philosophi.ca : Vann Newfold

Vann's Story

Has created a series of CD-ROM based works of interactive fiction
Was hired to design and teach new media courses for humanities students
Performs live video poetry using video DJ tools

Vann's position was created by a donation to the Faculty of Humanities to develop new media courses that would be accessible to students across the Faculty. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and was, for the sake of convenience, placed in the Department of English and Rhetoric for the purposes of tenure and promotion. Because of Vann's teaching, which takes place mostly in the university computer labs, she interacts mostly with the Computing Services folk and with the Instructional Media and Design staff who jointly operate the teaching labs. She sees herself as a new media artist or writer and participates in organizations like the Electronic Literature Organization. Most of her works are published on CD-ROMs by a little known Arts Video distributor. She is well known in the new media community for live real-time video DJing performances which combine poetry readings and video spinning, but these events are not peer reviewed in the traditional sense. She has been invited to a prestigious Dutch new media event to perform. The embassy in Holland is actually funding her trip as part of a cultural outreach program.

What Vann can do

Retrieve the original job ad and write a research statement that draws on the job as described.
Provide documentation that describes the CD-ROM projects - their artistic intent, annotated screen shots, the creative practices employed, and their reception.
Work with the chair to identify ways to contribute more to the department.
Document the DJing events as if art performances being submitted for evaluation in Fine or Performing Arts. Ask that work be assessed as if creative work rather than critical work.
Work with Instructional Media and Design to assess her teaching in an appropriate way.
Ask that there be representatives on the evaluation committee from the Faculty at large who have experience with new media work.
Ask the original thinking behind the position and agreements between the Department and Faculty be documented.

Vann is in the sort of situation any faculty member is in who is hired into a department that either doesn't want her or doesn't understand her work. She needs to first move to get her situation documented so that as chairs and deans change the reasons for her hiring are remembered. In some cases there may be a memo between the Department and Dean's office about the position that protects both the position and the Department.

Especially important for Vann will be the first annual review. She and the chair should use the first review as a chance to develop formal guidelines for the evaluation of her work. If she is not satisfied that she is being evaluated fairly this is an early warning and a chance to bring in the other stakeholders. Justine should make sure the review is recorded in some way to make sure there is a history.

Ultimately Vann needs to work the Department to make sure they review her work the way arts professor would be reviewed. If there is a fine art department then she should talk to them about how the university guidelines are applied to research artists whose work is exhibited and juried.

It would probably be diplomatic if Vann tried to reach out to the department rather than disappearing into the community that welcomes and supports her. She has gifts that should be welcome. She should also pursue some research activities that are recognizable to the Department. She could submit her work to juried competitions that are recognized as the equivalent to peer-review. She could report on some of her projects in writings submitted online journals or collaborate on writing essays on new media. There are venues that publish "lessons learned from a digital project" type papers.

What evaluators could do

Get advice from the Fine or Performing Arts department as to how to evaluate a creative portfolio. Review CVs from the arts that are tenurable.
As Vann is teaching Faculty courses and was hired into a position not defined by the department, the Dean could be asked to recommend representatives from other departments to supplement the evaluation committee
Attend a DJing event
Using documentation from Vann, an evaluator could go through the CD-ROM titles submitted and then give the rest of the committee a tour.

The cynical Chair would wait and then try to transform this hiring line from what the donor wanted to what the Department wants. Such a cynical approach is clearly unfair to the incumbent as it would involve changing the terms of the position between hiring and tenuring so that the candidate would fail and the position revert to the Department. Setting aside the ethical issues, such an approach is likely to also hurt the Department over the long term if they are perceived as not respecting donations.

What a chair should do is get help early on from an arts department that has experience with the evaluation of creative work. Don't reinvent the subtle protocols that probably already exist.