WINTER 2001

This information effective for Winter 2001.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

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Art

[ART-010J]

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10J. Technology Foundation

Instructor: E. G. Crichton

Note: This is a preliminary syllabus for a new art foundation course that is also a gen ed requirement.

Course Description

This course is an introduction to the ways technology and art intersect. Readings and lectures will address how artists have experimented with, used, and been influenced by technological innovations through the ages. In the studio, you will experiment with a range of technologies as art mediums, for example, optics, electricity, photography, mechanics, and digital. Assignments will include reading, participating in class discussions and presentations, writing, lab exercises, and the completion of all art projects.

Class Requirements / Basis for Evaluation

• The class will meet on Mondays for a lecture, and on Wednesdays and Fridays for studio lab sections.
• Evaluations will be based on studio projects, mid term and final exams, attendance, and class participation.
• All readings are from the Introduction to Technology Reader. Articles include:

  Walter Benjamin: Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
  Barbara Maria Stafford: Artful Science
  Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
  Laura Mulvey: Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
  David Antin: Video Culture: A Critical Investigation
  Regina Cornwall: The Computer and Art-Making
  Billy Kluver: The Engineer as Catalyst
  David MaCaulay: The Way Things Work
  Paul Miller: Technology for Art's Sake
  Jorges Luis Borges: The Lottery in Babylon
  David Rokeby: Transforming Mirrors: Subjectivity and Control in Interactive Media
  Robert Romanyshyn: Technology as Symptom and Dream

• Two movies are required: Blade Runner and Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin)
  

Tentative Schedule

Week 1
Lecture:	What is technology? Overview of hand made technologies historically
Reading:	Chapter 1 in reader
Labs:	Exercises in Optics; perspective and optical lenses
Week 2
Lecture:	The Ratio of the 5 Senses: technology as an extension of the body
Reading:	Chapter 2 in reader
Labs:	Using light; experiments with shadow, reflection, diffraction. Begin work on collaborative Camera Obscura.
Week 3
Lecture:	Magic in relation to art and technology
Reading:	Chapter 3 in reader
Labs:	Complete Camera Obscura
Week 4
Lecture:	The Triumph of Mechanical Vision
Reading:	Chapter 4 in reader
Labs:	Exercises with mechanical movement; begin animated object project.
Week 5
Lecture:	Frankenstein: The Creature Comes Alive
Reading:	Chapter 5 in reader
Labs:	Complete animated object; exercises with electrical circuits; begin ephemeral image piece.
Week 6
Lecture:	Analog Technology
Reading:	Chapter 6 in reader
Labs:	Finish ephemeral image piece; begin sound component.
Week 7
Lecture:	From Film to Television to Video
Reading:	Chapter 7 in reader
Labs:	Finish sound and connect to ephemeral image piece; demos of digital photography and image manipulation.
Week 8
Lecture:	Digital Simulation
Reading:	Chapter 8 in reader
Labs:	Exercises in programming using index cards; develop a virtual identity complete with I.D. card, history, and pattern of communication.
Week 9
Lecture:	The World Wide Web and interactivity
Reading:	Chapter 9 in reader
Labs:	Work on class Web page
Week 10
Lecture:	Review
Reading:	Chapter 10 in reader
Labs:	Complete class Web page