Penn State University – School of Visual Arts
Fall 2015
ART 211Y: Introduction to Digital Art and Design Criticism
Professor: Eduardo Navas (ean13@psu.edu)
Mondays & Wednesdays 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Office Hours: Mondays and Wedsnesdays , 12 PM –
1 PM, 209 Arts Cottage
Course Description
Art 211Y focuses on developing
a critical,
theoretical, and historical understanding of media art and design. Participants will
learn to do research and write effectively on contemporary media art and design
practice, while also developing a project of their own in response to the
material discussed throughout the class. Participants will attain an intimate
understanding of how image, sound and text are redefined by emerging media and
deployed in material and virtual space to communicate ideas. To achieve
this, participants will examine the conventions, language, practices, and
aesthetics used by media artists and designers in direct relation to the social
and cultural implications that creative production has in society, politics,
philosophy, economics, race, gender, and technological development.
The class is specifically focused on developing conceptual
skills that will enable students to create engaging experiences with greater
depth and intellectual rigor when using still images, video footage, text,
sound, code, and any form of binary information. The main purpose of the class
is to prepare students to learn how to perform effective research for the successful
production of advanced projects according to their own interests in future
classes as well as beyond the classroom.
Emphasis of Class:
The class will focus on
international media art and design. To accomplish this, students will make use
of online resources and databases including Rhizome.org, Turbulence.org, Furtherfield.org,
Digicult.it, and Media Arts Net, among others. Participants will go over
selected works from these online resources to learn about the history and
cultural questions that inform contemporary media art and design practice.
Participants will also implement cultural analytic methodologies in order to
analyze works effectively. This means that students will learn the principles
of data visualization to implement them as part of major projects and class presentations.
The class will use two main texts, Keywords:
A Vocabulary of Culture and Society
by Raymond Williams, and Mythologies
by Roland Barthes. These texts will also be complemented by other readings. We
will be studying in depth the writing approaches by both of the authors in
order to attain a concrete understanding of the research and writing process
that each of them went through for their respective publications. Participants
will apply their understanding of both authors¹ writing processes to their own
research, writing and project development.
Class Structure
Class
sections for the most part will be divided as follows: One of the days in the
week (mostly Wednesdays) will consist of discussion and lectures on material
being researched for assignments. The other day of class (mostly Mondays) will
be a day of work and research; it may also be a day of brief review to make
sure students are up to date on all material covered to that point in class.
These days will fluctuate in relation to the schedule of classes around
holidays. Students will be enhancing their writing, research as well as
technical skills according to their respective projects. Students will meet
with the instructor individually as needed. The students will turn in a total
of three projects.
Project
1: Analysis of new media art/design project
Project
2: Analysis of second new media art/design project
Project
3: Production of new media art/design project (by students)
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
Available at the PSU
Bookstore:
Williams,
Raymond. Keywords: A Vocabulary of
Culture and Society. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2015.
Barthes,
Roland. Mythologies. New York: Hill
and Wang, 2012.
Online Resources:
We
will be analyzing work by contemporary artists. Many of them will be found in
the following online resources (in no particular order):
http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/Artport
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/mediaartnet/
Recommended Book
You
are not required to buy the following books. They are included because they
will be useful in helping you engage with contemporary new media and digital
art:
Rush,
Michael. New Media in Art. New York:
Thames & Hudson, 1999.
Paul, Christiane. Digital Art. New York: Thames &
Hudson, 2015.
Requirements
Please note that final grades
are dependent upon consistent performance in all course requirements.
Grading
Total 100%
Grade Scale
Attendance
Semester Schedule
Lectures on history and
theory will shift according to the students¹ needs to gain practical knowledge
from week to week.
Week 1:
Monday, August 24, 2015
Introduction
to Class | Lecture on History of Art, Media, and Design
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Lecture
on History of Art, Media and Design, Part 2: Discussion of semiotics,
structuralism, post-structuralism in relation to art and design | Go over selected works of media art and
design | Begin online discussion on Angel.
Week 2:
Monday, August 31, 2015
Guidelines for Project 1 released, due on September 28
Release of First Weekly Assignment due on September 14
in preparation for Project 1
Read and be ready to discuss:
Raymond
Williams, ³Introduction² in Keywords,
pp. xxiii – xxxvii, ³Aesthetic,² pp. 1- 2, ³Art,² pp. 9 – 11 | Roland
Barthes¹s ³In the Ring,² pp. 3 – 14, ³The Writer on Vacation,² 22 –
25 |
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Go
over selected works of media art and design
| Lab day: post comments on Angel forums | Work on weekly assignment.
Week 3:
Monday, September 7, 2015
Labor Day, no class
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Read and be ready to discuss:
Raymond Williams,
³Bourgeois,² pp. 14 – 16, ³Capitalism,² pp. 17 – 19,
³Commercialism,² 34 – 35 | Roland Barthes, ³Criticism Blind and Dumb,²
pp. 29 – 31, ³Operation Astra,² pp. 41 – 43 |
Go
over selected works of media art and design.
Week 4:
Monday, September 14, 2015
First Weekly Assignment due | online critique of weekly assignment |
Go
over selected works of media art and design
| Lab day: post comments on Angel forums.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Read and be ready to
discuss:
Discussion for this session to take place online.
Questions on the material will be posted on a forum before class begins. You
can then take the class time to respond to the questions.
Raymond Williams,
³Communication,² pp. 34 - 35 ³Consumer,² pp. 42 – 43, ³Communism,² pp. 37
– 39, ³Socialist,² 223 – 228
Roland Barthes, ³Toys,² pp.
59 – 61, ³Wine and Milk,² pp. 79 – 82. ³Steak-Frites,² 83 –
85.
Week 5:
Monday, September 21, 2015
In
class discussion of material from September 16, 2015 | Go over selected works
of media art and design | Lab day: post
comments on Angel forums |
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Lab day | work on Analysis of
new media art/design project due on September 28.
Week 6:
Monday, September 28, 2015
Due: Project 1, Analysis of
new media art/design project 20%
Discussed
In class
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Guidelines for Project 2
released, due on October 26
Release of second weekly project on Data Analytics due
October 13
Read and be ready to
discuss:
Roland Barthes, ³Myth
Today,²pp. 215 – 274 | Introduction to Data Analytics and Data
Visualization | Go
over selected works of media art and design.
Week 7:
Monday, October 5, 2015
Lab
day work on Weekly Analytics Project | Post
comments on Angel forums
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Read and be ready to
discuss:
Raymond
Williams, ³Career,² pp. 19 – 20, ³Class,² pp. 26 – 34 | Roland
Barthes, ³The Tour de France as Epic,² pp. 122 - 133, ³Electoral Photogeny,²
pp. 181 - 183
Week 8:
Monday, October 11, 2015
Lab
day, work on Weekly Analytics Project | Post
comments on Angel forums | Go over selected works of media art and design.
Wednesday, October 13, 2015
Second Weekly Assignment on Data Analytics due | Online critique of weekly assignment |
Go
over selected works of media art and design.
Week 9:
Monday, October 19, 2015
Read and be ready to
discuss:
Raymond Williams, ³Culture,²
pp. 49 – 54, ³Elite,² 72 – 74, ³Ethnic,² pp. 78
Roland Barthes, ³The Rhetoric
of the Image,² (PDF) | Go over selected works of media art and design.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Lab day, work on Second new
media art/design project due on Monday, October 26 | Post on Angel forums
Week 10:
Monday, October 26, 2015
Due: Project 2, Analysis of
second new media art/design project,
25% |
Class Critique
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Third Weekly Assignment
released, due on Monday, November 16
Read and be ready to
discuss:
Discussion for this session to take place online.
Questions on the material will be posted on a forum before class begins. You
can then take the class time to respond to the questions.
Raymond
Williams, ³Expert,² pp. 86
³Exploitation,² pp. 86 – 87, ³Fiction,² pp. 90 – 92,
³Genius,² pp. 98 – 99, ³Labour,² pp. 127 – 130 | Giorgio Agamben,
³What is an Apparatus,² (PDF) | Go over selected works of media art and design.
Week 11:
Monday, November 2, 2015
Guidelines for
Project 3 released: Production of new media art/design project (by students) In class discussion of material
from October 28 | Lab day, work on Third Weekly Assignment due on
Monday, November 16 | Post on Angel forums.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Read and be ready to
discuss:
Raymond Williams, ³Hegemony,²
pp. 99 – 100, ³History,² pp. 101 – 102, ³Individual,² pp. 114
– 118, ³Industry,² 118 – 120 | Roland Barthes, ³The Third Meaning²
(PDF) | Go over selected works of
media art and design.
Week 12:
Monday, November 9, 2015
Lab day, work on Third Weekly
Assignment due on Monday, November 16 | Post on Angel forums.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Read and be ready to discuss:
Raymond Williams, ³Isms,² pp.125,
³Liberal,² pp. 130 – 132, ³Materialism,² pp. 146 – 149, ³Media,²
151 – 152 | Eduardo Navas, ³Electronic Literature and the Mashup of
Analog and Digital Code,² Dichtung
Digital: http://www.dichtung-digital.org/2010/navas/navas.htm
| Go over
selected works of media art and design.
Week 13:
Monday, November 16, 2015
Due: Third Weekly Assignment | Online critique of weekly assignment | Go over selected works of
media art and design.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Due: Proposal for Final project
Lab day work on Project 3 |
Post comments on Angel forums
Week 14:
Monday, November 23 2015
Thanksgiving
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Thanksgiving
Week 15:
Monday, November 30, 2015
Read and be ready to discuss:
Raymond Williams,
³Originality,² pp. 174 – 175, ³Popular,² pp. 179 – 181, ³Society,²
228 – 231 | Eduardo Navas, ³The New Aesthetic and The Framework of
Culture,² Media N Journal, http://median.s151960.gridserver.com/?page_id=93
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Lab day work on final project
Week 16:
Monday, December 7, 2015
Due: Project 3, Production
of new media art/design project (by students), 35% | In class Presentation, part 1
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Project 3 in class presentation, Part 2 | Make adjustments to final project and prepare for
final submission, due on December 16.
Week 17: December 16, 2015
Due: Final Project.