Open Source Studio
Week 2: August 20 – 26
Open Source Studio (OSS) has been designed as an immersive experience in the use of online tools for creative work, research, learning, and collaboration. We will take a close look at the history and concept of open source thinking, and how peer-to-peer methods of collaboration, openness, and transparency can be applied to the studio arts. Of particular interest is the cultural impact of open source methods, how techniques that encourage free sharing of information and the peer-to-peer process might inform and enrich our creative practice as artists. Location: Art B1-14
The Collective Artwork
Week 3: August 27 – September 2
We will look at concepts and formal investigations that brought about collective forms of narrative. It had been suggested by the media theorist Roy Ascott in the early 1990s that a new type of social engagement in the arts emerged with telecommunications, with its roots in conceptual and information art, Happenings, and relational forms of the past century. How might we think of recent trends in networked art, peer-to-peer systems, and online cultural production as constituting a new model for collective narrative? How has the DIY or DIWO (do it with others) culture taken shape as a result of collaborative forms and social participation in the experience of the collective artwork? Location: Art B1-14
Live Streaming Networked Art
Week 4: September 3 – 9
Since the 1970s, artists have explored the re-invention of forms of radio and television created specifically for live broadcast. This class will overview the history of streaming networked practice, including: pirate radio / tv, satellite feeds, closed-circuit television, net art, Skype, Netcasting, and other examples of streaming media and other experimentation with live broadcasted media. We will also overview the NetArtizens.tv project, a new initiative to create an artist-driven Internet channel. This presentation and discussion will be preparation for the final project, in which students will create programs for our own Internet TV channel. Location: Art B1-14
The Third Space
Week 5: September 10 – 16
The third space is defined as a shared electronic space with remote participants connected via the network: a concept fundamental to this course. We will explore the psychological and conceptual dimensions of the third space, notions of distributed presence, the dissolution of the object, disembodiment, the immaterial, and the intimacy of the telematic embrace. We will discuss third space forms of collective experience via the network through live media, remote location, mobility, transformations of geographical perception in time and space, and how the third space lends itself to artistic realization. Location: Adobe Connect
Glitch Aesthetics
Week 6: September 17 – 23
While aesthetics may be inoperative here, glitch represents the mistakes, errors, artifacts and aberrations of digital processes that have in recent years found a central place in contemporary media art, particularly via the Net where emergent low-resolution glitch forms and other so-called “accidents” of artifacts are often native to the medium. We will survey some of the key artists who have pioneered the art and theory of glitch aesthetics to better understand how this “outlier” form has become an emerging genre. Current hactivist and DIY movements and their techniques will be explored to better understand how glitch is a unifying concept that brings together alternative communities of collaborating artists. This week, our visiting artist will be Rosa Menkman, the Dutch glitch theorist and artist ...
Hari Raya Haji and Recess
Week 7 + Recess: September 24 – October 7
Holiday: Hari Raya Haji Recess: September 28 - October 2
Private vs Public
Week 8: October 8 – 21
Global communication has challenged and penetrated all previous notions of the divide between public and private space. We’ll take a critical look at mobile media, webcam technology, reality TV, surveillance, self-publishing, and social media, concerning the loss of the private, the commodification of personal demographics, and the changing nature of social relations in the virtual community. How have artists exploited issues of privacy and Big Data to offer a critique of these sometimes dangerous practices, which permeate the lives of everyone who engages in social media and other forms of telecommunications? As our personal lives become increasingly public, exposed, and sometimes exploited, how can we develop a critical stance on these developments and incorporate thoughtful criticism into our artistic investigations. Location: Adobe Connect
Project Review: Concept
Week 10: October 22 - 28
Prepare a 10-minute presentation from your Project Hyperessay discussing your final project concept, exploring the key ideas, and focusing on the project’s influences based on lectures, readings, and artworks we have reviewed in the course. How does the concept of the project draw from and critique the various issues we have explored relating to online culture? How does the work incorporate technical and aesthetic methods discussed? And finally, how does the project bridge your own practice with net-related ideas and concerns. The goal of the presentation is to demonstrate how each student has assimilated course concepts and reintroduced them in their own work. Location: Adobe Connect
Streaming Workshop
Week 11: October 29 – November 4
We will overview the artistic and technical requirements for live broadcasted Internet streaming. This includes all stages of the process, including: media creation, peer-to-peer interaction, sequencing, encoding, embedding, the video player, video-on-demand format, live broadcasting, recording, and archiving. We will discuss how each final project will be prepared and distributed into our broadcast at the end of the semester. Location: B1-14
Final Project Rehearsal
Week 12: November 5 – 11
Each student will rehearse their broadcast project for OSStv, insuring that all technical and material elements are prepared, as well as physical and virtual locations for the work. We will also discuss transitions between works, graphics, social media, coordination of technical needs, and the overall broadcast setup in Wirecast Pro. Location: B1-14