IN A SMALL room in Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design, perhaps a dozen disembodied heads are stuck on plinths, their features obscured by plastic bags wrapped around them and pulled tight at what remains of the neck.
It's a slightly gruesome introduction to the college, and it might lead one to suspect that this is an institution which has taken some of the details of the Brad Pitt shocker Seven a little too much to heart.
The impact of this sight is lightened somewhat by the fact that these are, of course, model heads and the college is unlikely to be troubled yet by headlines of the "Future RTC In Decapitation Horror" type. It is further lightened by the sight of an animation student in another area with a similar head on a computer screen, using a 3-D studio software programme, carefully mapping the features to create a convincing image of a human face.
For this is a college in which traditional skills not only exist side by side with the latest technology, but have adapted that technology to inform these skills and create new interdisciplinary courses which are likely to point the way to the future of cart and design careers.
"There are new careers emerging that simply have not existed before - for example in the whole area of multimedia and virtual reality - and lots of different disciplines are coming together," says Kevin O'Kelly, a lecturer in computer studies in the college.
It is perhaps appropriate that these developments should be taking place in Dun Laoghaire, for the college is changing both physically and in its status as an institution. Its final RTC designation is expected next year, when the first phase of new construction will commence, at an expected cost of £4.5 million.
A new library and multi purpose theatre will come on line by the summer and by the year 2000 the college expects to have a student population of 1,500, three times its current full time intake.
This September sees the introduction of an innovative add on degree, an interactive course which aims to bring all of the art and design disciplines together. It will cover areas such as digital publishing, CD ROM and the creation of interactive environments for institutions such as museums and galleries; it will also address the skills involved in sound, lighting, photography and video.
"It's not so much that they would be learning how to operate this kind of equipment, but more to know what these people do," says Ron Hamilton, course co ordinator for design. "Increasingly, design people have to work as part of a team. You understand your own specialisation but you have to complement that with an awareness of other specialisations." AT THE CENTRE of this kind of crossover lies the new technology, the mighty computer and the increasingly sophisticated software and systems that it has bred. For artists and designers, the new technology has become what Kevin O'Kelly terms the "central tool, the modern day pen". Yet the college is acutely aware that the seductions of the new technology should not overwhelm the creative context.
"All the traditional skills are still required," says college head Roisin Hogan. "In some ways the computer has enhanced them and enabled the realisation of complex concepts." And so there is talk of "virtual galleries", where students can exhibit their work using a virtual reality helmet, thus breaking down the barriers restricting the mobility of art.
The college will soon be able to use a video camera to transfer clay models into the computer system and manipulate them using animation programmes, a process already in place for two dimensional drawings. Using a programme called Toonz on a Silicon Graphics machine - which was used to create some of the dinosaurs in Spielberg's Jurassic Park - students can scan in their drawings, add backgrounds and see them animated on screen. Work which might previously have taken a week to draw, film and develop can now be done in a day.
Yet again, the animation's quality is still dependent on the skills of the student. "Being in education we have to retain the traditional way of doing things," says Pat Molloy, head of design. "We have to be able to facilitate that." Students continue to hone their skills in photography, sound, art and design, animation, model making, TV and film, then enhance them with computers.
In fact, the principal barrier to further development is neither technological nor creative, but financial. The Mac based AVID video editing system, which is used by RTE to edit and trasmit its clothes show, costs £20,000 for an off line version (capable of doing a lower resolution rough cut) and £80,000 to £90,000 for an on line version, which can produce a transmittable product.
The college is introducing a new certificate in television this year to meet the industry's demand for technical skills, in particular - but as in other areas, to meet the needs of industry you need industry standard equipment for students to work on.
"The important thing to realise is that, because of the particular area we are in, unless we get the kind of money we need we are going to start slipping behind," says Kevin O'Kelly, who estimates that a "couple of million" is probably necessary to bring the college up to its optimum level. It is a problem faced by all colleges and lecturers training people for new technology.
The answer is probably to combine Government funding with input, both financial and advisory, from the industry itself. Dun Laoghaire's students are actively head hunted by industries involved in new technology - to such an extent that lecturers have occasionally to struggle to convince some students to finish their courses of study. "The industry is champing at the bit, so we have this dichotomy," says Pat Molloy. "Who is at the cutting edge, the educators or industry?" In an ideal world, the answer would be both, educators and industrialists working in harmony; a virtual heaven, perhaps.
