Teaching Philosophy

1. A Quest for Quality

Students master the techniques of computer graphics not only to gain technical proficiency but also to create high-quality art. As an instructor, my aim is to guide students to create high quality graphics by emphasizing concepts in science. To achieve this aim, I encourage students to analyze a scientific concept and then demonstrate their grasp of it in their art.

With guidance, students can merge scientific inventiveness with the demands of artistic quality. They can do this successfully by harnessing the vast potential of computers to create art. Of course, along they way, they have to completely re-think how they can connect with an audience and how making art often depends on the art viewer's interaction, in real time, with a computer program.

2. A Visual Approach to Learning

My instruction starts from the learner's point of view by first emphasizing the learning process and then the production of meaningful computer art or graphics. Each assignment provokes students to think abstractly, then visually; exploring how they comprehend and learn even as they create art.

I have taught "Visual Thinking" and "Visual Learning with Technology" since 1994, using Edward Tufte's books. Assignments tap data as visually attractive and informationally sound, thereby exploiting possible connections between artistic and semiotic meaning. I've presented these results at conferences and symposia. This semiotic approach to visual learning is critical for interdisciplinary approaches in web-based learning. Developing such hybrids is my passion.

Students from different disciplines can analyze visual objects and devise computer visualizations that define visual metaphors and reveal abstract information. With practice, they can determine the semantic content of data - an important skill if they hope to share knowledge via the Internet or a structured network of any type.

3. Integrated Instruction

Cross-disciplinary inspiration, whether from music, geology or journalism, can only improve the quality of art that students generate with a computer. Artwork as process and product also reinforces students' ability to understand and retain scientific concepts. From the beginning of my teaching career, I've tried to evolve an effective teaching strategy that combines computer-based art, graphics and science.

Integrated assignments highlight cross-disciplinary connections between such subjects as the visual arts and mathematics or visual arts and reading/writing. Many employers seek job candidates who combine a passion for art with a practical grasp of computer skills. Such cross-disciplinary instruction, merging computer art and graphics with related subjects, opens graduates of traditional fine art instruction to the ever-growing digital market.