Professor:
Eduardo Navas (ean13@psu.edu)
Office hours: Mondays
11 to 2 PM, Vis Arts 207A (e-mail for appointment)
History
of Digital Art is a survey class that offers participants an opportunity to
examine the humanistic aspects of contemporary digital art. Through readings
and direct interaction with digital media and digital artists, the class will
develop an appreciation of the ways in which the interface between human beings
and technology has been historically constructed and is subject to critical
investigation. The goal of the class is to prepare each student so that she or
he may engage with digital media in a way that is ever more historically and
socially relevant.
Students
will address the ways in which digital technologies transform artistic
practices such as museum display, the writing of art criticism, the definition
of works of art, changing role of the artist and the changing space of the art
studio. More important, however, by engaging with digital works of art students
will learn to think critically about technology and its engagement with culture
at large. They will be encouraged to think about the political, economic and
social impact of digital technologies. This humanistic approach to technology
makes this course particularly useful to students of art history, philosophy,
comparative literature, art education, and the visual/plastic arts. A
significant portion of the course will be devoted to the ways in which art on
the Internet and digital art in general challenge the integrity of categories
such as race and national identity.
Class will consist of lectures and
discussions of works that are important in the history of digital art. Students will be assigned readings that
will complement in-class lectures.
There will be two major papers, the first around the middle of the term,
and the second at the end. For each
paper students will need to write concisely about works of art and topics and
themes discussed in class throughout the term. Students will be expected to
post reactions to in-class discussions on Angel forums. Forum postings will be considered part
of your class participation.
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.
Digital
Culture by
Charlies Gere
Digital
Art
by Christiane Paul
New
Philosophy for New Media by Mark B. N. Hansen
Available at the bookstore.
Recommended:
New
Media Art by Mark Tribe & Reena Jana
Available online at https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/New+Media+Art
Course
Requirements
Please
note that final grades are dependent upon consistent performance in all course
requirements.
Grading
Total 100%
Grade
Scale
Letter grade assignments are as
follows:
Attendance
Semester
Schedule
Check
Angel for PDFs as noted in the schedule below. Also make sure to purchase the required
books when they become available at the university bookstore. Also, there will be more readings in
additions to the basic ones below. Check
Syllabus link on Angel for updated reading materials.
Week
1:
Introduction | Brief overview of the
History of Digital Art
Lecture on Modernism, Postmodernism and
New Media
Week
2:
Thursday,
January 23, 2014
Lesson
online
Complete assigned reading plus online
material available on Angel and answer and discuss questions available on Angel
Forum for the readings below
Read and be ready to discuss:
David Hopkins, ³The Politics of
Modernism: Abstract Expressionism and the European Informel,² After Modern Art:
1945 – 2000, pp. 5 – 34 (PDF)
David Hopkins, ³Postmodernism: Theory
and Practice in the 1980s,² After Modern Art: 1945 – 2000, pp. 197
– 231 (PDF)
Giorgio
Agamben ³What is an Apparatus?² (PDF)
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, January 24, to Wednesday, January 29, 2014.
Week
3:
Thursday,
January 30, 2014
Read and be ready to discuss:
Digital
Culture, pp. 1—16
Digital
Art,
pp. 7 – 46
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, January 31, to Wednesday, February 5, 2014.
Week
4:
Read and be ready to discuss:
Mark B. N. Hansen, New Philosophy for New Media, pp. 1—47
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, February 7, to Wednesday, February 12, 2014.
Week
5:
Finish discussing Giorgio Agamben and Mark
B. N. Hansen.
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, February 14, to Wednesday, February 19,
2014.
Week
6:
Thursday,
February 20, 2014
Read and be ready to discuss:
Digital
Culture, Chapter 2: 47 – 74
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, February 21, to Wednesday, February 26,
2014.
Week
7:
Thursday,
February 27, 2014
Midterm
Essay Released
Read and be ready to discuss:
Digital
Art:
Chapter 1: 27 – 65
Bily Kluver, ³Four Selections by
Experiments in Art and Technology,² in The
New Media Reader, pp. 211 – 226 (PDF)
Vannevar Bush, ³As we May Think² in the
New Media Reader, pp. 35 – 48
(PDF)
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, February 28 to Friday, March 7, 2014.
Week
8:
Thursday,
March 6, 2014
Midterm
Essay Due
Lecture on Media Art: Postmodernism and
Posthumanism
Week
9:
Thursday,
March 13, 2014
Spring
Break
Week
10:
Read and be ready to discuss:
Internet Art, Chapter 3: 75 – 111
Digital Art, Chapter 2: 67 – 138
Answer questions available on Angel. Discussion takes place from Friday, March 19 to Wednesday, March 26, 2014.
Week
11:
Thursday,
March 27, 2014
Read and be ready to discuss:
Deleuze and Guatarri, ³Of the Refrain,²
PDF
Mark B.N. Hansen, New Philosophy [Š] Chapter 2, pp. 47 - 93
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, March 28 to Wednesday, April 2, 2014.
Week
12:
Read and be ready to discuss:
Digital
Culture, Chapter 4, 112 – 149
Mark B.N. Hansen, New Philosophy [Š] Chapter 3, pp. 93 - 126
Week
13:
Thursday,
April 10, 2014
Final
Essay Guidelines Released
Read and be ready to discuss:
Digital
Culture, Chapter 5 and Conclusion, 150 - 202
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, April 11 to Wednesday, April 16, 2014.
Week
14:
Thursday,
April 17, 2014
Read and be ready to discuss:
³Introduction² and Cartographic
Imaginaries,² from Latin American Identity in Online Cultural Production, by
Claire Taylor and Thea Pitman
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, April 18 to Wednesday, April 23, 2014.
Week
15:
Read and be ready to discuss:
Digital Art, Chapter 3, ³Themes in Digital Art,² 139 – 246
Hansen, New Philosophy, Chapter 6, pp. 197 - 234
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, April 25 to Wednesday, April 30, 2013.
Week
16
Thursday,
May 1, 2014
Final Lecture
Week
17:
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Final Essay due