Don Bergland is an artist, studio researcher, and educator.

As an artist, he creates images that reflect his eccentric view of life. During his youth in the 1960s, he built a reputation for himself as a satirical cartoonist, creating startling images for magazines and newspapers. During the 1970s, he turned his attention to acrylic painting, building an extensive exhibition record while running and operating his own art gallery in Vancouver, BC. During the 1980s, he established himself with a network of major galleries in Canada and the US, creating and selling over 1600 paintings during his decade working as a gallery artist. In the 1990s, he began working with digital tools and focused extensively on industry art production. He created client-based design and art for companies such as Electronic Arts, NASA, Motion Works, CTV, DNA Productions, Entertainment Technologies Inc. (ETI), and many others. In the 21st century, he has returned to the Fine Art circuit, making a name for himself as a digital neo-Surrealist exhibiting in international online exhibitions. In 2010 alone, he entered 14 international juried exhibitions and won 9 international awards for his artwork.

As a researcher, Don uses the art studio as his laboratory. There, he studies, analyzes, and documents studio tools, techniques, and processes. From 1992 to 2008, he engaged in a research process called, technoethnography, the practise of investigating the use of technical skills in the culture of industry. In order that he could study the use of digital art tools in real world practise, he began working with major production facilities in industry in various roles such as Art Director, Creative Director, Director of Creative Services, and Chief Creative Officer (CCO). In these roles, he was able to view firsthand what industry needed in terms of art products, and also be in a position to implement his own technical and aesthetic ideas. He has been able to bring this knowledge back to the university and it now informs core concepts in all his courses.

Don’s current research project involves the Studio Journal. He has invented a detailed online method of keeping track of every thought, idea, decision, and action he takes while in the studio. He is exploring how this kind of process influences his creative work as well as the possibilities this type of activity has for communicating his studio approaches. This fully illustrated documentation exists as a website which can be accessed through its URL. He shows his students how he keeps this Journal and they are free to follow his every daily creative move. Since the Journal lists every step taken in every creative product he constructs, it becomes a very detailed learning and instruction resource.    

As an educator, Don has combined the knowledge and skills gained from his studio practise and research into dynamic teaching tools to help elucidate studio processes and empower artists as creative producers. His courses at the University of Victoria have always focused on studio processes, and after 2004, his focus has been on the digital studio and the teaching of techniques and skills related to creative software. In addition to his University teaching, he has challenged himself and his artistic skillsets by taking on major teaching projects in industry-training schools in Vancouver. He designed curricula for certification programs in industry-based multimedia as well as Internet programs. From 2004 to 2008, he also served as Adjunct Professor for Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachussets. He taught in the Technology in Education Program as well as the Creative Arts in Technology Program. He taught courses to in-service teachers pursuing a Masters degree in Education.

Educational Audience
As an educator, it should be noted that Don’s audiences have mainly consisted of those who wish to gain art skill for the purpose of taking on an active gallery life, or for working as an active artist in the media industry. He has not focused on those who wish to learn art for purposes other than doing it as a full time studio endeavour. He shows potential teachers how to take on a full an active art practise, and also how to provide real world skills and knowledge to their own students

Digital Art
Don now works entirely in the digital studio, having converted his traditional painting and image construction styles to digital techniques. Don's first contact with digital technology was while he was doing his Masters degree in Art Education at UBC in 1986. He worked on a project with Ron McGregor involving visual perception. At that time, he constructed all visual resources using Sony graphics software. When he began teaching at the University of Victoria in 1988, he started an Amiga computer lab for Art Education students and started building artistic pathways to the digital studio. Throughout the 1990s, he continued to build a digital presence in the Art Education area of the university. Since 2000, his own practise has consisted entirely of digitally produced artwork in a style he calls, "technosurrealism." He has exhibited this work in online international juried exhibitions and has won many awards and critical commentary about this artistic approach.

Journaling
Over the years, Don has kept various forms of Studio Journals. In 2010, he collated all his ideas and began constructing an online daily Journal where he now documents every thought, idea, and decision made in his studio practise. His current studio life focuses around this Journal and he now uses it as an essential part of his studio life and practise. The Journal (Don Bergland Journal) is organized according to year, month, and day. Each day becomes a detailed outline of everything (thoughts, ideas, practises, techniques) that takes place in his studio. Everything in this Journal is in development and he is learning day by day how to become more refined in the documentation of his practise.

The construction process of each artwork he produces is documented in the Journal. This makes it easy to find when he wants to illustrate production examples in the classroom. Because his students are able to access it anytime they wish, they are able to follow through all his studio procedures. When he enters an online exhibition, he is able to send a URL with each painting. This URL is exhibited with the actual artwork. Viewers of the exhibition can not only view the painting, but can then access the Journal URL and read about the exact detals involved in its construction. One recent international online exhibition Don entered hosted over 900,000 viewers. During the exhibition, the online Journal website section describing the construction of the submitted painting had over 7,000 viewers. That is an dynamic form of art education that integrates the classical exhibition and instruction in a new way!

Technoethnography
Techno-ethnography is the contemporary field of endeavor that allows investigators to enter real-world computer environments in order to study specific practises and behaviors. It is based on the idea that in order to understand how digital productivity and creativity occur most efficiently, they must be observed in active use among the culture of professional producers who use them in real-world situations. Don practiced this form of anthropological activity in an intense manner from 1993 to 2008 when he explored digital creativity and production in a variety of corporate/industrial environments. As he began learning new digital art skills, he wanted to know how these were used in the real world. Over the next 15 years, he would participate in the industry at its height. The 1990s were the period of time when opportunity allowed a techno-ethnographer to enter industrial cultures and work in its midst. The major corporations he became involved with include:

Teaching
In addition to his regular teaching duties at the University of Victoria, Don has engaged in several large-scale teaching projects which have been consonant with his primary objective of understanding how digital tools are used in the construction of real world art.

From 1998 to 2002, he worked as the Director of Education for a major industry training school in Vancouver (Bodwell Multimedia & Internet). For 4 years, he designed the school’s curricula, trained their instructional staff, and also taught courses in both the Internet and Multimedia programs.

In order to bring his digital ideas to a larger international audience, Don began to work as an adjunct professor for Lesley University’s graduate Technology in Education program (TIE) as well as the Creative Arts program. Lesley University is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and offers graduate programs throughout the USA. Their programs are the most vigorous outreach technology programs being offered in the world. The program allowed him to interact with in-service teachers throughout the USA and gain further understanding of both digital skills and teaching in diverse digital environments. He offered the following courses:

Waterkeepers
Waterkeepers was the last major industry project worked on by Don Bergland, before he turned his attention back to studio Fine Art.

This project was an attempt to provide education in the form of interactive simulation multimedia. Basically, this means that a realistic simulation of a system is provided in a visually dynamic form that allows users to interact with it in a realtime way to learn and solve problems.

This project was sponsored by Indian & Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) & the First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC) and intended to provide an innovative training program for First Nations Small System Water Operators in BC.

The project consisted of three phases:

Phase 1 - 2006 - An assessment of existing Small Water Operation Certification Program training materials and methods. His team analyzed existing curriculum materials and attended training courses in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing program. They then submitted documentation indicating that the current program was inappropriate for First Nations learning styles. Most materials were text-based. They proposed that an innovative training program be constructed which focused on visual and audio learning and utilized interactive simulation methods. 

Phase 2 - 2007 - A design for an innovative training program. Ministry funding was granted for the second phase of the project. This involved building a working design for the interactive simulation program. A variety of First Nations consultant were retained and a detailed design plan was created. The design followed First Nations learning style as well as aesthetic structure.

Phase 3 - 2008 - The construction of the actual training product. This involved putting a team of First Nations media specialists together, finding a working studio, and then building the product. The University of Victoria generously donated a fully equipped computer lab for this project. It was decided that actual First Nations people should be the actual builders of this product. Many interviews took place and 7 young First Nations artists were hired. They were brought to Victoria, housed, and then started a series of training workshops with Don Bergland. Here, he not only outlined the design of the intended product, he began mentoring them in the ways in which their technical knowledge should be used in this type of industry project. Note - Don served as the Creative Director in this phase of the project. Part of the education of the team was also to train them as Small Water Keepers. It was thought essential to the integrity of the product that those who constructed it should have an intimate knowledge not only of First Nations culture, but also themselves understand the workings of a small water system. Over the period of several months, the team put together the 3D models, graphics, animation, audio, and programming for the finished product. At each stage of development, experts were consulted to maintain quality control. The final product was launched early in 2009.