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

Fall 2005 Syllabus

Tuesdays, 2:10 p.m. -6:00 p.m.
Room 729, Tower Building

Professor: Nita Sturiale
nsturiale at massart dot edu
Office hours: Fridays by appointment

Teaching Assistant: Andrew DeVecchio
a_devecchio at yahoo dot com

Course Description:

This course is a collaborative introduction to the Internet as an artistic medium. This course introduces web-based technologies and architecture, website layout and construction, along with digital sound and video. 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 website 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 website. 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 also 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 and graphic layout (introductory CSS)
• Dynamic web content (PHP and RSS news feeds)
• Vector graphics, animation, and interactivity (Flash)
• Digital Video and Sound
• Issues related to launching your site
• 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 and provocations in 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. You are expected to bring new ideas, different perspectives, and observations into the content of the course.Artists express ideas, information, opinions, questions, thoughts, dreams, aesthetic sensibilities, etc. Digital media provides artists with new tools and methods that are faster, easily duplicated and more powerful than traditional media. 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. Patience, a sense of humor, and a willingness to try new things without fear is required. 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 and email address and webserver space,
• join the course discussion page at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artinternet
• Be present in body - come to class on time - 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. Create 6 images that represent what you are thinking about artistically in digital slide show format,
  2. Online click-through of a web-based artwork idea (start with a pencil sketch),
  3. Find a web-based artwork, write a description of the work (what interesting about it? what is it's cultural significance? how is the web imperative for it's success? in what way is this work related to your own?), then post this description to the yahoo group site.
  4. Web Artwork Proposal,
  5. Web Artwork Proposal Revision,
  6. Present Web Artwork in progress for critique,
  7. Written Reading Response #1
  8. Written Reading Response #2
  9. Mid Semester Self-Evaluation(http://www.nitasturiale.com/massart/eval/mideval.html),
  10. Final Self-Evaluation (http://www.nitasturiale.com/massart/eval/finaleval.html),
  11. Present Final Web Artwork

Reading Selections

1. Balthaser, Neil. "Kill HTML Before it Kills Us," New Media, September, 1999.
2. Galloway, Kit & Rabinowitz, Sherrie. The Electronic Cafe Manefesto, http://www.ecafe.com/84manifesto.html. 1984.
3. Greene, Rachel. Internet Art, Thames and Hudson, 2004
4. Hafner, Katie and Lyon, Matthew. "Casting the Net," The Sciences, pp. 32 - 36, September/October 1996.
5. Johnson, Steven. "Thinking Faster: Are the brain’s emotional circuits hardwired for speed?" DISCOVER Vol. 25 No. 05, May 2004.
6. Mirapaul, Matthew. "New Public Art Uses the Internet for a Personal Touch", New York Times, August 5, 2002.
7. Riding, Chris. "Drowning By Microgallery", Resisting the Virtual Life, edited by James Brook and Iain Boal, City Lights, 1995. pg. 246 -251.
8. Svitil, Kathy. "Physicist Neil Gershenfeld Time to Make the Computer Vanish" DISCOVER Vol. 24 No. 01, January 2003 .
9. 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