Working on and with Eigensinn – A new approach to Media | Art | Education

by Giaco Schiesser
Lecture, October 19

Abstract:
The lecture focuses on a media and art education in pace with the times, on the basis of a new approach: the conception of "Eigensinn" (approx.: wilful obstinacy) - a term that only exists in the German languages - of media and of artists is developed in detail in its richness and fixed as the crucial artistic and media productive force. Giving an insight in some central influences / demarcations/ transformations of different media explored and used by artists in Europe in the 20th century, it proposes that a forward-looking media art education in pace with the times could rest on three pillars:

1. Training in individual, collective and collaborative "media authorship."

2. Working on and with the "Eigensinn of media" (e.g. film, photography, computers / networks and the fine arts).

3. "Art as process" / "art as technique." These three pillars are worked out and presented in detail.