Massachusetts College of Art
SIM 43X - Art and the Internet I
Fall 2003

Syllabus

Fridays, 2:10 p.m. -6:30 p.m.
Room 729, Tower Building

Prof: Nita Sturiale
Email:nsturiale@massart.edu
Office hours: by appointment

Teaching Assistant: Fish McGill
Email: rmcgill@massart.edu

~ To weekly schedule ~

Course Description

This course is a collaborative introduction to the Internet as an artistic medium.

This course introduces digital imaging, digital multimedia (sound, video), the web, and web site layout and construction. You will learn technical skills by creating your own web sites while also addressing conceptual issues related to this artistic medium. This course explores the Internet and its cultural implications, the development and design of a web site, including the graphics, text, and hypertext, and other issues related to successful Web site creation. Relevant historical background of the Internet will be discussed along with approaches for developing one's own artistic voice using this medium. Methods for planning a site through flow charts, storyboards, site maps, and prototypes will be covered in addition to implementing, updating and maintaining a Web site. An introduction to HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and HTML editing software is addressed. Digital sound, vector-based animation, and digital video for the web will be introduced. This is a Mac-based course but cross platform issues will be addressed.

This class is designed to provide you with an opportunity to immerse yourself in these tools - in all their complexity - as you use them for making your art.

Topics:

• Internet as artisitic medium
• Campus Network
• Web Project Proposal Writing
• Storyboards and Click-throughs 
• Image Editing, Compression and Resolution Review
• History and Overview of the World Wide Web
• Clients, Servers, Protocols and The Web
• Online Communication, Collaboration, Communities
• HTML and WYSIWYG editors (Dreamweaver)
• Interface design
• Graphic layout
• Dynamic web content
• Vector graphics and Animation (Flash)
• Interactivity
• Digital Video
• Digital Sound
• Going Live
• The Future of the Web

Course Goals and Requirements

Our goal is to learn things we don't already know towards the long-term goal of being effective and articulate artists. A teacher's responsibility is to present information, provocations and a structured environment that will help you learn. Your responsibility is to fully participate in this environment by voicing your interests, thoughts, and questions, as well as listening to your classmates. Class participation, discussion and attention is fundamental and required.

Artists express ideas, information, opinions, questions, thoughts, dreams, aesthetic sensibilities, etc. Digital media provides opportunities to express in faster, wider, more complex, and, just plain different ways. Learning how to use these tools is just as challenging as learning how to throw a clay pot without it collapsing or calculating the math involved in architectural drafting. It takes patience, a sense of humor and a willingness to try new things without fear. In most cases, you won't break the computer unless you throw it out a window (which you may want to do at times).

Also required is that you apply for, and use, an email account and that you become practiced at working online. Much of the course materials are online via the following URL - http://www.nitasturiale.com/massart. The syllabus for this course is linked from this page and from there you'll find other specific links to course materials, stimuli and resources.

Additionally you'll need to apply for MassArt Web Server Space with Fred WolfLink <fredless@massart.edu> or secure your own web server account privately.

Finally, please purchase a "how to" book for Dreamweaver and Flash. If you are starting out, I highly recommend the Visual QuickStart Guides by PeachPit Press.

List of requirements and assignments:

• Get an email account. Let me know if you need help with this.

• Be present in body - come to class ontime - more than two unexcused absences and/or chronic lateness will result in a NC grade,

• Be present in mind and mouth - participate in class discussion and critique sessions,

• Participate in classtime workshops,

• Read the readings and be prepared to discuss them in class,

• Complete Assignments:

  1. Apply for MassArt Web Server Space with Fred WolfLink <fredless@massart.edu>,
  2. 6 images that represent what you are thinking about artistically in digital slide show format,
  3. Online pencil sketch digital click-through of web artwork,
  4. Web Artwork Proposal,
  5. Web Artwork Proposal Revision,
  6. Present Web Artwork in progress,
  7. 4 short, written Reading Responses,
  8. Mid Semester Self-Evaluation(http://www.nitasturiale.com/massart/eval/mideval.html),
  9. Final Self-Evaluation (http://www.nitasturiale.com/massart/eval/finaleval.html),
  10. Present Final Web Artwork

Reading Selections

1. Balthaser, Neil. "Kill HTML Before it Kills Us," New Media, September, 1999.
2. Burgy, Donald. "To be an Artist...". Undated.
3. Couch, John S. "The Artist of the Future Is a Technologist", May 1997.
4. Hafner, Katie and Lyon, Matthew. "Casting the Net," The Sciences, pp. 32 - 36, September/October 1996.
5. Johnson, Steven. Emergence, Harper, 2001, pgs. 146 - 162.
6. Mirapaul, Matthew. "New Public Art Uses the Internet for a Personal Touch", New York Times, August 5, 2002.
7. Norman, Donald. "Emotion and Design", jnd.org, July 2002.
8. Riding, Chris. "Drowning By Microgallery", Resisting the Virtual Life, edited by James Brook and Iain Boal, City Lights, 1995. pg. 246 -251.
9. Weinberger, David. Small Pieces Loosely Joined, Perseus Publishing, 2002, pgs. 1-25.
10. Various, "Back to the Future", Utne, pgs. 80 - 89, Jan-Feb 2003.

Stimuli - http://www.nitasturiale.com/massart/stimuli.html

Resources - http://www.nitasturiale.com/massart/resources.html