Golan Levin and Collaborators

Flong Blog + News

Grateful for a name

30 March 2010 / general, studio

In 1985, a research unit was formed at Carnegie Mellon called the “Center for Arts and Technology”. The interdisciplinary spirit was in the air — it was the same year that the Media Laboratory was founded at MIT. A few years later the CMU unit folded (I don’t have the complete history here) and was reborn in 1989 as the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry (the unit I have directed since last year). Occasionally I overhear discussions proposing the founding of a new Center for Arts and Technology … here and there … and I was led to wonder how much currency and unique value the phrase still has. Well, duh. Five minutes of fairly casual Googling now yields at least 30 places whose names include “Center for Arts and Technology”, and many more depending how strict you are about formatting. The names range from some well-established research centers in emerging arts (like Eyebeam) to a huge variety of vocational training centers, local media production facilities, neighborhood community centers, nursing certification programs, and high schools, to wit:

  • Ammerman Center for Arts & Technology
  • Bayview Hunters Point Center for Arts and Technology
  • Beecher Center for the Arts and Technology
  • Burton Center for Arts and Technology
  • Carver Center for Arts and Technology
  • Centre for Arts and Technology, Halifax
  • Centre for Arts and Technology, Kelowna
  • Center for Arts & Technology Pickering Campus
  • Center for Arts, Science, and Technology at Stanford University
  • Cleveland Center for Arts and Technology
  • Donald Tavel Arts and Technology Research Center
  • Eastern Center for Arts and Technology
  • Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology
  • Louis Riel Arts and Technology Centre
  • Maryland Center for Arts and Technology
  • Mendel Center for Arts & Technology
  • National Center for Arts and Technology
  • Newell Center for Arts Technology at St. Lawrence University
  • Philadelphia Center for Arts and Technology
  • Sankofa Center for Arts & Technology
  • Sedona Center for Arts & Technology
  • South Monterey County Center for Arts & Technology
  • UCI Beall Center for Art + Technology
  • Vancouver Center For Arts and Technology
  • West Chester Area School District Center for Arts and Technology
  • West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology

Suffice it to say that I’m glad for my unit’s vague, weird and mysterious name.


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