Bringing art into computer graphics education

Abstract This paper presents an innovative education program at the University of Gavle, Sweden. The program, creative programming, combines traditional methods of teaching computer graphics, with other cross-disciplinary areas such as art, cognition, and film. The uniqueness of the program is represented by the students who are accepted and the teaching environment they are put in. A judicial process is used to screen applicants, with and without portfolios to the program. This is followed by an examination of intellectual capacity, practical examination, and finally an interview. Together, these are used as guidelines to determine if the student is a suitable candidate for the program. The final group selected has varying backgrounds, ranging from the professional artist to the traditional computer scientist. They are then immersed in a lab environment for the whole duration of the education on the campus. The remainder of the education involves a period in industry. The combination of selective students, a lab environment has produced very satisfactory results, and can be used as basis for further developing the education.