Spring 2024 Digital Studio: Distribution and Intervention
Professor: Margaretha Haughwout | Office Hours: Tu 3:30-5:30p, W 3:30-4:30 or by appointment | Email: mhaughwout at colgate dot edu
Basics:
Meeting Time:
Class: Monday & Wednesday 1:20-3:10p
Digital Connections: (Required)
Course website:http://beforebefore.net/digitalstudio/s24
Slack: digitalstudiospring24.slack.com
Code editor (see Resources page for list of options)
ftp client like filezilla (see Resources page for list of options)
Course Description
An introduction to digital art that covers a selection of digital art practices, including reproducible art, networked and telematic art, mapping and countermapping, kits, multiples, fabrication, DIY, and interventionist practices. Students work with digital tools such as vector and raster programs, web languages, and fabrication to produce and distribute art that can operate inside and outside the gallery. The internet, for instance, is considered as a distribution platform and as a potential exhibition space. In working with existing media and technology such as that used for surveillance, students employ "creative misuse" to make playful, humorous, and poignant contemporary artworks. Students are encouraged to explore concepts and programs beyond the basics; group and individual projects will require both rigorous concept development and proficiency in technology.
We consider these topics through creative projects, group critiques, discussions, readings and studio time.
Objectives
To acquire creative skills using code, data, networked platforms, fabrication, creative misuse, and print multiples ... To understand and employ digital practice in relation to networks ... To see and employ a 21st-century art practice less as a thing & more as a process ... To understand the kinds of problems digital art and new media address, expose, complicate and solve ... To understand some of the political, participatory, and social contexts for digital practice ... To complicate the division between art and logic ... To connect a digital practice to relationships, networks, and systems beyond the screen ... To empower bourgeoning artists with tools to enact artistic interventions in the everyday
Learning and Support
Skills and Ability: We all learn in our own ways. While many different kinds of engagement with the course material are required, some of us will move through this class more conceptually, some more perceptually, others more technically, still others more rationally. Some will process the material in solitary ways, while others may be quite vocal. I expect to see visual, auditory, and linear learners. Please talk to me as soon as you can about the ways I can support your learning modes. If you do not have a documented disability, but feel you need some help, do remember that the Center for Learning, Teaching and Research is available to you (http://www.colgate.edu/centers-and-institutes/center-for-learning-teaching-and-research). Your success in this class is important to me.
Access and Assistance with Digital Tools: There are a number of labs, studio technicians, and monitors who can help you in Little Hall and the Library. The Digital Lab Output room, Little Hall 208, and Little Hall 113, as well as Ryan 101 all have the software you will need for this class. Carl Wohnson, cwohnsen@colgate.edu, is the lab technician and his office is right beside Little Hall 208. He can help you with questions about tools you have. Labs are open every day, and we will also have monitors in 208 from 4-11p most evenings. Kevin Donlin and Duane Martinez are also technicians in the building and they may be able to help especially with the fabrication tools. Finally, I can't emphasize enough to use Slack whenever you have a question -- the sooner you ask for help the sooner you'll get it. If you have the question, someone else has or has had the same question and is eager to know or help with the answer!
Assignment Descriptions & Grade Breakdown
/participation 20%.
/a1. 5% Website to hold work for the semester
/a2. 15% Online Dataportrait (Self Portrait for a Spy)
/a3. 15% Nonlinear or interactive narrative
/a4. 5% Copyright and the commons
/a5. 15% Web Spider
/a2. 15% Kits for a Better Future
/a7. 10% A7. Reading and Artwork Responses and sketchbooks
General Grading Rubric:
Conceptual: A good concept is a new perspective on a problem, a creative solution to a problem, and/or a deepening and complication of a problem. Artwork that evidences conceptual labor draws from readings, class conversations and lectures, political savvy, and profound observation. In this course, try and look at things differently than usual, and explore what is means to be comfortably uncomfortable and uncomfortably comfortable. Cultivate a curiosity that makes you brim with ideas.
Technical:The technical work of an assignment includes the steps we take to accomplish our vision or goal or concept. In this class we will spend a lot of time with code and other digital tools, which require a lot of attention to step by step processes -- this attention will impact your grade positively. Care, effort, attention and awareness of, and ability to replicate process are qualities of the technical.
Perceptual: Understanding formal visual aesthetics, social form, interactive aesthetics, and strategies for audience engagement with artworks are a part of this course. How does it look? How does the audience engage with this work? How do the aesthetics reflect the conceptual aspects of the project? The care that you put into your work in the finishing stages is also included within the category of the perceptual, and reflects the level of importance you give to your work.
How I Characterize Grades:
A -- Excellent. Student exhibits exemplary conceptual, perceptual and technical ability with assignments, and in class. Student demonstrates a close engagement with artworks and readings reviewed in class. All work is lucid and engaging.
B -- Good. Student completes assignments, and demonstrates a creative grasp of most of the main aspects of each lesson, but not all. Is able to express ideas well.
C -- Satisfactory. Student completes the assignment but may lack enthusiasm or drive to push the work into a detailed conceptual or perceptual space. Student does not demonstrate knowledge of readings, lectures or other visual material. Problems exist in student's work, or the work is underdeveloped.
D -- Unsatisfactory. Student does not complete the work as assigned. Substantial problems exist in student's work.
F -- Fail. Student does not submit work, or work is below unsatisfactory level.
Requirements and Readings:
Students are required to purchase and use an unlined art sketchbook for use in this course. This is available through the Bookstore or through Blick online.
The readings for this course are made available through the course website or handouts
Don't forget to hit the Resources page frequently for technical tutorials, howtos, etc.
Requirements, Policies, and Thoughts on being 'present'
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Class attendance is mandatory. Please see me immediately about any missed classes. We go through technical lessons every class and missing means you will fall behind.
Digital Devices We frequently use digital devices in this class, which means the temptation for distraction will be high for all of us. At the same time, we will often be learning technical processes that require our full attention in order to master. Use the SelfControl app by Steve Lampert to limit possible distractions. Please turn of email, chat, and app notifications during class.
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Communicate If your life takes a difficult turn, seek out resources and be proactive. Things only become more difficult if skipping classes becomes the operative means of coping. Communication is key.
- If you are an athlete, be organized and communicate. Give each of your professors a schedule at the start of the term, and discuss how any absences will be addressed.
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Email Netiquette
Netiquette, Noun: 1. The social code of network communication. 2. The social and moral code of the internet based on the human condition and Golden Rule of Netiquette. 3. A philosophy of effective internet communication that utilizes common conventions and norms as a guide for rules and standards.
In your subject header, include a couple of words about your question/comment -- ie:
subject: Digital Studio assignment question
Allow for a 24 hour response time from the professor (if it is urgent, please put URGENT in the subject header for quicker response time)
One Other Thing
This syllabus is subject to change at the professor's discretion.