McGill Professor to Head Arts Department

Michael Century, McGill professor and art-and-technology consultant from Canada, has been named chair of the Department of Arts at Rensselaer.

	Thomas Griffin

He has taught at McGill University and has contributed in the field of art and technology around the world as an educational administrator, lecturer, writer, musical performer, composer, software researcher, and consultant.

Century previously directed the Inter-Arts and the Media Arts programs at the Banff Centre for Continuing Education. Banff is Canada's only learning center for accomplished artists and business and community leaders. In 1987, Century founded the Media Arts Program, one of the first to focus on the artistic potential of interactive computer technologies.

Through his consulting firm, Next Century Consultants, Century has served as a consultant to notable establishments such as the Rockefeller Center in New York City. He also has assisted in the design of Rensselaer's experimental media and performing arts center.

Born in the United States in Salt Lake City and raised in Canada, Century holds dual citizenship. He earned his B.A. from the University of Toronto and an M.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, both in music history and theory. He is completing his Ph.D. in science and technology policy studies at the University of Sussex in the U.K.

From 1993 to 1996, Century worked as a program manager for the Canadian Centre for Information Technology Innovation, a federal research laboratory in Montreal.

Century's new responsibilities will include further expanding the growing curriculum of electronic arts at Rensselaer. Century will work closely with Johannes Goebel, the director of the experimental media and performing arts center. The arts center, in its design stages, is expected to be completed in 2006.