Some of the ITP faculty
New York University: Tisch School of the Arts: Interactive Telecommunications Program
Assistant Arts Professor OR Teacher - ITP
Location: New York City
Closes: Dec 15, 2017 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time <-- extended deadline!
The ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program) master’s program and the new IMA (Interactive Media Arts) undergraduate program of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts invites applications and nominations for two full-time faculty positions starting Fall 2018. These are one year or multiyear, non-tenure track appointments.
We are seeking imaginative, skillful, and generous colleagues to help students explore emerging possibilities of media and communications technologies. The appointed candidates will be expected to help students learn how to use new technologies to make people’s lives safer, more just, more beautiful, more meaningful and more fun.
An experimental spirit is essential in understanding the opportunities and responsibilities inherent in this evolving field. Our approach to learning relies on collaboration rather than competition so as to cultivate a creative environment in which exploration, analysis, risk, and failure can freely occur. At ITP/IMA we believe that working with people of different disciplines, backgrounds and experiences is key to generating new ideas. We insist on a pluralistic tolerance of various methodologies from art, science, engineering, design and the humanities. At the same time, we encourage a skepticism of those disciplines in the hopes of developing new ways of thinking. We use an iterative cycle of making things, generating ideas, criticizing ideas and abstracting principles, where the making may come first and is rarely left out. While we value collaboration, we also believe that a single person can embody vision, imagination, a broad range of perspectives and technical skill. Our goal is to train a new kind of professional – one whose practical understanding of technology is informed by a strong sense of aesthetics and ethics and a healthy doubt of the status quo.
Teaching is the primary activity of all full-time ITP/IMA faculty, and we expect both a commitment to and a passion for teaching and curriculum development. Every faculty member is hired to be student-focused, carry their weight within our community, take chances in their work, and bring honor and distinction on the department. Their work should compare well to colleagues inside and outside of traditional academia and around the world in the areas of making interesting work, generous service, and inspirational teaching. Their work should reflect a perennial curiosity to explore deeper and wider, both in craft and concept. Their service should reflect delight in accomplishments and possibilities of the larger communities to which they belong, including the department. Their teaching should reflect preparation, patience and creativity for both provoking students and delivering projects out of them. Faculty should show an openness to new ideas and an innovative spirit for improving the richness of our educational experience.
Candidates need to have hands-on skills to teach one of our production foundation classes in computer programming, physical computing (i.e.basic electronics, microcontroller programming, and interaction design), or media production. Our media production foundation class currently covers sound, video, animation and web design in an interactive context, so coding experience is preferred in all of the foundations. ITP/IMA faculty must also be able to teach electives that are usually easily enrolled and well-evaluated. Faculty members are expected to continually evaluate their electives to maintain a fresh perspective, and to develop new courses when a given course no longer meets the needs of the students. Elective class topics are usually best when the professor is working through their own interests and research, but they should be willing and able to occasionally fill known holes in the curriculum, either practical or theoretical. Candidates should also be able to teach our thesis class which helps students with the conceptual development and project management of their final project. Faculty members should look for new pedagogical methods and technologies in the hopes of increasing productivity and lowering costs.
Faculty members are expected to to care primarily about their students’ learning and progress as a person. They should to develop classes to work with students’ existing capabilities and concentrate on infusing good habits for continual learning, rather than on relaying a static body of knowledge. They should hold students to high expectations, provide great support to help them meet those expectations, and support them in learning from their failures as well.
Successful candidates should show success in traditional measures of individual achievements in artistic and professional work, such as exhibits at widely recognized institutions and publications with great impact in popular or professional sphere. But interactive media is often less about the author’s voice and more about the user’s, so the production of tools and environments that enable the achievement of others is also highly valued. A faculty member’s professional impact may be measured by the work ultimately produced by others using the faculty member’s tools, examples and tutorials. Work creating and guiding open source communities of creative practice would also count as professional achievement. ITP/IMA itself is one such community and so significant innovation of practices here can cross over from ordinary service and teaching into research. In all cases, professional work that crosses disciplines or work that helps disadvantaged or underrepresented populations is particularly valued.
Faculty are expected to further the experiment of ITP/IMA. Faculty members should always be on the lookout for appropriate students, better facilities, activities, events and customs for conducting our mission and building the culture of the department. These might include admissions, advisement, community conversations, classrooms, shops, labs, enrichment topics, showcasing work, visitors and professional opportunities. Faculty are expected to attend most faculty meetings to discuss these ideas and to do the legwork of executing them in coordination with the staff.
Attention is also given to the faculty member’s willingness to participate in the larger sphere of school and university committees. It is important that the faculty member bring consciousness of and energetic participation in departmental and school-wide activities to their record.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
Applicants should present evidence of effectiveness in teaching as well as representative work samples to demonstrate skills and accomplishments in their area or areas of expertise.
Please ensure that the following components are uploaded to the following link:
1) Cover Letter that specifies areas of expertise particularly relevant to the position;
2) Curriculum Vitae;
3) Contact information for three letters of reference accompanied by a bio or CV from each Referrer; and
4) Optional: work samples that best represent areas of expertise outlined in the Cover Letter. Samples may include recordings, videos, published materials, etc.
APPLICATION DEADLINE: December 15, 2017 <-- extended deadline!
If you have any questions, please email the Institute's Administrative Director, George Agudow, at george.agudow@nyu.edu.
This institution is using Interfolio's Faculty Search to conduct this search. Applicants to this position receive a free Dossier account and can send all application materials, including confidential letters of recommendation, free of charge.
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New York University is an Equal Opportunity Employer. New York University is committed to a policy of equal treatment and opportunity in every aspect of its hiring and promotion process without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, pregnancy or childbirth (or related medical condition), sexual orientation, partnership status, gender and/or gender identity or expression, marital, parental or familial status, caregiver status, national origin, ethnicity, alienage or citizenship status, veteran or military status, age, disability, predisposing genetic characteristics, domestic violence victim status, unemployment status, or any other legally protected basis. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, persons of minority sexual orientation or gender identity, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply for vacant positions at all levels.