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  "content": "---\ntitle: \"Reimagining Engineering & CS at the ANU\"\ndescription: \"My pitch to become a Reimagine Fellow at ANU, making the case for weaving art and creative practice into Engineering and Computer Science.\"\ntags:\n  - teaching\n  - research\n  - reimagine\n---\n\nimport YouTube from \"@/components/YouTube.astro\";\n\nThe\n[ANU College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics](https://cecs.anu.edu.au)\n(CECS) is being _Reimagined_. Don't take my word for it; listen to our fearless\nleader [Elanor](https://cecs.anu.edu.au):\n\n<YouTube id=\"FjlgEZzaL6k\" />\n\nBasically, this [Reimagine project](https://cecs.anu.edu.au/reimagine) is a\n_huge_ investment from the ANU for CECS to grow, change, and to skate to where\nthe puck is going to be in 2050 (technologically, societally, culturally, and\nmore).\n\nThe search is on within CECS to identify **Reimagine Fellows** to champion\nvarious parts of this transformation. This is super-exciting, especially for\ninterdisciplinary art/design/technology folks (like me). It'd be exciting if it\nwas happening _anywhere_, but it's particularly exciting that it's happening\nwhere I am and that I might get a voice in shaping exactly what a \"reimagined\nCECS\" looks like.\n\n:::info\n\nElanor, if you're reading, I want to be a Reimagine Fellow\n([update 30 Aug 2019: 🙌🥳🙌](/blog/2019/08/30/im-a-reimagine-fellow/)). And\nsince the\n[EoI](https://cecs.anu.edu.au/staff/project-reimagine-fellows-expression-interest)\nasked for \"1000 words **in any format you like**\", here's mine in the form of an\nFAQ[^faq].\n\n:::\n\n[^faq]: At least it's not a haiku. Or a limerick.\n\n## Ben's _Reimagine Fellow_ Application FAQ\n\n### In one sentence, why do you want to be a Reimagine Fellow?\n\nI want to see more art[^art] happening in CECS; and I want to strengthen our\neducation and research ties to the Schools of Art & Design, Music, and Digital\nHumanities.\n\n[^art]:\n    Defining \"art\" is beyond the scope of this blog post, obviously. But I don't\n    just mean it in the narrow \"high/fine art\" sense, although I don't mean it\n    in the \"all the humanities\" sense either. Think making music, drawing\n    pictures, writing stories---but with an element of technology in the mix.\n\n### What does that have to do with the Reimagine Project?\n\n> _The role of an artist is to ask questions, not to answer them_ -**Anton\n> Chekhov**\n\nAs Elanor says in the video above, we don't even know what tomorrow's problems\nare yet; so we need problem _finders_, not just problem _solvers_. Art and\nartists have a key role to play in this (just ask Chekhov).\n\n### Why are you the best person to do this?\n\nI've made a career (so far) of deploying my technical/CS skills to artistic\nends: in my livecoding (both building\n[tools](https://github.com/digego/extempore) and\n[doing live gigs](/livecoding/)), in starting the\n[ANU Laptop Ensemble](https://cs.anu.edu.au/code-creativity-culture/lens/), in\nteaching our first-year art+code course\n[COMP1720](https://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/comp1720/), etc.\n\nAlong the way I've built strong networks in these areas across the ANU campus\nand in the wider community, and I've always said that I was keen to engage with\nthem more deeply---this is my chance.\n\n### So you're just trying to score a grant to go off and do your own weird art thing?\n\nAbsolutely not. Being a Reimagine Fellow isn't about doing something by\nyourself---it's way too big a project for that. It's about weaving something\ninto the whole College[^dna], so that by 2050 it affects the way _everyone_\nthinks.\n\n[^dna]:\n    You could even say \"weaving it into the College's DNA\". But that'd be dumb.\n    Institutions don't have DNA... except maybe\n    [RSB](https://biology.anu.edu.au).\n\n### What might this look like, concretely?\n\nThe Reimagine Project is\n[big, hairy, and audacious](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Hairy_Audacious_Goal),\nso it's difficult to sketch out a detailed description or org chart. However,\nhere are a few ideas about what it might look like.\n\n#### In the short term...\n\n- a CECS-supported \"Reimagine residency\" (starting asap!) to support artists to\n  get involved and help us figure out what a Reimagined CECS looks like\n\n- a new code/creativity/culture major (at both undergraduate and masters level)\n  where students take courses from within CECS, the\n  [ANU School of Art & Design](https://soad.cass.anu.edu.au), and the\n  [ANU School of Music](https://music.anu.edu.au)\n\n- new courses within CECS on e.g. algorithmic music composition, creative\n  making, AI/Deep Learning Art, subversive\n  computing/[designing for evil](https://www.washington.edu/news/2018/05/21/designed-for-evil/)[^genevieve]\n\n- more PhD students doing practice-led research on interdisciplinary\n  art/CS/engineering projects\n\n- encouraging **all** CECS academics to engage with their peers and the wider\n  world by _making and exhibiting beautiful/interesting/challenging things_, not\n  just through journal papers\n\n[^genevieve]:\n    I'd love to get [Genevieve](https://twitter.com/feraldata) to write & teach\n    that one.\n\n#### In the medium/long term...\n\n- a centre of excellence for digital arts/music/multimedia research, teaching\n  and creative practice (co-hosted by CECS and the\n  [College of Arts & Social Sciences](https://cass.anu.edu.au))\n\n- a thoroughly non-traditional project-based \"creative tech\" masters program,\n  with no classes, no heirarchies, just a bunch of brilliant students set loose\n  with duct tape, gaming GPUs, a giant bag of sensors & actuators, soldering\n  irons, a 3D printer, oh my. (Geoff Hinchcliffe and I have discussed\n  this---we're both thrilled and terrified at the prospect. And I love what the\n  [3AI](https://3ainstitute.cecs.anu.edu.au/#apply) master's program is shaping\n  up to be, and am keen to be a part of it.)\n\n- incorporating into every course[^every-course] the option to create and submit\n  a \"creative work\" to demonstrate attainment of the learning outcomes (🤔\n  really Ben?)\n\n[^every-course]:\n    I kindof want to wriggle out and say _most courses_, but I also really want\n    to see what an artistic submission in lieu of a final exam looks like for\n    [COMP3600](https://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/comp3600/).\n\nI also look forward to having the time to think through what a deeply artistic\nCECS looks like. I'm sure that in collaboration with the other Reimagine Fellows\nand the rest of the design team we can come up even more ideas.\n\n### How does this further the broader goals of the Reimagine Project...\n\n#### ...in research?\n\nArtists have always been at the vanguard of building new things (or seeing/using\nold things in new ways). If an artist has an idea in their head for what they\nwant to create, but the tools to realise it don't exist yet, that artist is\n_intrinsically_ motivated to figure out how to make it happen.\n\nI also want to be clear that my pitch here isn't to view the arts as a technical\nproblem that needs to be _solved_ by engineers and computer scientists: \"hey\nartists, thanks for the last few thousand years, we'll take it from here\". We've\nalready got too much technochauvinism in tech. Instead, the pitch is that a\nnewly-Reimagined CECS can _include_ artists in shaping what the computer\nscientists and engineers of 2050 look like, so that it's _not_ an \"us and them\".\n\nSome of the top research institutions in the world are asking real questions in\nthe fields of creative technology, digital art, music and design: have a look at\n[the list below](#where-in-the-world-is-this-already-happening).\n\n#### ...in education?\n\nThat Chekhov quote above really nails it. For some students, being asked to make\nsomething creative/artistic is what it takes to flick the switch to go beyond\nthe \"what boxes do I need to tick for me to get a P/CR/D/HD\" mindset to actually\nasking the right questions. I see this sometimes in\n[COMP1720](https://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/comp1720/), and it's one of the most\nenjoyable things about teaching that course.\n\nMore broadly, I want to see more dreamers, doodlers and \"creatives\"[^creatives]\nstudy engineering or CS at uni. Too often they feel like they have to choose\nbetween \"pursuing the dream\" or selling out and studying something boring &\npragmatic, and I fear that we (CECS) miss out on some _brilliant_ students\nbecause of this. I want these students to know that they can pursue their\ncreative dreams, and in doing so they'll be doing top-class\nengineering/CS/design work.\n\n[^creatives]:\n    Although I reject the Romantic notion that \"creatives\" are some sort of\n    rarefied \"other\", conduits to some deep wellspring of hidden creative mojo\n    from the other side. We're all just humans, constructing and engaging in\n    cultural practices with this stuff, building on what went before.\n\n#### ...in outreach?\n\nBecause of my [livecoding](/livecoding/) I get asked to do outreach stuff all\nthe time (you're welcome, CECS marketing team 😉). I know why I get asked: DJing\nwith code is so _different_, it's a great hook for engaging folks who might not\nhave thought that combining code & musical creativity in that way was possible.\n\n#### ...in culture?\n\nThe Reimagine Project isn't just about doing the same things under a different\norg-chart. It's about changing the culture of Engineering & Computing research\nand practice. While the stereotypes about nerdy engineers and computer types\nisn't necessarily fair in my experience, there's no smoke without a fire, and\nthere _are_ some things we need to do better. Incorporating the arts and\ncreative expression deep within our education, research and outreach work will\nchange the way we communicate with the outside world, but it'll also change the\nsorts of people we attract, and welcoming new perspectives into CECS is another\nway we can enact cultural change.\n\n### Isn't this treading on the toes of the School of Art & Design (and the School of Music, and ...)?\n\nNo---in fact we need to work with our colleagues in those places to make this\nstuff happen. I already co-supervise PhD students with\n[Mitchell](https://twitter.com/mtchl) & [Geoff](https://twitter.com/gravitron)\nfrom the School or Art & Design, and [Terhi](https://twitter.com/tmtn) from the\nCentre for Digital Humanities Research, and I run the ANU Laptop Ensemble with\n[Alec](https://twitter.com/huntercomposer) from the School of Music. And I want\nto see _more_ of this type of cross-supervision across these parts of campus.\n\nActually, this \"treading on toes\" question looms over the whole Reimagine\nProject. I think the best way forward is to partner with the other parts of\ncampus to bring their expertise and smoosh it together with ours.\n\nConcretely, that means:\n\n- sending CECS coursework students to take courses in other parts of campus (as\n  part of majors/minors/electives, etc.) as well as the other way around\n- co-employing academics across Colleges in joint positions\n- increasing our to participation in the ANU's interdisciplinary HDR programs\n  like [ICCR](https://rsha.cass.anu.edu.au/students/future/iccr)\n\n### Where in the world is this already happening?\n\nHere's a few places, including what each place says about their goals (from the\nmarketing copy on their own website). Many (but not all) of these labs/groups\nare in CS/Engineering Schools, or at least in design schools.\n\n> The Stanford\n> [Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics](https://ccrma.stanford.edu)\n> (CCRMA) is a multi-disciplinary facility where composers and researchers work\n> together using computer-based technology both as an artistic medium and as a\n> research tool.\n\n> The [MIT Media Lab](https://www.media.mit.edu) is an interdisciplinary\n> research lab that encourages the unconventional mixing and matching of\n> seemingly disparate research areas.\n\n> The\n> [Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry](https://studioforcreativeinquiry.org)\n> at Carnegie Mellon University is a laboratory for atypical, anti-disciplinary,\n> and inter-institutional research at the intersections of arts, science,\n> technology and culture.\n\n> The [Center for Music Technology](https://gtcmt.gatech.edu) at Georgia Tech\n> aims to transform the ways we create and experience music, and to create the\n> next generation of technology for composition, performance, consumption, and\n> education.\n\n> NYU's [ITP](https://tisch.nyu.edu/itp) (Interactive Telecommunications\n> Program) is a two-year graduate program located in the Tisch School of the\n> Arts whose mission is to explore the imaginative use of communications\n> technologies.\n\n> The [Centre for Digital Music (c4dm)](https://c4dm.eecs.qmul.ac.uk) at Queen\n> Mary University of London is a world-leading multidisciplinary research group\n> in the field of Music & Audio Technology.\n\n> The\n> [Embodied AudioVisual Interaction (EAVI)](https://eavi.goldsmithsdigital.com)\n> group at Goldsmiths is a research group focused on embodied interaction with\n> sound and image.\n\n> The [School for Poetic Computation](https://sfpc.io) is an artist run school\n> in New York that was founded in 2013. A small group of students and faculty\n> work closely to explore the intersections of code, design, hardware and theory\n> — focusing especially on artistic intervention. It’s a hybrid of a school,\n> residency and research group.\n\n> The [Arts and Creativity Lab](https://anclab.org/joinus/) at the National\n> University of Singapore provides an environment for arts-driven research and\n> technology development, as well as artistic practice and experimentation\n> related to scientific research methods and results\n\n> [SensiLab](https://sensilab.monash.edu) is a technology-driven, design-focused\n> research lab based at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.\n\n> The [Creativity & Cognition Studios](https://www.creativityandcognition.com)\n> at the University of Technology Sydney is an internationally recognised\n> multi-disciplinary environment for the advancement and understanding of\n> practice in digital media and the arts.\n\n### Has the ANU ever had anything like this before?\n\nSure, for example [this](https://www.avatar.com.au/courses/acat/), and it was\namazing. The story about why ACAT is no longer around is long, and I've only\nreally ever heard it second/third-hand, and I'm not proposing to resurrect ACAT\nas part of the Reimagine Project. But it's important to know one's history.\n\n### Sounds like a huge job, Ben---how are you going to manage it?\n\nNot on my own, that's for sure. Only by building up our capacity in these areas.\nAs an example, [Dr. Charles Martin](https://twitter.com/cpmpercussion) is just\nabout to start as a Lecturer in RSCS, and he's a computer musician (apps and ML\nfor group musical improvisation). The campus also has many other\ninterdisciplinary artists who have been hiding their lights under bushels---I\nwant to give them a banner to rally to.\n\nWe need to think big, and I look forward to a day where there's a long list of\nacademic staff & PhD students exploring new avenues for technologically and\nculturally sophisticated artistic practice within CECS and the broader ANU\ncampus. That's what I want us to be famous for.\n\n### Do you really get asked these questions _frequently_, Ben?\n\nNo.\n\n### So is it really fair to call it an *F*AQ?\n\nProbably not. Sorry.\n\n## Footnotes\n",
  "createdAt": "2026-05-13T23:15:00.549Z",
  "description": "My pitch to become a Reimagine Fellow at ANU, making the case for weaving art and creative practice into Engineering and Computer Science.",
  "path": "/blog/2019/02/07/reimagining-engineering-cs-at-the-anu",
  "publishedAt": "2019-02-07T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:tevykrhi4kibtsipzci76d76/site.standard.publication/self",
  "tags": [
    "teaching",
    "research",
    "reimagine"
  ],
  "textContent": "My pitch to become a Reimagine Fellow at ANU, making the case for weaving art and creative practice into Engineering and Computer Science.",
  "title": "Reimagining Engineering & CS at the ANU"
}