A job advertisment on a local computer graphics forum goes like this:
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Concept Development / Digital Artist - "Serious Game App"
Voyage to the Age of Dinosaurs
(One position available, 1-Year renewable for ~3 years)
We are looking for an artist with strong illustration and concept development skills that can also work in Maya, ZBrush or Photoshop. This person should have a strong graphic and illustration abilities, be able to design and create creatures for 3D and be able to design organic backgrounds, scenes of deep swampy jungle and savannah as well. The project is intensely character in nature.
Work with computer scientists and professional researchers to visualize a prehistoric era, you will join an ongoing 3-year project that will design and study technology-enabled graphics driven learning tools in local Singaporean schools. Your task will be to work on the creative team, generating artwork such as storyboards, character designs and finished 3D models under the supervision of faculty. This project is a joint collaboration among faculty of the National Institute of Education’s Learning Sciences Lab, Nanyang Technological University's School of Art, Design and Media and the School of Computer Engineering. You will have opportunities to meet leading 3D artists as well as work with a renowned US and Chinese-based research centers and institutes.
Priority will be given to degree holding candidates.
Interested applicants please post an email with the following heading Concept Development / Digital Artist - "Voyage to the Age of Dinosaurs" include your cover letter and detailed resume, a web link to your portfolio and demo-reel to lsl@nie.edu.sg.
Post your material to this address:
Learning Sciences Laboratory
National Institute of Education
Attn: Concept Development / Digital Artist - "Voyage to the Age of Dinosaurs"
1 Nanyang Walk
Singapore 637616
All applications must reach us by 15 March 2008
(URL Link: [link])
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If you have taken the trouble to read through every detail of this advertisment, you would have notice one very interesting line:
"Priority will be given to degree holding candidates..."
Then you go on to discover that all applications have to be send to the National Institute of Education (NIE), the name of which is worrying because it means the organization belongs to our Government and just the word 'Government' does not sound good news..... on a countless occasions. So what does it means for the local mindsets, especially those in authority and the NIE ?
It means... they actually believe degrees qualify a good artist. Or the better your qualifications are, the more talented you are as an artist.
Of course, you and I, fellow artists of DA, whether you are doing 3D or some other art disciplines, understand very well the baloney behind the earlier mentioned statement. It's like telling a seasoned gamer that he needs to be a Harvard graduate to be allowed into the computer game Olympics team. Or something like this... But come on..... the truth got to be more than that.
Unfortunately, the truth will be watered down by the kind of faith my society holds in the supposed power of papers (your diplomas, degrees, Masters, whatever). It probably gets worse when it comes to the civil service sector and not any better with the army where a soldier's position in the force seems to be detemined by the level of his educational experiences. Perhaps, we are a peacetime army too long. The defence ministry may have adopted a unique doctrine, believing wars have to fought with papers, that better papers can inflict deadlier papercuts on the necks of our enemies. Amazing. Really smart. What groundbreaking... piece of crap.
Coming to educational instituitons, you pretty much figure out the damage the papers factor can do, especially in the entry requirements. For the life of me, I can never grasped how a failure in Mathematics can deny me a place in a polytechnic to study digital media design. It also shows how alot of talents will be refused opportunites for further studies as they did not meet the grade for History, Physics, Geography, etc. And it will help explain a class of disinterested students and a school churning out a lesser number of able graduates. However, it looks like the tragedy is doomed to last till today and the above advertisment may have confrimed my hunch. Still, is there anything that can be done ?
Well, I doubt so. Maybe in the distant future and meanwhile, if you are planning to come to Singapore for an artist's job at the civil service sector, then remember to bring along your degrees. You see, you can't draw without them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Concept Development / Digital Artist - "Serious Game App"
Voyage to the Age of Dinosaurs
(One position available, 1-Year renewable for ~3 years)
We are looking for an artist with strong illustration and concept development skills that can also work in Maya, ZBrush or Photoshop. This person should have a strong graphic and illustration abilities, be able to design and create creatures for 3D and be able to design organic backgrounds, scenes of deep swampy jungle and savannah as well. The project is intensely character in nature.
Work with computer scientists and professional researchers to visualize a prehistoric era, you will join an ongoing 3-year project that will design and study technology-enabled graphics driven learning tools in local Singaporean schools. Your task will be to work on the creative team, generating artwork such as storyboards, character designs and finished 3D models under the supervision of faculty. This project is a joint collaboration among faculty of the National Institute of Education’s Learning Sciences Lab, Nanyang Technological University's School of Art, Design and Media and the School of Computer Engineering. You will have opportunities to meet leading 3D artists as well as work with a renowned US and Chinese-based research centers and institutes.
Priority will be given to degree holding candidates.
Interested applicants please post an email with the following heading Concept Development / Digital Artist - "Voyage to the Age of Dinosaurs" include your cover letter and detailed resume, a web link to your portfolio and demo-reel to lsl@nie.edu.sg.
Post your material to this address:
Learning Sciences Laboratory
National Institute of Education
Attn: Concept Development / Digital Artist - "Voyage to the Age of Dinosaurs"
1 Nanyang Walk
Singapore 637616
All applications must reach us by 15 March 2008
(URL Link: [link])
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have taken the trouble to read through every detail of this advertisment, you would have notice one very interesting line:
"Priority will be given to degree holding candidates..."
Then you go on to discover that all applications have to be send to the National Institute of Education (NIE), the name of which is worrying because it means the organization belongs to our Government and just the word 'Government' does not sound good news..... on a countless occasions. So what does it means for the local mindsets, especially those in authority and the NIE ?
It means... they actually believe degrees qualify a good artist. Or the better your qualifications are, the more talented you are as an artist.
Of course, you and I, fellow artists of DA, whether you are doing 3D or some other art disciplines, understand very well the baloney behind the earlier mentioned statement. It's like telling a seasoned gamer that he needs to be a Harvard graduate to be allowed into the computer game Olympics team. Or something like this... But come on..... the truth got to be more than that.
Unfortunately, the truth will be watered down by the kind of faith my society holds in the supposed power of papers (your diplomas, degrees, Masters, whatever). It probably gets worse when it comes to the civil service sector and not any better with the army where a soldier's position in the force seems to be detemined by the level of his educational experiences. Perhaps, we are a peacetime army too long. The defence ministry may have adopted a unique doctrine, believing wars have to fought with papers, that better papers can inflict deadlier papercuts on the necks of our enemies. Amazing. Really smart. What groundbreaking... piece of crap.
Coming to educational instituitons, you pretty much figure out the damage the papers factor can do, especially in the entry requirements. For the life of me, I can never grasped how a failure in Mathematics can deny me a place in a polytechnic to study digital media design. It also shows how alot of talents will be refused opportunites for further studies as they did not meet the grade for History, Physics, Geography, etc. And it will help explain a class of disinterested students and a school churning out a lesser number of able graduates. However, it looks like the tragedy is doomed to last till today and the above advertisment may have confrimed my hunch. Still, is there anything that can be done ?
Well, I doubt so. Maybe in the distant future and meanwhile, if you are planning to come to Singapore for an artist's job at the civil service sector, then remember to bring along your degrees. You see, you can't draw without them.
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