Western Michigan University


Art & Design

Reproduced with permission from NeXT Computer, Inc.
A Reference Guide to NeXT in Higher Education, Fall 1992
ยช 1992 NeXT Computer, Inc

Study aids for art history classes

Like most art history professors, John Link faced the age-old problem of finding a way for his students at Western Michigan University to access the works of art he discusses during his lectures once class is over. "For security reasons, the department wasn't prepared to allow students access to our slide library," explains the professor of art, "so the students had no way to review the works of art outside of class."

Link decided to turn to his computer where he came up with a "complete solution" to his predicament.

Using NeXT technology, Link has developed a series of Digital Study Guides to augment class notes and refresh students' memory of art he presents during his daily lectures. The guides contain the images of 800 key works of art he features in his Contemporary Art and Theory of Art courses along with his notes on the artists responsible for each work.

To create the guides, Link uses a scanner to digitize color images from slides of the art. Using a NeXTstation Color, he incorporates the images and his commentary into MediaStation archives, which he organizes by artists' last names. He then incorporates art and text from various archives into the series of Digital Study Guides, which are organized around topics, such as Hyper-realism, Abstract Expressionism and Conceptualism. Now, Link's 100 students use the color NeXT machines at their leisure in Western Michigan's open lab to access the guides and study full-color images of art along with notes from their professor.

"With its graphical processing and networking abilities, the NeXT machine is a fantastic leap ahead for instruction in the visual arts," says Link. "Of course, color is extremely important to any use of computers in visual instruction, and NeXT machines, with a minimum standard of 4,096 colors, provide a cost-effective alternative to machines, like the Macintosh, that require a substantial hardware investment to achieve the same standard."

A former Macintosh user, Link says, "We considered using the department's Macintosh lab to create the study guides, but it would have been very difficult because of the machine's tiny monitors and the AppleTalk network. There's no way we could have supported the same high-quality color images because Macintosh does not support Display PostScript. Plus the Ethernet network, that NeXT offers at no additional cost, is ideally suited for moving large files, like our color images, over a network. I don't think the project would have been feasible without Ethernet."

Link also believes that NeXT technology is a boon to students and faculty in his department who design University publications and materials for outside clients.

"The tools for graphics are so much bettter on the NeXT, especially in terms of visuals available with Display PostScript," he says. "PostScript is the de facto standard in the image setting industry so NeXT's approach is not only more integrated and effective in itself, it is also more relevant to the business of graphic design."

Link notes that several of his art department colleagues have already approached him about using the Digital Study Guides in their courses. "Once faculty members find out how easy it is to create these Guides, I'm confident they'll embark on their own work using NeXT machines. NeXT has exactly the visual orientation the art world needs."

For more information, please contact:

John Link
Western Michigan University
Art Department
Kalamazoo, MI 49008
(616) 387-2435
link@lab.cc.wmich.edu