About

Course Essentials

Course Description

Internet Art & Culture engages students in the study of networked studio practice, net art histories, works and issues, and collaborative study. The course focuses on the integration of social media and Internet practices into the studio experience, providing students with a critical understanding of the dissolving boundaries between contemporary media art, telecommunications, and global information culture. The course includes: projects exploring the Internet as a creative medium; readings by artists, media critics, historians and scholars on the impact of the Internet on society and the individual; the critique of online artworks by contemporary artists; and critical writing focusing on a broad range of historical, theoretic, aesthetic, and technological topics pertaining to Internet art and culture. Each student is required to participate in a final Internet project: Social Broadcasting.

Open Source Studio

The course will make use of Open Source Studio (OSS), an online learning platform developed specifically for studio courses in the arts. Students will work extensively in the OSS WordPress “multi-site” system, a virtual studio environment that integrates a broad range of Web tools for artistic production, collaborative research, and online writing. Internet Art & Culture also explores forms of remote learning through web-conferencing in Adobe Connect and Skype.

Special Topic: Social Broadcasting

The topic for this semester is “Social Broadcasting.” How do we think about broadcasting in the age of the Internet and social media, how is it changing, what are the key technologies involved, and how do artists create broadcasted art works made specifically for live streaming and social interaction. Students will collaboratively participate in a final project using Facebook Live.

Learning Objectives

The objective of Internet Art & Culture is to develop critical and artistic skills for the interpretation and creation of networked media art. Through readings, lectures, multimedia projects, and the critique of online artworks, students are exposed to the aesthetic, historical, social, cultural, and technological issues inherent in our increasingly global communications environment. Students also gain collaborative skills through study in an online learning environment that emphasizes shared, cross-disciplinary activity.

Learning Outcome

On successful completion of the course students will have a new understanding of the Internet as an artistic medium. They will also have new insight into the collaborative process through participation in the online learning experience, and how each student’s contribution can alter the dynamics of the learning and artistic experience. It is the premise of Internet Art & Culture that learning, exploring, discovering, and producing finds new creative agency in close interaction with other students in the course through the use of online tools. Students will have an understanding of how concepts of open source apply to artistic creation and academic study when structured in a shared, tele-communications environment that requires cooperation and transparency. Lastly, students will gain an in-depth understanding of the conceptual, aesthetic and technological skills required to create art that draws from communications media and comments on the broader global information culture.

Grading & Rubrics

Grading for class participation is broken down into the following:

  • Class Participation and Attendance – 10%
  • OSS – 5%
  • Micro-projects – 25%
  • Research Critiques – 15%
  • Project Hyperessays – 25%
  • Final Project – 30%

Grades for the course are based on the following general criteria:

  • The commitment to engage the process of online production, research, and dialogue
  • Incorporate concepts and techniques drawn from the study of net based culture and art into student work
  • Complete work on time
  • Attend class on time
  • Points are given for each assignment, such that students are responsible for the accumulation of the final score/grade (much like a game!)
  • Grades are allocated according to the standard NTU system of percentages

Grading will be assigned for all assignments & attendance:

  • Micro-projects: each 5 points
  • Project hypressay: two installments, each 15 points
  • Research critiques: each 10 points
  • Final project: 100 points
  • Class attendance: 3 points per class (total 39 points) based on timely attendance and participation.
  • Evaluation of OSS WordPress site (total 15 points)

Attendance & Class participation:

Students participate through discussion and presentation during 3-hour weekly class sessions. Students are required to attend class without being late, or else up to two points point will be deducted if more than 30 minutes late. Students need to be in class no later than 7:40 PM. Students are also required to participate in class discussions of readings and assigned artworks, and be prepared to present on a weekly basis. Students with more than 3 unexcused absences will automatically fail the course.

NOTE: No mobile phone usage is allowed in class except for project purposes. Anyone who uses their cell phone for text messaging, email, etc. during class will lose a point. Repeated use will be counted as an absence.

Hardware & Software Requirements:

  • MacBook Pro (or laptop) with webcam & mic (bring each week)
  • Mobile device: iOS or Android
  • Access to Broadband connection for remote sessions (school or home)
  • Chrome browser

Required of the OSS Virtual Studio in WordPress:

You will be provided with an OSS Website on the first day of class and will use it on a regular basis for research, assignments, projects, and portfolio.

Social Media requirements:

If you have not already done so, be sure you have signed up for the following social media sites, which will be used during the semester:

Open Source Studio

Open Source Studio (OSS), a project founded and directed by Associate Professor Randall Packer of the School of Art, Design & Media at Nanyang Technological University, is a collaborative, online software environment designed to meet the needs and dynamics of studio-based teaching in the media arts. OSS has been developed as a prototypical multi-site WordPress content management system situated on the School’s network. The project also incorporates live forms of remote teaching, critique, guest lectures, and online events via Web-conferencing using Adobe Connect and Skype. Open Source Studio is thus a multi-faceted set of Web tools that integrates physical classroom/studio space with the online environment for critical writing, media documentation, portfolio presentation, online conferencing, asynchronous discussion, and social media.

OSS Website: http://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/