NEW! MEDIA! ARTIST! (Andi Watson)

Paranoid Android

What is the topic (what artist) of your presentation and why did you select that artist?

Visual Designer & Director:  Andi Watson

I cannot say for certain how I stumbled onto Watson. The art and craft of lighting design has been around for absolutely ages: really ever since anybody wanted to put on a show of any kind. The evolution of this art has brought it from a place of simple, utilitarian function into a new world of experience and building of worlds. Having seen Watson’s work in person several times I’ve been moved by his ability to transform a space and create an immersive, engaging environment that exponentially increases the efficacy of the performance. When his show is presented, interwoven with the music, the performance is seen, heard, and felt simultaneously. The overall effect is captivating. 

Did you encounter any challenges when creating this presentation? Please describe them and how you overcame them.

The first challenge I faced was one of advocacy. Do I really believe that Andi Watson is a “new media artist” and am I prepared to defend that position? My interest in his work, specifically, and that of Lighting Designer in general, was piqued and I dug into see what I could find. I was very quickly in over my head and am still completely mystified by a large portion of the goings-on in the field. Having said that, I am still marvelously excited by the work and would like to offer it for consideration to those who might not have otherwise been cognizant of it as a career or creative expression. It is a fascinating mix of maths, engineering, technology and creativity. There were also some technical roadblocks in terms of utilizing the Google to make the Slides. These were not insurmountable, of course, and some inter-Google research as well as my teenage children were always so pleased to share their experience.

What did you enjoy the most about this project and why? The least? and why?

I most enjoyed making a Thing! I made a Thing! Organizing information and images in the form of a slideshow presentation is incredibly gratifying. I also really liked learning some new bits and bobs.

I did NOT, however, really care for feeling like an ignoramus re the topic at hand. For everything new I learned it was brought to my understanding that there are SEVEN HUNDRED MILLION THOUSAND THINGS I am a completely a dullard in relation to. There were so many technical terms bandied about throughout the articles I read for my research that they may as well have been written in another language. “GrandMA” is really not what I thought she was. Don’t even get me started on “grandMA2.”

Do you think you will use presentation tools (PowerPoint, Google Slides or Prezi) in your art classroom? Why or why not?

Umm, hello! Google Slides is the bomb.com. It is easy as can be and rather intuitive to work with. Not perfect but darn good. I slayed the beast of PowerPoint forever ago but no longer have ready access to the software. My experience on this project indicated that ppt skills translated well to Google Slides. 

I would certainly use it in my classroom for giving presentations myself but it would also be quite nice to have the students create presentations themselves as a project for class! Maybe even in small groups. 

Having said all this, I may very well still look into the options of Prezi or Keynote (ppt) to see what they have to offer that I’m missing out on.

GrandMA2