ARH207 Syllabus PDF

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Summary

Fall 2020 ARH 207 course syllabus...

Description

Introduction to Digital Media: History and Theory Instructor: Professor Zabet Patterson Graduate TA: Kaya Turan Undergraduate TA: Tania Guerrero Important Note: Every effort will be made to avoid changing the course schedule, but the possibility exists that unforeseen events will make syllabus changes necessary. It is your responsibility to check Slack for corrections or updates to the syllabus. Any changes will be clearly noted in course announcements or through Stony Brook email. Important Note: The material in this class may be difficult at times. The course includes artwork and materials that are violent, political, and racially or sexually charged. If you do not see yourself as able to engage with these artworks and materials critically, in a manner that avoids racism, sexism and incivility, you will need to drop this course. This classroom is a space for tolerance and mutual respect.

Course Description

An introduction to historical and theoretical issues in digital media. Following a discussion of basic concepts in studying digital media, the course focuses on examining the history of computer technologies, and their theoretical implications and cultural ramifications in the present. This course will examine digital media as an experimental cultural practice, focusing on the intersection of art and computational technology. We will consider the aesthetic, conceptual, social, and political ambitions of contemporary digital art by attending to both the history of new media in previous aesthetic forms, and to a history of computerization that has fundamentally altered our contemporary cultural landscape. Class Meetings Class will be asynchronous, and discussion based. The primary platform that we will be using is Slack. (www.slack.com) It works on a variety of platforms, from phones to laptops, to tablets and computers, and is reasonably lightweight. You can install Slack, or access it via the web. I find the installed version easier to use. It readily synchs across accounts. Please access Slack on Monday, August 24, and sign on to the 207Fall2020 Slack. I have sent out invites to your SBU email accounts; you can also add yourself using your stonybrook.edu email address and this link. (https://join.slack.com/t/arh207fall2020/shared_invite/zt-gl29yprb-xU1FjVt9Fruqpa~TEl5Kzw) You must do this using a Stony Brook email address. If you aren’t able to add yourself by 4PM on Tuesday, August 25, please email me, or the TA, and I will help you. After you join Slack, please join all the available channels. (https://slack.com/help/articles/205239967-Join-a-channel)

Office hours: I will be online on Slack on Mondays from 3 to 4; you can direct message me, or post in #askprofessorpatterson. Please dm me if you want to schedule a zoom appointment. Please check #general each time you log on to slack for announcements. #random is for memes, cat and goat pictures, and anything else you want to post. Each week, we will be working in a new channel. There will be readings (both required and supplementary), and a list of artworks to view. There will also be short videos or audio files as well. The first week we will be introducing ourselves, and getting used to the platform. Please post a short introduction about yourself in the #introductions channel. In the first few weeks of the class, you will be forming small groups of 4 or 5 people. You will work in these groups throughout the semester. You can pick your own group; just direct message Kaya Turan (from one account only) the names of the people in your group by Wednesday September 2. (You can contact people via dm on Slack.) Otherwise, you will be assigned to a group. There will be group assignments during the semester, and a formal class presentation. Each group will be assigned a topic for the class presentations. The assignments will be made in the #classpresentations channel.

Weekly Assignments: You are responsible for posting a short 250-400 word post to each week’s Slack channel. This channel will be tagged to the week; #02earlycomputing is the channel for week 2. This can summarize the reading, ask questions about the reading, describe one of the artworks, ask questions about one of the artworks, or draw connections between different readings, or one or more artworks. You can also take one of your classmates responses as a jumping off point. Please do this by 11:30 PM Wednesday of each week. Final Options: We will not be having exams. There are three options for the final: you can make a project, write a short 5 page paper, or make a portfolio of your Slack responses, collected together and submitted as a single file. Course Communication There are three ways to get in touch with me. If your question has larger relevance to the course, or to students generally, post in #askprofessorpatterson, or #asktheta. If it is specific or confidential, please either direct message me on Slack, or email [email protected] Course Policies Your final grade will be based on your slack responses, presentation and final. Class participation means more than simply speaking in class – it means preparing for class by carefully reading the assigned material, taking careful notes on the films and artworks we view, and asking thoughtful questions about the work we are discussing. Additionally, it means responding to the observations of your colleagues, in a serious, considered, yet open and creative manner which helps to forward a collective discussion.

Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be personally accountable for all submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own is always wrong. Any suspected instance of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Academic Judiciary. For more comprehensive information on academic integrity, including categories of academic dishonesty, please refer to the academic judiciary website at http://www.stonybrook.edu/uaa/academicjudiciary/ If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact Disability Support Services,128 ECC Building (631) 632-6748. They will determine with you what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation is confidential.

Readings All readings will be available online or on Slack. Grading Breakdown Weekly Slack reading response: 40% Group Assignments: 20% Final project/ Paper/ Portfolio: 20% In-class presentations 20%

Final Project You have the option of planning and executing a practical work or a work of art in some form of digital media. This option will require you to email the TA a short prospectus (500 words) of what you intend to accomplish practically, and how your project will relate to the ideas and works we are discussing in class. Additionally, you should create a timetable for the completion of the work. I must approve this prospectus before November 1 if you are to receive credit for the work. After the project is completed, but before it is submitted, you must also write a 300 word review of the work, describing what form the final project took, how it compared with your initial intentions, what you see as its strengths and weaknesses, and how it relates to some of the readings we have read, and works we have viewed, in class. On the final day of class, turn in the approved prospectus, the review, and the final media work to me along with any special instructions necessary for viewing. If you do not wish to complete a final project, you may submit an edited portfolio of your Slack responses, including responses to the Class Presentations. For the Class Presentation days, please write a response/ analysis to one of the presentations. This cannot be your group’s presentation. Presentation The course requires one group presentation, on an artwork or essay. A list of potential works will be provided. The presentation must be accompanied by a 3 page description of the topic, which

will include an 3-5 item annotated bibliography on the subject. Scholarly sources are preferred; however some contemporary works will require web citations from sources such as hyperallergic or rhizome. Course Schedule: Week 1: What is Digital Media? Assignments: • Access Slack • Join all available channels • #introductions channel: read the messages from Professor Patterson there, post a short introduction of yourself to the #introductions channel • ask any questions about the syllabus in the #askprofessorpatterson channel Viewing: Short Intro video by Professor Patterson in #01whatisdigitalmedia (will be uploaded August 25) Web 2.0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE Prediction of the Home Computer (1960s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFWLkthDvuc Apple 1984 commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zfqw8nhUwA Nineteen-eighty-fortnite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euiSHuaw6Q4 Two lizards, Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani https://www.artforum.com/video/orian-barki-and-meriem-bennani-2-lizards-episode-1-202082483 Optional viewing: @uffizigalleries on tiktok https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJk1eDaT/ https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJk1MqjW/ https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJk1dovo/

Week 2: Early Computing Reading: • Vannevar Bush, “As We May Think” in Nick Montfort and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, ed. The New Media Reader (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003) Viewing:

A visualization of the Memex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c539cK58ees Assignments: First weekly slack post & responses in #02early computing

Week 3: Art, Technology and Early Computing (1950s) lecture: cybernetics, 1950s computing and fire control devices Reading: • Norbert Weiner, “Men, Machines and the World About” in Nick Montfort and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, ed. The New Media Reader (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003) • Zabet Patterson, From the Gun Controller to the Peace Mandala, in Grey Room In-class viewing: Lapis, James Whitney; Permutations, John Whitney Week 4: Art, Technology and Early Computing (1960s) lecture: 1960s computing, EAT reading: • “Four Selections by Experiments in Art and Technology” (211-226) in Nick Montfort and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, ed. The New Media Reader (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003) • “Computer Lib/ Dream Machines,” Ted Nelson (154-167) in Nick Montfort and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, ed. The New Media Reader (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003) • John Beck, Technocrats of the Imagination (excerpts) In-class viewing: Poem Field series, Stan Vanderbeek and Kenneth Knowlton; computer processed pictures by Knowlton and Harmon; Variations 5, performance by John Cage, Stan VanDerBeek, Nam June Paik, Merce Cunningham; Random Access, Nam June Paik Group Assignment: Formal Analysis Week 5: Art, Technology and Early Computing (1970s) lecture: the era of the mainframe, 1970s computing, Software Show, Utopia/ Dystopia reading: • Edward A. Shanken, "The House That Jack Built: Jack Burnham's Concept of Software as a Metaphor for Art", Leonardo Electronic Almanac 6:10 (Nov 1998); repr. in Reframing Consciousness: Art, Mind and Technology, ed. Roy Ascott, Exeter, UK: Intellect Books, 1999. Group Assignment: Close reading Week 6: network and net. art (1990s)/ project preparation Lecture: network protocols • •

Bruce Sterling, “A Short History of the Internet” (http://w3.aces.uiuc.edu/ AIM/scale/nethistory.html) 1-6 Rachel Greene, “Web Work: A History Of Internet Art” Artforum International Vol 38, May 2000, 161-167, 190

In-class viewing: heath bunting, olia lialina, vuk cosik , Mendehlson, Ben. Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors, 2011.

Week 7: Work on Group Project Week 8: After Net 2.0 Aesthetics lecture: new media after 2.0 reading: • Lev Manovich, “On Totalitarian Interactivity (http://www.manovich.net/TEXT/ totalitarian.html) 1-2 • Conner, Michael. “What’s Post-Internet Got to Do with Net.Art?” (https://rhizome.org/editorial/2013/nov/01/postinternet/) In class viewing: Cory Arcangel, Ryan Trecartin, Juliana Huxtable, Velvet Counter-Strike, Brody Condon, Red vs. Blue, “Shut up and Dance!” YHCHI, Richard Prince, Week 9: Presentations: Group sets A & B Week 10: Presentations: Group sets C & D Week 11: Living Online Reading: TBA Viewing: Sam Levine, Online Shopping Center, Amalia Ulman, Excellences and Perfections, Mass Ornament Week 12: Desktop Cinema Reading: • John Muse, Cinema of the Desktop Viewing: Heecheon Kim, Every Smooth Thing Through Mesher (2018) Thomas Ruff, nudes lox22 (2000) Kevin B Lee, TRANSFORMERS: THE PREMAKE (2014) Group assignment: film analysis

Week 13: Fast and Furious; what does the art/world look like now?

Viewing: 2020: Two Lizards, Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani https://www.artforum.com/video/orian-barki-and-meriem-bennani-2-lizards-episode-12020-82483 https://www.artforum.com/video/orian-barki-and-meriem-bennani-s-series-from-selfisolation-82676 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/arts/design/lizards-instagram-coronavirusstars.html

Reading: https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/k7evpv/meriem-bennani-and-orian-barki-2-lizardsinstagram-videos-are-a-candid-reflection-of-our-new-reality https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/apr/20/art-world-coronavirus-pandemiconline-artists-galleries

THANKSGIVING BREAK November 23-27 Week 14: Presentations: final projects Portfolio, paper or project due...