Penn State University
– School of Visual Arts
Fall 2014
Art 415 Integrating Media:
Convergence in Practice
Professor: Eduardo Navas
(ean13@psu.edu)
Mondays & Wednesdays
2:30 PM – 5:30 PM
Office Hours: 10 AM –
11 AM, 209 Arts Cottage
Course Description (as
defined by Penn State School of Visual Arts)
A
studio course concentrating on the integration of new media technologies in
contemporary art practice.
Emphasis of Class:
This
class takes an interdisciplinary approach to the production of art and media design. Its
conceptual platform is the act of
remixing as initially understood in music, which is increasingly influential
across media in terms of remix culture. Students will learn the basic
principles of remix with a hands-on approach in order to develop independently
driven projects. Students will be instructed on how to present their ideas in
diverse media, and in effect evaluate how the combination and recombination of
content and form play a crucial role in how ideas/concepts/messages may be
perceived as derivative or new.
The
starting point of class, in terms of hands-on production, will consist of
producing, mixing and remixing music with different software. Students will
then apply their initial knowledge and methodology to image/time-based media
and text-driven projects of their own, while also making the most of skills
they developed in previous classes. Students will enhance their research
process by data-mining, that is analyzing patterns and recurring themes
quantitatively and qualitatively in music, image and text projects in art and
design. This approach will lead to an in-depth understanding of how data-flows
in front of, and behind the creative productions people experience.
Understanding data-analysis in art and design development is an ever-growing
need that is becoming more pronounced in both studio art and media design
practice.
The
class consists of three major projects, each building on the skills students
will learn throughout the term. The class is designed to enable students to acquire
a methodology that will eventually help them develop an ambitious vision of
their own practice, and complement the eventual production of a portfolio in
their respective discipline.
Class Structure
Class
sections for the most part will be divided as follows: on Monday, class will
consist of discussion and lectures on material being researched for projects
one and two, which are discussed below. On Wednesdays, class will be a day of
work and research. Students will be enhancing their technical skills according
to the type of project they decide to develop. Students will meet with the
instructor individually as needed. The students will turn in a total of three
projects.
Project
1: Emphasis on Music
Project
2: Emphasis on Image and Text
Project
3: Advanced Project: Image, Music and Text
Details
on each project will be announced at least two weeks prior to the due date.
Learning Outcomes:
A Note on Plagiarism
Plagiarism
will not be tolerated. A student who commits plagiarism will be reported to the
office of the visual arts. The student¹s behavior will be taken very seriously
and dealt with according to the guidelines provided by Penn State University
– School of Visual Arts. To avoid plagiarism, please cite your sources
when appropriate.
Academic Integrity
Statement
University Policies and Rules Guidelines states that academic integrity is the pursuit of
scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner. Academic
integrity is a basic guiding principle for all academic activity at The
Pennsylvania State University, and all members of the University community are
expected to act in accordance with this principle. Consistent with this
expectation, the University's Code of Conduct states that all students should
act with personal integrity, respect other students' dignity, rights and
property, and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed
through the fruits of their efforts. Academic integrity includes a commitment
not to engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation or
deception. Such acts of dishonesty violate the fundamental ethical principles
of the University community and compromise the worth of work completed by
others.
Academic dishonesty includes but
is not limited to acts such as cheating on exams or assignments; plagiarizing
the words or ideas of another; fabricating information or citations;
facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others; claiming authorship of work
done by another person; submitting work completed in previous classes; and/or
submitting the same work to multiple classes in which a student is enrolled
simultaneously.
Accessibility
Statement
Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the
University's educational programs. Every Penn State campus has an office for
students with disabilities. The Office for Disability Services (ODS) Web site
provides contact information for every Penn State campus: http://equity.psu.edu/ods/dcl. For
further information, please visit the Office for Disability Services Web site: http://equity.psu.edu/ods.
In order to receive consideration for reasonable
accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability services office at
the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake
interview, and provide documentation: http://equity.psu.edu/ods/guidelines. If the documentation
supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus¹s disability
services office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share
this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as
early in your courses as possible. You must follow this process for every
semester that you request accommodations.
Safety Information
Students
in the School of Visual Arts may find themselves working in the shop or in
their studios or classrooms using a variety of power and hand held equipment,
which may cause injury. Students should use the shop only after having received
an orientation in the use of such equipment and when supervised by faculty or
shop personnel. Should any injuries occur, in the shop, studios, or classrooms
in the School of Visual Arts please report them to Matt Olson, Shop Supervisor,
Room 108-A Visual Arts Building, Phone: 814-865-3962, email: mjo5165@psu.edu.
Required Books
(This
book is available at the bookstore)
Sterne, Jonathan. The Sound Studies Reader. New York:
Routledge, 2012.
(This book is available
as ebook through the Penn State Library)
Navas, Eduardo. Remix Theory: The Aesthetics of Sampling.
New York/Wien² Springer 2012
http://link.springer.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/book/10.1007%2F978-3-7091-1263-2
Requirements
Please
note that final grades are dependent upon consistent performance in all course
requirements.
Grading
Total 100%
Grade Scale
Attendance
Semester Schedule
Note
that the class includes a series of short exercises, which are considered part
of the overall production towards major projects. These exercises are designed
to complement the successful completion of your projects. Lectures on history
and theory will shift according to the students¹ needs to gain practical
knowledge from week to week
Week 1:
Monday, August 25, 2014
Introduction
to Class | Lecture on Interdisciplinary Practice, the relation of image music
and text | Read ³The Work of Art in
the Age of Mechanical Reproduction²
by Walter Benjamin (PDF)
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Weekly
Assignment due on September 3 released online | Lecture on music as an art form
| Begin discussion of Benjamin¹s ³The Work of ArtŠ² | Read John Mowitt,
³The Sound of Music in the Era of Its Electronic Reproducibility,² in The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 213-224
Week 2:
Monday, September 1, 2014
Labor Day, no class
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Critique of first weekly assignment | Lecture on music and its relation
to image and text | Discussion of
texts by Benjamin and Mowitt | Second Weekly Assignment released | Read Jacquest
Attali, ³Noise: The Political Economy of Music,² in The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 29-39
Week 3:
Monday, September 8, 2014
Weekly
Assignment Due | Lecture on analysis of image, music, text | Discuss Attali,
³Noise² | Read Friedrich Kittler, ³Gramaphone,² in The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 234-248
Wednesday, September 10,
2014
Weekly
Assignment Released | Techniques on music and media production | Lab Time
Week 4:
Monday, September 15, 2014
Weekly
Assignment Critiqued | Lecture on image, music, text | Discuss Kittler,
³Gramaphone² | Read Shuhei
Hosokawa, ³The Walkman Effect,² in The
Sound Studies Reader, pp. 104
– 116
Wednesday, September 17,
2014
Lab
time | Prepare for First major Project
Week 5:
Monday, September 22, 2014
Due: First Major Project, Emphasis
on Music (25%)
Class
critique | Weekly
Assignment released due on September 29
Wednesday, September 24,
2014
Discuss
Hosokawa ³The Walkman Effect² | Read Michele Chion, ³The Three Listening
Modes,² in The Sound Studies Reader,
pp. 48 – 53 | Lab Time work on weekly assignment
Week 6:
Monday, September 29, 2014
Second
Major Project Released due on October 20 | Weekly assignment critiqued |
Discuss Chion, ³Three Listening Modes² | Read Roland Barthes, ³The Grain of the
Voice,² in The Sound Studies Reader,
pp. 504 - 510 | Lecture on image, music, text | Weekly Project Released due on
October 6
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Lab
Time | Work on weekly project
Week 7:
Monday, October 6, 2014
Critique
Weekly Project | Discuss Barthes,
³The GrainŠ² | Read Jacques Derrida, ³The Voice that Keeps Silence,² in The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 495
– 503 | Weekly Project Released
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Lecture
on image, music, text | Lab Time
Week 8:
Monday, October 12, 2014
Weekly
Project critiqued | Discuss Derrida, ³The VoiceŠ² | Read Douglas Khan, ³Noises
of the Avant-garde² in The Sound Studies
Reader, pp. 427 – 448
Wednesday, October 14, 2014
Prepare
for Second Major Project | Lab time
Week 9:
Monday, October 20, 2014
Due Second Major Project 2:
Emphasis on Image and Text 30%
In
class critique | Read Eduardo Navas ³Remix[ing] Sampling² in Remix Theory (ebook):
Make
sure you are logged on to your PSU library account: http://link.springer.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/book/10.1007%2F978-3-7091-1263-2
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Weekly
Project Released due on October 27 | Discuss Kahn, ³Noises of the Avant-garde²
| Lab Time
Week 10:
Monday, October 27, 2014
Weekly
Project critiqued | Discuss Navas ³Remix[ing] Sampling² | Read Eduardo Navas ³Remix[ing]
Music² in Remix Theory (ebook):
Make sure you are logged on to your PSU library account: http://link.springer.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/book/10.1007%2F978-3-7091-1263-2
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Lecture
on image, music, text | Weekly Assignment released due on November 3 | Third
and Final Major Assignment released | Lab Time
Week 11:
Monday, November 3, 2014
Weekly
assignment critiqued | Discuss Navas ³Remix[ing] Music² | Read Eduardo Navas
³Remix[ing] Theory² in Remix Theory
(ebook): Make sure you are logged on
to your PSU library account: http://link.springer.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/book/10.1007%2F978-3-7091-1263-2
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Lecture
on image, music, text | Weekly assignment released due on Monday, November 10 |
Lab Time
Week 12:
Monday, November 10, 2014
Weekly
Assignment critiqued | Discuss Navas ³Remix[ing] Theory² | Read Kodwo Eshun
³Operating System for the Redesign of Sonic Reality² in The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 449 - 453
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Lecture
on image, music text | Weekly Assignment released due on Monday November 17 |
Lab Time
Week 13:
Monday, November 17, 2014
Weekly
assignment critiqued | Discuss Eshun, ³Operating SystemŠ² | Read Kate Crawford,
³Following you: Disciplines of Listening in Social Media² in The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 79- 90
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Weekly
Assignment released due on Monday, December 1 | Lab Time
Week 14:
Monday, November 24 2014
SPRING BREAK
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
SPRING BREAK
Week 15:
Monday, December 1, 2014
Weekly
Assignment Critiqued | Discuss Crawford ³Following YouŠ² | Prepare for second
Major Project | Lab Time
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Show
preliminary ideas of third and final | Prepare for Third Major Project | Lab
Time
Week 16:
Monday, December 8, 2014
Finalize
details for final project | Lab Time
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Due: Project 3 Advanced
Project: Image, Music and Text | Make necessary changes to turn in final project
Week 17: December 15, 2014
Due: Revision of Final
Project.