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The Research Group in Electronic Art & Communication is based in the Faculty of Art & Design at the University of Hertfordshire.
The mission of the group is to further the dialogue between the visual arts and information technology, (artistic enquiry has played a significant role in the history of electronic computing since its advent in the early post-war period), and specifically to use art and communication design to explore, amplify and diffuse the point of contact between the physical world and the digital information environment.
In keeping with this mission to explore the interface between the real and the virtual, the main interests of the Groups members coalesce around issues in symbol, patterning, perception, representation and interpretation in situated and ambient interactive media interfaces.
These interests are refined by the strategy to support and develop research activity and interests that directly evolve out of, and/or fold back to reinforce, the wider academic and longer term course development goals of the Facultys three departments. However, there are particularly strong connections with the courses Software Systems for the Arts and Media and Digital Design to Manufacture - both run in collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - and Digital Modelling and Animation, Product Design, Fine Art - Time Based Media, and Applied & Media Arts.
The Group mainly consists of staff who teach on these courses. All are exploring or engaged with digital media in their research activities - activities that encompass both theory and practitioner-based forms of enquiry and include the use of non-digital media alongside digital components. Indeed,in certain instances, the digital element is not the major constituent in a given activity or output but the research is, nonetheless, pertinent to the overall interests of the Group.
The Group also collaborates with University colleagues in computer science, telecommunications, psychology and philosophy, as well as external institutions such as the Virtual Reality Centre in Teeside and the National Museum of Photography Film & Television in Yorkshire, etc.
The Groups heterogeneous character is viewed as a particularly important feature, both for the general academic model it provides, and in terms of addressing the interdisciplinary knowledge and skills base that digital media applications require.
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