired knowledge and experience in leading an interdisciplinary working group (note: now matter how many colleagues the student needs in his working process, the creation of the practical diploma project will require a cooperation with a number of persons, even though this may include only the organisation of an exhibition setting, or or the camera team, and the like).

At the same time, the aim of the subject is that the student is considered as an independent creative individuality, capable of setting his own objectives, finding a way and solutions, developing his own idea and creating his own complex creative project.

The knowledge acquired in year one and year two within the New media module, and the student's active participation in all phases and at all levels of the study process, which, apart from the active attendance at lectures and participation in practice work, presupposes the following: * individual creation and development of ideas – independently and within the active, two-way mentor-student communication (exhange of ideas takes place on the personal level and via the internet),

Year three
The final year is primarily devoted to practical work on diploma project which, as a rule, along with an intensive mentorship coordination, includes the work of the peer students who act as co-creators. The production process involves an intensive (mentor-led) reflection and a final collective evaluation of the student's public presentation of his product.

Work within the module (4 ECTS): * research related to specific assignments within the student's project (if needed, the mentor may assign additional specific tasks, seminar tasks, mini projects).

Diploma work (16 ECTS): * the practical part of the diploma thesis: a student's independent creative new media project*; * the theoretical part of the diploma thesis: here a research into the theme background (theoretical, historical or technical) is connected to the practical part of the thesis; the practical project is, at the same time, incorporated in the theoretical assignment, occupying a larger or smaller part of the thesis, depending on its key postulates.

• Defending diploma thesis before a commission.

*sometimes it makes sense that a group project is developed here; in this case, the individual student's diploma thesis application (with all the necessary documentation) need to be clearly defined and evaluated.

• A thorough knowledge of contemporary new media technologies and applications, and of the use in artistic and the related creative media-production environments;
• understanding of digital technologies and applications, and knowledge of their possibilities from the point of view of artistic and the related creative media-production environments;
  discernment and critical understanding of specific, significant phenomena in the media communication, or in the artistic and the related creative production;
• knowledge of communication, technical and creative specifics pertaining to the media-production contexts and related to the mew media, particularly in the field of art;
• knowledge of and ability to make comparative judgements concerning production tools in the field of new media in the artistic domain, and ability to select appropriate combination of new media technologies and concepts for an individual artistic or creative purpose;
• ability to solve real life, specific media-production and content-conceptual problems in the field of new media;
  ability to communicate and co-create with the bigger media technologies (image, sound, word, body and space, interactive and multiple media) and in an intercation with them;
• ability to organise creative project work and master the ethics of project work;
• proactivity within an autonomous development of skills and abilities related to knowledge use in the field of new media.

Important note: final literature is defined on the basis of the student's diploma thesis theme.

LITERARY SOURCES:

• Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NYU Press, 2008. Catalogue E-version
• Strehovec, Janez: Tehnokultura – kultura tehna. Ljubljana: Koda, 1998. Catalogue E-version
• De Kerckhove, Derrick: The Skin of Culture. New York: Somerville House, 1995. Catalogue E-version
• Strehovec, Janez. Besedilo in novi mediji. Ljubljana: Literatura, 2007. E-version
• Packer, Randall in Jordan, Ken (Ur.): Multimedia. From Wagner to Virtual Reality. New York: Norton, 2001. Catalogue E-version
• Gržinić-Mauhler, Marina (Ur.): Stelarc. Ljubljana: Maska/MKC. 2002. Catalogue
• Glazier, Loss Pequeno: Digital Poetics. The Making of E-Poetries. London: The University of Alabama Press, 2002. Catalogue E-version
  Catalogue E-version

WEB SOURCES:

• Fleischmann, Monika in Reinhard, Ulrike (Ur). Digital Transformations - Media Art as at the Interface between Art, Science, Economy and Society http://netzspannung.org/media-art/publications/digital-transformations/?lang=en
• STREHOVEC, Janez. Writing electronic poetry. Dichtung-digital newsletter. http://www.dichtung-digital.org/2003/issue/1/strehovec/
• STREHOVEC, Janez. Text as virtual reality: techno-aesthetics and Web-literatures. http://cmc.uib.no/dac98/papers/strehovec.html
• STREHOVEC, Janez. Text as a loop/ on the digital poetry. Melbourne DAC proceedings. E-version http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/papers/Strehovec.pdf
• STREHOVEC, Janez. Textscape as virtual reality. Drunken boat.E-version http://www.drunkenboat.com/db3/strehovec/textscape.html .
• Železnikar, Jaka (v pogovoru s) Purg, Peter: Digitalno literarno? E-version

Practice and group work 20%, Complex creative assignment 40-50%, Theoretical assignment 20-30%, Diploma thesis defence 10% The ratio may be a bit different, depending on whether the thesis has theoretical rather than creative focus. Upon an agreement with the student, the mentor submits the thesis proposal, which is confirmed by the students' committee. The diploma thesis defence may considerably influence the student's final grade.

pETER Purg currently leads the New Media module in the Digital//Media Arts and Practices graduate//postgraduate programme at the School of Arts, University of Nova Gorica, where he acts as Associate Professor, projects coordinator as well as expert across realms of digital culture and media. Since December 2021 he is Dean of the School of Humanities. Having obtained a PhD in media art, communication science and literary studies from the University of Erfurt (Germany), his scientific inquiries now include media arts pedagogy, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation, media art and media ecology. His artistic interests range from (lecture) performances and intermedia installations to public-space interventions as well as participatory creative processes. He is active in the field of cultural and higher education policymaking and quality assurance. More at
http://www.pleter.net/