Academy of Media Arts
The Concept
-Kunsthochschule fur Medien Koln , Cologne/Germany-

------------------------
~
The name "Academy of Media Arts" itself expresses
the entire spectrum of interests supported by teaching and research
at this institution, namely art in the age of its technological
(re)production. The process of formulating and developing the
interaction between artistic imagination, theoretical and historical
knowledge and individual expression by means of new media places
high demands on students as well as on the academic staff of
the Academy. Both are working together to create a small utopia
which involves bringing together and integrating those processes
and interrelated interests in academic practice that continuously
threaten to drift apart in everyday professional practice. An
essential element of this process is also the joint development
of a media/cultural identity, one conscious of its own social,
political, aesthetic and ethical obligations. Today's media are
social institutions.
Our utopia has not only the power of the idea on its side,
but the future as well. A first-class training for creative work
in the emerging technologies can only be achieved through a symbiosis
of art and culture, of poetry, science and technology. In this
context, it is and must remain an experiment. Not one that stagnates
in its own isolated aims, however, but one that is committed
by the results of its work to enrich the quality of the media
landscape, and to subject it to continuous critical examination
and analysis. It is an experiment in which the instructors are
aware of their obligation to prepare their students for the increasingly
competitive international market in audio visual media.
On October 15th, 1990, the first academy in the Federal Republic
of Germany devoted to all areas of audio-visual media began its
teaching programme.
It has been offering its basic 8 semester undergraduate programme
in addition to the 4-semester further education and postgraduate
programme since the winter semester of 1994/95. 
The Key Areas
-------------------------------------------
The Audio-Visual Media Programme is composed of a wide variety
of specialized subjects supporting major study areas, which students
may individually opt for and combine. There are four key areas
of teaching and research at the academy:
* Television/Film
* Media Design
* Media Art
* Art and Media Studies
The projects presented for assessment at the final examination
leading to a diploma, originate generally speaking in one of
the three key areas dedicated to creative and professional practice.
The fourth area offers courses designed to complement and support
artistic study by reflection and stimulation.
Within the first three key areas and the many possible combined
study programmes they offer, the Academy of Media Arts Cologne
has set itself the goal of teaching students the skills necessary
for specific professions. For example, in the area of Television/Film
- as director, writer, or producer; in the area of media design
- communications and television design, video design or desktop
publishing. However, the study programme in audio-visual media
at the Academy of Media Arts is not aimed at promoting narrowly
conceived and inflexible career goals. Such aims can hardly be
defined in the world of freelance practice, and the creative
and technical media sector as a whole is continuously developing
new career paths, to which the Academy must maintain a flexible
response.
A vital part of this comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach
is the focus on forging links with creative professional media
practice using and ba means of technical media.
~
Andreas Altenhoff
Head of Academic and International Affairs
Academy of Media Arts, Cologne
Kunsthochschule fur Medien Koln
Peter-Welter-Platz 2
D-50676 Koln, Germany
wwweb: http://www.khm.de
|