UCSB
Art 22
Spring 12
Digital Media Arts Strategies
Instructor
Graham Budgett [office hours - before/after class by appointment]
Assistant
Stirling Crispin [office hours - TBA]
Description
T/Th 1.00 - 3.50pm
Rincon Lab - Phelps Hall 1518 [and occasionally another nearby lab]

Digital Media Arts Strategies is the entry course to the digital media program of the Department of Art, introducing conceptual and technical artistic issues and methods of digital media arts practice especially in relation to the world wide web and it's languages or 'code'.

The course emphasizes lab-time [and personal research outside lab-time] in the aquisition of technical & conceptual skills in the fields of:

The combination of HTML/CSS/JS is sometimes referred to as 'DHTML' [Dynamic HTML].

Other multi-media environments/languages such as 'Flash'/Actionscript, 'Director'/Lingo, or 'Processing' [and it's Java-based environment/Java-like code] are deployed as appropriate to the skills levels of individual class members.

first-day introduction

resources:

Adobe downloads [Photoshop etc., 30-day free trials]
Photoshop CS* [lynda.com video tutorials]
GIMP (The GNU Image Manipulation Program) free Photoshop-like image editor
web/print differences
bitmap/vector differences
Uweb Quick Reference
Textwrangler - free mac coding-tool/text-editor
jEdit - free pc/mac coding-tool/text-editor
HTML tutorial
CSS tutorial
CSS color reference
DHTML tutorial [HTML/CSS/Javascript]
HTML/CSS/JS tutorials/examples
HTML DOM [Document Object Model]
Processing [freeware Java-based authoring environment]
Flash tutorial
Flash Actionscript video tutorial
Flash 8 [trial download]
DVD production [DV editing, DVD scripting, DVD-rom]
information design
algorithmic art

22 classwork spring09 22 classwork fall09
22 classwork winter10 22 classwork spring10
22 classwork fall1022 classwork winter11
22 classwork spring11 • 22 classwork fall11

EDITING, MANAGING & UPLOADING FILES

In the lab:
use bbEdit for coding and the Uweb method for upload
- sign-up for your web account with Uweb
- don't edit files 'live' online in your Uweb folder, use local versions then upload

At home:
on PCs use the free coding-tool/text-editor jEdit, or similar to write and edit your code
- jEdit can also upload your files using 'FTP' [BUT see 'RECOMMENDED' below]

on Macs you can also use jEdit, or preferably the free coding-tool/text-editor Textwrangler;
both can edit & upload your documents via [s]FTP- [BUT see 'RECOMMENDED' below]
- in Textwrangler, go to: file/ 'save[open] to[from] FTP server'
- use host/server: 'ustorage.ucsb.edu' and your Uweb login]

RECOMMENDED: use a dedicated FTP 'client' like the free Filezilla - it will allow you to upload everything - folders, images, etc., not just your HTML/CSS/JS documents [as in jEdit, Textwrangler, bbEdit]. Always keep your site files ['.html', '.css', '.js', '.jpg', '.gif' etc., NOT '.psd'] in an 'art22' folder - upload the whole 'art22' folder to your online 'uweb' folder [keep fully editable '.psd' uncompressed files out of your 'uweb' folder]. Always make sure your local and online 'art22' folders are identical - that way you will always have back-up files in case of a mishap. Name your homepage: 'index.html' [that way others can't see a file-list of your 'art22' folder contents]. To view your homepage online after upload, go to:

http://uweb.ucsb.edu/~yourusername/art22/
['index.html' is the default file for browsers - substitute 'yourusername' with... guess what?
The 'tilda' ( ~ ) is important]

You should also keep a back-up on a portable USB drive or similar removable media.

Midterm
In-class exercise
Final
Take-home based on feedback from Final presentations.
Grading
Attendance, punctuality, extra lab-time, participation in discussions & critique,
contribution of ideas, energy [15%] Midterm in-class exercise [15%]
Projects [70% evenly split]
Assignm'ts
Project 1 INTRO

Beginners [part ONE]

Intermediate
Project 2

Beginners [part TWO]

Intermediate
Project 3

Beginners can move on to the intermediate projects.

Intermediates should choose between these languages & environments:

Processing [java-based visualization environment, java-like coding] - http://processing.org/
Flash [actionscript] - https://www.adobe.com/downloads
WWW [javascript]- http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp
Director [lingo] - http://www.adobe.com/support/director/lingo.html
DVD Studio Pro [DVD scripting] - http://www.arts.ucsb.edu/faculty/budgett/DVDprod.html

...and produce a work around these keywords that describe an area of practice:
- system; network; interface; user; interaction; narrative; montage; database;

Suggested
readings


Christiane Paul: Digital Art

[ Links to artworks]

Rachel Greene: Internet Art

[Links to artworks]

Introduction
0.1 A short history of technology and art
0.2 The presentation, collection, and preservation of digital art
Preface
Introduction
0.1 The Internet's History and Pre-History
0.2 The Art-Historical Context for Internet Art
[notes]
Chapter 1: Digital Technologies as a Tool
1.1 Digital imaging: photography and print
1.2 Sculpture

Chapter 2: Digital Technologies as a Medium
2.1 Forms of digital art
2.2 Installation
2.3 Film, video, and animation
2.4 Internet art and nomadic networks
2.5 Software art
2.6 Virtual reality and augmented reality
2.7 Sound and music

Chapter 1: Early Internet Art
1.1 Participation in Public Spaces 34
1.2 Russian Internet Art Scene
1.3 New Vocabularies
1.4 Travel and Documentary Modes
1.5 Net.art
1.6 Cyberfeminism
1.7 Corporate Aesthetics
1.8 Telepresence
Discussion
Christiane Paul describes two different ways of working with digital technology. The first one she calls "digital technology as a tool" - using digital technology together with othertools to produce art in any medium, a print, sculpture or performance. The second, "digital technology as a medium", produces art that is experienced through the technology directly, for example virtual reality, net art, interactive installations.

[notes]
Readings
Chapter 3
3.1 Artificial life
3.2 Artificial intelligence and intelligent agents
3.3 Telepresence, telematics, and telerobotics
3.4 Body and identity
3.6 Beyond the book: text and narrative environments

Chapter 2
2.1 Email-based Communities
2.2 Exhibition Formats and Collective Projects
2.3 Browsers, ASCII, Automation and Error
2.4 Parody, Appropriation and Remixing
2.5 Mapping Authorship
2.6 Hypertext and Textual Aesthetics
2.7 Remodelling Bodies
2.8 New Forms of Distribution
2.9 Sexual Personae
4.4 Forms of Sharing
4.5 Video and Filmic Discourses
[notes]
Readings
3.5 Databases, data visualization, and mapping
3.8 Tactical media, activism, and hacktivism
3.9 Technologies of the future
3.1 Infowar and Tactical Media in Practice
3.2 Turn of Millennium, War & the Dotcom Crash
3.3 Data Visualization and Databases
3.7 The Crash of 2000
4.1 Voyeurism, Surveillance and Borders
4.2 Wireless 4.3 E-commerce
4.6 Low-fi Aesthetics
4.7 'Art for Networks'
[notes]
Readings
2.5 Software art
3.7 Gaming
3.4 Games
3.5 Generative and Software Art
3.6 Open Works
[notes]