Pre-class:
Announcement on any adds, problems, etc to stay after class
Intro to Me
- father is an engineer/mother is a psychic
Telecommunications media artist
- live TV
- interactive cinema
- internet street theater
- community mapping & distributed cinema
taught all around SoCal (USC, CalArts, UCLA, UCI)
worked at Disney Online for 2 years prior to coming to UCSD
Intro to You (questions & take photo)
How Many ICAM majors?
Media majors?
Others?
How many Freshmen? Sophomores? Junios? Seniors? Superseniors?
Anyone over 40?
Any veterans or reservists?
Who owns a computer?
Who has a PDA?
Who owns a celphone?
Has it with them?
Has it turned on?
(please turn it off now)
Who has sent SMS messages during a lecture before?
Who uses AIM?
Who plays video/computer games?
Which ones?
Anyone on friendster?
How many have jobs while school is in session?
Who has traveled out of the country (beyond TJ)
Who has been to TJ?
Who speaks more than one language?
What languages?
Who has spent more than a week in the desert?
Who surfs?
Who has plants growing inside their residence that they take care of?
Who got 8hrs or more of sleep last night?
Who thinks there will be human colonies on Mars before the end of their
lifetime?
Intro to TAs>>Joe, others
Intro to Course>>>
Challenge of missing two lectures (will come up with way to make
up)
Questions???
COMPUTING ARTS
n large & dynamic field
n naming issues (brought up in intro of book)
computer art, electronic art, digital art, hypermedia, multimedia,
new media
reflected in many different programs in educational institutions
ÿ includes everything from digital photography (which in itself
can mean quite a few things) to experiments with new genetic forms, screen-based
and installation/object forms.
ÿ Arguments about parameters of the field have existed since early
in the practice (see week 4)
Roughly understood as embracing all three modes of expression:
1) USE OF COMPUTER AS SUBJECT MATTER (object of investigation/critique)
EXAMPLES:
Lowell Nesbitt IBM series (painting, 1965)
Edward Kienholz "The Friendly Gray Computer" (sculpture, 1965)
Miltos Manetas (painting "Madonna & Child" show image)
2) USE OF COMPUTER AS PRODUCTION TOOL (performs a process in the past
performed by humans)
EXAMPLES:
Digital video/animation (Waking Life, directed by Richard Linklater)
3) USE OF COMPUTER (net, other computer-related tech) AS A MEDIUM FOR
ARTISTIC MEDIUM
Use of qualities inherent to the formal properties (using it shapes
the art that results)
EXAMPLE:
MY BOYFRIEND CAME BACK FROM THE WAR
>>SOMETIMES MORE THAN ONE OR ALL THREE COMBINED
****BREAK****
History of computing important to understand a bit of it in order to begin to comprehend work that exists and conceptualize new work.
30 min excerpt of PBS program "The Machine that Changed the World"
a bit dated in its examples, but concentrated on history which hasnít
changed
THREE FUNCTIONS OF COMPUTERS:
CALCULATION/CONTROL/COMMUNICATION
Reflects certain values: SPEED, EFFICIENCY (error-free), PRECISION
Artmaking seems to have very opposite values (open-ended, unknowable, timelessness, embracing risk, meandering inquiry, instinct & error as paths to transcendence.
This paradox (and its resolution within the culture of our time) underlies a great deal of the work weíll be discussing and making this quarter.
-FINI-