I was in a conversation yesterday about technology and arts education, which began on the usual track. Techniques, techno-niques, that integrate technology to support an art form. Okay, that is what we are always doing, techonology to enhance the art.

I have always regarded technology in this manner: a support system. It is a platform to help share more fluidly and quickly, usually used within art forms to enhance the story and add interesting/new elements, but little more.

The conversation took a turn: technology was no longer the support system, the enhancer, the augmenter – but now it was the center. It was the art. Technology as an art form. If those technological elements are regarded as an art form, how does that shift arts education?

What does it mean when technology grows past second tier and becomes a primary art form that we are teaching to?

I was blown away, this completely shifted how I thought about art and education and the marriage of the two. There are art forms that are totally techno-driven already graphic artists, multimedia artists, projectionists, etc. They do not really fit into the great four: visual, music, theatre, and dance. If we add a fifth, what does that mean? Visual, music, theatre, dance, and technology.

Is that necessary? Is it possible? What does it mean?