Collaborating in the Cloud: Flat PaikBot and Teaching

PaikBot at a stockton tricking session by @Gronnana

This striking image was created by my student, photographer Glenn Armstrong,  as part of an optional assignment in Art History: Renaissance to the Present, a survey course I taught at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in fall 2012.  The assignment asked students to contribute to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's online project, Paikbot Travels, in connection with Nam June Paik: Global Visionary, its 2013 retrospective of the work of Paik, a pioneering video artist.

My goals were to urge the students to explore the web resources typical of a large national museum, and to gain an understanding of some of the ways art and art worlds are changing in the digital age.  To counteract the tendency of large lecture courses to create passive recipients, I designed the assignment to urge students to participate in art worlds - and to be a part of American art history -  by creating and contributing.  We had research projects and presentations, but I wanted them to experience new media as well.

To see more of these images, check out the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Pinterest board for Paiklandia: Paikbot Travels.  The project drew participants from all over the globe.  So proud of Glenn's arresting contribution!