Third Space -- Thoughts

My work is an exploration of the possibilties of these spaces as they pertain to digital art and educational media. Questioning why we react to particular examples of art (in any media) in the ways we do is one way to learn about our intellectual / artistic / creative selves. Another way is to create art and see what comes out :: to examine it as creator, audience, and critic, both during and after the creation process. Because there are countless decisions to be made during the entire process, there results infinite possibilties for the path the process takes, as well as any results.

Another angle on artistic creativity is to design the actual tools that will then be utilized to create art or educational media. "Software design", in its broadest sense, provides a seemingly endless wealth of possiblilities for creating such tools as well as creating the media used by these tools. What kinds of choices does one make during the design of these tools? What are one's methods, priorities, or compromises? How do these compare to the decisions one makes while creating media?

Can the design of these tools also be recognized and furthered as a so-called "art form"? I certainly believe so, though the way we approach and evaluate this development may often be quite different from how we often approach and evaluate "art". This of course varies considerably among persons and situations. Through these projects I have endeavored to not only learn how to create the applications (which is of course necessary on some level), but also experience the changes in thought and aesthetics I have had from using them. Often it can be a challenge to strike a balance between functionality and outcome in software, and when creating one's own this seems especially true.

My music and media projects range from the "traditional" (whatever that means) to the more recent interactive pieces. Coming from a music composition emphasis, I have created a number of scored and unscored works throughout my time in the Music Composition and Arts Technology graduate programs. A collection of graphics, multimedia, and 3D projects are also available. Educational documents (such as background materials and lesson / project ideas for various digital media) form another important part of my portfolio, and are included in several of the categories.

My goal is to continually explore the many areas addressed on this site --- digital media and interactivity in many forms...and to learn the best methods for helping others explore these areas too. -- CJ