2005 W


Instructor
Lecture
Office


TA





Course Textbook
Resources

Art Studio 22 Digital Media Arts Strategies

George Legrady (legrady [@] arts.ucsb.edu)
HSSB-1173, Tuesdays 5:00-6:50 pm
room 2222 Art Studio, tel 893.2026


Rama Hoetzlein
(rch [@] umail.ucsb.edu)
TA Lab Section, Multipurpose Lab, Kerr Hall, Wednesday, 9:00-11:50

Student Projects
Grading & Course Requirements

Digital Art, Weblinks, Christiane Paul
Legrady Mixed Resources

Bibliography/ References
UCSB Digital Media faculty



Description Digital Media Arts Strategies is the introductory course to the digital area of the Art Studio program. The course promotes an approach that explores how information and digital technologies are reshaping cultural communication. Its focus is the investigation of digital technology as a medium rather than as a tool.

The course will introduce topics specific to digital technologies and interactive media. We will look at how to organize data, create meaning through organization, and position the projects in the communal, public space of the internet. We will also look at how to create meaning through the production of signs (semiotics), narrative, metaphor, interface design and interactivity. A number of brief projects will be given in conjunction with specific technical applications. They may include producing an index and archive, listing & classification, the autobiographical index, Chance and noise, Nature/culture, the Icon/sign, Mapping, information systems, cultural framework analysis.


What is Digital Media Arts? | History


W1 Jan 4 Course Overview & Resources

Course


Inventory


 

Art making with data and information: Collecting, Classifying (systems of classification, Associative thinking) Inventory, etc.

Daniel Spoerri: An Anecdoted Topography of Chance  [6]  [203]

Lab Mac environment, FTP, html and navigation basics, site definition
Exercise index.html, Document Project Planning, Documentation

W2 Jan 11 Classifying, Transforming Event to Data

Lecture



Visualization


Visual Organization & Space

 

Defining the sequence from event, to data collection, to data analysis & indexing, to developing an organization system, to presenting the data in a new configuration.

Methods of Classification | Visual Thesaurus | Information Mapping | Artport

Joachim Schmid | Komar & Melamid | Culture Map | They Rule | Face Value | Burson |
Baldessari |

Lewis/Tsurumaki/Lewis | Conversation Map |


Lab Photoshop basics, Visually Spacing Information with Tables
Project I Document project: An archive of information: Plan, collect info, assemble

W3 Jan 18 The Digital Image: Bitmap, Pixels & Image Processing | Designing Screen Space

analog /digital


Digitization Process
(Image Processing)



Conceptual Strategies

  The A-to-D photographic dichotomy: Walter Benjamin and the loss of the original
(The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction)

Bits and bytes: (Demo) Sampling, cartesian grids, numerical form
Pixels, DPI, etc., image depth, bit settings, channels, alpha channel, layers; contrast, tonal balance with histograms; manipulation of image sections for image correction, random noise. Filters: blur, sharpen, flip, rotate, scale, colorize, etc.

Bruce Mau's Manifesto


Lab More photoshop basics, navigation strategies, tables and layers
Exercise Scanning and processing images

W4 Jan 25 Data and Information Space/ Interaction Design

Lecture

Information Architecture



Design Terms






Typography

 

Design and Narrative flow

 

Visual Design: screen space in relation to interaction.

Organizing information through an organizational scheme: structure/layers of info/files/folders, etc. Tutorial | Glossary | Information Architecture


Semantics: the cultural meaning of the text
Syntax: The structure by which it is organized
Pragmatics: How it is received by the reader
Effect: The objective message
Affect: The associated subjective emotions


Typography in 2D space | Posters | Typography: macro+micro aesthetics, Willi Kunz
Discussion about (Screen) Space


The Book after the Book, Giselle Beigulman

Adaweb Projects | Bits & Spaces | MLab |


Lab Production
Project I Database Archive

W5 Feb 1 Sign, Icon, Index, Isotype (Semiotics: the Study of Signs)

     
Lecture
Semiotics
Isotypes



Reading

 

Signs: culture and syntax create meaning
Student Pictograms | Corporate Logos
flatnessisgod | gridman/boids | Eric Paulos | Designers Republic | DR Icons
fleetingness of bits | John Simon jr


designing a sign for 10000 years in the future

Lab Production
Project MidTerm
  Complete

W6 Feb 8 Conference Links & Design

Barcelona
Cornerhouse, Manchester
Hull Time Based Arts

Design WebLinks

 

MetaNarratives | Li Zhensheng | del.icio.us | flickr |
Cornerhouse | pocketsfullofmemories.com | C.Sandison |
Hackitectura noborder | E.Wohlgemuth [body scan][2] | S.Biggs [babel]| P.Bentley |


Hunch of Venison | no org | zkm | Center for Land Use | ucdarnet |
Christian Moeller | xinwei | Ned Kahn | Gary Thomas |
Mollerup DesignLab | Dirk Hesse |

IHC Event |

What is a metaphor?

Metaphors We Live By Lakoff/Johnson


Lab Project Completion
Project I

Document project Presentation


W7 Feb 15 Networks / Information Map

Lecture





Reference



Metadata
 

What is a network? | DARPA | Computer History | Highway system
Description of the Information Map final project
What to map: Take an event and map it in a 2D visual space
Visualization Strategies: Nodes/links, map according to properties, time, hierarchy, etc.


Warren Sack's Conversation Maps | Social Information Spaces
David Link | Knowbotic Research | Krcf | DEAF 03
Information Cartography: Visualizing Non-Spatial Data

Manovich |
Metadata for the Masses


Lab Student work production
Project III

IHC Conference Website


W8 Feb 22 Review Student Conference Design Proposals

Lecture Student designs Review


Lab
  Design and production
Project III IHC Conference Website

W9 Mar 1 Review of Conference Templates

Lecture




Examples
  Agnes Denes, Conceptual Artist, Abrams Lecture [1][2][3]
Interactive Multi-linear Cinematic Narrative Workshop
, Jean-Louis Boissier [ciren]


What is an algorithm? (Graham Budgett research)



Lab Finalize pages
Project III IHC Conference Website

W10 Mar 8 Information Map Student Presentations

 
Project III
  Planning Team & Production


Grading

 



Criteria

  Your projects will be evaluated on good concepts, creativity and "play of the imagination". This will require regular web research on your part, becoming familiar with the state of the digital media arts discipline. Use your cultural knowledge but go beyond your current everyday situation. Produce projects that address the larger world, that can speak to a diversified audience, and also to yourself five, ten years from now.


Attendance and participation in class
Completion of all assignments and readings
Attend guest digital media guest lectures
DO website research and reports
Mid-term or research paper posted on your site
Projects are graded on Innovative content, good design and technical skills.

The course is work intensive. You are required to acquire conceptualizing and technical skills, do web research followed by weekly reports, write a mid-term research paper , develop good design and conceptual skills, attend the lectures, the sections and the Tuesday evening Digital Media lectures. As your projects will go online, they also must function properly on the internet.


Bibliography
  An Anecdoted Topography of Chance, Daniel Spoerri
Typography: Macro+Micro Aesthetics,
Willi Kunz
Interactive Art Online Reference,
Steve Wilson
Design Links
, Andreas Schlegel
On contemporary narrative hypertext art
, Prof Rita Raley
Online HTML Guide
Processing

More
  From Wagner to Virtual Reality, Randall Packer
A Story of NetArt, Natalie Boochkin
Constructivism, George Rickey
Cyber_Reader, Neil Spiller
The New Media Reader, Fruin, Montfort
Me++, William J. Mithcell

Langlois Foundation | ZKM | DEAF | Siggraph


UCSB Digital Media faculty
  Lisa Jevbratt, networks, data, internet
George Legrady, interactive installations
Marcos Novak, virtual architecture
marko Peljhan, makrolab, telecommunications
Graham Budgett