DXARTS 200: Digital Media - History, Theory and Practice

SCHEDULE

Week One: Introduction

[9/26] Lecture 1: Art and the Future [PDF]
[9/28] Seminar

Homework One
Choose two visionary texts. Download from the links below. Come to class prepared to discuss the following:

Do you find either text inspiring? Outline reasons why.

Evaluate the extent to which x’s prophecy has been realized. Assuming that the prophecy has not entirely come true, what reasons can we suggest for its failure?

Compare the two visions objectively, asking what makes one more or less successful than the other.

Write up your answers, and submit during the following week’s seminar.

Texts:

Ascott, R., Behaviourist Art and the Cybernetic Vision
Baudelaire, C., The Artist, Man of the Crowd… (1863)
Benjamin, W., The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)
Burnham, J., The Art of Intelligent Systems (1969)
Burnham, J., The Future of Responsive Systems in Art (1968)
Bush, V., As We May Think (1945)
Davies, D., Prophecy: The Art of the Future (1973)
Kluver, B., Northeastern Power Failure (1966)
Marcuse, H., Art as a Form of Reality (1969)
Marinetti, F., The Futurist Cinema (1908)
Moholy-Nagy, L., Theater, Circus, Variety (1929)
Scheerbart, P., Glass Architecture (1914)
Seawright, J., Phenomenal Art: Form, Idea, and Technique
Stallabrass, The future for high art lite
Smithson, R., Entropy and the New Monuments (1966)
Toynbee, A., Art: Communicative or Esoteric?
Wagner, R., The Artwork of the Future (1848)

Week Two: Systems Art, Mark I

[10/1]  Lecture 1: Understanding the System Aesthetic [PDF]
[10/3]  Lecture 2: Becoming a DXARTS major -- an overview / orientation
[10/5]  Seminar

Homework Two
Write a list of what you consider to be the essential properties of systems art. The list should contain at least ten things, and be ranked in order of importance. Hand in the list during the seminar.

Come to class on Friday prepared to discuss the following texts in relation to the work you have seen so far in class. Which works can be considered to operate within a systems paradigm? What did Smithson mean when he talked about an "esthetics of disappointment"?

Extra Credit: Burnham's notion of 'real-time' is not entirely inline with our contemporary understanding of that term. How is it different, and why? Write your answer -- max. 2 pages.

Burnham, J. Systems Esthetics (1968)
Burnham, J. Steps in the Formulation of Real-Time Political Art (19??)
Smithson, R., An Esthetics of Disappointment (1966)

Week 3: Non-Linearity

[10/8] Lecture 1: From Certainty to Black Holes: Paradigms of Temporal Experimentation [PDF]
[10/10] Lecture 2: Artist Presentation (Shawn Brixey)
[10/12] Seminar

Homework Three
Keep a log of all the places that you visit during the week leading up to your discussion section, both real and virtual (e.g. towns, cities, locales, houses, websites, databases, mailing lists, emails, etc.) Then try to draw a map of your journey, using whichever media you consider appropriate. Concentrate upon the relationship between the data that you gather and the decisions that you make about how to represent it. Bring your map to the seminar, prepared to discuss it in the context of the below texts, which you should read in advance of the seminar.

Hand in your map at the end of the seminar.

Borges, J. L., The Garden of Forking Paths
Burroughs, W., The Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin (1961)

Week 4: The Path is the Network

[10/15] Lecture 1: Net Art: The Origins of the Matrix [PDF]
[10/17] Lecture 2: Artist Presentation (David Halsell)
[10/19] Seminar

Homework Four
Look through your copy of the list of systems art properties that you created the other week. Then take a single, blank sheet of A4 paper. Using the sheet of paper, transform it so that it operates according to all of the properties on your list. Use the paper as an example of a real-time system. What you do to the paper is not restricted to writing or drawing: you may fax it, print on it, clone it, burn it, fold it, crumple it, measure it, stick things on it, cut it, atomically deconstruct it, post it, place it, exhibit it, anything that you like. Concentrate on emulation rather than simulation. Read the three below texts for inspiration.

Submit your real-time system during Friday's seminar.

Bourriaud, N., Relational Form (1998)
Borges, J.L. The Library of Babel (1941)
Eco, U., 'The Open Work in the Visual Arts' (1989)

Week 5: The Organization of Noise

[10/22] Lecture 1: The Art of Noise [PDF]
[10/24] Lecture 2: Artist Presentation (Richard Karpen)
[10/26] Seminar

Homework Five
Attend the DXARTS concert 7.30pm Monday 22nd October in Meany Hall. Complementary tickets are available during your sections the Friday before.

Your homework will be to write a review of the event. It should be at least two pages long, but no longer than three. It should include images where appropriate and critical response. You must take a point of view in the review: it should not be simply a description of what happened -- make it interesting. I want you to say why you did / didn't like the event, and justify your reasons based upon observations on the night and from relating the work to other work you have seen elsewhere.

Try to avoid taking the middle ground: say what you think, but remember to back up what you say with concrete examples, comparisons, references. Focus on one or two of the works in the concert if you like. Think through some of the issues / discussions we have encountered in class regarding art and technology / networks / systems / aesthetics. Look at this homework as a way to navigate through these issues by applying your perspective on them to a contemporary event. Hand in your review in the Friday section.

Come to class prepared to discuss what you have read, and how it related to what you saw.

Week 6: Remote Control

[10/29] Lecture 1: Creativity and Control [PDF]
[10/31] Lecture 2: Artist Presentation (Juan Pampin) [PDF]
[11/2] Seminar

Homework Six
Read the following texts:
Luigi Russolo, The Art of Noise (1913)
Douglas Kahn, "Immersed in Noise" from NOISE WATER MEAT (1999) pages 25 - 44
Douglas Kahn, "John Cage: Silence and Silencing " from NOISE WATER MEAT (1999) pages 161 - 199

Then, in the spirit of Russolo's Art of Noise manifesto, compose your own manifesto to speculate about the future creative organization of noise based upon the materials we have covered in class so far. Your manifesto should be at least one page long, not counting images etc. You can also accompany your manifesto with a CD-ROM if appropriate.
Submit your manifesto to your TA during Friday's section.

Week 7: System Art, Mark II

[11/5] Lecture 1: Intelligent Agents, Intelligent Systems, Situated Machines [PDF]
[11/7] Lecture 2: Artist Presentation (James Coupe)
[11/9] Seminar

Homework Seven
Find an example (online or offline), not mentioned in the lecture, of an artwork that uses artificial intelligence. Then write one page evaluating to what extent we can consider it to be 'intelligent'.

Week 8: Virtual Spaces

[11/12] No Class (Veterans Day)
[11/14] Lecture 1: Artist Presentation (Heather Raikes)
[11/16] Seminar

Homework Eight

Week 9: Biotech Frontiers

[11/19] Lecture 1: Biotech Art [PDF]
[11/21] Lecture 2: Artist Presentation (Allison Kudla)
[11/23] No Class (Thanksgiving)

Homework Nine

Week 10: The Machine and the Screen

[11/26] Lecture 1: Augmented Reality, Situated Romanticism and the Technological Sublime [PDF]
[11/28] Lecture 2: Closing Remarks [PDF]
[11/30] Seminar

Week 11: Final Projects Presentation

[12/3] Lecture 1: Student Presentations
[12/5] Lecture 2: Student Presentations
[12/7] Seminar: Student Presentations