Professor:
Eduardo Navas (ean13@psu.edu)
Office hours: Mondays
and Thursdays 9 to 11 AM, 209 Art
Cottage
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 studentıs 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 campusıs 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.
Digital
Culture by
Charlies Gere
Digital
Art
by Christiane Paul
A
Thousand Years of Non-linear History by Manuel De Landa
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 readings aside from the assigned books as noted in the schedule
below. Also make sure to purchase
the required books when they become available at the university bookstore. There may 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 22, 2015
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 23, to Wednesday, January 28, 2015.
Week
3:
Thursday,
January 29, 2015
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 30, to Wednesday, February 4, 2015.
Week
4:
Read and be ready to discuss:
Manuel De Landa, A Thousand Years of Non-linear History, pp. 11-56
Christiane Paul, ³The Myth of
Immateriality,² pp. 251-272 (PDF)
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, February 6, to Wednesday, February 11, 2015.
Week
5:
Finish discussing Giorgio Agamben and Manuel
De Landa
Begin reading: Fredric Jameson
"Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" (PDF)
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, February 13, to Wednesday, February 18,
2015.
Week
6:
Thursday,
February 19, 2015
Read and be ready to discuss:
Fredric
Jameson, "Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism"
(PDF)
Digital
Culture, Chapter 2: 47 – 74
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, February 20, to Wednesday, February 25,
2015.
Week
7:
Thursday,
February 26, 2015
Midterm
Essay Released
Read and be ready to discuss:
Digital
Art:
Chapter 1: 27 – 65
Vannevar Bush, ³As we May Think² in the
New Media Reader, pp. 35 – 48
(PDF)
by Dieter Daniels, ³Duchamp: Interface:
Turing², pp. 103-127 (PDF)
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, February 27 to Friday, March 4, 2015.
Week
8:
Thursday,
March 5, 2015
Midterm
Essay Due
Lecture on Media Art: Postmodernism and
Posthumanism
Week
9:
Thursday,
March 12, 2015
Spring
Break
Week
10:
Read and be ready to discuss:
Digital Art, Chapter 2: 67 – 138
Deleuze and Guatarri, ³Of the Refrain,²
PDF
Answer questions available on Angel. Discussion takes place from Friday, March 20 to Wednesday, March 25, 2015.
Week
11:
Thursday,
March 26, 2015
Read and be ready to discuss:
Manuel De Landa, A Thousand Years [] pp. 71 - 99
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, March 27 to Wednesday, April 1, 2014.
Week
12:
Read and be ready to discuss:
Digital
Culture, Chapter 4, 112 – 149
Manuel De Landa, A Thousand Years [] pp. 103 – 147
Week
13:
Thursday,
April 9, 2015
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 10 to Wednesday, April 15, 2014.
Week
14:
Thursday,
April 16, 2015
Read and be ready to discuss:
Manuel De Landa, A Thousand Years [] pp. 183 - 226
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, April 17 to Wednesday, April 22, 2015.
Week
15:
Read and be ready to discuss:
Digital Art, Chapter 3, ³Themes in Digital Art,² 139 – 246
Manuel De Landa, A Thousand Years [] pp. 227 - 274
Answer questions available on Angel.
Discussion takes place from Friday, April 24 to Wednesday, April 29, 2015.
Week
16
Thursday,
April 30, 2015
Final Lecture
Week
17:
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Final Essay due