Den digitala konstens aktörer. En studie av datorintegrering i svensk konstundervisning Actors in digital arts: A study of the integration of computers in Swedish art education

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to study the establishment and development of two Swedish art education programmes that focus on digital technology. The first The computer as Artistic Tool, was started in 1989 at the University of Skövde, and the second, Fine Arts and New Media, was started in 1995 at the Valand School of fine Arts at Göteborg University. The study document how the participating actors began to use computers in their artistic practice and the roles they adopted in disseminating knowledge about the new tools. The thesis includes a brief survey of the early Swedish context of this new artistic medium. The study shows that in the early 1990s there was a widespread need for education in artistic applications of computer technology that was not being met within the traditional art academies. The thesis reveals a generational difference in artists approach to the computer medium. Whereas the early generation emphasised the computer as a tool to be applied primarily within artistic areas in which they wee already established, the later, younger generation are not restricted by traditional fields and make more strategic use of digital communication media in connection with different kinds of artistic projects.