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In the past semester, students from the Multimedia Studio at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen (FDU UWB), attracted attention with their works at international film festivals in experimental film sections and also presented their work at the COCA gallery in Seattle, USA. In an interview with studio heads Milan Mazúr and Viktor Takáč, you will learn how students work with various media and technologies. Besides studying technical skills, students learn, in their own words, 'to be sensitive to the world, open and responsive to what is happening'. Those interested can meet with students and studio heads during the Open House at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art on November 7 from 10 am to 4 pm.

How would you briefly describe what you do in the Multimedia Studio? 

Milan Mazúr (MM): The Multimedia Studio focuses on moving image and its extensions. Students develop their own artistic projects here, not only in the field of digital creation.

When someone says "multimedia," everyone might imagine something different. What does it mean to you?

Viktor Takáč (VT): Simply put, one could say that here you can work with any technique or material. We proceed from an awareness of "post-media conditions", where art is no longer bound to the purity of one technique (painting, sculpture, printmaking...), but develops between technologies, forms, and institutional frameworks. Our students experiment, mix different forms of expression, and search for new ways to communicate emotions and ideas through image and interaction.

VT: We try to keep our finger on the pulse of the times, so to speak. Each semester, students become acquainted with new technologies and receive specific assignments that we develop together throughout the semester. This happens based on insights into history, examples from contemporary art, with the help of carefully selected guests from among professional artists and theorists, or through practical workshops. Last semester, we were also helped by university support in the area of AI tools. Students were able to fully try out the professional AI video editor Runway and so on. Another technology that influenced the semester's assignments was the ultra-slow motion Phantom camera producing 1000 frames per second (well-known videos include capturing a fired bullet, the ripple of a water droplet on the surface, etc.). There were two themes last semester. With the Phantom camera, the assignment was Slowdown in Audiovisual Creation, ending with a live performance with musician Adam Bada Donoval. Building on a foreign guest from Seattle was the Tree of Life assignment, which included a week-long workshop focused on live video or the technology of photogrammetric imprinting of space transferred into a computer 3D world – video. Last semester we also realized two exhibitions. Many of our students got into international film festivals in experimental film sections with their works. We also had a remote presentation of assignment outputs at the COCA gallery in Seattle.

What types of media and technologies do you use most frequently?

MM: Multimedia in art represents creation that combines various media – visual images, sound, video, digital technologies, or interactive elements – with the aim of creating a complex experience. The primary tendency of the Multimedia Studio is to support experimental and authorial creation, connect different procedures and media, and develop in students the ability to communicate and express themselves through new, often hybrid forms.

What do students learn in the studio besides technical skills?

MM: To think, be constructive, critical, search for possibilities of realization – and collaborations and friendships often arise among students that last for long periods. Often it's precisely the more technical fields that need not only a collective but also an individual approach – everyone feels better with a different medium. It's about how you express yourself as a visual author: some are more interested in sound, others in static images, and someone else enjoys editing video. It often occurs to me that if you lose track of time and find yourself in a work "flow," when you're just working on a project, that's a good sign and a guide to defining your own role in choosing a medium. But maybe not. Jean-Luc Godard spoke about not being able to separate film from life. He said it's like when you go for a walk – something random happens and you film it, or you're with someone who's with you at that moment and you film them. I perceive it intuitively. We have the ability to perceive the world in a form other than just our own perspective. So yes – to be sensitive to the world, open and responsive to what's happening. And it doesn't always have to be just positive – everyone is affected by crises and those are often even more important for reactions.

Why do you think working with different media and moving images is important?

MM: You can perceive it on different levels. For me, from the position of an author or teacher, it's a way of communication – a way you can talk about the world, about yourself, and about topics that can be conveyed differently than through spoken words. You can speak through visual images, you can speak by creating a specific image that carries information. When it comes to video, it's a time-based medium. In the past, there was a view that you went to the cinema to experience a different life – different events that you see before you and perceive very subjectively at that moment; they become part of you, at least for a few moments. With video you can change events, revolutions can arise, opinions can be influenced – and we see this perhaps most prominently today, for example in connection with the fact that we're suddenly not sure whether a figure in a video is even real or generated by AI.

What successes of your students have pleased you recently?

VT: Participation in film festivals and visual art festivals around the world.

In what fields do graduates of the Multimedia Studio find employment?

MM: Graduates of the Multimedia Studio find employment in a wide spectrum of creative and technological areas – from audiovisual art and film, through digital media and interactive technologies, to music and sound production. They can work as directors, freelance artists, editors, creators of multimedia installations, motion designers, or sound designers, but also in advertising, marketing, education, or cultural projects. Graduates also find employment in research and development of new media, where they experiment with the combination of art, technology, and innovative forms of visual expression.

In what direction do you think multimedia creation will develop in the coming years?

MM: We'd like to be able to predict, but we're influenced by turbulent times. We're also part of a larger collective space in which not only global themes and events that influence the very topics in contemporary discourse are changing, but at the same time technological, post-production, or other authorial procedures are transforming over time. For example, it's interesting to observe how students themselves transform their practice and how they develop. We try to be present, perceive what's happening around us, and respond.