Digital equipment to aid CSA field work
	CSA Field Studies participant Tina Anderson interviews Griffith orchardists using new digital image and sound recording equipment
A grant received by the Canberra School of Art for computer equipment will improve the School's ability to supervise students conducting artistic research off campus. The $51,000 grant was received by Gilbert Reidelbauch, coordinator of the Computer Aided Art Studio and John Reid, coordinator of the Field Studies Program and a lecturer in the Photomedia Workshop. The grant has several contributors: $7,000 from the Institute of the Arts and $44,000 from the Major Equipment Committee. Additional equipment and support will be provided under sponsorship fromPCTech and Apple Computers. The funds will go toward the purchase of digital cameras and specialised computers for the electronic transmission of still and video digital imagery. With this technology students in the field can send artwork to supervisors electronically. A lecturer evaluates downloaded images and offers feedback to students by email or phone. "This really is a first for the Institute. Currently students digitise images by scanning. So this means for the first time we'll get research experience in digital image capture," Mr Reid said. The technology allows students to use their time better and stay in the field longer. "Students come into the School and then, as Field Studies Coordinator, I spend my time trying to get them out again. Perhaps in the future students can use this technology to work near home and still have a mentoring relationship with the University," Mr Reid said. The equipment will be a boon to photomedia researchers who must return to CSA darkrooms before they can get a sense of their progress. Now they will be able to take digital images and look at them in the field to help them hone the direction of their research. "It's a little bit like taking a Polaroid photograph in that it gives you instant visual feedback," Mr Reid said. The Centre for Educational Development and Academic Methods (CEDAM) is especially interested in how the digital technology can enhance distance learning. Dr Malcolm Pettigrove of CEDAM will be conducting an evaluation of the project from a teaching and learning perspective. CEDAM will also help coordinate the technology's potential applications in other disciplines. The technology may benefit other areas within the University which engage in extensive field work, such as archaeology, geology and forestry. "For instance, if a student archaeologist on a dig comes across something that's got them foxed, they could engage in a conference type discussion with experts at the ANU," Mr Reid said. The Murray Darling Basin Commission has committed to offer scholarships totalling $10,000 to students conducting research using the digital facility. The funding will be divided between two students looking to conduct research in the Murray Darling Basin. In addition to research, scholarship holders will also use the equipment for social documentation of life in the Basin. This material will then be archived in a cultural material data base - SunSite- at the ANU. "I think that is an example of why we succeeded with our grant application - because there's a lot in it and there's a lot that other disciplines might find beneficial," Mr Reid said. Shelly Simonds