Re: multimedia degree at UTS

Iain Sinclair ((no email))
Fri, 16 Feb 1996 21:37:31 +1100 (EST)

> If everyone is doing it badly, maybe a few people doing it very goodly won't
> get paid that badly after all.

There is no such principle in the real world. Market forces don't
proscribe quality. Most people are content with mediocrity, which is
why television and radio makes money. No room for bright sparks there.

> And what's all this "you're just fine tuning other peoples stuff" nonsense?

I took Jimmy to be talking about the issue of creative input. Most
students think they will have some when they leave university;
the reality is a little different.

> As
> most designers know, the difference between good design and bad design (in
> visual media anyway) is not content, but layout. Literraly the position of
> the copy (or graphic) on the page (or screen).

?????????

> As you said, any idiot (even
> me!) can produce multimedia with some basic tools, but it takes someone with
> outstanding design skills to produce outstanding multimedia. And that person
> will be paid very well for their talents.
>
> I think a degree which mixes design discipline with computing skills would be
> valuable indeed.

For such a degree to be worth anything at all, it would have to be put
together by someone with a deep understanding of design and computing
theory, history and practice. There are very few such people, and
few of those would want much to do with universities.

> Yeh just go and buy "The Idoits Guide to C" and in ten minutes you'll be a
> better programmer than any Com Sci graduate ever!!

Can you tell me how programming in "C" is the same as, say, designing
a brochure - not in terms of "aims and methods" bullshit, but in terms
of structure, form, reflexivity, temporality, and efficiency? Can you
tell me someone who can, and could their ideas encompass arbitrary
instances from both disciplines at the model-theoretic level?

> If I've missed the point, Flame away...

Asking questions is good - but not in the university context,
unless you want to waste your time.

-- 
 Iain Sinclair