Massachusetts College of Art, Spring 2000 SF175 Media Arts: Computer Wednesdays, 9-1:30 p.m., Room 729, Tower Building

Instructor: Nita Sturiale Email: nita@artscience.org Home phone: 617-625-9307 Office hours: please make apt. ~ To weekly schedule ~

Syllabus Course Description This course is a collaborative exploration of the artistic potentials of digital media tools with an emphasis on the World Wide Web. We'll be together 4 + hours per week for 3 + months. Our goal is to learn things we don't already know towards the long-term goal of being effective, satisfied and articulate artists. My responsibility as a teacher is to present information and provocations that I think you will learn from. Over the following weeks skill-oriented and conceptual subjects will be presented in an order that reflects your interests and questions. So, in turn, this approach depends on your responsibility to voice your interests and questions. Class participation, discussion and attention is fundamental and required. I assume you are here because you want to be here and because you are committed to learning and developing as an artist. I also assume you will attempt to do your best at all times. Artists express ideas, information, opinions, questions, thoughts, dreams, aesthetic sensibilities, etc. The WWW 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. You won't break the computer unless you throw it out a window (which you may want to do at times). So, 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. The course schedule includes tutorials, field trips, lab time, presentation and discussion periods. Your responsibility is to push yourself into thinking about YOUR IDEAS. What is YOUR content? What do you want to express? If you are a painter, what aesthetic or conceptual issues are you dealing with? How can you use digital media to enhance this? If you are graphic designer, what is your particular unique style and how can the computer help you develop it?   Specifics The world of digital media has become a huge mountain of software, hardware, processes, programming and possibility. Because we just can't do it all, this course will focus on using the web as a medium for expression. This course introduces digital imaging and digital multimedia (sound, video), the WWW, and website layout and construction. You will learn technical skills by creating your own websites while also addressing conceptual issues related to this new and provocative medium for artists. This course explores the Internet and its cultural implications, the development and design of a website, including the graphics, text, and hypertext links, and other issues relating to effective 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 to Website layout software is addressed. If time allows, sound, animation, and the use of video clips will be introduced. Topical Outline (not necessarily in order): YOUR ideas Web Cam Possibilities at Mass Art - http://babel.massart.edu/~cacam1 Email Using a Digital Camera Adobe PhotoShop Software Saving files Layers and Selections in PhotoShop Scanning Image size - file size, print size and dots (pixels) per inch (DPI) File Formats Overview of the World Wide Web Introductory HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language - used to create WebPages) HTML/WebPage WYSIWYG editors Interface design How to create a project for the computer screen - Director, KPT Quickshow How to get a project off the computer screen - printing issues Critiquing Skills Examples of other artists' work who use digital media Articulating your artistic voice YOUR ideas Course Requirements Be present in body - come to class - more than two unexcused absences will result in a NC grade, Be present in mind and mouth - participate in class discussion and critique sessions, Read the readings and be prepared to discuss the readings at length in class, Write a proposal for the project that you will work on throughout the semester, Present your work in progress, Complete a Mid-term Self Evaluation AND a Final Self Evaluation, Present your finished final project to the class.

Weekly Schedule as of Jan 19, 2000 Jan 19 Read syllabus, Get email account and a ZIP disk, Web cam experiment - http://babel.massart.edu/~cacam1, For next week, bring in three photos or drawings related to your artistic ideas. Jan 26 Discuss images, Scanning tutorial Feb 2 PhotoShop tutorial Write a proposal for your web project - you will work on a web project throughout this semester, showing it in progress twice, and showing your final at the end of the semester. According to our conversation in class, it was decided that proposals should include the following: central idea scope Statement of Purpose (why) Objective (what) Detailed Plan (how) timeline Feb 9 Project Proposals Due HTML Tutorial - Web Architecture; Introduction to HTML; Tags; Create html document; see HTML STARTER KIT Feb 16 Images for the Web tutorial Presentations Begin: Stephan M Rich Feb 23 No Class/Nita Away Rich will be available for questions!!!! Take him up on this great offer!!! Mar 1 Presentations: Nancy Martha Rosemary Sarah Mar 8 No Class/Spring Break Mar 15 Presentations: Andres Rich Grace Steven F. Angie Mid Term Self Evaluation Assigned   Mar 22 Trip to MASS MOCA all day get excuse note from nita for your missed classes Mar 29 Presentations: Nancy Steven F Angie Andres Rosemary Apr 5 No Class/Advising Day Apr 12 Presentations: Sarah Grace Andres Rosemary Stephan M Apr 19 Presentations: Everyone Apr 26 Final Self Evaluation Assigned Final Presentations: Nancy Steven F Martha Angie May 6 LAST CLASS Final Presentations: Sarah Grace Rich *Schedule will definitely change for many great reasons!

Online Resources There are many links @ www.artscience.org/nita/links.html World Wide Web Consortium: www.w3.org Many examples of contemporary web art at the Boston Cyberarts Festival Gallery: www.bostoncyberarts.org Various online resources and links to excellent design: www.projectcool.com/ HEX color lists: www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/colors.html Free software movement and copyright politics: www.fsf.org Most of the reading selections are taken from the following books and journals William Aspray and Martin Campbell-Kelly, Computer, "When Computers Were People", Basic Books, 1996. James Brook and Iain A. Boal, Resisting the Virtual Life, City Lights, 1995. Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, Harper San Francisco, 1999 Steven Johnson, Interface Culture , Harper, 1997 Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, Casting the Net, The Sciences, Sept-Oct 1996 William J. Mitchell, The Reconfigured Eye, MIT Press, 1992 New Media magazine Artbyte magazine MAC Art and Design magazine

Recommended Texts Any of the Visual Quickstart Guides - for Adobe PhotoShop, Flash, Golive Cyberstudio Any book by Lynda Weinman

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