Please, please, please touch media
Meets 12:30-3:15p, Thursdays in LT209
Professor Brett Phares, LT136A, x:2656
Brett.Phares@marist.edu
Office Hours: M 12:30-1:30pm; W 11a-5pm; TH 11a-12:00pm
Class hub: http://mpotential.org/COM317-SP08
Class bookmarks: http://del.icio.us/mpotential/COM317
Overview
When it comes to interactive media [IM], what does it mean to be interactive? Starting with the early 20th century, we will survey media art to the present, to look more closely at what IM represents, to see if it helps make sense of our future blended realities, or if it merely reflects a potential hall of mirrors? This course will introduce students to ideas and methodologies at the heart of cultural studies, and to different kinds of evidence that surround and inform us of our personal and social worlds. The syllabus is structured around the exploration of different theoretical frameworks and some of the skills required to produce interactive media art and how to interpret it. Ideally, the course is organized as a series of cycles to experience the relationship between theory and practice, between conceptualizing a problem and finding ways to express it. For grading, see Assessment.
Learning Outcomes
In this course, students will:
> Become familiar with theories and approaches to the understanding of interactive media art;
> Become conversant with debates surrounding the theories;
> Apply media practice in IM;
> Develop critical and technical skills in the research, interrogation, evaluation and production of the IM.
Students will focus on theory and discussion in the first half of a class session, then working with assigned groups and producing online presentations in the second. There will be two main projects, the midterm and final, based on the success of a particular weekly project and the comfort and interest gained in/from them. In consultation with me, students will determine which aspects of a given media artist to discuss, as well as the form it will take. The forms that these projects take are as open as the topic itself, and can combine a traditionally written paper with a deep video tour of a media artist, a podcast show with material research, or an interactive installation using GPS or other tools from forensic science. The bodies of work (“Evidence”) presented in class will provide you with ways to think about how to produce the form and content of the main projects. The results will then be presented to the class for dicussion and critique. There will also be two short papers, one based on the artist you choose to present in class, and a response to peer projects TBD.
Required
At the Edge of Art, [AEA] by Joline Blais & Jon Ippolito, Thames & Hudson, 2007 in Martist bookstore and online booksellers
MediaArtHistories. [MAH]
ed. Oliver Grau, MIT 2007 online at Marist Ebrary
Account at tumblr.com and voicethread.com; for secondary backup, USB 2.0 Flash Drive, min. 1GB.
Schedule (by week)
1
Introductions, class framework and goals
Studio: account creation at tumblr.com and voicethread.com and learning to post a document.
Evidence: The social and visual as evidence of some perceived characteristic of 21st century life: Photosynthesis from MS, Wefeelfine.org and a raft of others.
Read Introduction from AEA; Chapter 3 “It is forbidden not to touch: some remarks on the
(forgotten parts of the) history of interactivity and
virtuality” by Peter Weibel p. 21 and Chapter 4 "Historicizing art and technology: forging a method and
firing a canon" by Edward A. Shanken, both from MAH.
Assignment for Week2: write a formal description of a work produced by the artist you have chosen (~500 words) and post to tumblr.
2
Theories and approaches: motion, light, time
Evidence: marcel duchamp, lászló moholy-nagy, robert smithson, robert irwin, james turrell
Assignment: papers on formal and contextual descriptions of chosen artists due.
Read code as muse from AEA; Chapter 5 "Twin? touch? test? redux: media archaeological approach to
art, interactivity, and tactility" by Erkki Huhtamo from MAH.
3 and 4
Theories and approaches: code as muse
Evidence: john maeda, peter cho, golan levin
Read deep play from AEA; and Chapter 6 "Duchamp: interface: turing: a hypothetical encounter
between the bachelor machine and the universal machine" by Dieter Daniels from MAH.
5 and 6
Theories and approaches: deep play
Evidence: eric zimmerman, mary flanagan, ian bogost
Read autobotography from AEA; and Chapter 10 "Image, process, performance, machine: aspects of an
aesthetics of the machinic" by Andreas Broeckmann from MAH.
7 and 8
Theories and approaches: autobotography
Evidence: life sharing, faceyourpockets, wefeelfine.org
Read designing politics from AEA; Chapter 11 "From film to interactive art: transformations in media arts" by
Ryszard W. Kluszczynski from MAH.
9
Mid term projects to be posted to voicethread
Theories and approaches: designing politics
Evidence: yes men, natalie jeremijenko, tyler jacobsen
10
Spring Break
11
Theories and approaches: designing politics (cont.)
Evidence: yes men, natalie jeremijenko, tyler jacobsen
Read reweaving community from AEA; and Chapter 12 "The passage from material to interface" by Louise Poissant from MAH.
12 and 13
Theories and approaches: reweaving community
Evidence: mark tribe, martin wattenberg, mark hansen and ben rubins
Read preserving artificial life from AEA; and Chapter 13 "The myth of immateriality: presenting and preserving new
media" by Christiane Paul from MAH.
14 and 15
Theories and approaches: preserving artificial life
Evidence: ed burton, steve kurtz, steve potter & symbiotica
Read redefining art from AEA.
16
Conclusions
Final projects posted to voicethread; open critique
Other resources
"The Flexible Personality" by Brian Holmes
Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, 2002
Ian Bogost, Unit Operations, 2006 |