INDUSTRY ICONS
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How did you get into the AV space? I studied electronic engineering and computer science at university. I emerged as a maker and a programmer, but I didn’t necessarily want to follow one path or the other. I aimed to work with both disciplines and avoid being too confined at an early stage. After university, I was fortunate enough to cross paths with a San Francisco- based AV integrator that specialised in spherical and hemispherical projection – often used for museums, cultural heritage projects, visitor attractions etc. That took me all over the place, working on more than one hundred projects over the course of a decade in around 50 countries. Each project exposed me to more of the industry, as well as provided the opportunity to collaborate with people I enjoyed working with. Eventually, I became more generally involved with AV and integration – looking at control systems, software and interactives and focusing on the human touch points of exhibits. This continued throughout my career, where I prioritised my time on working with people who inspired me.
At what stage did you first get involved with higher education? Following that decade of work in industry, I had the chance to do some teaching at Central Saint Martins, a world-renowned art and design college, part of University of the Arts London (UAL). That was my first introduction to higher education. After that, I worked more on cultural heritage projects – including for clients such as the National Trust and Wellcome Collection. Then, I returned to UAL full-time in a technical teaching role at London College of Communication (LCC) – where I got to work alongside lots of fantastic people. It was at LCC that I started to examine how technical teaching resources were developed – particularly in art and design. In 2017, we seemed to be at a pivotal moment as students studying art and design disciplines arrived with rapidly evolving expectations of technology. A decade earlier, the expectation was that the university would provide them with a room full of computers, Microsoft Office, maybe Adobe Creative Suite – and that’s it. They might have brought their own laptops for basic tasks, but beyond that,
there would not be a demand or expectation for complex technology and AV in their field of study. That began to change; if you had a student enrolling in graphic design, for example, we could no longer assume their output medium to be solely print graphics – their work often became completely media agnostic. In responding to project briefs, they’d be using screens, projectors, audio – whatever equipment they might find in the studio. So, not only had their expectations of technology changed because they wanted to embed it into their practice, but also because they had grown up with a different type of relationship with technology itself. They knew that computing and technology could be harnessed in weird and wonderful ways, and they didn’t necessarily need to be highly technically competent to access these technologies. As an academic, you’re figuring out how to provide all of those opportunities to experiment and produce works of art without the students needing to become expert engineers or computer scientists. It was around this time
ADAM CORRIE
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