Readings

There are no required texts for this course. Assigned readings can be found below.

Reading Reflections

For each assigned reading, you will complete a short reading reflection (200-400 words). This should summarize and critique the main points of the text, as well as draw connections to other texts and ideas introduced through this course.

Reading reflections are once per module. All reading reflections should be complied into a single document. This will assemble an ‘annotated bibliography’ by the end of the semester (see this guide).

Framing Questions

To help you prepare your reading summaries, a series of prompts will be provided for each of the texts. These prompts will help you focus on the key concepts and ideas contained within the text. These will be typically at least 2-3 framing questions that will help guide your reading of the texts. These framing questions should also help make the connection between the readings and in-class content and assignments clear.

Submitting your Summaries

At the start of the semester, create a google Document or other sharable document. Share this with the instructor and TA. Make sure if you’re using Google Docs, to give access. The easiest way to do this is to click the Share button (blue button, top right), and use the ‘get sharable link’ option.

Make sure this document contains your name, and your andrew ID. All reading reflections should be added chronologically i.e. in order they were assigned.

Module 1

Required

1) ‘The Biography of an Artist’ and ‘The Shape of Content’ from: Ben Shahn. 1992. The Shape of Content, The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures 1956-1957, Harvard University Press

Framing Questions

  • Based on the reading and the explaination from Shahn, what is the biography of a painting?
  • “There are many additional components present within a painting many other factors that modify, impel restrain and in unison shape the images which finally emerge”. What are they and why are they important?
  • What is the role of the inner critic and the literary critic in making works of art? What does the combination of the the artist plus the inner critic create and how?
  • “This may be art, but it is my own art?” Why is this question significant to Shahn? How do you respond to it in the context of this course?
  • What are the differences between ‘form’ and ‘content’? How do they relate and can form exist without content?
  • Shahn writes about art, form and content in the context of painting. He discusses this with reference to and examples from many specific painters and “isms”. But do they equally apply to today’s new media art or are there differences? Why?

2) Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence, Harper’s Magazine, Feb 2007, page 59.

Framing Questions

  • How do the ideas presented in this text relate to or conflict with your own understanding of plagarism? Specifically reflect on this statement: “Plagiarism and piracy, after all, are the monsters we working artists are taught to dread, as they roam the wood surrounding our tiny preserves of regard and remuneration.”
  • What are the ways that appropriation, plagarism and piracy are used in artmaking and creative practice?
  • Using examples from the text, what are the relationships between originality, plagarism and appropriation in creative production?
  • How is technology (from the xerox to the internet) changing our perspective on plagarism and appropriation?
  • What is the ‘gift economy’ and the ‘commons’ and why are they significant for art making and creative production?
  • The end of the text contains a significant part of Lethems arguement. After reviewing the ‘key’, what is your reaction to the text and to Lethem’s approach.

Also Great:

On Art

On Art and Composition

Kandinsky’s writings offer wonderful perspecitves on composition. ‘Point and Line..’ is a really instructive exploration of his visual syntax. I’d strongly recommend it as a primer on expressionism and visual composition.

Another great read on visual grammars is:

On Art and Appropriation

Module 2

Required

1) McLuhan, M. & Fiore, Q. The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects. Bantam. New York. 1967.

Framing Questions

  • How does McLuhan’s text draw together many of the important ideas relating to media and society? What new perspective does it offer on media, communication, technology and it’s relationship to society and culture?
  • McLuhan states “All Media work us over completely.” Why does he believe this to be the case and do you agree? Is this always the case? Why?
  • The text end by looking at the effect of mass media (film and tv) of the time, how do these ideas extend or break down when we move them into modern mass media (the computer, the digital, the internet)?
  • “We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.” In the context of this class (working with digital tools to make media), how do you respond to this statement?

2) Curt Cloninger. 2009. Commodify Your Consumption: Tactical Surfing / Wakes of Resistance

Framing Questions

  1. What is the production/consumption continuum proposed by Cloninger? Why is the web’s hobbyist user a problematic entity in production/consumption relationship? Reflect on where you are in this spectrum.
  2. How would you describe ‘resistance’ and how does it relate to critical/tactical media and art making on the web?
  3. In what ways is tactical surfing and remix art like conceptual art? What other parallels/connections could you draw?
  4. Describe the practice of artistic surfing. What are the strategies you could adopt in your media making?
  5. How does this text and the ideas around production/consumption and remix culture relate to those of McLuhan?

Also Great:

Futher Reading

Module 3

Required

Framing Questions

  1. What is the concept of interactivity and how does it relate to media art?
  2. What are the “twentieth-century artistic practices that are relevant to the field of interactive media art in one way or another”? Briefly describe the significance of each and list an example work.
  3. “The discourse on media art has been accompanied since its inception by questions as to the relationship between art, technology, and society.” In what ways does interactive media art contribute to or extend this discourse, and why?

Framing Questions

  1. What is embodiment and how does it relate to the interaction(s) between the real and digital worlds?
  2. Why should technology become ‘ready-to-hand’? Explain Heidegger’s perspective on phenomonology and embodied experience and how it informed computing and media today?
  3. What role does perception and the body play in embodied media? Hint see: Merleau-Ponty
  4. An affordance “is a three-way relationship between the environment, the organism, and an activity.” What does this mean and why are affordances of physical objects important to how we design media for and with them?
  5. The reading offers a persepctive grounded in embodied interaction with computing interfaces . How do these ideas apply to the creation of embodied artful media and non-interative digital media?

Also great:

Further reading:

Module 4

Required

Framing Questions

  1. What are the relationships between technology and performance? How has this relationship evolved over time?
  2. What are the levels and categories of interactivity in media art and performance? Provide an example of each. How are they distinguished?
  3. What are the ways that audience members can be active participants and co-creators in a interactive performance or artworks? How is this related or different from more traditional contexts?
  4. The conclusion the author notes “In drawing up this hierarchy, however, we are conscious that it could be argued that one essential element and category is missing - play.”. Why based on the text and in your opinion is play an essential element in media performance and artwork?

Framing Questions

  1. What are the differences and similarities between aleatoric (Cage) and stochastic (Xenakis) approaches to generative music?
  2. What are the strategies for creating generative, emergent or interdeminate outcomes in perfomative works?
  3. What roles to creative toolkits and code play in advancing generative performance?
  4. Why are simulations and models of natural systems like Conway’s Game of Life regularly used in generative performance?
  5. The article surveys many many artists that have explored the use of generative techniques in performative settings. Why? What do indeterminate approaches offer over deterministic performances? That is to say, when, where and why might you want to create a generative performance?

Also great:

Further Reading:

Module 5

There are no required readings for this module

The following texts may be helpful resources for inspiration:

Further Reading

General

Aesthetic Frameworks

Visual Frameworks
Movement and Embodied Action
Sonic Frameworks

Readings on Critical Media

A list of readings on critical media curated by Melissa Ragona for the first iteration of this course in 2014.