Aspects of Technology in Contemporary Art Education

Abstract

Technology might just be a contemporary solution to the ever-growing gap between younger student generations and the teaching systems in Art Education, which has led to lowest levels ever of attending students in modern artistic education in Romania. The causes are multiple and led to a dramatic decrease of student`s number, increase of university drop-out and reorientation of Romanian students to European Art universities with the necessary openness to new ideas and technologies of contemporary artistic transposition. In our opinion, a potential solution is to approach artistic transposition technologies from two perspectives: first, implementing existing digital technologies, and adapting them to a competitive Art Education system correlated with realities in the labor market - 3D scanning and printing, augmented reality, graphic and concept design on digital support, unconventional materials, on-line and social media documentation, smart-phone creative applications, constant  involvement in creative and participatory projects, artistic research and experimentation. The second perspective involves traditional technologies, or creatively identified as expired technologies - those of the industrial age of the last century. Those are part of the history and already developed aesthetic and cultural potential, at least for the Visual Arts - e.g. Typewriter Art. We may consider as object of study for Visual Arts a whole post-industrial archive - blueprints, designs, and accessible artifacts of the age. Facilitating the practice of contemporary art technologies means democratizing access to creativity, originality and experimental knowledge in a highly professional  field, deeply dependent on abilities and skills whose traditional development is today prohibitive expensive  - resources, time and a global labor market with requirements already adapted  to contemporary creative realities.