The first students

Director:
Guest Professor Anna Tretter

Teaching Assistant:
Mgr. art. Tomáš Marušiak  

New Media Studio is one of five studios within the Department of Visual Arts and
Intermedia. The five studios – Sculpture, Painting, Graphic Arts, Art Theory and New Media – operate interactively.
Through interdepartmental training programs and lectures, technical knowledge from the respective fields in such areas as 3D Media and Interactive Media, Video, Photography, and New Media Theory is made available to the students.
New Media Studio organizes, installs and oversees cutting-edge new media technologies and assists advanced students in developing their individual projects and artworks with this technology.

Prof. Tretter explains:

“New media is a kind of thinking into the future and a reflection upon the world as a platform to develop a clear and open mind. In every area, new ideas can be found within each individual medium. Even when experiencing difficulties, you can hit upon new possibilities. I think this is true for our region here, as well as other Eastern European countries. To use an example from everyday experience, when fax machines or telephones do not function adequately, it may be that, as a result, people enthusiastically turn to the Internet to work directly with its various applications. It’s most important to work with the medium and to use its possibilities, then observe what happens in the process. It’s an open project. Consequently, I think it’s not only a question of technology per se, but far more a question of a creative attitude, of clear thinking and of reflecting upon what you want to do and why you want to do it, and how you want to realize your ideas.”

Prof. Anna Tretter explains her approach to teaching:

“I have a firm belief that creating art cannot be taught; there must be a fundamental talent. It has to be inside oneself, and everyone has to find this inside themselves. As teachers we can assist students in their self-searching process. To find one’s own identity as an artist is the ultimate goal of the learning process at university. This certainly includes learning the necessary technical skills and fundamental knowledge of art history. In my field it would especially encompass technical skills in all areas of modern communication: photography, video, film, computer arts, interactive media, 3D computer processing.

I would like to enter into a dialogue with the students, to offer my theoretical and practical experience as a sculptor and new media artist and assist in creating possibilities through which the students can find their own positions, so that they can answer the questions: What, how and why do they want do something? Additionally, they ought to consider where the relation between contemporary art context and their own positions and actions lies.”

Recent New Media Studio activities and accomplishments include:
Subjects for term projects in the main Studio during foundation years:

Assistance in the development of individual themes for the professional preparation of the students in their fourth year.
All courses are taught in English.

Anna Tretter curated and organized the exhibition Skart.sk

New Media students Beata Kolbašovská and Richard Kitta participated in the symposium Space Context between Country and Town: Landscape as a Public Space at Kunstverein Springhornhof in Neuenkirchen, Germany.

The exposition Students of New Media at Kasárne Kulturpark, Košice.

Prof. Tretter also coordinated presentations and workshops in Banská Bystrica and Kremnica, Slovakia.

International guests who lectured at the Department of Visual Arts and Intermedia included Dr. Dorothée Bauerle-Willert, art historian, with a lecture about Eastern-Western Art Relationships; Mechtild Bauer-Babel, presenting her Heilbronn, Germany art project New Art at Hagenbucher; and Phill Niblock, an American artist and composer who lectured and produced a major concert.

Professor Tretter has also contributed ca. 400 international art books to the library that were donated by friends in Germany.

Future work of New Media Studio:

The Faculty of Arts of the Technical University in Košice is a growing new art institution in the Eastern Slovak region, one of three art institutions in Slovakia. It was founded in 1999 with the intention of establishing a cultural base for education in art and design at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. Eastern Slovakia’s largest city Košice has just become the European Capital of Culture for 2013. Projects resulting from this cultural year will aid in bringing different European traditions together, and creating an opportunity for cultural interaction.

Perspectives for future students’ work:

Teaching and guidance of students and their projects
Creation of an international forum with students from various universities and institutions
Establishing a basis for dialog in which an exchange of ideas can take place, including new tendencies in the field of art, as artists reflect upon the development of people and societies in our modern world

Prof. Anna Tretter’s experience as a renowned international artist and teacher will ensure the continuing success of New Media Studio.

Prof. Anna Tretter, Visiting Prof. and New Media Studio Director