Digital Art For The University Of West Florida Art Gallery

In 2005 I was asked to curate an exhibit of Digital Art for the University of West Florida Art Gallery. The result was the show D(igital)fraged that was an examination of the highly varied and fragmented nature of the medium at that time. A decade has passed and Digital Media is still highly eclectic utilizing concepts from traditional design as often as large blocks of complex code. The diverse skill set required provides both challenge and opportunity for a Professor of Digital Media. My professional career has allowed me to work with several aspects of Digital Media and imparted the need to seek a balance between the creativity and experimentation of the Digital Arts and the need for emphasis on process and efficiency in the work place.

The entire Web is built upon a framework of code. Languages such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript provide the structure and substance for all web development. This foundational element of the Web can also be a great source of frustration for students. The precision and abstraction required provide for a steep learning curve. In extreme cases something as simple as the inclusion of a stray symbol (such as an exclamation point) in hundreds of lines of code can create undesirable or unpredictable results. The process of finding this sort of error (debugging) can then be tedious. Despite the initial difficulty in acquiring these coding skills the power and flexibility they provide justifies the effort required. A large part of my pedagogical reflection is directed at striving to communicate these demanding skills while minimizing vexation. Applying Flipped Classroom concepts has helped impart these abilities by creating a more relaxed environment and maximizing individual attention. This process involves introducing concepts in class and supplying a wide array of relevant resources to explore after the class ends. Out

Design encompasses all of the visual elements that rest upon the framework of code. These include the User Interface (UI - the look of a site) as well as the User Experience (UX - how a person interacts with a site). Where coding requires an organized, analytic approach UI and UX require creativity informed by a wide array of design concepts. This presents the challenge of how to best have students merge these seemingly oppositional skills into a single finished project. To achieve this in class work takes the form of open-ended projects. A typical example here would be to provide a type of business (i.e. restaurant) paired with a general style descriptor (i.e. futuristic) and then have students work to apply learned code and design skills to complete a site that meets these expectations. Throughout this process I not only provide technical feedback but serve as the “client.” This allows practice integrating code and design in a holistic manner as well as a first glimpse of client focused web