Maria José Sanchez

I love this question. It seems to me quite relevant because if we look at the point of view of media and expressions, creativity, expressions or what the word really means and the relationship with other disciplines and the integration with technology, we have to address two different points from my point of view. First of all, we have transdisciplinarity in different industries, and I believe that right now we need to address this in order to create better projects and better solutions, and in the other direction. The relationship with industries in terms of practice and theory is also very relevant these days because in that order students and new people who will be in the industry and work together just thinking of two things and we like to call this a “do tank”, not just a “think tank”.

So technology is something you have to keep learning. I can’t say that everyone or anyone is a master and the learning stops there. In this order, it is necessary to create a destination to open new possibilities of creativity and new expressions. It’s been media from the beginning and in that correlation with interactive arts practice programs I think it’s really important in that and also to have a challenge or a lab or special programs where students can converse, can interact with other creative disciplines and areas that are finance, engineering, science, technology and develop projects and programs for the real world.

They also have real-life industry practice and grow during the semester. The whole program, the real exhibits, the funding for experimentation, and creating the full circle of what creating a program really means and creating space for experimentation in the future. The love and the work that we do for us is really important that we keep this space not only for the customers but also to have this space for experimentation when we have to continue to create in our minds and also this space with different people d another culture and from another perspective who come and make the programs together in collaboration and discipline.
We see this model as the best model we can have for creating new things and not just stock and creativity. Same path.

For example, Ars Electronica just moved from September 8 to September 13 (2021 ndrl.) and we did this experiment that caused the characteristic of the students or the characteristic of the University.
And we invited 100 students from all over the world and features to get into the program. They were at the highest level or the most innovative. They were presented with a creative proposal on how to enter the program. This beginning was therefore totally different from the usual way of selecting students. And it allows us to see different cultures and the challenges they face. For example, the people of India, in this very remote part, were not able to use the technology before the pandemic arrived and they are using different activity tools to meet this challenge.

In this program, students work for a month with technology, with a person in charge of creativity and with a philosopher. This combination allows, on the one hand, to open the window to creativity, to create possibilities with technology and to create truly amazing programs. And on the other side, to start questioning everything to do projects that aren’t really solutions to question the work. And I think that combination with the students, it was a really tough challenge because you have different backgrounds, different cultures, but coming from that perspective, when you have a tech mentor and you have a philosopher or something really different, the price they really make a change.

Totally because our thought comes from Ars Electronica. So if you ask questions, you allow people to just repeat that it’s a brain situation. And we also use what you see often. And to challenge yourself, you have a new part of creativity that you maybe don’t have in the solution, just because you want to solve something very quickly, which is the combination, I believe, the best . I am not against the sign. Of course, it is so important for everything. But I think right now it’s really important for people and most students to know how to respond.

I believe everything is important. Knowledge is important, of course knowing how to do it is really important. The ability to design is important and the ability to lead and I add four other things that must be needed. This technology and experimentation, the ability to know how to question and the ability to reflect expressions. So like I was saying, if we have the word media, how media has been framed in years past, in the history of what media means in terms of media art or interactive art, it has come of the question, how can I express in different ways and for this expression, we need a time of experimentation like everything in science. Also, we need experimentation, that’s why I say that in the programs, if we let the students experiment with knowledge, it’s the best way to think freely and find different solutions. But I feel like it’s a lack sometimes in the university that we repeat a lot of the same programs over and over again with the students and they have the same ideas over and over and over in the classes. So how do we get them to really rethink and do something that can be quite different and just as important.

First, I imagine the interaction between the different IAS within the framework of the master. In the example that I presented at Ars Electronica with the students, they say that they really want to interact more between the different fields. Expression, creativity and technology. For me, that’s the best, because we live in the digital realm and we also live in creativity. So, for me, this combination must be present. I imagine the combination of teachers, both in research but also in practice.

And I also imagine that they have a contribution or that they have developed students, a product or a festival with a company or with a partner that can be exhibited in a practical example, a work at the end of the master’s degree. So you have all the theoretical parts. But the things you have to give, as a result, is something to have an impact and can be an exhibition of working practice temples in the master. I like it, and I believe that it must be and also the challenge. Maybe because I was a partner in the tech industry.

The challenge is for companies to really feel the value of connection. So the management before knowing how it’s going to work, this interaction or this relationship is really important because as a partner, I was really into it. I really care about students, education and the future. But you spend so much time on it that if you work a lot, it’s something you can’t do. So if you have a responsible partner, not just to defeat a really responsible partner who can do it, I think that’s the best combination.
And it’s a tricky relationship that we have to have with really important partners, and they can see the relevance, and they can feel it’s important to them too, not just for doing checks, but also for the value of the company.

We have about a year or less in the time that we do in our business, about a year or less in terms of technology. So it’s constant change, and that’s where the innovation is. We have to hear innovation or something that we hear every day and our proposals have to develop in every time innovation, we are changing all the time in terms of technological revolution.

We maintain peace as human revolution. We therefore understand that the technological revolution has a partnership or correlation with the human revolution. This means that we also change a lot. That’s why we understand that working in this way has something in common and is more valuable than doing challenges that only make normal programs. With this combination, we know that technology is changing a lot, of course. Human being is also evolving, and we cannot be separated because if we think technology is evolving and human being has no correlations, technology is evolving for humans and humans. We change because of technology.

And I also believe that if we change the word or maybe from users to correlation we better understand what it means to live as a human and technological digital world, because maybe to categorize we just use like this is the Urcers. And that’s the product that sometimes gets separated early on with the students, the concept of oh, gotta serve it. But at the beginning, we understand that we are in this correlation and that we cannot separate. We know that the projects match in many ways, and humans are also making these changes with the same technology, and it’s not aligned. It is no longer an analogy.
This whole divide between visuality and real life that we had to address ten years ago, we are living in it now. So there is no longer any separation on that side.

From my point of view, it is a profile that is definitely in our company, in our company. What we are looking for depends on the capacity of things and the way they act, that’s why I say that I have noticed the best people we have found or the best people who want to come to our company. They are not the ones who know how to work, just the technique.
They are the ones who know how to answer questions and also the ability to create new things, the polls that the University gives them. Like we said, polls and technology have changed a lot and we’re looking for people who have toes, but also the ability to create and do something with different things. But definitely something is a profile that we totally have in our business.

There are a lot of proposals that we may not be able to finish this meeting if I start talking. But I say that we have just finished this participation in the program for us at Ars Electronica. Here, 100 students from very different backgrounds are part of the world, and they weren’t just, I would say, the wealthiest people, they were the ones who showed more creativity in how they answered questions for the mostly.
And we definitely see it, most of the people we have there or the students are asking that they want trout discipline, not because I’m saying it, they’re really looking for different connections with other people in the world. ‘University, and also they’re asking for those connections I was talking about during the war. I think sometimes we value the students because in a normal school we talk a lot. But when you let them participate in the projects, you will see that they have much more than just the ability to listen.
My proposal is to have a laboratory where they can play and present their own work and they can show what they are doing just with mentors, with teachers. For me, that’s where you really see the capabilities.