The novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak in the year 2020 has opened up digital reforms in the global education field. In the process of rapid innovation and exploration of the current education system, teaching content and mode, the EAaD School has been restarting the original intention and core of design education, that is, to make the world better through creative activities. With the firm confidence and expectation for design education, the EAaD School ushered in the appointment of its first foreign Dean, Tony Brown. Tony is appointed as the Dean from now on.

  As an internationally renowned artist, Tony Brown is a tenured professor at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Paris and a visiting professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. This time, as the Dean of the EAaD School, he will be fully responsible for the overall planning and development of the School in terms of academic, practical and international education.

  As one of the earliest artists to create installation works with cutting-edge technology in the world, Tony Brown uses digital media devices as the creation medium, focusing on the profound changes in society, culture, technology and economy, and capturing and thinking about the diversity of their existence. His works have been exhibited in many international exhibitions, such as Kassel Documenta, New York Armory Show, and Paris International Contemporary Art Fair, and has been exhibited and collected by many international famous art museums and private collection institutions in Canada, the United States, Asia and Europe.

(Figure 1) Works by Tony Brown in 2008

   While adhering to the road of art, Tony Brown has been practicing in the field of education. He has taught and lectured in many art and design colleges in Canada, the United States, Asia and Europe, and has rich educational experience. As a tenured professor at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Paris, France, he has been in charge of the La Seine project since 2002. At the same time, he also serves as the academic dean of Parsons School of Design in Paris.

   In recent years, Tony Brown has also expanded his creative practice to the field of art and design. In 2012, he was invited to do the overall conceptual design for the artist village of Yinchuan Art Museum. As the art director, he provided design guidance for the entire architectural project. In 2015, he became the chief designer of COGITO. Through the establishment of a poetic relationship between the concept narrative and the practical function of glasses, redefinition of the relationship between eyeglasses and users, he launched a co-branded series glasses which was a great success.

(Figure 2) Cross border co-branded glasses designed by Tony Brown

(Figure 3) Tony Brown serves as the judge of "Tao Xi Chuan" Public Sculpture International Exhibition in Jingdezhen, China in 2019

    As an international academic consultant of the School, Tony Brown has been paying close attention to and guiding the future insight of the School's discipline development. He has carried out deep and interdisciplinary interaction and cooperation with the branch school for many times. He attended and served as an important guest in the 2019 "University Maker - education action in the field of design" forum and held an individual exhibition named "A Mysterious Accident Created by a Sculpture Hand and Painting Machine" with contemporary artist Sui Jianguo in the college. He led the students of interdisciplinary experimental class of EAaD School to conduct a public sculpture workshop. During this period, he designed new public sculpture works for the campus of Eurasia University.

(Figure 4) Tony guides and participates in the landscape design of the west gate of Eurasia University

(Figure 5) Workshop of interdisciplinary experimental class of EAaD School

(Figure 6) Public sculpture designed by Tony for the campus of Eurasia University

    Tony Brown once said that the EAaD School is a "school about the future". We believe that under the leadership of Tony Brown, the EAaD School will make more efforts in talent training, teaching practice, introduction of foreign projects and construction of resource platforms. As internationalization has become an important indicator to measure the contemporaneity of art and design schools in the world, and we are faced with the new situation that no one is an isolated island any more, the EAaD School will pay more attention to the international situation and the development of emerging technologies in the future. We will respect and study the local culture and local history and devote to the contemporary cutting-edge art and design education to cultivate global design talents.

    Related introduction: Tony Brown

    Tony Brown takes on multiple positions at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Paris, France. He is the Chair of the Degree, the Professor and Dean of the School of Sculpture/Media, and the Director of the Graduate School. He also works at Parsons School of Design in the United States. He is a world-famous installation art and digital photography artist. His works have been collected by many countries and museums, including the National Gallery of Art of Canada and the National Fund for Contemporary Art of France. He has made remarkable breakthroughs in the performance of contemporary art, design and architecture, especially in new media and installation art.