Leading Creatively: A Closer Look 2010

Compiles essays and studies by and on artist-leaders, curators, artistic directors, and programmers about nonprofit arts administration, including the arts sector's distinct values, the importance of peer networks, the role of mentors, and challenges

Designing an Adaptive Assisting Interface for Learning Virtual Filmmaking

International audienceIn this paper, we present an adaptive assisting interface for learning virtual filmmaking. The design of the system is based on the scaffolding theory, to provide timely guidance to the user in the form of visual and audio messages that are adapted to each person's skill level and performance. The system was developed on an existing virtual filmmaking setup. We conducted a study with 24 participants, who were asked to operate the film set with or without our adaptive assisting interface. Results suggest that our system can provide users with a better learning experience and positive knowledge harvest

‘ICreate’: Preliminary usability testing of apps for the music technology classroom

In the world of music technology where, “music practice is challenged, mediated and redefined through performers’ and composers’ uses of ICT” (Savage, 2005, p. 168), curriculum change is necessary if the world of the classroom is to keep pace with the world outside (Cain, 2004, p. 219). For newcomers to music technology, the glittering array of increasingly sophisticated flashing, emulated, and modulated interfaces can invoke virtual interface dyslexia before giving way to options anxiety. Change is the only constant in the ever-evolving techno-scape of sound and music applications. This paper proposes that the development of an introductory tertiary music technology unit curriculum using loop-based music iPad apps may effectively engage non-traditional music (NTM) students in both music and technology. The course design was underpinned by two intentions. Firstly, the aim was to stimulate student creativity and secondly, to encourage immersion (focused attention) in sonic composition (Witmer & Singer, 1998). This paper reports on the preliminary usability testing of five loop-based music iPad applications. It is administered to a sample of one, namely the author, using the System Usability Scale (SUS) (Brooke, 1996) and is guided by the following questions: Would this testing methodology be appropriate? What factors specific to loop-based music app design might be pertinent for educators? Would this testing method indicate the potential for student immersion and creativity? While the pilot study, described here, is conducted solely by the researcher to determine the effectiveness of the method, future research intends the study to be administered to a small classroom group if determined appropriate

Annual Report 2018-2019

LETTER FROM THE DEAN I am pleased to share with you the 2018-19 College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM) annual report, highlighting the important work done by our faculty, students, and staff. We’ve said this before, and we’ll say it again: it was a big year. In 2018-19, programs across all three of our schools (Computing, Cinematic Arts, and Design) were ranked nationally. Our faculty were published in dozens of scholarly journals, screened their films over 100 times, and had their work exhibited globally. Student and alumni accomplishments included an Emmy nomination, a first place win in a Department of Energy competition, and features in trade publications--to name just a few. We worked to create new programs (including undergraduate and graduate comedy filmmaking programs in collaboration with The Second City) and continued our work in others (our NSF- funded Medical Informatics Experiences program celebrated its fifteenth year). Our makerspace, the Idea Realization Lab, clocked its 10,000th visit as we made plans to open a new IRL in Lincoln Park. And, we will continue to create the innovative programs and facilities that make us CDM. You can look forward to new programs like industrial design, and new labs that focus on everything from Internet of Things to design industry collaborations. I am proud of our CDM community, and I hope you feel that same sense of pride as you read through this report. David MillerDeanhttps://via.library.depaul.edu/cdmannual/1002/thumbnail.jp

A participatory filmmaking process with children with disabilities in rural India: Working towards inclusive research

Children with disabilities often experience exclusion within their communities, and this exclusion can extend into research processes. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, however, emphasizes that children of all abilities need to be involved as decision makers in matters affecting them. This article provides an in-depth description of the process of a participatory action research project carried out with children with disabilities from a rural village in India. It argues for the utility of participatory filmmaking as a research methodology that supports inclusion of children with disabilities as co-researchers in research and action processes. The different phases of the research project, namely the preparatory, participatory research, and the action phase, are made transparent along with the details of activities carried out within each phase. The technical and pragmatic challenges faced within this participatory filmmaking process are pointed out, and strategies used to negotiate challenges and adapt this methodology to fit context-specific needs are shared. This account of the complex, yet flexible and adaptable, participatory filmmaking process is presented as means to support critical and informed uptakes of participatory filmmaking for inclusive research practices with children with disabilities

“Styles of Good Sense”: Ethics, Filmmaking and Scholarship

In terms of research using film-making for academic scholarship, the ethical emphasis must remain balanced between the two: the active research participants and their worlds, and multiple viewing audiences and their worlds. This is the key fundamental shift in ethical protocols for film-making as an arts-based academic research method

New Opportunities for Interest-Driven Arts Learning in a Digital Age

Traditionally in the United States, schools and after-school programs have played a promi-nent part in teaching young people about the arts. Arts education has been waning in K-12 public schools in recent times, however. This is especially true in low-income communities, where public schools have often cut back on arts instruction so they can devote limited public education dollars to subjects such as writing and math that are the focus of high-stakes standardized tests.When we look outside of school, however, we see a strikingly different landscape, one full of promise for engaging young people in artistic activity. What makes this landscape possible is an eagerness to explore that springs from youths' own creative passions -- what we call "interest-driven arts learning" -- combined with the power of digital technology.This report is a step in trying to understand the new territory. It gives a rundown of scholarship in the areas of arts and out-of-school-hours learning; offers a framework for thinking about interest-driven arts learning in a digital age; examines young people's media consumption; provides a survey of youths' creative endeavors online and elsewhere, along with a look at the proliferation of technologies that young people are using in the arts; and concludes with thoughts about challenges and possibilities for the futur

A liberal arts education in film production: Instructional assessment of student film projects

This study examined the educational process of instructors teaching film and video production in higher education. Little research has been dedicated to this field of study. As technology advances and the cost of equipment recedes, educational programs in film and video production will experience growth, transformation, and population. Educational leadership and faculty responsible for these programs experience pressure to stay current with trends and technology while building and maintaining these types of programs; thus, the examination of these programs’ structures and practices are worthwhile endeavors. In addition, expanded markets for educated professionals in film and video production are being sought not only by the motion picture industry, but also by locally and globally focused businesses that are also searching for film and video production specialists capable of projecting brands and telling the story of such organizations. Film and video production is a balance of creative collaboration and technical competencies. It has also been suggested that film and video production is built upon complex processes that incorporate higher order thinking skills. An avenue for the attainment and refinement of these types of skills is found in a liberal arts education. Thus, it is important to explore how moving image content producers are educated regarding liberal arts outcomes. This qualitative study focused on how instructors teaching film and video production are embedding the goals of a liberal arts education in their programs. The assessment process was examined by employing a collective case study of participants with experience instructing film and video production while assessing liberal arts outcomes. The unique perspectives that were offered by the participants in this study produced findings that suggest a variety of methods are required to assess the complexities of both the filmmaking process and the projected liberal arts learning outcomes. Three categories of specific inquiry framed the data collection process: foundational information of assessment, assessment of liberal arts domains and assessment of the “4C’s” (Communication, Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking). Themes and categories emerged from the data offered by the participants. Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised (2001) was applied as a theoretical framework to further examine the data. This lens produced discussion and analysis that led to grouping individual liberal arts outcomes with processes, actions and key indicators used to measure these outcomes. The findings highlighted the challenges and successes that participants had with the assessment process. Implications for practice addressed the following themes. First is administrative leadership, which focuses on institutional leadership and the challenges that instructors have with assessment in film and video production education. Strategies are highlighted which suggest specific administrative support is needed to yield more effective and efficient results with assessment in this field. Second is the need to address the formal educational process of instructors teaching in film and video production programs in higher education. Third is classroom instruction, which includes tips, techniques and methods that are used in the assessment process of film and video production. Several recommendations were offered for future studies. One, in particular, addresses the previous concern of the lack of formal research in this field. Foundational evidence and guidance is also provided regarding continued examination of instruction, assessment and student learning in the field of film and video production education

Right, Left, High, Low: Narrative Strategies For Non–Linear Storytelling

Based on studies of affect, and on theoretical works concerning spatial semantics by Yuri Lotman, Mikhail Bakhtin, Michel Foucault and others, spatial story design provides a seven step algorithm of story development for inter- active audio-visual narrative. Following spatial semantics and its application in interactive storytelling, the author no longer creates the protagonist, his or her want or need, nor con- trols the story arc. Instead, spatial story design allows the author(s) to make the formative cre- ative decisions by designing a narrative space, and spatial dynamics that then translate into user generated storylines. Spatial story design serves as a framework for interdisciplinary col- laborations, and can be used to not only create interactive digital narrative but also screenplays, improvisational theatre, 360°  lms, and walk-in story world experiences for a number of users in either live or holographic virtual reality spac- es. Spatial story design could inspire creators of interactive narrative, storytellers in time-based media, and possibly also technology developers for authoring tools