Rarely does one see so much passion and motivation to pursue the challenges of teaching rapidly evolving media and new technologies (both on and off screen). This year’s theme was ‘Pixel Assemblage’, encapsulating the transdisciplinary heart of why, as educators, we do what we do. From 2015-2018 I was a Doctoral candidate at UNSW Art & Design, so it felt very special three years later to be invited back as an Alumni to speak at this week’s Education Forum. Organised by the talented team of June Kim (Chair of SIGGRAPH Asia 23 and Lecturer at UNSWAD), Deborah Turnbull Tillman (Head of Education, UNSWAD) and Karen Kriss (Senior lecturer at UNSWAD), the Education Forum featured Gregory Bennett (AUT), Andrew Yip (UNSW) and myself. Andrew and Gregory are both thought leaders and exemplary practitioners in what they do. As an aside, Gregory taught me to edit in 1998 while I was a Master’s student in Film, TV, Media at Auckland Uni, and I was able to make a living for the next ten years off that skill. During a 3 hour event on 04 November, we held a ranging discussion on teaching pedagogy in animation, visualisation, digital media, motion capture, AI, interaction design, cultural heritage and experimental new media, followed by an exhibition of our work (as Un_calculated) in the fantastic EPIcylinder.

I left feeling inspired by my peers and motivated to develop my teaching pedagogy further, particularly in the extended reality / machine learning space.

Below are two pictures from the day, both taken by Karen Kriss.