The college’s Dean of Education, Tom Hudson, had spent more than a year writing an educational telecourse called “Mark and Image”, which would cover two-dimensional image making, similar to first year drawing instruction in Emily Carr’s Foundation program.
It was different in that it was designed specifically for a television-based course – a “telecourse”. In the 1980s, video and television were a huge part of what was known as distance learning. Tom’s series “Mark and Image” was the second project in what would become four chapters in TV-based art education, shot at Emily Carr College and offered through BC’s Open Learning Agency and the province’s public broadcaster, the Knowledge Network.
Computer-based Visual Image Research
Over the past year of my art studies, I’d been doing occasional computer drawing explorations with Tom and working on my own, trying out drawing and image-making ideas using commercial paint software on the college’s Amiga microcomputers. I spent hours working through a hundred little scribbles, colour adjustments, and shape explorations, improving my skills at drawing with a mouse while mastering the Deluxe Paint software. I’d filled dozens of 3.5″ floppy discs with images to show for my work, and by that point, I was practically seeing pixels in my sleep.
All my computer drawing research was done by my own hand, but much was directed or inspired by Tom, following the thematic narratives that he’d been developing for the Mark & Image series.
Mark & Image was an expansive and modern approach to drawing and two-dimensional language. The subject of each episode would deal with a different aspect of image-making, starting with exploring the energy of materials and actions and working with point, line, and shape, through to studying objects and nature, using methods like collage and frottage, drawing for communication, analysis, and design, exploring images of mankind, and exploring what modern technology like computers and electronics could offer.
As a computer user and a technology enthusiast, I was especially involved in the modern electronics theme, but I would still work through the same exercises as the rest of the on-air class, coming up with computer equivalents for charcoal drawing, and exploiting the computer’s unique cut and paste abilities for digital collages.
The Mark & Image TV Shoot
To take part in shooting the TV series, Tom had managed to get me and my classmates course credits to release us for one day a week. Each episode was shot in a modified studio space on the first floor of the college, next to Tom’s office. Each week, I’d help one of the college’s technicians wheel two Amiga computers, desk and all, downstairs on dollies and set them up.
The video production crew was composed of our director, Bernie, one camera operator, and one sound guy holding a boom mic or adjusting levels during the shoot. I recognized another student from the college’s film and video program working as a grip or production assistant.
The shooting scenario was a faux art studio with about seven students ranging from high school kids to second-year art students like me. We were meant to represent different levels of experience, to appeal to a general audience.
Tom was the on-camera instructor, and as the series progressed through its ten episodes what you saw on camera was the result of real challenges given to us, and real responses from what we’d all seen and learned. It usually took at least 10 hours a day to shoot each one hour episode. I heard this described as a “10-to-1 shooting ratio”.
Over the course of ten weeks, we shot ten one-hour episodes. That old joke about television or movie production being a “hurry up and wait” situation is absolutely based in reality. Each day was a flurry of setting up, getting into position, and loading up the images I thought I’d be working on that day. Then there’d be some hasty instructions from Tom about what our little scene would be, followed by a few moments of mild panic while the camera and bright light was right on my face, and I hoped I was smiling and not looking like a total goof. Then the moment would pass, Tom would say “good”, and I’d go back to breathing normally and sitting around, staying out of the crew’s way.
It was like one little demo after another, but it was such an exciting time, and I was super proud to know that my graphics and my face would be broadcast out there for my family and the world to see.
The idea that people would learn from the videos and be in remote contact with tutors to complete a drawing course seemed so modern and progressive to me. It may seem a bit trite now, with all the instantaneous digital access that we take for granted, but back in 1988, digital media barely existed and everyday access to the World Wide Web has still about seven years in the future. So television and video really was a modern method of education for its time, setting the stage for future versions of online learning.
In the introduction to the series (below), Tom summarized the philosophy of the Mark & Image telecourse:
“This is not a course where we’re going to tell you what to do. Rather, by experiencing through television what is happening with individual students, you’re going to discover the principles involved.”
