Electronic
Media and Culture
M 225 - Main Building
Monday, 4:00 - 10:00 PM
Teaching
Instructor - Dina Mussano
Course
Description
Electronic
Media and Culture is a broad overview of the tools, aesthetics,
and cultural paradigms brought about through the application and integration
of electronic media with art and design. Students will be introduced
to an array of multimedia tools and techniques used in the production
and authoring of graphics, text, animation, video and sound. The goal
of the course is to develop practical and critical skills vital to the
creation and interpretation of digital and electronic art forms.
Week
1 - (September 9)
Review
of course objectives, assignments, and projects.
Introduction
to media types: image, text, sound, video and animation. The first
half of the course will cover basic techniques in working with the
essential components of digital production, understanding their unique
processes, methods of editing and manipulation, and strategies for
creative application.
1.
Digital Imaging – We will overview basic techniques in digital
imaging in Photoshop: digitalization through various input processes
including scanning and digital photography; resolution; sizing and
positioning; and file formats. Glossary of
terms.
Macintosh
basics - The Macintosh operating system as it is used in digital production:
file management; file and directory naming; directory paths; saving
and backing up. Desktop example.
Assignment
#1 : Media Transformations - The history of technology can be
viewed as a continuous transformation of our culture and the way we
interact in society. Communications technologies, media technologies,
information technologies, machine technologies have all had impact
on the quality and nature of our daily existence.
This
assignment is to capture those transformations resulting from electronic
media as a composite of photographic images. Over the next two weeks,
we will collect images that reveal transformations resulting from
media that are taking place all around us. These images can be of
people, places, broadcast media, billboards, etc. The only requirement
is that each image reveal how the electronic media has altered some
aspect of the human or social condition as a result of its implementation
and use.
Times
Square collage
Week
2 (September 16)
1.
Digital Imaging – We will continue
with more advanced techniques in digital imaging including: layers
and layer properties; moving images, adjusting color and light values;
cloning and touchup; flattening and saving.
Wagner
to Virtual Reality collage
Assignment
#1 : Media Transformations - The second part of the assignment
is to take your collection of images and create a collage, sequence
or juxtaposition. It is up to you to decide how you want to layout
your composite: the number of images, size, orientation, configuration,
etc. It is important though that the result articulate your perspective
on the transformative nature of technology. Utopian? Dystopian? Optimistic?
Future as Blade Runner? This is your observation.
Lynn
Hershman - Phantom
Limbs
Nam
June Paik - Electronic
Superhighway
Jenny
Holzer - Truisms
William Gibson - Neuromancer
Sign
up with Rhizome.org
List, a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1996 to provide
an online platform for the global new media art community. The Rhizome.org
community is geographically dispersed, and includes artists, curators,
writers, designers, programmers, students, educators and new media
professionals.
Reading:
William
Gibson, Academy Leader, pgs 247 - 251. Write a brief summary.
Week 3
(September 23)
1.
Digital Imaging – We will continue
techniques in digital imaging including: adjusting color and light
values; cloning and touchup; flattening and saving.
Review
of Mac Basics.
Discussion
of Rhizome.org
and William Gibson's Academy Leader.
Assignment
#1 : Media Transformations - Work on projects: critique and presentation
of completed works.
Week
4 (September 30)
2.
Text – Introduction to text manipulation
in Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator's vector graphics capability allows
the manipulation of text as a graphic object, while retaining the
ability to scale the object without loss or degradation (as is the
case in Photoshop's rasterized imaging). We will cover the creation
of text objects, paths and text aligning, transforming techniques,
file formats, etc.
Assignment
#2 : Media Avant-garde - During the early 20th century, the avant-garde,
most notably such movements and schools as the Futurists,
Dadaists, Constructivists, Bauhaus,
de Stijl, and Surrealists, were interested in treating text as a graphic
object to be manipulated, not limited to its literary connotation.
In particular, El Lissitzky spoke of the potential for representing
text as a dynamic medium, with the speed, movement and intensity of
the modern age.
Now
with such advanced tools as Illustrator, we have unprecedented control
over text elements as expressions of meaning and dynamic shape. The
assignment is to write a text as your own statement of revolutionary
thought pertaining to digital media and how it is advancing artistic
expression. Your design should reflect how you might imagine the representation
of the digital medium through text elements: it's speed, virtuality,
changeability, interactivity, and immersive qualities. The result
is to be a printed poster "advertising" digital media as
a revolutionary new medium for artists and designers.
Avant-garde
texts and graphics.
Contemporary
Projects:
Mark
Amerika - Grammatron,
Phone:e:me
Plumb Design - Visual
Thesaurus
Vuk Cosik - ASCII
Art
Jodi
- Jodi.org
Week 4
(October 7)
2.
Text – We will discuss outputting
Illustrator files for print: color, resolution,
settings, etc.
Assignment
#2 : Media Avant-garde - Completion of posters.
Reading:
F.T.
Marinetti, "Futurist Cinema," pgs 10 - 15. Write a brief
summary.
Week 5
(October 14)
3.
Sound – Introduction to sound production
in SoundEdit 16. We will overview basic techniques in recording, digitizing,
editing, processing, and mixing digital audio.
For
10/21 - Assignment #3 : Sound Habitat - Such artists and composers
as the Futurists,
Edgard Varése
and John Cage
introduced the idea in the early 20th century that any sound could
be used for compositional purposes, not just traditional ones played
by musical instruments. They introduced percussion sounds, noises
played by instruments, recorded sounds, and electronically generated
ones.
For
this assignment we will collect found "sound" objects, collected
in your apartment or house and its surroundings. Any sound that you
think might be interesting in the sonic reconstruction of where you
live. No musical instruments or recorded music! Just those that you
record, such as: ambient sounds (traffic out the window, people talking
in the next room, someone cooking in the kitchen, etc.); sounds that
you compose (such as banging a pan, vocal sounds, walking, running,
etc.). The resulting composition should be a portrait of your everyday
life and habitat through sound.
For
10/21 - Reading: John
Cage, "Diary: Audience 1966," pgs 91 - 94. Write a brief
summary.
For
10/21 - Listening: " Luigi Russolo (Futurists), "Risveglio
di una Citta; Edgard Varèse; Poéme
Électronique; John Cage, Cartridge
Music. Write a brief summary explaining how these composers
have transformed noises and electronic sounds into musical composition.
Week 6
(October 28)
3.
Sound – Advanced techniques in sound
production including: special effects, filtering, changing tempo,
etc.
Discussion
of Cage reading.
Assignment
#3 : Sound Habitat - Complete sound compositions.
Week 7
(November 4)
Midterm
Critique – Present your sound project and Rhizome Net Art
News presentation.
Week 8
(November 11)
Complete
Midterm Critique – Present your sound project and Rhizome
Net Art News presentation.
4.
Animation – Introduction to vector
animation in Flash. Overview of basic animation techniques: the creation
of vector-based graphical objects and text, keyframes, layering, motion
'tweening, etc.
Assignment
#4 : Vision in Motion - The response to technology in the early
20th Century was to embrace the forward-leaning possibilities of machine
aesthetics, geometric shapes, and the illusion of these elements moving
in space. This was often referred to as the space-time continuum,
when many artists were interested in new scientific ideas related
to the 4th dimension. Among the artists who pursued these possibilities,
were László Moholy-Nagy and Kazimir Malevich, as well
as the film animator Oskar Fischinger, all of whom were interested
in the composition of visual media in time.
In this
assignment, we will explore the space-time continuum, the relationship
between time and space, by creating simple animations that spatialize
geometrical shapes in temporal trajectories. We will not only be composing
shapes and their juxtaposition, but also composing the elements of
time. The result of the project will be an animation that we will
export for playback in Flash and video formats.
Reading:
László
Moholy-Nagy, "Theater, Circus, Variety," pgs 22 - 26.
Write a brief summary.
Week 9
(November 18)
4.
Animation – Work on "Vision in Motion" projects.
Week 10
(November 25)
4.
Animation – Work on and complete "Vision in Motion"
projects.
Week 11
(December 2)
5.
Hypermedia – We will cover the essential
techniques for constructing hypermedia environments in Dreamweaver:
layout, integrating text and graphics, hyperlinks, etc.
Assignment
#5 : Virtual Parody- The Web has extended the opportunities for
copying, appropriating, sampling, and synthesizing material. Much
satirical and political work on the Web has taken advantage of this,
such as the Department of Art & Technology, or other projects
that explore the possibilities for social commentary in the on-line
environment.
Everyone will
create a project that explores social commentary in the form of parody
and satire through Net-based appropriation and transformation.
To carry out your
satirical project, you will create the home page (plus some internal
pages) of a fictitious Website by designing and constructing its contents
based stylistic qualities derived from the corporate, political, or
entertainment world.
You may choose
to exaggerate the positivist message of the original site, thus exaggerating
its original intent, or you may find it appropriate to present your
satire as shamelessly evil and conspiring, and making no effort to
disguise its real intent, your site may suggest an absurd or useless
message or product.
You will design
logos, banners, buttons, etc. as you see fit. You may choose to portray
your site with elements that convey realism, or blur reality and fiction,
or perhaps portray unabashed mockery of corporate culture, politics,
and greed.
The project will
be due on the last day of class, December 16th.
Examples:
Political
US
Department of Art & Technology
The White
House
The
White House
George Bush
Entertainment
Britney
Spears
Media
NewsMax.com
HappyWoman
The Onion
Corporate
Enron
Search Engines
Hasta
la Vista Engine
Typos.com
Reading:
Lynn
Hershman, "Fantasy Beyond Control," pgs 299 - 305. Write
a brief summary.
Week 12
(December 9)
5.
Hypermedia – We will cover the essential
techniques for constructing hypermedia environments in Dreamweaver:
layout, integrating text and graphics, hyperlinks, etc.
Assignment
#5 : Virtual Parody - Work on projects.
Week 14
(December 16)
5.
Hypermedia – Final Critique
For
the final Critique, we will prepare the following:
- Present
your Virtual Parody project
- Write
a 250 word brief summary about your project and how it uses the
tools and processes of new media to comment on contemporary issues
- Lead
a brief Q & A discussion with the class
Assignments
and Grading
Readings and Discussion
(20%)
Attendance
(on time) is mandatory and will be incorporated into the grade. Each
student is required to participate in class discussion focusing on
readings and lectures.
Projects (40%)
Biweekly
projects will be assigned focusing on the application of digital tools
and techniques.
Final Project
(40%)
A final
project will consist of a hypermedia work that integrates all the
media through the Web.
Miscellaneous
Required Reading
Multimedia
: From Wagner to Virtual Reality, edited by Randall Packer and
Ken Jordan, W.W. Norton, 2001.
Materials
Each
student is required to store their work on zip cartridges or firewire
drive.
Internet Access
Everyone
is required to have an e-mail account. All written assignments will
be handed in electronically by e-mail. Each student also has individual
Web space for on-line assignments.
|