Experiences from teaching an interdisciplinary multimedia course

At Wellesley College very rarely do the Fine Art and Computer Science faculty cross paths. That was the case until two years ago when we taught an experimental course that brought together work the authors were doing in their respective fields. In this course, art and computer science students worked in assigned pairs to produce an interactive multimedia project on a topic of their choice. The project had to be taken from conception to publication on CD-ROM. Theoretical material from both disciplines was presented in addition to the hands-on production skills. The projects covered a diverse range of topics, including: an interactive museum, a children’s game, the nature of fractals, a jazz tutorial. The results far exceeded the instructors’ expectations for the excellence of the projects. In the process, the students learned a great deal about multimedia and an important lesson about the nature of collaboration. The course has become since a showcase of the school’s interdisciplinary offerings and has created an increasing stream of “Media Arts and Sciences” majors.