Academy of Media Arts Cologne ....................................
The name "Academy of Media Arts" itself expresses the entire spectrum of interests supported by teaching and research at this institution, namely art in the age of its technological (re)production. The process of formulating and developing the interaction between artistic imagination, theoretical and historical knowledge and individual expression by means of new media places high demands on students as well as on the academic staff of the Academy. Both are working together to create a small utopia which involves bringing together and integrating those processes and interrelated interests in academic practice that continuously threaten to drift apart in everyday professional practice. An essential element of this process is also the joint development of a media/cultural identity, one conscious of its own social, political, aesthetic and ethical obligations. Today's media are social institutions.
Our utopia has not only the power of the idea on its side, but the future as well. A first-class training for creative work in the emerging technologies can only be achieved through a symbiosis of art and culture, of poetry, science and technology. In this context, it is and must remain an experiment. Not one that stagnates in its own isolated aims, however, but one that is committed by the results of its work to enrich the quality of the media landscape, and to subject it to continuous critical examination and analysis. It is an experiment in which the instructors are aware of their obligation to prepare their students for the increasingly competitive international market in audio visual media.
On October 15th, 1990, the first academy in the Federal Republic of Germany devoted to all areas of audio-visual media began its teaching programme.
Kerstin Bergmann ....................................
Kerstin Bergmann worked as assistant to the director of the Academy of Media Arts for 7 years until 2004. During this time she co-curated and organised on behalf of the Academy many exhibitions, e.g. in the ICC, Tokyo, Taipeh Fine Arts Museum, Museum Ludwig Cologne and organised for many years an international short film festival. Since 2001 she works as an art producer and consultant trying to bridge the gap between art and business, e.g. for Sony, Marcel Odenbach, Expo and adidas, who she consults on their Olympic Art Project, opening October 2007 in Shanghai and ending in Beijing in August 2008.
The video program is curated together with Evelyn Mund, Academy of Media Arts
