We are shifting gears, evolving from design to production.  This is the point where theory dissolves in the face of reality. All the ideas and concepts that were scribbled on the wall in the heat of brainstorming are now examined in the light of fact. Can we really do this and how.

In a more traditional framework design and production are modular. The designers design and the producers produce; often with strained and complicated communication during the process as the artists tries to hammer their ideas through the skull of the programmers.  I’ve witnessed it; I’ve witness it eat at the soul of a company.

However, in the era of multimedia the hybrid designer-producer is king. The individual who can think of it and make it happen holds the key to unlocking the potential of the digital tool kit.  Van Gogh understood both the chemistry of paint and the art of painting.

That is not to suggest that the visual artists must be equally talented in C++ or the writer able to create lifelike 3D models.  We all have expertise, areas of focus, but a deep awareness of the context in which we are creating is imperative. But the writer who understands the technological framework and the programmer who appreciates the subtleties of artistic creation are the people who will innovate and evolve the digital medium.  

This interdisciplinary notion is a foundation of the MDM. Artists working with programmers and the distinctions between the two blur. On my current project, the entire team is involved in both design and production.  During our classes and project work we are in each other’s face; the travails of the programmer are the travails of the team; the heartache of the artist is the heartache of the programmer. Interconnectivity in concept and personnel underlies what we do and how we do it.  

It is in this climate that we shift in to production mode. Implementing the framework we inherited from the HAWT Design Workshop, it is a period of daily scrums and weekly deliverables. This transition requires that we reign in some of our ideas and identify what we can truly deliver come the middle of April.
 
It is sometimes frustrating to force your ideas into the box of practicality but it is always gratifying to see an ephemeral idea actualized. That is the reward of creation.

Ryan Nadel is a first year student in the MDM program.