Study day "Teaching digital arts: contexts, issues, methods

Since the 1990s, art pedagogies and, more specifically, the teaching of digital art have undergone profound transformations. More and more artists are using computers and digital devices, while these practices are taught in art schools and some university art departments. The universe of digital tools dedicated to the creation and processing of images is undergoing permanent expansion and proliferation: the number of tools is increasing, and each of the tools is itself evolving continuously.

In addition, digital art has experienced an exceptionally rapid history/evolution: even before it has delimited its terrain of action and expression, some of its creative forms (3D, interactive image, VR) are already automated and part of functions offered by image creation software. This trend is reaching its peak with the current emergence of generative A.I.. Nourished by huge databases, these A.I.s perform complex calculations to generate images, the aesthetic quality of which remains to be estimated.

In this context, art education finds itself strongly impacted by the uses of digital tools. On the one hand, artistic creativity and practice are put to the test by the (apparent) production performance of digital tools, and, on the other, digital means have brought about ontological changes in the field of art: automated production, infinite reproduction and variation, instantaneous dissemination, ubiquity, etc.

Echoing these transformations, university art education is gradually integrating new technological developments into its pedagogies. After three decades, how can we question this evolution? Is it possible to envisage an art education dedicated exclusively to digital practices? If so, what links would it have with traditional training in the plastic and visual arts? If not, how would we teach digital practices integrated into the visual arts, where we learn to draw, paint, sculpt, make photographs, prints and films? If these questions interest you and you'd like to take stock of this issue, come and join us on March 21, 2025 at Campus Mont Houy, Bâtiment Matisse.