Media arts has long been a part of arts education in California, right alongside more traditional disciplines such as dance and theater, but Senate Bill 1341 codifies the idea that the study of visual and performing arts also includes digital art forms such as animation, video and web design. Sponsored by Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, the proposed legislation, which unanimously passed in the Senate, would shine a spotlight on electronic media as a key part of a comprehensive arts and music education.
Dain Olsen, president and CEO of the National Association for Media Arts Education, recently took a few moments to explain the allure of media arts, how it bridges the world of high tech and old-school art, and why mastery of electronic media is such an important part of arts education amid the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) as a force in society. Olsen is a veteran media arts educator, having taught at Los Angeles Unified, UCLA and Vermont College of Fine Arts.
How significant would it be for this new media arts legislation to pass in California? How would it impact children?
It would be historic and set national precedent, legitimizing it as a separate arts subject and making it available for 5.8 million K-12 students. This culminates a decades-long effort across various state and district initiatives, and is an inflection point for its continued progress.
Is media arts the same as digital art?
A: Essentially media arts is digital arts. It goes a little bit further because it does include things that are not purely digital. It’s basically machine-based and multimodal in that it’s multisensory and multimedia. One can access the other arts disciplines and all aesthetics. That’s what makes it different from the other arts education disciplines. For example, I can merge audio and visual in the creation of a video.
Is it more high-tech oriented or more arts-focused?
It is tech-centric, but is absolutely very artistic and creative. Tends to be focused on popular commercial media — photo, graphics, video. Our organization will push for other forms, and more “art” orientation, original, experimental and interdisciplinary.
Why do students today need to master media arts?
It is imperative that these vital forms of production and design become standard, high-quality offerings in schools and other educational settings. These offerings are important for students to skillfully wield these forms for their own creative expression, academic development and career preparation, as well as to gain critical literacies in analyzing and negotiating multimedia experiences.
We recognize it as vital for 21st century students and particularly in California, given our creative economy and the growth of these media arts areas, in industry and in our economy and their key role in our evolving society.
Why should media arts be recognized as its own genre?
Media arts reflects our current digital society, and prepares students with the multiliteracies necessary to function and succeed in this rapidly changing world. Students need to be able to read, analyze, interpret and evaluate a deluge of multimedia information in their everyday lives. They need to be able to construct their own messages, products and experiences, so that they become responsible contributors to and empowered participants in this society. Students need to be able to determine fact from fiction, and verify information vs. misinformation. They need to be able to address the potentially harmful impacts of new forms of artificial intelligence, technology and media. Media arts provides safe and balanced environments that systemically prepare students for these evolving societal conditions.
How might the emergence of AI shape the media arts landscape?
AI is a media arts form because it is machine-based and multimodal. It (media arts education) will have a tremendous impact on the media arts industry and will become a core aspect of media arts. Media arts education provides a safe and rigorous environment, whereby students gain critical thinking skills in managing and skillfully wielding the power of AI. This connects it to the embodied practices of the arts and provides grounding, aesthetics and culture, which AI inherently does not reflect. This becomes a major component of the multiliteracies across media tech and digital culture.
In other education news
Gavin Newsom wants to curtail cellphone use in classrooms, but Bay Area schools remain unsure
Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to limit cellphones in schools — and districts across the Bay Area have varying opinions, The Mercury News reported.
“I look forward to working with the legislature to restrict the use of smartphones during the school day,” Newsom said in a statement, according to The Mercury News. “When children and teens are in school, they should be focused on their studies – not their screens.”
Some experts have called smartphones an “epidemic of mental illness,” while others have maintained that there is little connection between using digital technology and poorer mental health, The Mercury News reported.
Several Bay Area districts already reduce student smartphone use — but still allow devices not during instructional time.
“Cellphones are part of our culture and for many students and families, a necessary vessel of communication around transportation, extracurricular activities, childcare and the monitoring of students’ medical conditions,” Michelle Dawson, a spokesperson for Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District, said in a statement to The Mercury News. “Our focus is on educating students on how to use their cellphones respectfully, responsibly and within the boundaries of our established policy.”
In the Fremont Unified School District, the rules depend on how old the students are — with more restrictions placed on elementary school students.
“Banning phones … improves academic performance, encourages more face-to-face interaction (and) decreases cyberbullying,” Cheryl Matthews, the executive director California for Safe Technology, told The Mercury News. “It promotes healthier habits and ensures academic integrity because kids can’t cheat on assignments.”
The San Mateo Union High School District was early to take a stand and banned students from using cellphones in 2019.
The California School Boards Association has maintained that district leaders should ultimately decide.
Conservative school board members in California are losing support
Conservative school board members who gained momentum roughly two years ago are facing an increasing amount of backlash — and six have been recalled this year alone, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Many of those recalled have focused on a so-called “parental rights” agenda, which many have argued is a guise for anti-LGBTQ stances and policies.
In addition to six conservative board members being recalled throughout California, an effort to put parental rights on the November ballot failed to qualify due to a lack of signatures. Meanwhile, the state will likely ban policies that require schools to notify parents if their child is transgender.
“We have a lot of proof points now across the state that the average voter is not happy with what extremists are doing with our school boards,” Kristi Hirst, co-founder of Our Schools USA, told the Chronicle.
“They’re willing to take our tax dollars and use them to advance political crusades, and they’re doing this at the detriment of good governance … .It’s hurting our students and public school systems, and voters are not happy with it,” she added.
Assembly Member Bill Essayli, R-Riverside, told roughly 100 California Republican Party convention last year attendees that the focus in 2024 should be on parental rights.
“You’re seeing something of a pushback throughout California,” Lawrence Rosenthal, chair of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, told the Chronicle. “Whether that pushback has a kind of a national weight, I don’t know.”
