Reading Responses
Responses should engage the reading material. Examples of related concepts, artworks and other text should be included. USE LINKS. Questions should also be raised as a way to challenge the premise(s) of the reading. Reading responses must be a minimum of 300 words and must be posted on the class blog at 6PM the day prior to the day they will be discussed.Research Presentation
Presentations should be between 20-30 minutes in length, although longer presentations will be allowed if warranted. The content of the presentation should include an overview the figure or subject and should provide a point of departure into how their work contributes applies to software, contemporary art, and culture at large. Be creative with your presentation. Use images, video and audio as you see fit. If you have other ideas as part of your presentation then ask the instructor. Your presentation should demonstrate the following goals:- Thoroughly introduce the figure or subject
- Illustrate the main concepts in the work
- Connect the topic/figure to other subjects and discussions inside and outside of the course
- Lead the class in a conversation about key issues/concepts with prepared discussion questions
Exercises
These are stand-alone projects which will pertain to individual units in the schedule. They will each have their own instructions and prompt which will be posted in the "assignments" tab of the class blog as soon as they are assigned to the class.Exercise 0: GIF Hunt
Find at least one GIF that you find meaningful and expressive. Post your GIF(s) in a blog post. Remember to properly format your post. Be prepared to discuss and defend why you have chosen your GIF(s).Exercise 1: Expanded Mini-Cinema
Step 1.1: Using on or more of the three methods introduced in the workshop create a GIF-based work of mini-cinema. Approach this gif like a short film with an incredibly short duration. Address these questions in the creation of your GIF?- What is the narrative of my work of mini-cinema?
- How is this narrative communicated?
Post your GIF to the blog with a title (title/labels: Exercise 1.1 - Your Name).
- One rule: if you are using frames from video in your gifs you cannot use the same video source for all your frames.
Exercise 2: Web Replica
Using the ARTstor database, select an image which contains both graphic forms and text. Recreate this artwork with HTML and CSS. Use image files sparingly (don't use them at all if possible).Recommendation: You will likely want to select a work with two-dimensional rectilinear forms, modern/contemporary typography, or both. Specific works like this might include:
- Works of graphic design from the 20th Century.
- Prints/propaganda from 1850-present.
- Possibly modernist works associated with the De Stijl Movement.
Exercise 3: Recombinant Video
Using several pieces of source video, audio, and text, create a moving image work which communicates a statement which was not communicated by the original sources.Think of your video as having an argument. Like any written argument it must be a statement supported by evidence. It is your job to come up with an original argument. In the context of this assignment, the things you can use as evidence are limited to:
- Your selection of pre-existing source video, audio, and text.
- The relationships you create between pre-existing source video, audio, and text through editing.
- Effects which you can apply though editing software.
Target running length is 3-4 minutes, but this can vary depending on the needs and ambition of your argument. (If your video is much longer we will likely not be able to screen the whole piece in critique and you should choose an excerpt instead).
Exercise 4: Time-based Art
Film, performance, games, and theater are all examples of time-based art. Using Processing we will create generative artworks which are not only formally time-based, but also focus on time as subject matter itself.Create a Processing sketch which offers an alternative representation of time. For the scope of the assignment “alternative” is considered any representation of time that does display numbers or clock hands.
At bare minimum your sketch must include representations of hours, minutes and seconds. Milliseconds are also an option.
Turn your sketch in as a Processing.js webpage stored on your W drive.
Exercise 5: Web Log as Durational Performance
Plan a series of artistic actions which you can commit to for seven days. The series of actions should have a unifying theme and objective. Perform these actions from Monday April 7 to Sunday April 13. You must perform at least one action per day, but for some projects it may be necessary to perform more actions than that.After you have completed an individual action in the series, document the results and post them in an individually designed blog. This is NOT the class blog, but a blog that you create specifically for your project.
Your performance must at the very least have one action and one post per day. Depending on the time resources needed for an individual action in your performance, it may be necessary to have more than seven actions and posts.
You may use any blogging software of your choosing to create your blog. The design of the blog should relate to and contribute to the goals of the performance. In many cases this will mean going beyond templates with html/css.
Your performance will be evaluated by:
- The impact of your performance.
- The development of the process over time.
- The value of the the performance's goals.
- Whether or not your stated goals were achieved, and if not what else may have occurred.
- The documentation of actions.
- Presentational context of your blog. (Does your typography, html/css design etc support the theme and goals of the performance?)
Final Project: Convergence Art
Part 1: Proposals
Conceive of three final project concepts that function as an answer to the following question:- How do you combine different media in one context to support an artistic point?
- Convergence Media
- Memetics
- Software Studies
- OR a topic introduced through one of our research reports (must be approved by instructor)
Create a sketch and write one paragraph of explanation and for each concept. Each concept must have a working title. Create a 3 page pdf which contains all these paragraphs and sketches (one paragraph/sketch combo per page). Upload this pdf to the blog before class on Monday 4/22.
Part 2: Progress Presentation
Present your work in progress to the class. Make sure you are able to convey the idea and aim of the project clearly in order to receive good feedback. In any case where you do not have working tech to show, make sure you include supplementary material (images, diagrams, models) to get the goal across.Part 3: Final Critique
(Last meeting before finals week)Make sure your project is setup and running ahead of the critique. We will be pinched for time and will need to jump from project to project quickly. You are welcome to choose a site other than the lab, but you must make sure this is ready to go ahead of time.
Part 4: Final Deliverables
Due on blog for finals week (no meeting in lab):- All software components turned into the blog
- At least five images (screen grabs or installation shots depending on the project)
- One video
- Artist statement
