Fred Shannon was a friend of mine. He worked at the University of
Washington for the School of Medicine, writing the questions for tests
that doctoral candidates would take for their medical degrees.
Fred always impressed me with the breadth of his knowledge and his
mastery of computer programs. It also impressed me that his job was of
such critical importance. Imagine the importance placed on those tests by
students, and how important the tests are for the quality of medical
practitioners.
Fred came to mind as I routinely created electronic stamps for a
learning game I’m working on called Stamps ‘N Stories. An
electronic stamp is an image made in a computer paint and graphics program
that looks like a stamp. Its edges are perforated, there is an image in
the center, and text or numbers (or both) around the sides. They’re
called artists stamps in my field; philatelists put them in a
category known as cinderella.
These stamps must bear on some learning experience because I am an
educator, and I not only want to create interesting images (I’m an art
educator, a professor of art by title) but I want to communicate
something with the images.
This isn’t necessarily how all artists feel or talk about their art
and craft; I happen to think the content of art is important alongside the
visual, abstract or decorative quality. Like the components of a test that
medical students take, medical terminology is an abstraction for physical
medicine.
Some call this “narrative” and it’s like story telling. I think
stamps, too, have a story to tell. Reading about stamp collecting that the
story behind a stamp—its country of origin, the conditions under which
it was designed and used, etc.—is interesting to stamp collectors. Also,
an antique stamp—especially if it’s on an envelope—can be worth a
lot of money to some collectors.
Terms on a medical exam are worth a lot. Artworks, too, can be worth a
lot of money, particularly if they date from antiquity. No doubt the
stories about a painting, its importance in art history, adds value to the
artwork. What looks like a portrait of any man can be changed, in the mind
of the viewer, if he or she learns about the painting and the artist who
painted it.
A stamp that I make is often a reproduction of an artwork that I made,
reduced to stamp size and illuminated with words, numbers and symbols that
all have meaning in the lexicon of my personal art. An electronic stamp
can also contain links to other pages in the language of the Web, hypertext
markup language (HTML).
To make a stamp this way, I must take interim steps. I must make a
digital snapshot, then crop and “tune” the image. I must know file
types, resolution, size considerations (both file size and visual size)
and sometimes how the image will look printed on paper. If I’m going to
add text and numbers, I have to know typefaces and what kinds of software
will be appropriate for layout. There are many considerations, depending
on the final output I want.
To make things work correctly requires practice and foresight.
Therefore, I often feel like I’m studying, making sure I got all the
parts of the process correct and in the right places, in the right sizes
or file types, and tuned for the best results. I feel like a student, in
other words, getting ready for an examination. The odd thing is that I
also feel like a teacher, with myself as my student.
I’m one click, or a Web page, ahead of myself most of the time.
My goal is to create a learning experience that people can use on
their own computers. I want to teach art through the process of using a
computer and computer software, including the Internet World Wide Web.
To
get this right (Hint: This will be on the exam!) I need to invent the game
as I play it. On days like today, I feel like I’m ready for any pop
quiz. Tomorrow will bring still more insights; after all, that’s the
point of continuous education—and what a great way to learn!
Fred would be pleased.
In closing, I remember another friend. Her memory came as I finished
another electronic stamp and I did it faster than the one just before. Her
name is Eleanor Mathews, and she won the Pillsbury Cook-Off, the well
known biannual contest that people can win and get a million dollars for
original recipes. On the day of the cook-off, they must prepare their dish
in thirty minutes or less.
This requires not only an original recipe (using a Pillsbury product
as one of the ingredients, of course), but also considerable practice in
preparing it right. As I create my electronic stamps, grabbing an image
from my archives, processing it, filing it, re-sizing it as needed, I
think about Eleanor that day she won the big prize.
I foresee that, someday, electronically skilled artists will compete
against the clock for speed and a great “recipe” for Stamps ‘N
Stories. And, of course, there will be a million-dollar prize!
|
Bill H. Ritchie, Jr. is an Itinerate Professor
based in Seattle. He taught college (UW) and after promotion to full
professor of printmaking and media arts, he resigned at 43. He then
launched several teaching, research and practice companies. In 1992 he
discovered Emeralda, a fantasy region accessible only by computer. He
invented the rules-of-play and created an operating system for online
interactivity for himself.
He writes for the benefit of discipline, using a PDA when he's
wandering around and a desktop PC to organize his essays. He has a
thousand or more saved, which you can see listed on the ten
"islands" on the Web. An example is www.seanet.com/~ritchie/apzine.html,
on the island of ArtsPort in the Emeralda Region.
For further information contact Bill H Ritchie
via e-mail at ritchie@seanet.com,
or visit his professional Web site at www.seanet.com/~ritchie
and his first portal for Emeralda is www.artsport.com.
The company name is Emeralda Works, 500 Aloha, Seattle, WA 98109. He can
be reached by telephone at (206) 285-0658. Statistics: 1065 Words. 5081 Characters. 3 Pages. iap30603
I Had A Friend Who Made Tests. ©2003 Bill H Ritchie, Jr.
|