The original vision of EMAC was captured succintly in the white paper I wrote in 1991, after talking to Larry Kagan and Richard Povall, a former assistant prof of electronic music. Richard helped me work out the curriculum design and the budgetary matters and we submitted a series of proposal together. I'm attaching two of the most significant. The one from 1992 are re-workings of internal memoranda that had been circulated as early as 1991 by me to the Dean of H&SS and Meindl. I think circulating the shorter memo might be of some interest for both historical reasons and for reference.
--Dave Porush
TO: Tom Phelan, Dean of H&SS Michael Halloran, Assoc. Dean, H&SS Merrill Whitburn, Chair, LL&C Larry Kagan, Chair, Arts FROM: David Porush & Richard PovallThe attached white paper is meant as a DRAFT of a proposal for a BA program in Electronic Media, Arts & Communication (EMAC) at Rensselaer. We intend to use parts of the document, after revision, as the basis for funding applications to the grants listed near the end of the document. The white paper includes an overview or executive summary section which you may want to use to give administrators and other interested parties an abridged view of the EMAC proposal. We also urge you strongly to submit this document to Jim Meindl and the BAPP committee as soon as possible -- as a draft of a proposal -- since one of the primary perceptions registered by BAPP about H&SS is that we have not sufficiently responded to strategic initiatives. This document describes a program that directly responds to the call for interactive learning. We hope you will rigorously edit and comment on the document. We will take your suggestions and editorial remarks and incorporate them into a final document.DATE: 26 August 1992
SUMMARY
This document details a design for an ambitious new program at Rensselaer, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Electronic Media, Arts & Communication (EMAC) . This EMAC BA would require the cooperation of two existing departments in H&SS: Language Literature & Communication (LL&C) and Arts, and their respective faculty. A strong undergraduate program cannot be effectively maintained by a first-rate faculty unless it complements ongoing research and professional activity expressed in graduate programming as well. Consequently, EMAC evolves naturally out of the vision and resources of the research and graduate programs already mounted by these two departments: the integrated electronic arts at Rensselaer studio (iEAR); the artificial intelligence research project devoted to developing a story-telling computer (Autopoeisis); research into text-design, user interfaces, and graphics, by and for the computer; communication theory and text analysis; creative and technical writing; and contemporary film and culture . EMAC represents a curriculum for the future. It responds directly to a massive -- and growing -- electronic culture. The impetus for mounting this program comes in part from our observations of our own students and their interests: By their native interests and "literacies" in (and as consumers of) new music, video techniques, computer gaming, computer generated art, various personal computer- based software packages for text production, visual design, and music production, and multimedia, our students are leading us inevitably to recognize the need for and virtue of an EMAC-type undergraduate degree program. They are immersed, now virtually from the cradle, in a computerized cultural environment. For them, the computer delivers a virtually totalizing environment for work, play, and communication. And they know this new wave of careers and technologies is coming ashore. We want Rensselaer to be the first university to respond with a coherently and advanced curriculum, and we believe we are uniquely positioned to do so.
What would EMAC teach our students? The focus of an EMAC program would be on preparing students to understand and participate actively in creating and applying the new and evolving electronic culture, especially in the arts, literature, communication, and information delivery. Students graduating with a BA in EMAC at Rensselaer could work in any number of fields, all of them growing rapidly in the marketplace as the result of new communications and media technologies. These include, but are not limited to: video and television production; music production and performance; multi-media documentation, including technical documentation; text design; computer interface (screen) design; cinema & film; publishing; virtual reality design; information services; corporate presentation services; animation for entertainment and education; electronic arts; corporate communications; graphical design; software design for computer entertainment and information delivery; screenwriting, scriptwriting, creative writing; contemporary cultural analysis and criticism; art and cultural theory. The EMAC program would also equip students with a solid foundation in both traditional humanities studies; technical design; and the sciences (see Core Curriculum section).
Emac and Strategic Initiatives EMAC directly addresses one of Rensselaer's strategic initiatives: interactive learning. Most EMAC courses would be hands-on, conducted in small workshops and studios. In many instances, students would directly design and implement work on technical equipment, including videographic workstations, music synthesizers and computer mixers, cameras, UNIX workstations, and graphical imaging stations. Furthermore, some EMAC students would be learning the skills of software and technical design for the classroom, and thus need to investigate the method and theories of interactive learning through computers.
Why EMAC at Rensselaer? EMAC builds on traditional strengths at Rensselaer, particularly H&SS's traditional commitment to studying the humanities and arts in a technological and scientific contest, and Rensselaer's general reputation as a technological university that prepares students to take their place as leaders in their chosen vocations. While some of these skills and career preparations are offered by disparate undergraduate media, journalism, or film and video production programs at other universities, NO PROGRAM IN THE NATION CURRENTLY OFFERS SO COMPREHENSIVE A B.A. DEGREE IN ELECTRONIC ARTS AND COMMUNICATION. Since EMAC vigorously responds to the currents in existing and future culture where technology, the arts and communication intersect, we are confident that EMAC will attract many new students to Rensselaer and capitalize on a hitherto unexplored market for new students. We expect that Rensselaer would receive an enormous amount of new, positive publicity for its innovative approach to undergraduate programming, and broaden its "market appeal" to other regions, especially the West Coast and large metropolitan areas. And because the EMAC program would be unique in the country, we are persuaded that Rensselaer would attract students whom our current programs do not reach. We would even suggest that new students who are not interested in majoring in EMAC directly might be attracted to Rensselaer, since offering a BA, let alone one in so high-profile and newly attractive arena, would set Rensselaer apart from, say, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Georgia Tech, while broadening Rensselaer's general profile and appeal and underscoring its commitment to innovative education. We further believe an EMAC degree would attract transfers from other schools and universities, particularly two-year colleges and liberal arts universities which are not equipped to prepare students for specific careers in the electronic arts, culture and communication. Finally, we are strongly convinced an EMAC program would retain students whom Rensselaer currently loses to attrition because of the narrowness of current curricula.
EMAC and resources EMAC would build directly on already- existing resources, faculty, and programs at Rensselaer. In order to mount a coherent program and serve the needs of students the program will need two new faculty lines and approximately $50,000 worth of new equipment, the costs of which we fully intend to cover through grants from foundations and tuition revenue from new student enrollments. With help from Development, we have identified ten foundations which we intend to pursue vigorously for funding possibilities.
The following longer document gives an in-depth plan for the proposed EMAC BA program, explains its goals and the rationale for creating it at this time and place. We then describe in detail the core curriculum, degree requirements, the faculty, the resources required, potential funding sources to support the initiation of the program, and a provisional schedule of activities that would lead to initiation of the program.