And Another..

Bleecker_17022011_161842_0873

MDP Studio, South Campus Wind Tunnel

Art Center College of Design is booting up a new track within the Media Design Program (MDP) called Media Design Matters (MDM). They’re looking for a *second faculty member with a background in the social sciences to help build out that faculty. ((The search for the first member continues.)) The second search is for a second position for this new track for an individual with a background in design and technology to be hired Fall 2011. Which is, like..pretty soon.

Here’s the actual thing that would be pinned up to the artisinal “cork board.”

Position Title: Full-time Core Faculty
Department: Graduate Media Design Program, Art Center College of Design

Positions Available: 1

The graduate Media Design Program (MDP) at Art Center College of Design is looking for a full-time faculty member with a background in design, culture, and technology to begin Fall 2011. The faculty member will work with other faculty from design and social science backgrounds to develop a new curriculum for a track within the Media Design MFA called “Media Design Matters” (MDM), that brings together media design, social research, public policy, and information technologies to address social issues in an applied context. Media Design Program students are world class and come from diverse disciplinary and national backgrounds.

artcenter.edu/mdp/matters/

The MDM curriculum will be built around an 8-month team-based project conducted in the field in partnership with an NGO, development agency, national non-profit or local community. Our first project partner for 2012 will be the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

The new degree track is a collaboration between the Media Design Program and Designmatters. Designmatters is a college-wide initiative exploring social and humanitarian design and helped Art Center become the first design college to receive United Nations Non-Governmental (NGO) status. designmatters.artcenter.edu

Position Description:

As one of three core faculty members for the Media Design Matters track, this position is for a person who has at least minimal experience in each of the categories below:

● working knowledge of the basics of programming and electronics

● hands-on design with communication technologies and systems in applied contexts with real people, in any of the following: ubiquitous computing, web design and development, mobile design, interaction design, UX, service design, media design, HCI, hardware sketching, and/or social networking;

● a critical framework for understanding design, technology, culture, and power in diverse social contexts;

● experience building communications with existing resources through a design approach such as: reuse or repair, second-hand electronics, DIY, repurposing third-party applications or services (analog/digital, high/low tech), working within open source communities, maker/kit culture, etc.

Within the Media Design Program, core faculty members work collaboratively on program curriculum and philosophy and are responsible for one or two assigned areas of administration or research. We are looking for someone who is specifically interested in emerging social and cultural roles for design and technology and who is interested in building connections with the same at other academic institutions or companies throughout Southern California and around the world. The curriculum is still being designed so there is an opportunity to develop and test new pedagogy that brings a critical approach to applied research with people, technology, and social issues.

The faculty member will be required to travel in both the Fall and the Spring for the MDM project. The project location will change from year to year and could be as far away as Uganda or as close as downtown Los Angeles. Faculty members will have the opportunity to use the MDM project situation to conduct their own research in parallel, if desired.

Candidates will be eligible for a 3-year renewable full-time contract. The “core faculty” designation is a premier position at Art Center. Faculty will be expected to maintain an active research practice. Salary will be commensurate with professional experience and teaching.

Qualifications:

We are looking for an individual with a demonstrated commitment to building innovative approaches to emerging issues and interdisciplinary practice and to developing a strong context for their own practice. Candidates should have a minimum of the following: a masters degree in their field; three years teaching experience, full- or part-time; and five years creative practice in applied and/or research contexts. Experience with any of the following, while not required, is a definite plus: working across cultures, working in the field, managing projects, managing IT partnerships, developing funding relationships, working with non-profits or development agencies.

Application Process and Materials:

Posting dates: March 23, 2011 – open until filled. For best consideration apply before April 15, 2011. Review of applications to begin immediately.

Please send the following as email attachments: a cover letter, c.v., statements of professional and/or research interests and philosophy regarding pedagogy and technology, and contact information for three references. References will not be contacted until a final interview has taken place.

Please provide either a URL by email or digital portfolio on disk by mail showing a range of personal, professional, and/or student work that demonstrates abilities in the areas identified above.

Please send questions and/or application with reference to “MDM Full-time Faculty-D/T” to:

HR@artcenter.edu

Human Resources

Attn: Nancy Duggan

Art Center College of Design

1700 Lida Street

Pasadena, CA 91103

About the Graduate Media Design Program

Art Center’s graduate program in Media Design offers a two- or three-year Master of Fine Arts curriculum that helps ambitious designers from a variety of backgrounds become design leaders and researchers in emerging fields. Graduate Media Design prepares designers for a world in which virtually anything—from a new material to a global network—may be the next medium or platform of communication. artcenter.edu/mdp/

About Art Center College of Design

Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, Art Center College of Design is a global leader in art and design education and the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Art Center offers bachelor’s degrees in advertising, entertainment design, environmental design, film, fine art, graphic design, illustration, photography and imaging, product design and transportation design. A graduate program of study can lead to a master’s degree in art, broadcast cinema, industrial design and media design. The college also offers a series of programs for the general public, including Art Center at Night, its continuing studies program; Saturday High for high school students; Art Center for Kids for children in the fourth through eighth grades; and the Design-Based Learning program for K-12 educators. artcenter.edu

Art Center College of Design is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Continue reading And Another..

Weekending 09192010

Friday September 17 18:56

Okay. There was some more fussing about to pull together a reading list / viewing list for a new project I’ve been thinking about that is in and around augmented reality. The viewing list includes the usual suspects — Terminator 2, They Live (which I showed in the studio — and only three or four people showed up to, which is lame), Until the End of the World, Iron Man, and 2081, although that last one may be a stretch. There may also be some of the important “boot-up” moments from RoboCop that are relevant.The point is to look sideways at the topic from the get-go and not assume the outcome before things get started, which can happen very easily when the project is quite specific. ((It’s not broad at all — as a matter of fact, the name basically says what it wants to produce, which is the wrong way to do any project, I think.))

Friday September 17 17:06

I scrambled over to Art Center College of Design Friday afternoon to participate in their As If.. / Made Up research residency on a panel discussion with Norman Klein and Sascha Pohflepp, which was good fun and engaging and helpful for my own questions. I think I’m now more-or-less set on creating a catalog of genre conventions for design fiction, especially as it happens in film. Getting a copy of that book “Cinematic Storytelling: The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Filmmaker Must Know” (bleechh..these titles..)) made me think about how I might structure such a catalog and then of course I’m forced to think of why this might be useful. Part of it is just the process of forcing myself to identify what might be curious, useful or intriguing visual patterns and story telling techniques that make it possible to imagine the future, or some aspect of it. I was thinking this could make a curious DVD of some sort.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

var so = new SWFObject(“http://www.db798.com/pictobrowser.swf”, “PictoBrowser”, “500”, “500”, “8”, “#EEEEEE”); so.addVariable(“source”, “sets”); so.addVariable(“names”, “2010 01SJ Biennial – Build Your Own World”); so.addVariable(“userName”, “julianbleecker”); so.addVariable(“userId”, “66854529@N00”); so.addVariable(“ids”, “72157625004848614”); so.addVariable(“titles”, “on”); so.addVariable(“displayNotes”, “on”); so.addVariable(“thumbAutoHide”, “off”); so.addVariable(“imageSize”, “medium”); so.addVariable(“vAlign”, “mid”); so.addVariable(“vertOffset”, “0”); so.addVariable(“colorHexVar”, “EEEEEE”); so.addVariable(“initialScale”, “off”); so.addVariable(“bgAlpha”, “90”); so.write(“PictoBrowser100921100902”);

Saturday, went up to 01SJ, ran into everyone and a barricade. It was fun, engaging a little scattered and far-flung and lonely in spots and great to see many friends and their peculiar provocative projects.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

var so = new SWFObject(“http://www.db798.com/pictobrowser.swf”, “PictoBrowser”, “500”, “500”, “8”, “#EEEEEE”); so.addVariable(“source”, “sets”); so.addVariable(“names”, “Silly Girl Pirate Bowl”); so.addVariable(“userName”, “julianbleecker”); so.addVariable(“userId”, “66854529@N00”); so.addVariable(“ids”, “72157624994149716”); so.addVariable(“titles”, “on”); so.addVariable(“displayNotes”, “on”); so.addVariable(“thumbAutoHide”, “off”); so.addVariable(“imageSize”, “medium”); so.addVariable(“vAlign”, “mid”); so.addVariable(“vertOffset”, “0”); so.addVariable(“colorHexVar”, “EEEEEE”); so.addVariable(“initialScale”, “off”); so.addVariable(“bgAlpha”, “90”); so.write(“PictoBrowser100921105429”);

Closed the weekend out with a fantastic Silly Girl skate event at the secret Iguana Bowl — Pirate Bowl, for talk like a pirate day!
Continue reading Weekending 09192010