(no subject)
Went to an open house for RIC's Digital Media Master's Program.
Left unimpressed. The structures of the thing were cool: you take 4 core courses, which combine playing with the sorts of programs I like with studying Postmodernism and New Media. The lab is wall-to-wall top-o'-the-line G4's. Dual Processors and such.
But the faculty! And the students! And their gawdawful projects!
I felt myself turning into Haughtier-Than-Thou after just a few sentences out of the wispy professor's mouth. That was before she started describing the first class: learning three programs I know very well and one I don't care about. And explaining that the class would have people with no computer skills along with geeks of my subtype. After learning that one cannot test out of this, I stiffled the urge to puncture my own eardrums.
It got worse, when the robotic professor took over and did a monotone mumble for maybe ten minutes. And then the students came up, to show us stuff they'd done. Holy hell, the first one sounded like a happy-go-lucky moron. His "film" was an animation of 12 still images. Except that it was the same still image, just with 12 different filters on it. I tried not to cry. The second guy's piece was a simplistic animation of some globs stretching and squashing. You just saw the outline of these globs.
He did it in Maya.
That's like carving a toothpick with a sword. Wrong tool. I could've made the same piece in Flash in a fraction of the time.
The third student's piece was good, but it was a digital video . . . not something I'm particularly interested in.
But the big thing was, I couldn't imagine wanting to discuss Postmodernism with these guys. They reminded me of the dumbasses I went to high school with.
If this program was offered through the New School or Purchase or something, I'd probably consider it. I think I might want an MA in Animation, though. I already have a very general BA (I took philosophy, psychology, gender theory, and sexuality classes to earn it), it would be nice to get my next set of letters be for something specific.
Time to see if MA's in Digital Animation exist nearby. I won't get in for Fall '03, but maybe Spring '04.
Left unimpressed. The structures of the thing were cool: you take 4 core courses, which combine playing with the sorts of programs I like with studying Postmodernism and New Media. The lab is wall-to-wall top-o'-the-line G4's. Dual Processors and such.
But the faculty! And the students! And their gawdawful projects!
I felt myself turning into Haughtier-Than-Thou after just a few sentences out of the wispy professor's mouth. That was before she started describing the first class: learning three programs I know very well and one I don't care about. And explaining that the class would have people with no computer skills along with geeks of my subtype. After learning that one cannot test out of this, I stiffled the urge to puncture my own eardrums.
It got worse, when the robotic professor took over and did a monotone mumble for maybe ten minutes. And then the students came up, to show us stuff they'd done. Holy hell, the first one sounded like a happy-go-lucky moron. His "film" was an animation of 12 still images. Except that it was the same still image, just with 12 different filters on it. I tried not to cry. The second guy's piece was a simplistic animation of some globs stretching and squashing. You just saw the outline of these globs.
He did it in Maya.
That's like carving a toothpick with a sword. Wrong tool. I could've made the same piece in Flash in a fraction of the time.
The third student's piece was good, but it was a digital video . . . not something I'm particularly interested in.
But the big thing was, I couldn't imagine wanting to discuss Postmodernism with these guys. They reminded me of the dumbasses I went to high school with.
If this program was offered through the New School or Purchase or something, I'd probably consider it. I think I might want an MA in Animation, though. I already have a very general BA (I took philosophy, psychology, gender theory, and sexuality classes to earn it), it would be nice to get my next set of letters be for something specific.
Time to see if MA's in Digital Animation exist nearby. I won't get in for Fall '03, but maybe Spring '04.