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Studio for Interrelated Media

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The Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM) is a Studio Art Department at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design located in Boston, MA. It was founded by Harris Barron in 1969 .

Contents

"The artists in The Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM) combine the study of many media by pursuing the representations of their ideas with the most appropriate media for each idea. This process often results in the extending, reshaping, and breaking of boundaries. SIM is project- and concept-centered and depends on the exchange of experience, knowledge and curiosities of a diverse community of students and faculty."

The artists in SIM study many media with the goal of expressing their ideas through the most appropriate media for each concept. SIM is project- and concept-centered and depends on the exchange of experience, knowledge and curiosities of a diverse community of students and faculty. In SIM, students gain practice in articulating their ideas, experience the planning needed to realize them, and learn the power of critique and collaboration.

SIM art overlaps and intersects with many other disciplines in order to encourage students to invent and develop experimental art forms, new directions, and unusual contexts. Each semester SIM provides a selection of courses in many media, such as: web art and digital distribution; video editing and production; interactive media and computer-controlled installations; dance techniques, choreography and improvisation; performance art and spoken word; the interrelationship between art and science; theater production and stage lighting; sound performance, composition, recording, and editing; event planning and production.

The SIM program manages a digital sound studio, a digital production suite, a 350-seat flexible performance space, and a store-house of analog and digital equipment ranging from a theremin and a mirror ball to contemporary digital production tools. SIM students also have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience curating, designing, and producing by annually re-inventing the Eventworks experimental arts festival and managing SIM's Godine Family Gallery.

Eventworks

Eventworks began in 1977 as a multimedia international festival of film, music, and performance art conceived and produced by the SIM program. It was founded to provide venues for new experimental art and to create a link between the college environment and the professional art world. In the thirty-four years since its inception, Eventworks has evolved into a student-run production organization. Eventworks has presented over three hundred artists working in music, installation, film, video, performance, dance, sound and more.

The annual Eventworks festival is a completely student-run nonprofit organization for the arts. Typically students produce this month-long, city-wide festival in which they curate the work of emerging and established artists and scholars while also running all aspects of the production: curating, technical operations, publicity and fundraising. However, as the hands of Eventworks changes each year the goals and vision of the group change so the festival can be anything from one year long to one day long.

Each year, Eventworks producers are self-selected and elected (if need be) among the students in the SIM program. As of 2006 Eventworks producers receive academic credit from the college by registering in the Event Planning and Production course taught by Nita Sturiale (eworks 87’). Before 2006 students had to do independent studies in order to receive academic credit for Eventworks. The MassArt Student Government Association, the Studio for Interrelated Media program, and fundraising efforts throughout the year, provides funding for the Eventworks festival, and other events.

The Godine Family Gallery serves as an educational tool for students in the Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM) who are interested in curatorial work and event production - much like Eventworks. Since its inception, the Godine Gallery has been entirely student-run. Because of the direct involvement of students, the space reflects the conversations present within the institution as well as the larger creative world. Additionally, the Godine Family Gallery has exhibited works of MassArt visiting artists, including interdisciplinary artist Marguerite Kahrl (www.kahrl.com) and sculptors and installation artists, the de la Torre Brothers (www.delatorrebros.com).

The Godine Family Gallery is one of several student-run galleries on the Massart campus. As a professional gallery set in an educational institution, the Godine Family Gallery is a means by which students can fully realize the potential of their artistic practice. The gallery is set apart by its focus: beyond merely acting as a means of showing work, the gallery serves as a nexus point where students, faculty, practicing artists, and other members of the community can take part in an intellectual, cultural and creative exchange. Because of its liberal approach to the institutional definition of the gallery’s role, the space is structurally organic, moving from exhibition to event, 2d and 3d work to performance. The Godine Family Gallery is an ever-changing and dynamic setting, growing and developing with each year of student involvement.

Godine Family Gallery managers receive academic credit from the college by registering in the Event Planning and Production course usually taught by Nita Sturiale. The gallery is funded solely by the Studio for Interrelated Media department.

Harris Barron Scholarship

This student scholarship of Massachusetts College of Art and Design Foundation, Inc. is awarded through a generous gift from Ros and Harris Barron, in addition to donations from friends and family. This scholarship is established in the name of Emeritus Professor Harris Barron—who taught at Massachusetts College of Art for 23 years, was the founder of the Studio for Interrelated Media Department (SIM) in 1970, and was the first chair of the ensuing Media Department (MPA).

The Harris Barron Scholarship shall be awarded each year to a Junior student who is eligible for financial aid and continuing through the senior year in the Studio for Interrelated Media Department [SIM], selected by that Department’s faculty, based on exceptional and/or innovative artistic merit with consideration for financial need. The grant shall not be given to the same person more than once, or split into smaller grants, or shared.

The SIM faculty work closely with the financial aid office to determine the recipient of this award. Juniors are invited to submit the following during the 3rd week in March to the SIM department chair: Cover letter, Artist Statement, Senior Year Plan, Portfolio.

Community web site

SIM has been an early adopter of Internet technologies and the program has embraced and integrated them into the SIM Department curriculum since before the existence of the Web, going back to the 80's. The first MassArt web server was created as an initiative of the SIM Department in the mid-1990s with student participation in the design process. In February 2003, students Matt Karl and August "Kai" Kaiser, along with Professor Dana Moser, launched the first version of (http://sim.massart.edu) with an open source software stack (Linux/Apache/MySql/PHP) on commodity hardware and had a DNS entry created for it. This site is a community contact portal and face book, keeps track of student presentations and production schedules, links to syllabi, calendars, research guides, studio management information, discussion boards, and portfolios. For historical reference, Facebook was launched February 2004. Over the years, Matt Karl has continually re-written the interface for the SIM website, adapting to the specific needs of our department's faculty and students. At this point we have a custom-built Content Management System (CMS) that others have used as a reference. Our department emphasizes and promotes student participation, and we used the server to help in the instruction of students who were interested in network interactions and system administration. You can see a history of the development of the SIM site on the Wayback machine (https://web.archive.org/web/*/sim.massart.edu).

References

Studio for Interrelated Media Wikipedia