DXARTS 200: Digital Media - History, Theory and Practice

SCHEDULE

Week One: Course Introduction/Art, Technology, and the Future

[10/1] Course Introduction / Lecture: Art, Technology, and the Future
[10/2] Seminar

Homework One
Due 10/9
Read the following visionary texts and wirte a comparative analysis between them. Come to class prepared to discuss the following:

Do you find any of the texts inspiring? Outline reasons why.

Evaluate the extent to which the authors' prophecies have been realized. Assuming that the prophecy has not entirely come true, what reasons can we suggest for its failure?

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

Write up your answers, and submit during seminar on 10/9.

Reading:

Benjamin, W., The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)
Burnham, J., The Future of Responsive Systems in Art (1968)
Bush, V., As We May Think (1945)
Wagner, R., The Artwork of the Future (1848)

Week Two: Digital Systems

[10/6]  Guest Lecture: Systems Aesthetics & Artist Presentation: James Coupe
[10/8]  Guest Lecture & Artist Presentation: Stelarc
[10/9]  Seminar

Homework Two
Due 10/16
Part 1:
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. Write a brief description of each element and why you included it on your list.

Part 2:
Take a single, blank sheet of paper and transform it so that it operates according to the properties of systems art 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. Submit your real-time system during seminar on 10/16.

Reading:

Burnham, J., Systems Esthetics (1968)
Burhham, J., The Aesthetics of Intelligent Systems (1970)
Kluver, B., Artists, Engineers, and Collaboration (1994)
Smithson, R., Entropy and the New Monuments (1966)

Week Three: Paradigms of Temporal Experimentation

[10/13] Guest Lecture & Artist Presentation: Shawn Brixey
[10/15] Lecture: Paradigms of Digital Composition
[10/16] Seminar

Homework Three
Due 10/23
First, listen to the following sound based artwork:
Life Study #5
Richard Karpen
(1996)

Then, invent a new form of notation for representing the events that occur in the soundscape. Provide a key for your notation system, describing the meaning of the symbol system you have created. Think beyond traditional forms of music representation. Focus on the patterns, compositional flow, spatial arrangement, moods and cycles of the work. Develop a method of depicting the piece that echoes the overall theme or experience in a creative manner.

Reading:

Russolo, L., The Art of Noise (1913)
Wishart, T., What Is Sonic Art? (1985)

Week Four: Sonic Art

[10/20] Guest Lecture & Artist Presentation: Josh Parmenter
[10/22] Artist Presentation: Hugo Solis / Artist Presentation: Stelios Manousakis
[10/23] Seminar

Homework Four
Due 10/30
Using the notational system you created, now map/describe/create a score for a new auditory artwork. Your piece may include specific locations, instruments, systems, performers, or events. Think about the relationships between the representation of the piece and the experience itself, and try to design an overall aesthetic for your work that ties them together. You may expand on the method of depiction that you previously created if needed to add new elements.

Week 5: DXARTS Concert

[10/27] Guest Lecture & Artist Presentation Barry Truax
[10/29] Artist Presentation: Nicolas Varchausky / Concert Discussion
[10/30] Seminar

Homework Five
Due 11/6
Attend the DXARTS concert Tuesday, October 27 at 7.00pm in Meany Hall. Complementary tickets are available during your sections. 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.

Reading:

Marinetti, F., The Futurist Cinema (1908)
Ascott, R., Behaviourist Art and the Cybernetic Vision (1966)
Rokeby, D., Transforming Mirrors: Subjectivity and Control in Interactive Media (1996)
Hayles, N. K., Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers (1999)

Week 6: Evolutionary Kinetics

[11/3] Lecture: Evolutionary Kinetics
[11/5] Artist Presentation: Annabel Castro/ Artist Presentation: Philomene Longpre
[11/6] Seminar

Homework Six
Due 11/13
Design a cyborg, or a concept for an artwork that utilizes an organic, kinetic interface between human and machine.

URL to explore for further inspiration:
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~infoarts/links/wilson.artlinks2.html

Reading:

Grau, O., Digital! The Natural Interface (2003)
Dixon, S., Virtual Reality: The Search for Immersion (2007)
Dixon, S., Liquid Architectures and Site-Specific Fractures in Reality (2007)
Borges, J. L., The Garden of Forking Paths (1941)

Week 7: Virtual Spaces/Mixed Realities

[11/10] Lecture: Virtual Spaces/Mixed Realities
[11/12] Guest Lecture & Artist Presentation: Stephanie Andrews
[11/13] Seminar

Homework Seven
Due 11/20
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.

Reading:

Laurel, B., Dramatic Foundations, Part I: Elements of Qualitative Structure (1991)
Prampolini, E., Futurist Scenography (1915)
Moholy-Nagy, L., Theater, Circus, Variety (1929)
Dixon, S., Digital Theatre and Scenic Spectacle (2007)

Week 8: Digital Performance/Current and Future Explorations in Digital Art

[11/17] Lecture: Digital Performance / Artist Presentation: Heather Raikes
[11/19] Artist Presentation: Tivon Rice / Artist Presentation: Ha Na Lee
[11/20] Seminar

Extra Credit
Due 12/4
Take a meaningful data sequence (e.g. DNA, a sentence, a haiku, a poem, a song, a telephone number, a name, etc.) and devise a manner of embedding or implanting this data within a secondary device, object, system, structure, or place.

Document your process using visual methods or bring your experiment to class.

Also provide a one page description outlining your decision-making.

Week 9: Current and Future Explorations in Digital Art

[11/24] Artist Presentation: Meghan Trainor / Artist Presentation: Maja Petric
[11/26] Thanksgiving Holiday - No Class
[11/27] Thanksgiving Holiday - No Class

Week 10: Vision/Synthesis

[12/1] Guest Lecture & Artist Presentation: Richard Karpen
[12/3] Guest Lecture & Artist Presentation: Paul Berger
[12/4] Seminar

Week 11: Final Project Presentations

[12/8] Student Presentations
[12/10] Student Presentations
[12/11] Student Presentations