During the past couple of months I have learned more about the back end of the internet than I ever did while enrolled in the Electronic Media Design Program at Langara College. That is not to say I didn’t learn anything; all education is invaluable. The year I spent there was full of curriculum and instructor changes, and we, the students felt the brunt of this shift in ideal from that of a creative mandate to a more commercial laden curricula by third semester. Most of the time what you learn doesn’t get put to practice until after the education.
We, as human beings have learned through years of being plagued by the media to complain. We have not however mastered the art of saying thank you as we tend to remember only the negative over the positive experience. How could one say thank you when all around you is negative? Simply put, you change and adapt to a new environment of your own choosing. It will save your life. I write again It will, save your life.
It’s hard to imagine that becoming an addict could save your life. For me looking back at that time it did. I’m not saying become an addict it will solve your problems, that just happened to be what I chose to do.
How angry I became the other night while checking my site stats and clicking on the links that you, the reader click out on. One of them happen to be The Electronic Media Design Program. I clicked it. I was not ready for what I read on the curriculum and instructor pages. I wanted to write a nasty email to than saying “How could you? Be wary of past EMD students coming back to haunt you”. This was Saturday Night. I did not write the letter. I harbor some negative energy towards the director still who didn’t know my name while there for the year 2004 (there are only three classes of 16 students maximum and many only had five or six students within them in total giving the program 40 students at any given time).
This is not a slander post towards an institution of higher learning. It is my remembrance of a time when my classmates and I endured some fowl, non negotiable curriculum changes. Will I approach them and ask why? Yes, I believe I will. Enough time has passed and my anger and resentment are cooling. I chose to save my life again, by becoming sober. I’m going to respond rather than react to this new information I found. The new students entering the program look like they will be getting a great curriculum and that in itself makes me happy. They will not endure the upheaval we did.
While immersed in the EMD program the following instructors made an impact on my studies (using their first names only) Heidi, Don, James, Ivana, Mac, Denise and Haigue. Your encouragement and thoughtful comments/criticisms helped me grow into who I am today. I will remember you. Thank you. And thank you to my classmates who never gave up when faced with a lie.
Perhaps that is why we the students aptly named our graduation Chaos & Form. I rendered the text grid for the poster. It can be seen at the top of this post. Click it!
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