Three years ago we sought to further our academic studies. It had been seven years since we graduated with an honours degree in communications. It was high time we read for a Master’s Degree. We did not do it because it was compulsory, because we wanted a better job, or to increase our pay. Indeed, since graduating we had set up our own company and were in no way looking for a job.
We did it because learning is something you do throughout all your life. You can never say you know enough. Our first degree had given us a sound theoretical and academic background that seeped in through our creative and practical work we did throughout the years. Not only that, but it also widened our perspectives and helped us achieve much, much more.
Three years ago, finally we had settled enough to make time for a master’s degree. We set our eyes on a course that had just been launched. We would be the first cohort; amongst us we felt we would be the guinea pigs, the testing ground for this very innovative course.
The course was and still is offered by the faculty which offered our first degree. Yes, we are the loyal kind. The course is a Masters of Fine Arts in Digital Arts. It is practice oriented and hence was ideal for us, since we already worked in the industry and the course would help directly improve our practice. The background in Fine Arts helped us get inspired by historical traditions to influence what we practice today.
Our dissertations, made us look at our practice, which we experience every single day, through a different perspective. One dissertation focused on adopting our media to the online world. We work in television and documentaries form a major part of our repertoire. What if the traditional documentaries we are used to watching on television were better adapted to be seen in an interactive way? Where the viewer is not merely a passive observant but rather he or she is an active participant in the creation or formulation of the documentary.
‘Saltwater’ is an interactive documentary revolving around the plight of a fishermen family in Marsaxlokk. A user can freely explore different clips in whatever order he or she prefers. The user can also click on particular objects within the frame to bring up additional information or link to related elements. His or her selections will determine the order of the upcoming links. Saltwater is a prototype of what a documentary might look like in the future.
On a totally different level, the dissertation, ‘Extending on Screen Time’ focused entirely on the aesthetic aspect of our practice. More specifically this dissertation focused on the ‘slow motion’. To what extent has the slow motion been used throughout the history of cinema? How does slow motion affect our perception of reality and in what ways does it influence our emotions?
‘Life… Slowly’ is a short film purposely created to test the extent of the effect of slow motion on a viewer. A test audience was hooked on to instruments that determined their level of engagement and emotional bias while watching the film.
All this would never have been possible if it were not for Steps. We had won a Steps Scholarship that paid for our course. Initiatives like Steps seek to empower people for more jobs and a better quality of life but besides helping us individual who have been lucky enough to avail of such scholarships, they also help us as a country, both directly and indirectly.
They help us reach our international obligations in having a good increase in the number of graduates and post graduates. Besides, in giving scholarships for courses, we undertook, Malta gets a better standing in the area of Academic research; an area where our standing is really below par. Steps in helping students like us also helped Maltese Art get an academic background, a theoretical standing that gives more respect and calibre within the international art community. This contribution is undoubtedly priceless for our Islands especially in view of the upcoming and swiftly approaching V18, where all eyes of European artists and art enthusiasts will be looking our way.