Syllabus
New Media Interdisciplinary Concentration Synthesis
This course will encourage each student to develop an independent final project in new media, to write about it and create a prototype suitable for a portfolio presentation. We will use the collective interests of the class as a point of departure for the investigation of work by artists and media makers that will inform and enlarge out understanding of the possibilities for creative expression with media tools. Various art works will be presented and a selection of readings will be given out focusing on different aspects of computer arts: networks, installations, data-bases, computer space, and all points between object and signal. Class discussion will center on response, critique and questioning of the work presented. The same critical understanding will be applied to the analysis of each student’s work as it develops.
Some works by artists:
George Legrady –- An Annotated Archive of the Cold War, Pockets
Full of Memories
Rosemary Comealla –- various projects from the Labyrinth Project,
an exploration of new screen media
Zoe Beloff - Beyond
Perry Hoberman
Ken Feingold
Dennis Del Favero - Pentimento
Agnes Hegedues –- Their Things Spoken
Ian Howard - SweetStalking
Susan Norrie - Defile
Jeffrey Shaw –- Place - Urbanity
Natalie Jeremjenko –- Bureau of Inverse Statistics
The Id/enties –- Portraits in the 20th Century show at the
Kitchen in 2002
Speakers:
We will have guest speakers as available. Proposed speakers are:
Camille Utterback
Ken Feingold
On-line Access
All students are expected to have frequent, dependable access to the internet, with a printer attached. In addition, it is essential that you have an active Temple e-mail account, for email with me and with each other, and for access to the class site. If you have any difficulties with either Internet access with printer or your e-mail account, please see me after the first class.
Instructor Contact
The best way to reach me is by email. (h.iverson@temple.edu) I generally check my email several times a day and therefore will respond quickly. If you want to make an appointment to meet, please use email to do so. An appointment will not be confirmed until you have emailed me and receive a reply.
Readings
Many of the readings for this course will be handed out in class.
Class Participation
The student writing assignments for this course are relatively light. In-class presentations and overall student participation are an essential part of the process of understanding and integrating the material. Every effort will be made to help prepare students for formal presentations and to facilitate informal participation. Therefore participation is an important factor in assessing the student's grade.
Attendance and Lateness Policy
Attendance Policy: Three or more absences will affect your grade. Five absences will result in a failing grade for the course. If you are going to be absent, please inform me by email at least 24 hours in advance. ABOVE ALL, KEEP ME INFORMED BY EMAIL. I you are absent, it is YOUR responsibility to contact another student for the class notes from that day, and to make up any work in a timely fashion.
Lateness Policy: 3 latenesses of up to 10 minutes will be counted as an absence. Being more than 10 minutes late will be counted as an absence. If you are late, it is your responsibility to let me know when you come into class that you are here.
Grading
Student Research and participation 40%
Writing assignments, Oral reports 20%
Final Project 40%
Some suggested topics:
Human Culture and Activity Understood as a “System”:
Media does not exist independently of the cultural frameworks that envelop them. Media specificity is, in the end, cultural specificity
Sensory Experience as “- Information”
New Models of the Mind
Augmenting the Collective Mind:
History of the mobile media Using media archeology as a way of excavating lost traces of “Mobile media” including their ur-form
Mobile media:
Portable
Wearable
Vehichle-mounted
Mobile media: the things you carry in your pockets
symbolic meanings for us and others
portable travel altars, talismans, hand-screens, fans (dioramic hand-screens), everyday objects with hidden pictures
Stanhope – peeping devices
How we relate to the social space around us:
Novelty products: the Ipod
Wireless technology
Digital Photography, Visualization and Simulation; Photoshop; Surveillance
Digital Cinema, Interactive Narrative
Games
Location
Survey of on-line projects
