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Between Worlds: How do we learn Art & Design in the Digital Age?

Noam Debel and Bezalel Academy of Art & Design Jerusalem 

Between Worlds: How do we learn Art & Design in the Digital Age?

Organized by our partners and fellow colleagues in the Art & Design Teaching Center at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design JerusalemBetween Worlds was a day-long learning event that explored new methods of teaching art and design in today's hybrid and digital world. 

The day consisted of four workshops that highlighted this topic:

  • Code Without Code, led by representatives from MIT Media Lab
  • Decode, translate, construct, led by representatives from Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
  • Dark Matter: The physics of independent study, led by representatives from University of the Arts London
  • OOPS. Object Oriented Pedagogies, led by representatives from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem

One of which was Code without Code: using drawing as a means of understanding computation led by Chelsi Cocking and Zach Lieberman of the Future Sketches group. This collaboration between the Media Lab and the Art & Design Teaching Center at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem was fostered by J. Philipp Schmidt, Director of the Digital Learning and Collaboration Studio here at the MIT Media Lab.

Between Worlds was held on Sunday, March 20, 2022, at Bezalel's Historical Building - which houses its Architecture Department.

See the event flyer for more information.

Advanced technologies, cultural shifts, and social restrictions have dramatically reshaped art and design learning environments. Nowadays we teach and learn in complex ecologies of social, material, and digital interactions that extend beyond academic campuses' physical borders. We interact simultaneously with physical entities, digital entities, and hybrids of both. We communicate continuously with people, spaces, and objects that are real, virtual, and hybrid.

Code without Code: using drawing as a means of understanding computation

This workshop was an adaptation of Future Sketches' Drawing++ workshop project. In this workshop participants were led through a series of group-based drawing activities that explain important aspects of how code works and what computation feels like. This workshop explores computational concepts such as encoding and decoding information, generative design, and algorithmic expression through the familiar lens of drawing.

Thank you to all the collaborators of Between Worlds 

We would like to thank all of our partners and colleagues for organizing this event, taking part in this event, warmly bringing us into the fold as collaborators, and being a part of this research practice on the futures of art and design teaching and technologies.  

From Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem

  • Merav Salomon, Head of the Art & Design Teaching Center
  • Rotem Ruff, Head of the Office of International Academic Affairs
  • Barak Pelman, Head of Advanced Studies at the Architecture Department and Founding Member of the Art & Design Teaching Center
  • Moran Zarchi Lifshitz
  • Ori Succary
  • Ori Yekutiel
  • Dr. Yoav Fridman, Head of Research & Innovation Authority

From University of the Arts London

  • Darryl Clifton, Illustration Programme Director at Camberwell College of Arts, UAL

From  Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

  • Nitzan Cohen, Dean of the Faculty of Design and Art
  • Roberto Gigliotti, Associate Professor in Interior and Exhibit Design at the Faculty of Design and Art
  • Gerda Videsott, Researcher at the Faculty of Design and Arts

From MIT Media Lab

  •  J. Philipp Schmidt, Director of the Digital Learning and Collaboration Studio
  • Chelsi Cocking, Research Assistant and Graduate Student in the Future Sketches Group
  • Zach Lieberman, Adjunct Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and Head of the Future Sketches Group

And thank you to all the participants of the workshops on this day.

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