Teri Rueb, DM7012, Tue 9:40 AM-12:50PM, Mason 413
Course Webpage
Admin
Assessment
bring 3 questions in on readings each week
- October 12: Bio Statement 5%
- October 18: 1st paper %10
- October 25: Midterm critique 20%
- November 15: 2nd paper 10%
- December 6: Arist Statement 10% (see these)
- December 6: Compendium of references, URLs, blog, etc. 5%
- December 13-16: Final critique 30%
- 10% Attendance
Major theme is Notion of Audience
Assignments
Presentations
Writing
Readings
Session 8, November 8
reading: DmJonathanCrary
Session 5, October 12
Discussions in class
- Narcissus loves himself
- Echo can only repeat what Narcissus says
Subjectivity
externally defined and displaced into the mechanism of the artwork numbness replaces that which we give up
- numbness / subjectivity?
- subject / object / culture
- tools, culture, consciousness
Programming languages are english, how do different cultures approach these languages?
- see Cree programming language in DmIndigenousCultures
- Leo Findeisen in DmArsElectronica : code language communities go beyond trad language communities (they share perl, not hindi, python not portugese)
- Florian Cramer executable code poetry
Text rain/ Rotterdam Shadows opening up new social contacts
Body movies: playing with other people's shadows
Control
you want to limit the openness of the control so that the person can still see their image, but not create a closed system
Session 4, October 11
- Reading assignment and discussion notes: DmMarshallMcluhan
Session 3, October 4
- Reading assignment: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin
Reading and Discussion Notes
Recommended Reading
- Orality and Literacy- Walter Ong
- The technologizing of the Word - Walter Ong
- Precession of Simulacra - Jean Baudrillard
Links
- autopoiesis
- NAMAC National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
- Yellow arrow
- Essentialism
- Wooden Mirror at W Hotel
- Char Davies / Osmose
- Esther Polak / Milk
Session 2, 27 September
first year students present their stuff
Chris Mendoza
- reactive video, flowing pixels around the moving human form
- worked for Klip, who map projections to the surface on which they project
Ebe Matey Odonkor
- graphic design
- cross cultural explanations of symbols (He showed Nigerian Symbols, explained to Westerners, and then created a new symbol that explained the Nigerian symbol to the Westerner)
- http://www.ellendriscoll.net/
Rachelle Beadoin
- digital as a tool
- digital print on clear film (2' x3')
- photos of her own body, often ambiguous and unconfortable
- wants to work in some interactivity
Bokyung Jun
- Demythologization of Western Museum
- interaction with audience through leveling of power mechanism as well as showing what is accepted idea
- spectacle of the spectators
- museums maintain western-centered narratives
- framed trash boxes which hold famous artists' work run through a shredder
- crazy struff happerning in a church
Leon Belt
- animation about the concept of basketball as the only way to get out
Sarah
- abstracted paintings from people's stories?
- peeling away the meaning...
John Ewing
- symphony of a city: a day in the life of boston from a number of people's perspectives, projected onto Boston city hall
Emily Boyd
- what is art video / "scary world"
Kim Geon Dong
- character design for games, motion graphics/ flash
- graphic design
- really sharp stuff
Carmen
- video, theatre-based works, dancing and sound reactive environments
Lisa Lee
- graphic design, visual communications
- childrens book + cd-rom
Elliot Brennan
- video, looking at sound
- swingset as instrument
- furniture unbreaks
Peter Segerstrom
- "narrative arcs"
John Baca
- video, sculpture
Class 1, 20 September
Links
Discussion: Question of Audience
- Earlier interactive media artists used interactive media as a way to avoid the gallery scene
- more recently, interactive art has been mainstreamed into galleries
- how is the observer addressed, approached (observer vs. viewer)
- venues (hierarchy?):
- galleries/ museums
- festivals: ars, isea, deaf, viper, siggraph, emaf, zkm, banff
- "new media" in Gugg, MOMA picking "blue chips" like Laurie Anderson, Bill Viola
- what do you hope to achieve with a position in galleries?
- cross boundaries: art & industry, working across different audiences
Ask yourself
What drew you here, to Interactive Arts?
Why these media?
I have always wanted to be an Artist. Wanted to be, tried to be, sort of been, but never fully dared to be. I've always held "Artists" in the highest regard. Up there with people who know how to survive in the woods and build their own homes, who live in nature and work in nature. I liked drawing before I respected Artists, and have moved towards these media, frankly, because they are easier for me that physical arts. Also, I like that I can move around with it, carry my life in a little powerbook, or just leave it on the internet, and "take" it all over the world.
Who is the audience in your mind?
I've never thought about the audience beyond wanting my stuff to make sense for the hoi-poloi while allowing others to get more out of it if they like. I've aquired a disdain for work that is too introspective, too incestuous, that is developed to be understood by interactive artists alone.
That said, our media is so new it is important to examine it as a medium, see how it interplays with others, so I guess what I am saying is that its got to have allure. It can be intensely conceptual, but if it doesn't keep people interested, if it doesn't amuse or shock, it doesn't succeed. Remember, "In Theory, Communism Works."
Assignment
- submit Bio statement by next Tuesday
- how do you phrase yourself?
- what is central to your current practice?
- "laundry list" of exhibits, awards etc.
Recommended Reading
- Cyborg Manifesto
- "Aboroginal Narratives in Cyberspace," by Anne Moser