HOW TO MASTER MODULAR REALITIES IN ART, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY — WITH NEW ELECTRONIC MEDIA, AND FOR A BETTER FUTURE OF WORK

The MAST project is developing an applied study module at the intersections of Art, Science and Technology, combining methodologies and practices that intertwine the academic sphere closely with the Culture and Creative Sectors. Nurturing a critical perspective on the historical, economical, social and above all cultural relevance of this interdisciplinary blend within the new digital shift, MAST develops innovative, ICT-enhanced teaching and learning methods. Students from different countries and disciplines will, under mentorship of engineers, scientists and artists, in partnership with relevant NGOs and industry partners, jointly tackle challenges emerging from the paradox between the obviously disparate agendas of Europe's ambition towards innovation on the one side, and the need for social equity on the other. In the present contribution, besides discussing MAST's Visual Identity Design in Pedagogical Context as well as contextualizing Web-design and Production as a uniquely Transversal Academic Collaboration process, Social Media shall be presented in their potential of becoming a Collective Reflection Tool, whereas the electronic publishing potential of Open Courses on Interoperable Platforms will be delineated. These four key aspects will indicate a vision of sustaining the impact of new curricula for a fair digital future that may keep a dynamic balance between the (European, competitive) need for simultaneously sustaining innovation and social agendas. The first piloting year of MAST poses the overarching challenge about the future of work in the context of electronic media, and seeks to develop (in both students, professionals and academia) positive digital-domain worker profiles. Integrating new media and electronic publishing approaches, these workers are able to think about future independently and freely, in a bold transdisciplinary manner, and act ethically across Creative & Cultural Sectors and high technologies. Key words: electronic dissemination, social media, web-design, visual identity, open courseware, social agenda, innovation 1. INTRODUCTION TO THE MAST PROJECT Currently in its first year, the project "Master Module in Art, Science and Technology" (MAST) is developing an applied study module at the intersections of art, science and technology, combining methodologies and practices that will intertwine the academic sphere closely with the industry realms of the Culture and Creative Sectors (CCS). Nurturing a competent perspective on the historical, economical, social and above all cultural relevance of this interdisciplinary blend within the new digital shift, the project will apply innovative, ICT-enhanced teaching and learning methods. Gradual work-placement combined with support for spin-out or start-up and career self-management will instigate such innovation capacities in both students and the academy that are linked to the real and foreseeable CCS industry needs, but still critically reflect (its) realities and paradoxes. MAST is already in 2018/19 offering a range of five international workshops (Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia), where students from three universities will face an interdisciplinary challenge, seeking innovative solutions with support of excellent mentors, artists, scientists, engineers, curators and producers. However, to enable a most positive collision of the three realms, the project will need to let creatively collide (and combine, if not blend) the tech-innovation paradigm and the social equity agenda models. Technologies are always political and have a social impact, in that they codify certain values into material culture thus enabling (or limiting) individual and societal possibilities. Therefore, hard-won values — like social justice, strong labor, gender equality, and quality culture — will be linked with new digital innovations. In its tectonic ethical orientation, the module shall explore how progressive Social Europe (SE) agenda values can be coded into innovations, as well as how social groups and movements may use media and (high) technology to forward the values of SE. Experts from different fields will learn how to understand artists (i.e. their poetical, metaphysical, philosophical and ethical premises) and translate these divergent ideas into possible solutions that may reach all the way from industry-oriented innovative technologies to social innovation.