Creative Digital and Media Practice

The course deals with the acquisition of digital creative competences in the project mode of (co)work, specific to the wider field of humanities,

OBJECTIVES
- Students will be introduced to concepts from the contemporary discourse of creativity, especially on the background of creating media contants and digital formats
- Students will acquire basic knowledge and skills in handling creative media technologies (multimedia computer, smartphone, recording devices such as camera or camera and microphone, etc.) and relevant techniques of creative approaches.

COMPETENCIES
- Students will recognize and learn ways to plan, design, implement, manage various production practices that encompass media technologies and digital forma.
- Students will strengthen their critical thinking skills and develop as critical thinkers by conducting constructive discussions, especially as regards media technologies and digital formats
- Students will be able to debate the advantages, disadvantages, obstacles, and opportunities for creative project work within their academic or professional environmenbt,
- Students will be ancouraged to transfer knowledge to new situations and create new problem-based tasks related to language, literature, or culture, creativity in a broader sense, and sustainable development

There are no enrolment or degree requirements for the course, apart from basic understanding of ICT equipment and its functioning.

After mastering some introductory concepts and appropriate ways of handling digital or media creative tools and equipment, students prepare a series of small creative projects or products.

Creativity is presented as an important cultural practice that is the result of human adaptations to natural conditions, broader socio-political, economic and technological processes and practices, political development strategies and concepts. It shapes individual and community experience, value systems, identification practices, and symbols. Cultural uniqueness and social and cultural capital are formed through creativity, providing the basis for sustainable development in cross-border and intercultural communities. On the other hand, in the modern world, creativity is an integral part of the working environment, it is one of the key ways of dealing with the work and research challenges of a time in which media content and digital formats increasingly dominate,

Course topics:
- media landscape and culture
- language in the media
- basics of visual communication
- media formats and technologies
- basics of photography methods and techniques
- basics of A/V methods and techniques
- basics of intermediality
- digital platforms
- machine learning and Aatificial intelligence

The course also aims to serve as an Introduction to the basic concepts related to the contemporary discourse of creativity (individual and social creativity, the creative class, creative industries and the creative city/village, sustainable creativity etc.).

Along the creative development of ideas and implementing media and digital creative projects, the course will stimulate conduct constructive debates using critical thinking methods (analysis, evaluation, argumentation, reflection, self-reflection, use of knowledge) on the role of individuals in creativity and in the development of cultural or academic products with social, cultural and economic value.

Students:
- learn and understand the basic concepts related to the development of the creative activities for the individual's social, cultural and economic and also academic and professional development;
- acquire a broad knowledge of creative activities as linked to media formas and digital formats, their advantages, disadvantages and obstacles to the development of society, living environment and community in cross-border areas;
- acquire a broad knowledge of current issues in the application (but also misuse) of creative digital and media tools
- develop critical thinking skills that enable them to reflect in-depth on current issues in using creative digital and media tools;
- develop skills of argumentation and knowledge application in new situations;
- develop skills of deducing, argumentation and developing their own thinking based on an analysis of literature, good and not-so-good practices, scientific views, artistic references, and other resources that are necessary for in-depth research and learning, in particular fort he needs of implementing a creative project;
- cultivate a creative approach to thinking and ocmmunicating about a creative topic that demonstrates a critical attitude towards creative work and the environment;
- are aware of the importance of the development of the humanities and the meaning of media and digital creativity within it;
- independently connects various concepts and definitions in the humanities and in the creative fields to development opportunities and socio-political contexts in a multicultural and cross-border space.

• POLJAK ISTENIČ, Saša. (2017): Creativity: An introduction to popular concepts, topics, and discussions / Ustvarjalnost: Uvod v razširjene koncepte, teme in razprave. Traditiones, 46(1–2), str. 103–125. E-versiono
• The readings will be given according to each semester's design of the course implementation, and the individual contents of the sections.

• Active participation in sessions 20 %
• Projects portfolio 60 %
• Portfolio presentation 20 %

Assoc. Prof. Peter Purg, PhD 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. More at www.pleter.net

• PURG, Peter. Investigative arts as grassroots empowerment to environmental research: the cases of taming the forest and xMobil : lecture at the RE:SOURCE 2023, 18th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology, Venice, 14. 9. 2023.
• PURG, Peter (avtor razstave). Crypto Minding: postindustrijski podatkovni aktivizem : PostMobilnost; GO!2025 Evropska prestolnica kulture : razstava v xCentru, Nova Gorica, od 26. 10. 2023 do 11. 11. 2023.
• PURG, Peter, PRANJIĆ, Kristina. Transgressions and transmissions of the New European Bauhaus. V: EAM8 : Lisbon 2022 : globalising the avant-garde : abstract book : 1-3 September 2022, FCSH, NOVA University of Lisbon. Lisboa: NOVA FCSH, 2022. Str. 240
• PURG, Peter, PRANJIĆ, Kristina. An art+sci approach toward a curriculum of bordering. V: Taboo, transgression, transcendence in art & science, TTT 2023 : interdisciplinary conference : September 27-29th, 2023, Malta Society of Arts, Valletta : book of abstracts. Corfu: Ionian University, Department of Audio and Visual Arts, 2023. Str. 52.
• PURG, Peter, PRANJIĆ, Kristina. GO!BORDELESS in academia and beyond: a crossborder region between Slovenia and Italy, an academic destination par excellence and a European Capital of Culture 2025 : predavanje v sklopu Erasmus+ akademske izmenjave na Josai University Saitama, Japonska, 15. 6. 2023.
• PURG, Peter, CASTILLO-RUTZ, N., BERMÚDEZ I BADIA, Sergi, CSÍKSZENTMIHÁLYI, C., KRPAN, Jurij V., HEDEER, F., SOUSA, D. L., ŠIROK, Klemen. Progressive pedagogies for innovation among art, science and technology : the case of mastmodule.eu = Pedagogía progresiva para la innovación a través del arte, la ciencia y la tecnología : el caso de mastmodule.eu. Artseduca. 2022, vol. 32, str. 209-222. ISSN 2254-0709
• SERTIĆ, Irena, BUBAŠ, Josipa, STEINBOCK, Kristina, PURG, Peter, PARAMON, Ramon. PAIC framework: Participatory Art Scenario and Narrative". V: SERTIĆ, Irena (ur.). PAIC, participatory art for invisible communities. Zagreb: Omnimedia, 2018. Str. 98-109. ISBN 953-95119-1-7. http://paic-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/E-book_Paic.pdf. [COBISS.SI-ID 5398267]
• PURG, Peter, ŠIROK, Klemen, BRASIL, Daniela. The transformative impact of blended mobility courses. The International Journal of Art & Design Education, ISSN 1476-8062, 2018, vol. 37, iss. 2, str. 187-198, doi: 10.1111/jade.12101.
• WECKERT, Simon (umetnik), GAMMER, Gloria (umetnik), PURG, Peter. Nepotovalna agencija : interaktivni kibernetski teleportacijski performans : 6. december 2022, Xcenter, Nova Gorica.
• PURG, Peter. Body borders in _Arts: the kinaesthetic self in performative_A, the social self in participatory_A, the electronic self in media_A : lecture at the conference The Art of BorderingPURG, Peter. Körper im elektronischen Raum : Modelle für Menschen und interaktive Systeme. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, cop. 2007. 411 str. ISBN 978-3-8364-3077-7. [COBISS.SI-ID 2458071]