Intermediate Digital Arts Production - DMS 419
Department of Media Study, SUNY at Buffalo
FALL 2008
Class: M, W 3:00-4:50
Instructor: Al Larsen
Office Hour: M 2:00-3:00 (CFA 288)
alarsen * at * buffalo * dot * edu
DAY ONE (M, 9/25)
What does it mean to make work that is "of and for" the online environment?
(Chris Coy b 1980)
(Matt Harding)
Icy Spicy Leoncie - Invisble Girl
(Icy Spicy Leoncie)
excerpts from New York Times article, July 8, 2008
In many ways ?Dancing? is an almost perfect piece of Internet art: it?s short, pleasingly weird and so minimal in its content that it?s open to a multitude of interpretations. It could be a little commercial for one-world feel-goodism. It could be an allegory of American foreign policy: a bumptious foreigner turning up all over the world and answering just to his own inner music. Or it could be about nothing at all ? just a guy dancing.
The other remarkable thing about the ?Dancing? phenomenon is that it is, to a very considerable extent, a creation of the Internet. It doesn?t just live, so to speak, on the Web; it was the Web that, more or less accidentally, brought it into being. The current video is actually the third iteration of a project that began in 2003, when a friend, using a Canon pocket camera with the capacity to record brief videos (when it was still something of a novelty), shot Mr. Harding doing his dance in Hanoi.
Mr. Harding is aware that fame on the Internet is fleeting, and needs novelty for life support. On the one hand, data is never lost ? it?s floating out there in cyberspace forever ? but, on the other, our memories (and those of our computers) are limited and subject to constant upgrades. A video is downloaded, sent to a friend or two and then quickly forgotten. Who anymore goes back to look at that animated dancing baby that was all the rage in the ?90s? So Mr. Harding isn?t certain yet whether he wants to make a sequel.
(Ben Coonley b 1976, lives and works in Providence, RI)
For Wednesday - read the wikipedia entry for "internet art"
What does it mean to make work that is "of and for" the online environment?
1. MINING THE MATERIAL OF THE WEB
nesting dollzzz | mystical 3-way call | midi-skirt | matrix reloaded reloaded(Chris Coy b 1980)
2. "ONLINE PHENOMENA" AND WEB SURFING AS AN AESTHETIC
Where the Hell is Matt (2008)(Matt Harding)
Icy Spicy Leoncie - Invisble Girl
(Icy Spicy Leoncie)
excerpts from New York Times article, July 8, 2008
In many ways ?Dancing? is an almost perfect piece of Internet art: it?s short, pleasingly weird and so minimal in its content that it?s open to a multitude of interpretations. It could be a little commercial for one-world feel-goodism. It could be an allegory of American foreign policy: a bumptious foreigner turning up all over the world and answering just to his own inner music. Or it could be about nothing at all ? just a guy dancing.
The other remarkable thing about the ?Dancing? phenomenon is that it is, to a very considerable extent, a creation of the Internet. It doesn?t just live, so to speak, on the Web; it was the Web that, more or less accidentally, brought it into being. The current video is actually the third iteration of a project that began in 2003, when a friend, using a Canon pocket camera with the capacity to record brief videos (when it was still something of a novelty), shot Mr. Harding doing his dance in Hanoi.
Mr. Harding is aware that fame on the Internet is fleeting, and needs novelty for life support. On the one hand, data is never lost ? it?s floating out there in cyberspace forever ? but, on the other, our memories (and those of our computers) are limited and subject to constant upgrades. A video is downloaded, sent to a friend or two and then quickly forgotten. Who anymore goes back to look at that animated dancing baby that was all the rage in the ?90s? So Mr. Harding isn?t certain yet whether he wants to make a sequel.
3. COMMENTING FROM WITHIN
A Valentine for Perfect Strangers(Ben Coonley b 1976, lives and works in Providence, RI)
For Wednesday - read the wikipedia entry for "internet art"
DAY TWO (W, 9/27)
1. Survey
Cartoon History McLuhan powerpoint 2. net.art
net art/internet art vs net.art
internet art - wikipedia
net.art art - wikipedia
net.art 1994
Vuk Cosik (b. 1966 serbia)
Instant ASCII Camera
Jodi.org
Alexei Shulgin (b. 1963, Moscow)
DESKTOP IS The First International Online Desktop Exhibition (October 20 1997 - April 20 1998)
Heath Bunting (UK)
Artist's Signature ASCII art (1998)
Kings Cross Phone-In/"Cybercafe" (1994)
Olia Lialina (b. 1971, Moscow) My Boyfriend came Back from the War (1996)
- text file containing instructions to the browser
- save using the extension .html
- "view source" to see the HTML behind different web pages
- header
- format text
- open tag, close tag
- nesting tags
- links
- images
- remotely hosted images, flash clips, etc
- comments
- frames
FOR NEXT WEDNESDAY: read UB HTML Reference
1. Survey
-
Existing Skills and Competencies
- Programming Languages
- Image Editing - Photoshop or Other
- Database Design/SQL
- Still Cameras
- Video Cameras
- Digital Audio Editing
- Video Editing - Final Cut or Other
- Adobe After Effects
- Flash
- HTML/Dreamweaver, etc
-
General Direction
- TV/Movie Industry
- Game Industry
- Gallery/Art Fair
- Activism
- Technology
- Documentary
- Freelance/Your Own Business
- Independent Film & Video
-
Interest in Platforms, Formats, Strategies
- Appropriation as a Strategy
- Games, Game Aesthetics
- Installation - Video, Sound
- Design for Print Media
- Performance
- Virtual Reality
- Realime Manipulation of Video or Audio
- Event - Flash Mob/Other Realspace Event
- Intervention Into Social Networking Sites
- Art For Networks
- Website, Web-Based Work
- Interactivity for the Screen
- Motion on the Screen
Cartoon History McLuhan powerpoint 2. net.art
net art
- intro to net art and examplesnet art/internet art vs net.art
internet art - wikipedia
net.art art - wikipedia
net.art 1994
Vuk Cosik (b. 1966 serbia)
Instant ASCII Camera
Jodi.org
Alexei Shulgin (b. 1963, Moscow)
DESKTOP IS The First International Online Desktop Exhibition (October 20 1997 - April 20 1998)
Heath Bunting (UK)
Artist's Signature ASCII art (1998)
Kings Cross Phone-In/"Cybercafe" (1994)
Olia Lialina (b. 1971, Moscow) My Boyfriend came Back from the War (1996)
3. HTML basics
hand-coding using Smultron, a free, open-source text editor- text file containing instructions to the browser
- save using the extension .html
- "view source" to see the HTML behind different web pages
- header
- format text
- open tag, close tag
- nesting tags
- links
- images
- remotely hosted images, flash clips, etc
- comments
- frames
FOR NEXT WEDNESDAY: read UB HTML Reference
DAY THREE (W, 9/3)
1. EQUIPMENT ROOM DVD
2. INTERNET ART EXAMPLES
3. FRAMES, PRACTICE, EMBEDDING, ETC
4. ASSIGNMENT
5. LAB TIME
Hypertext Narrative
"With its webs of linked text segments and networks of alternate paths, hypertext favours a plurality of discourses and blurs the boundaries between reader and writer. The author creates a map of the text with alternate paths and various options; readers assemble the story by choosing their routes through it (or even re-writing the text) and thus create an individual version of it. Since the reading process is nonsequential, the author can only to a certain extent predict which path readers will follow (or if they will follow at all). The author and reader of hypertext and hypermedia become collaborators in the mapping and remapping of textual, visual, and aural components." (Christiane Paul - Digital Art pg 189)
Olia Lialina - My Boyfriend Came Back from the War (1996)
Digital Art pg 190 - 192... masaki Fujihata's Beyond pages Camille Utterback "text Rain"
David Blair - Waxweb
Experimental narrative using, hyperlinks, text, video clips, "...it is an 85 minute movie in 80,000 pieces."
"the first online feature film" - 1993
Mark Amerika - Grammatron (1997) ...hypertext narrative (choose low bandwidth version)
More playing with the form of hyperlinking
Heath Bunting - "Own, Be Owned or Remain Invisible"
His bio with each word linked to a domain name of the word.
Steve Dietz - analysis of Own, Be Owned or Remain Invisible
see also: Natalie Bookchin comment on the side: Build a site which uses outside links as an integral part of it's identity and construction. Other sites and outside links should be built into the very fabric of your site, conceptually and practically and should add to, expand or actually create the meanings attached to your site. In this project, you are emphasizing, rather than ignoring the large context (THE WEB!) in which your work is placed. --Natlie Bookchin, Computing in the Arts: Final Assignment
Fakes, Pranks, Parodies, etc. (mimicking in order to ridicule or criticize) Heath Bunting - fake Glaxo website asking employees to send in their pets for animal experimentation.
Mendi + Keith Obadike - blackness for sale (2001)
mendi+keith auctioned keith's blackness online at ebay.com. this project was part of mendi+keith's "black.net.art" actions. the auction was scheduled to last from aug 8-18 2001. after four days, eBay closed the auction due to the 'inappropriateness' of the item. after 12 bids, his blackness reached its peak at $152.50.
interview with Coco Fusco
restricted interactivity... Miranda July promotional site for her book
playing with convention of passwords... Miranda July website
playing with file consumer technology... Cory Arcangel http://www.beigerecords.com 2003, 2004... Iron maiden compression;
-------------------
lab: basic HTML snippets to cut and paste in class
examples page
W3Schools - HTML reference & Tutorials
Wikipedia - reading a query string
UB HTML reference
HTML reference card
Internet art
power, control and wealth in the "attention economy"
GOOGLE WILL EAT ITSELF
JODI.org???
Performances in online public space using Second Life.
Eva and Franco Mattes (a.k.a. 0100101110101101.ORG) reenactments... Renactments in Second Life of Marina Abramovic and Ulay's performance Imponderabilia (1977).
"Naked we stand opposite each other in the museum entrance. The public entering the museum has to turn sideways to move through the limited space between us. Everyone wanting to get past has to choose one of us."
Thriller in Second Life on the Canada/US Border Collective Practice Research Group
2. INTERNET ART EXAMPLES
3. FRAMES, PRACTICE, EMBEDDING, ETC
4. ASSIGNMENT
5. LAB TIME
Hypertext Narrative
"With its webs of linked text segments and networks of alternate paths, hypertext favours a plurality of discourses and blurs the boundaries between reader and writer. The author creates a map of the text with alternate paths and various options; readers assemble the story by choosing their routes through it (or even re-writing the text) and thus create an individual version of it. Since the reading process is nonsequential, the author can only to a certain extent predict which path readers will follow (or if they will follow at all). The author and reader of hypertext and hypermedia become collaborators in the mapping and remapping of textual, visual, and aural components." (Christiane Paul - Digital Art pg 189)
Olia Lialina - My Boyfriend Came Back from the War (1996)
Digital Art pg 190 - 192... masaki Fujihata's Beyond pages Camille Utterback "text Rain"
David Blair - Waxweb
Experimental narrative using, hyperlinks, text, video clips, "...it is an 85 minute movie in 80,000 pieces."
"the first online feature film" - 1993
Mark Amerika - Grammatron (1997) ...hypertext narrative (choose low bandwidth version)
More playing with the form of hyperlinking
Heath Bunting - "Own, Be Owned or Remain Invisible"
His bio with each word linked to a domain name of the word.
Steve Dietz - analysis of Own, Be Owned or Remain Invisible
see also: Natalie Bookchin comment on the side: Build a site which uses outside links as an integral part of it's identity and construction. Other sites and outside links should be built into the very fabric of your site, conceptually and practically and should add to, expand or actually create the meanings attached to your site. In this project, you are emphasizing, rather than ignoring the large context (THE WEB!) in which your work is placed. --Natlie Bookchin, Computing in the Arts: Final Assignment
Fakes, Pranks, Parodies, etc. (mimicking in order to ridicule or criticize) Heath Bunting - fake Glaxo website asking employees to send in their pets for animal experimentation.
Mendi + Keith Obadike - blackness for sale (2001)
mendi+keith auctioned keith's blackness online at ebay.com. this project was part of mendi+keith's "black.net.art" actions. the auction was scheduled to last from aug 8-18 2001. after four days, eBay closed the auction due to the 'inappropriateness' of the item. after 12 bids, his blackness reached its peak at $152.50.
interview with Coco Fusco
restricted interactivity... Miranda July promotional site for her book
playing with convention of passwords... Miranda July website
playing with file consumer technology... Cory Arcangel http://www.beigerecords.com 2003, 2004... Iron maiden compression;
-------------------
lab: basic HTML snippets to cut and paste in class
examples page
W3Schools - HTML reference & Tutorials
Wikipedia - reading a query string
UB HTML reference
HTML reference card
Internet art
power, control and wealth in the "attention economy"
GOOGLE WILL EAT ITSELF
JODI.org???
Performances in online public space using Second Life.
Eva and Franco Mattes (a.k.a. 0100101110101101.ORG) reenactments... Renactments in Second Life of Marina Abramovic and Ulay's performance Imponderabilia (1977).
"Naked we stand opposite each other in the museum entrance. The public entering the museum has to turn sideways to move through the limited space between us. Everyone wanting to get past has to choose one of us."
Thriller in Second Life on the Canada/US Border Collective Practice Research Group
DAY FOUR (M, 9/8)
Life Sharing (Eva and Franco Mattes) (2000)
Life Sharing is a real-time digital self-portrait. Started in the year 2000 and active uninterruptedly until 2003, Life Sharing is 0100101110101101.ORG's personal computer turned into a real time sharing system. Any visitor has free and unlimited access to all contents: texts, images, software, 01's private mail. One can get lost in this huge data maze. Based on Linux, Life Sharing is a brand new concept of net architecture turning a website into a sheer personal media for complete digital transparency. Permanent infotainment pioneering the peer to peer mass diffusion. Privacy is stupid.
- compare to file sharing
self-portrait? performance art?
Data nudism, abstract pornography, online voyeurism
wwwwwwwww.jodi.org (1995) (Jodi - Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans)
Life Sharing (Eva and Franco Mattes) (2000)
Life Sharing is a real-time digital self-portrait. Started in the year 2000 and active uninterruptedly until 2003, Life Sharing is 0100101110101101.ORG's personal computer turned into a real time sharing system. Any visitor has free and unlimited access to all contents: texts, images, software, 01's private mail. One can get lost in this huge data maze. Based on Linux, Life Sharing is a brand new concept of net architecture turning a website into a sheer personal media for complete digital transparency. Permanent infotainment pioneering the peer to peer mass diffusion. Privacy is stupid.
- compare to file sharing
self-portrait? performance art?
Data nudism, abstract pornography, online voyeurism
wwwwwwwww.jodi.org (1995) (Jodi - Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans)
DAY FIVE (W, 9/10)
discuss Lev Manovich The Language of New Media
introduction and chapter one
1975 - 1985 - 1995
"...semiotic codes, modes of address and audience reception aptterns." p7
oppositions (p16-17)
printing press 14th c.
photography 19th c.
(also telegraph, 19th c.)
"In contrast, the compute media revolution affects all stages of communciation, including acquisition, manipulation, storage, and distribution; it also affects all types of media..." (p 19)
1839 - daguerrotype
1833 babbage - the Analytyical Engine
1800 - Jacquard loom
technologies of mass societies:
totalitarianism / p.a. system / mass media
1890s moving pictures
Fred Ott Sneeze
film as medium... write data onto it, store it, retrieve it...
Konrad Zuse - functional computer 1941 - Z3
convergence... computational machines and represenational media...
"All existing media are translated into numerical data accessible for the computer[...] graphics, moving images [etc.] become computable [...] media become new media." p25
principles of new media:
discuss Lev Manovich The Language of New Media
introduction and chapter one
1975 - 1985 - 1995
"...semiotic codes, modes of address and audience reception aptterns." p7
oppositions (p16-17)
- representation/simulation
- representation/control
- representation/action
- representation/communication
- visual illusionism/simulation
- representation/information
printing press 14th c.
photography 19th c.
(also telegraph, 19th c.)
"In contrast, the compute media revolution affects all stages of communciation, including acquisition, manipulation, storage, and distribution; it also affects all types of media..." (p 19)
1839 - daguerrotype
1833 babbage - the Analytyical Engine
1800 - Jacquard loom
technologies of mass societies:
- disseminate the same images
- track information
totalitarianism / p.a. system / mass media
1890s moving pictures
Fred Ott Sneeze
film as medium... write data onto it, store it, retrieve it...
Konrad Zuse - functional computer 1941 - Z3
convergence... computational machines and represenational media...
"All existing media are translated into numerical data accessible for the computer[...] graphics, moving images [etc.] become computable [...] media become new media." p25
principles of new media:
DAY SIX (M, 9/15)
Turn in/discuss Assignment 1.
screening ch 9 of United 93.
Turn in/discuss Assignment 1.
screening ch 9 of United 93.
DAY SEVEN (W, 9/17)
Discuss: The Language of New Media Chapter 2.
"All around the world large prisons were constructed that could hold hundreds of prisoners - movie houses." p107
While the moviegoing experience is still popular, there are now plenty of opportunities for viewing moving images outside of the movie house... broadcast and cable tv, vcr/dvd players, internet distribution, gaming systems, mobile devices such as cell phones and iPods. As well, there are screens broadcasting CNN or Fox News in public spaces such as restaurants, hospitals, gyms, etc. So, if we accept Manovich's characterization of the movie house as a prison, do these developments in the conditions of distribution destroy the walls of the prison? Or do they represent another form of control?
Can you identify media productions which creatively engage with these expanded modes of distribution? What particular properties of the media do they effectively utilize?
Discuss: The Language of New Media Chapter 2.
"All around the world large prisons were constructed that could hold hundreds of prisoners - movie houses." p107
While the moviegoing experience is still popular, there are now plenty of opportunities for viewing moving images outside of the movie house... broadcast and cable tv, vcr/dvd players, internet distribution, gaming systems, mobile devices such as cell phones and iPods. As well, there are screens broadcasting CNN or Fox News in public spaces such as restaurants, hospitals, gyms, etc. So, if we accept Manovich's characterization of the movie house as a prison, do these developments in the conditions of distribution destroy the walls of the prison? Or do they represent another form of control?
Can you identify media productions which creatively engage with these expanded modes of distribution? What particular properties of the media do they effectively utilize?
DAY EIGHT (M, 9/22)
you tube Barack Roll (Compare to the large screen in the 1984 Macintosh ad we watched last class)
Discuss oral presentation topics
selections from Man With The Movie Camera, Potemkin
Properties of new media - moving image as database.
Waafa Balil
Flash - interactivity and video
Flash - importing video... examples
sample mov clips
flash templates
flash examples clicking to advance
you tube Barack Roll (Compare to the large screen in the 1984 Macintosh ad we watched last class)
Discuss oral presentation topics
selections from Man With The Movie Camera, Potemkin
Properties of new media - moving image as database.
Waafa Balil
Flash - interactivity and video
Flash - importing video... examples
sample mov clips
flash templates
flash examples clicking to advance
| Presenter | Date | Topic | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Don | ??? | ||
| Scott | Nov 5 | The Yes Men / tactical media | |
| Kambi | Nov 5 | The Yes Men / tactical media | |
| Dave | Nov 5 | Golan Levin | |
| Jim | Nov 12 | discussion of GPS and application to art projects | |
| Sun Jung | Nov 12 | discussion of RFID technology | with reference to Eduardo Kac's piece "Time Capsule" |
| Lonnie | Nov 12 | Open Source | background and introduction to Open Source philosophy and software |
| Kyle | Nov 19 | privacy/surveillance | tracking transcience - elahi |
| Liz | Nov 19 | data mining | issues in privacy/tracking of use of the internet |
| Gregory | Nov 19 | game hacking | Cory Arcangel |
| Harrison | Nov 19 | Bullet Time - special effect, with reference to Muybridge | |
| algorithmic art | algorithm-driven image creation - Flash and/ or Processing or other (with reference to the work of Joshua Davis) | ||
| intro to XML | discussion of "the semantic web" | ||
| page scrapes | the automated gathering and manipulation of information posted available on the web, usually using PHP or Perl. | ||
| Comparison and critique of user-agreements to various video upload site | |||
| Control of an application via text messaging | |||
| Alfredo Jaar | |||
| intro to PD | |||
| intro to SuperCollider | |||
| search engine optimization | |||
| No Ghost, Just a Shell (art project by Pierre Huyghe & Philippe Parreno) | |||
| Natalie Jeremijenko | Bureau of Inverse Technology | ||
| Stelarc |
telepresence -
Waafa Bilal
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=mewafaa
Waafa Bilal
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=mewafaa
Update on Hooliganship event
Sign up for presentation topics/dates
Turn in Project 2 (moving image interactivity w/ Flash)
LECTURE: Breaking the rectangular screen
rist "aujourd'hui"
rist "Sip My Ocean"
"Selbstlos im Lavabad" (Selfless in the bath of lava)
Tokyo - Shibuya district
Hooliganship at TBA festival
Sign up for presentation topics/dates
Turn in Project 2 (moving image interactivity w/ Flash)
LECTURE: Breaking the rectangular screen
rist "aujourd'hui"
rist "Sip My Ocean"
"Selbstlos im Lavabad" (Selfless in the bath of lava)
Tokyo - Shibuya district
Hooliganship at TBA festival
GRL Graffiti Research Lab (wikipedia)
co-founder James Powderly
GRL Graffiti Research Lab website
- Light Criticism
- Make Throwies Not Bombs
- Post-circuit board
-LASER TAG
-H$NG K$NG
- Ghetto Matrix
- HOMELAND SECURITY TOWER
Gertie the Dinosaur "interacting" w/ animator Windsor McCay
Jaap Blonk - sound interface for screen image
Jeremy Bailey