The Academy of Brera in Milan has been proposing the Course of New Art Technologies since 1999. Now it’s introducing three more masters in Multi-media Arts, while big steps forwards have been made in education, especially in the fields of graphics, cinema and digital communication. But that’s not all. It is also addressing to all the professions concerned by the world of the new media with a special focus upon 3D Animation, Digital Video, interactive advices, web design and show design.
The lecturers of Brera 2 are all worth: among them we can find some of the major Italian multi-media artists (Paolo Rosa, Tullio Brunone, Mario Canali), some experts of info-aesthetics (Antonio Caronia, Andrea Balzola, Emanuele Quinz, Lorenzo Taiuti) and of web-art (Domenico Quaranta).
We interviewed Ezio Cuoghi, a famous multi-media artist who started his career in theatre (we will tell you further in one of the next numbers of Digimag) and the today’s delegated assistant director of the specialization courses referring to the new technologies. He tell us why and how it is worth to choose the courses in multi-media arts offered in Brera and not others, and how they arrived to the techno-theatre second edition, that is a multi-located and multi-media interaction together with an “aesthetic resonance”.
 |
.
Anna Maria Monteverdi: When has the idea of the specialization course in New Technologies for Arts in the Academy of Brera come up? And which are your aims?
Ezio Cuoghi: The masters we are proposing today were born three years ago. Precisely, they are: Interactive and Performative Multimedial Arts, Multimedial Arts for Experimental Video and Cinema; a new course in Multimedial Arts for Photography has been offered since last year. The objectives are quite obvious, if you take into consideration on one hand the amount of art researches conducted in these last ten years, all addressed to find a connection between communication and formal possibilities offered by new technologies. On the other hand you have to consider the European art high education frame, travelling by far faster than the Italian one, showing a lively and present attention to these themes. Concerning the teaching programs I’d say that since the beginning we have been working on an idea based on the necessity to link specified education and actual working on projects outside the Academy world, so that the proposed teaching offer is clearly visible and touchable.
Anna Maria Monteverdi: Spaces and systems suitable for learning new media art aesthetics and practicing the interactive digital systems applied to arts are not many, for the majority of the cases they are distortions or interest weddings exploiting the technological sector to allure “customers”, as you can easily understand from some DAMS’ programs, an Italian degree course for Art, Music and Show. The Brera’s goal is to give birth to a real centre of excellent art experiment, advanced in the multi-media sector.
Ezio Cuoghi: Actually, it’s so, because the Italian high education centres working in this sector are not many. Moreover, they often due their foundation to interests not concerning the quality of the research they are proposing and carrying out, while we, the people working in Brera, have a more sincere aim. In few years we managed in gathering for this project a number of national and worldwide known lecturers trusting in this outstanding work. Not to forget the closed number allowing us the selection of highly motivated and skilled students. The problem is represented by equipments: they are never enough, and I think it’s right so. Anyway, we picked up good specified labs, and for the next years we planned enlargements and specializations leading us to the desired levels.
 |
.
Anna Maria Monteverdi: Which activities are planned for the university year 2007-2008?
Ezio Cuoghi: As usual, beside the normal teaching activity, we have prepared workshops and stages together with prominent artists, and then conferences and meetings on themes suggested by our internal research work. I want to underline the preparation of two more specializations, starting hopefully in the next university year. More precisely, I am referring to the masters in Multi-media Arts for Web and in Multi-media Arts for 2D and 3D Animation.
Anna Maria Monteverdi: In your opinion, which are the most innovative offers come up lately in the sector of national and international techno-dramaturgy and how can you plan, according to your experience as techno-artist, an efficient project, showing a good balance in interactive systems, dramaturgy and scene writing?
Ezio Cuoghi: Well, nowadays there are several researches in progress and many of them are very interesting. In particular the one I’d say very worth are those regarding the issue of the multi-located and multi-media interaction. And I find it a very significant point in our days. The issue referring to the relationship among interactive systems, dramaturgy and scene writing is a question no more requesting an answer for those who work with them. Interaction is a process implying different kinds of emerging phenomena, hidden but included in the work. And an “emerging phenomenon” is not a clear and predictable result. So the dramaturgic project is a kind of magic formula, including all the necessary elements and conditions of a possible “aesthetic resonance”.
 |
.
Anna Maria Monteverdi: How do you manage your activity of “intermedial artist” and of lecturer as well as assistant director?
Ezio Cuoghi: I do it in the only possible way: thanks to passion. Passion to work as an artist, and passion for research and education. Working for an art project and watching it realized often raises enthusiasm as well as directing this department. My professional career was born in theatre, at first as actor and then as director. And my biggest interests can have their origin from there: on one hand there are the languages I always experienced in their interaction. For them I focussed my attention to the relationship between Art and Science, which have become objects of many of my works. On the other hand the same interaction, representing for me the way and work piece more able to offer (and also more subject) to relationships. Having contact and working together with colleagues loving their work, and watching the formation of new artists diligent in their art researches carried out with enthusiasm and intelligent it’s not bad
obviously, not every day!.