Q1 Would you describe your program and its history? How your new media art endeavor's positioned within the academic structure at your University?

The Department of Design | Media Arts was reinvented four years ago when Daniel Neuman assumed school of the Arts Deanship. Rebecca Allen was brought in to create a new program on top of the foundations set by the predecessors. At that point there were only three senate faculty in addition to Prof. Rebecca Allen (pioneer in 3D animation trained at MIT): Prof. Mits Kataoka; Prof. Vasa (sculptor working with resin) and Jim Bassler (textile designer, now retired). I was brought in to continue building what Rebecca had begun, along with Bill Seaman who works with sound, video and interactive installations. We are in the School of the Arts, which consists of: Art, Architecture, Music, Ethnomusicology and World Arts & Cultures.

Q2 What degrees do you offer?

B.A., MFA (We are planning a Ph.D. program).

Q3 Computers and networks are profoundly conceptual media in the context of literature and the arts. Yet there is also a seemingly unavoidable necessity for students to learn technology skills in a constantly changing technological environment. This seems to demand both a very theoretical/art-historical approach to teaching as well as a need for high-tech education. Does your program have a specific approach to pedagogy in new media arts, especially as pertains to the balance or blending of theoretical and technical instruction?

Q4 Theorists and practicing artists approach new media and network media from a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives. Film and cinema theory, communications studies, literature, linguistics and semiology, fine art, activist art, computer science, information science, engineering, philosophy, biology, and other fields are platforms of theory and practice which have influenced new media and/or technology art. Which interdisciplinary approaches are most influential in your program, and how is your program integrated with other departments or programs at your institution?

Our department has embraced the importance of these varied fields by bringing guests from a multitude of disciplines through our department lecture series. Over the past year, we have hosted distinguished local, national and international speakers from Medicine, Psychology, Physics, Information Management, Anthropology, Physiology, Literature, as well as Art History, Architecture, Computer Science, and Media Arts. By exposing our undergraduate and graduate students across traditional boundaries of knowledge, our program challenges them to become critical thinkers.

This term we introduced a graduate course, "Dematerialized Utopias," a trans-disciplinary arts and technology symposium that was co-organized by Mary Kelly, chair of the Department of Art, and myself. The notable speakers included Sandy Stone (interactive media), George Lewis (music), Elizabeth Diller (architecture), Matt Mullican (art), and Constance Penley (film). These are practicing artists who are theoretically inclined and who position themselves in a larger cultural sector.

Q5 How does your program engage with and relate to the traditional institutional artworld of museums and other art institutions?

All faculty in our department regularly exhibit in major museums and other cultural institutions around the world. We see the tension, not unlike any new art form in the past, shifts in the meaning and exchange of 'art'. To offset this, we have spearheaded a number of projects that engage these issues:

We are currently enacting FUSION 2000: an experiment in telepresence between Bauhaus University, Weimar and the Department of Design | Media Arts, UCLA. Fusion 2000 runs June 8-10, and is a three day intensive event with a program of 20 interactive on-line projects between students and faculty from the Bauhaus University in Weimar and the Department of Design | Media Arts in Los Angeles. This exchange consists of collaborative interactive telepresence events which explore the current breakdown of definitions, dualisms and geographical boundaries in a point to point net experience.

f2f: New Media Art from Finland arrives to our department this Fall. This unique show will highlight the innovative work of 10 up and coming contemporary Finnish media artists, and is being coordinated by the Embassy of Finland in Washington, and the New York-based Finnish Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. (FFVA). During the month of October, we look forward to meeting various Finnish artists and theorists who will be flown out to Los Angeles through the FFVA foundation and who will present lectures at the EDA (Everything Digital Arts) space, Dickson Art Center. This series marks the beginning of a collaboration between the UCLA Department of Design and the Helsinki Media Lab, and we will connect these lectures via video streaming over the web to Helsinki during October 1st through November 1st, 2000.

Since the fall of 1999, the Department of Design and OnRamp Arts have successfully initiated an alliance. OnRamp Arts provides opportunities for 250+ underserved youth ages 11-18 to learn hands-on skills in digital imaging, multimedia and World Wide Web production. OnRamp's programs bring together at-risk youth and local artists, encouraging the exploration of new media, empowerment through skills-based training, and community dialogue within the development of arts and technology. OnRamp opened two years ago, by the efforts of local Los Angeles artists and educators committed to the potential of digital media within underserved communities, and has since doubled its facility, programs, resources, and collaborative alliances.

Q6 Do you receive industry support or maintain relationships with companies who are interested in your graduates?

The department is a recipient of a number of software and hardware grants. One of our basic requests is: no binding agreements when we accept such grants.

Q7 Can you describe the type of studio work that your digital media students are primarily engaged in, and is theory and writing an important component of your program?

Answer: The graduate program focuses on developing individual thesis projects that incorporate in-depth research and theoretical exploration of a topic, culminating in a final exhibition. Sample topics include interface design, virtual environments and information spaces, and design of behaviors for inhabitants, agents, and avatars of these environments. Exploration of installation work that tackles the problem of virtual worlds being exhibited in physical spaces is encouraged. For a description of our MFA thesis exhibition work, see http://mfa.design.ucla.edu.

Q8 Is there anything that is important for prospective students to understand about your program that may assist them in choosing a place of study?

The goal of this department is to question, probe and challenge traditional notions of design and put forward innovative ways of looking at how consciousness shifts are made by design of interfaces, online environments and artificial life. One of the most important things to understand is that we are not interested in teaching skills alone or preparing students for the job market. We take it for granted that they will be employable, and demand that they take advantage and keep an awareness of their environment, which is a major research University in the country.

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