A Project funded by the Teaching Development Grant of UGC Creativity in Practice (CIP): Teaching and Learning Outside Classroom Principal Investigator: Dr. Linda LAI Co- Investigator: Mr. Wesley TANG (left CityU in ) Current course coordinator of Portfolio and Practicum: Mr. Yue-jin HO City University of Hong Kong School of Creative Media TDG Project No PI: Dr Linda Lai

What is Creativity in Practice (CIP) ? INTEGRATION OF THEORY & PRACTICE IN MEDIA ARTS Managed under a CIL core course Portfolio & Practicum (SM4146) & assessed by all faculty as part of a student’s Graduation Thesis (SM4140) For the roughly 90 Critical Intermedia Laboratory (CIL, one of the 3 study areas in BACM) students Last for 20 Months (January 2007 – August 2008) Investigated by Studio leader Dr. Linda LAI In Alignment with the CIL curriculum (PILOs) Formalization & Consolidation of Existing Good Practices for Systematic Administration and Assessment TDG Project No PI: Dr Linda Lai

What is Creativity in Practice (CIP) ? DIGITAL PORTFOLIO created in Portfolio & Practicum SM4146 Expository Writing : Writing for CV DVD Production Website Production Art/Cultural Projects (Community Services) Internship (roughly 6 weeks) (Professional) Art Workshops (Educational) SKILLS CIL Creative Bulletin #1 (Art-Making) (annual showcase of CIL course- art-works to the public) Sentensia (Curatorial Practices) (competitive cash award for students to run an exhibition) Talks and Seminars (Alumni & professional experts to Broaden Horizons) Outreach Activities 13-week training in class TDG Project No PI: Dr Linda Lai

The aim & activities of CIP Reflect and apply creative art knowledge & skills Develop leadership, presentation and communication skills Learn more about own views and abilities Deliver works meeting the professional standard of media industry Exercise concern for society in concrete actions Verify own values in real organization’s actual practice Develop and extend professional networks Build a website to demonstrate evidence of PILOs: display students’ digital portfolios & documentation of outreach activities (2A) Outreach Education Programme (2B) Internship at Media Organizations (2C) Local Art & Cultural Events (3) Digital Portfolio (4) International and Local Experts(5) Exhibition Differentiated ILOs for * Students (ILOs) * Staff * the School *Realize with the help of a research assistant, student helpers and the faculty members in CIL (1) Create a Core course Portfolio and Practicum TDG Project No PI: Dr Linda Lai

(1) “Portfolio and Practicum” the course 13 weeks of 3-hour workshop Writing: Personal narratives of creative development + artist’s statements + c.v. Reflection: Personal creative path, internship and outreach experiences Multimedia production DVD production, web-site production Seminar with professional experts and alumni Case studies: sample portfolios by good artists TDG Project No PI: Dr Linda Lai

(2A) Outreach Education Programme (Senior-year) Students practise what they have learnt in SCM through teaching others 35 student-instructors, 16 teaching teams, 16 secondary schools, 16 4-to-8-week creative workshops on Photography, Creative Writing, Video, Animation... TDG Project No PI: Dr Linda Lai

26 students, 15 media production companies including Television Production, Animation, Design, Website Design, Publishing, Advertising... Full-time commitment of students in the field of media productions Full-time employment of some graduates in the organizations they worked as interns (2B) Internship in Media Organizations Performance of students Evaluated by 33 organizations joining the internship: Exceptional: 4 Greater than required: 16 Meet Expectation: 8 Below Expectation: 0 TDG Project No PI: Dr Linda Lai

(2C) Local Art and Cultural Events Support art and cultural organizations in the form of local art community services 32 students, 10 art and cultural institutes including research, production, communication, administrative, operational... Positive Feedback from Students and participating organizations Students are excited to participate in local art event Continuation of part-time involvement of students in the affiliated organizations TDG Project No PI: Dr Linda Lai

(3) Digital Portfolio (i) Student digital portfolio (ii) CIL digital archive for student works from different courses All portfolios are uploaded to the internal e-Portfolio archive Good works are uploaded to the CIL website: A news section for the CIL community is created: A server is bought to store all CIL-related digital archives (Videos, portfolios etc.) “The CV and portfolio writing workshops in Portfolio and Practicum is useful in making a better portfolio for potential employers” “Through good course works of senior students, I can understand what the courses are about. The showcase can be an inspiration for my own course work too.” TDG Project No PI: Dr Linda Lai

International and local experts are invited to broaden their horizon (4) International and Local Experts Around 60 students, 4 guest speakers, 6 seminars ExpertiseName of ExpertSeminar Topic Sound Art, experimental documentary, video essays Robert Iolinisound / image / text Phonographic art, web community and cultural heritage activism Anson MakMedia literacy education Curatorship for museum and contemporary art space Stella FongExhibition and curatorial practice International Contemporary Art Curatorship Álvaro Rodríguez Fominaya Art valuation Art curatorship with a “green” concern Music composition, sound art, phonography and sound theories Dr. John DreverLive performance with dance, video and sound TDG Project No PI: Dr Linda Lai

(5) Exhibition An end-of-semester exhibition showcasing 60 works CIL Creative Bulletin #1 Course-based student work showcase open to public “SENTENSIA” Creative Community: Group Exhibition Fund ($10,000) A community based 5-day-exhibition organized by 7 CIL students Art-making & Curatorial Experiment TDG Project No PI: Dr Linda Lai

Achievements in CIP CIP deliverables are realized: 16 Creative Art Workshops, 38 internship experiences in 25 organizations, 32 Digital Portfolios, A CIL studio webpage, 6 guest lectures and seminars, involvement of more than 80 students Sustainable impact The course Portfolio and Practicum becomes a core course All CIL students graduate with a digital portfolio becomes a mandatory practice Awareness of the importance of portfolio Extending the CIL community to key players and professional in the art community including: Secondary school, commercial companies, art and cultural institutions, the local and international art community, and the public at large... “Theory as Practice” enforced as concrete experiences inside and outside campus TDG Project No PI: Dr Linda Lai

Reflection (1) The necessity to sustain a CIP through broad networking with an extended notion of internship (2) The difficulty of sustaining multiple expertise for Portfolio and Practicum (technicality, writing, presentation, narratives on artistic development...) (3) The requirement of human resources to sustain a comprehensive outreach programme (4) The difficulty in evaluating the effectiveness of CIP Suggested Improvements on Digital Portfolio (1) Topics and tree structure could be refreshed (2) In Consideration of the target reader (for Personal development, Documentation of educational experience in CityU, future employers or art curators in museums and galleries...? ) for the final submitted portfolio TDG Project No PI: Dr Linda Lai