Visual Culture2

Laurie Beth Clark
Digital Culture
Art 908, Section 4
Fall 2002
Wednesdays, 1:20 to 3:50
Humanities 6321
Professor Laurie Beth Clark
lbclark@education.wisc.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday Mornings by Appointment

It can be argued that digital media define contemporary culture. This graduate seminar intends to explore how such assertions are useful and what challenges they present. We will read a broad sampling of theoretical texts by those who are attempting to articulate the aesthetic and social implications of new technologies. We will look at work in all forms of electronic media: static and temporal, improvisatory and interactive. We will consider the internet as a source of information, as an online community, and as an exhibition venue.

One of our goals is to explore the ways in which the production of creative works in electronic media (music, games, sound works, as well as the static graphic output of digital media) shape and are shaped by the possibilities and constraints of the emerging technologies. How do cyber-productions participate in the erosion of former distinctions between high and popular art forms? How have linear practices been affected by the proliferation of interactive and hypertextual forms? What are the ethical and the aesthetic issues raised by the ease with which digital materials can be shared, reproduced, appropriated, manipulated and “infected”?

We will also interrogate the electronic media’s claims to be broadly democratizing and global even as they create a digital divide. How has digital culture contributed to changes in existing industries and to the development of new ones? What new social formations are made possible with these new technologies and what old ones are reified? How does virtual reality inform our considerations of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, identity, and community? What new understandings of hybridity emerge from reimagining ourselves as cyborgs?

While the preceding questions suggest some of the ways in which the course will develop and foreground some of the biases of the instructor, the direction of our discussions will be shaped by the stimulating questions that participants will bring. Graduate students (both scholars and practitioners) from all departments are encouraged to participate, in hopes of fostering an interdepartmental dialogue. Participants should expect to read 50 to 100 pages a week, to participate actively in classroom and on-line discussions, and to engage with digital culture as spectators, as participants, and as producers.
Texts

Books for this course are available at Rainbow Cooperative Bookstore on Gilman Street.

Please purchase:

Interaction: Artistic Practice in the Network, edited by Amy Scholder with Jordan Crandall

and

The Cybercultures Reader, edited by David Bell and Barbara Kennedy

Requests have been made to the library system to place the campus copies of these books on reserve.

Course Structure

The course has seven “basic” components plus two additional ones.

1. Reading
Several articles will be assigned each week. They must be completed in a timely manner as there will be no opportunity to catch up on missed reading. Seminar participants should come to class prepared to comment on the writer’s perspectives and to contribute your own related thoughts.

2. Discussion
All class members are expected to contribute actively to our discussion. Please monitor your own participation. If you are a person who tends to dominate discussion, periodically use your impulse to speak to instead solicit the thoughts of more reticent class members. If you tend to be more shy, work together with class mates to find strategies for entering the dialogue.

3. Writing
All class members will participate in an on-line discussion group. During the 48 hours after class (no later than noon on Friday), you should post one question, using the word question in your subject line. Over the weekend (completed no later than noon on Monday), you should respond to one question, using the work response in your subject line. Each question may only be answered once, so if someone else has already responded to a particular question, choose another. Please also intentionally rotate your responses so that, over the course of the semester, you respond to many different class members’ questions. Between noon Monday and the start of class, please read all responses.
4. Demonstration
At the first class meeting, we will collaboratively generate a list of various modes of production and assign these to individuals and/or teams for specific dates. In the weeks that follow, class members will provide one another with short (15 minute) demonstrations of the ways in which a particular digital technology functions. You should plan on either bringing the technology to class or taking us to the tools. You may rely on your own knowledge and/or enlist other expertise. Please post reference information for your technical demo under the “demonstration” heading of our on-line discussion. (Please note that some technology demonstrations may need to take place at times and places other than the scheduled class meeting).

5. Research
Each week, one class member or one team will bring to the class one example of creative work in electronic media that interests you. The goal of this assignment is to briefly (5 minutes) expose classmates to a range of creative works, not to comprehensively explore them. Please be set up by 1:15, or as early as 1:00 for works that might better be viewed by one person at a time. Let us know a week ahead if you would like students who are free to do so to come a few minutes early. The classroom has Mac and PC computers, both with internet connections, S-VHS player and TV, slide projector, and boombox for tapes and CDs. All other technology should be provided by the presenter. Post the citations for your artist/art work under the “research” heading of our on-line discussion. (Again, we will try to be flexible about alternative scheduling for works like performances and multi-media installations that are best seen off-site).

6. Production
By the end of the semester, you must demonstrate your engagement with digital culture by making creative use of electronic media, in some way integrating your ongoing concerns with the new knowledges you have gained in this class. Projects may be individual or collaborative. Please post a short (paragraph?length) proposal for your creative work under the “production” heading of our on-line discussion prior to the third class meeting.

7. Evaluation
At the end of the semester, you will write three evaluations: one of yourself, one of the course, and one of the instructor.
Your self evaluation will be presented in a confidential email to the instructor. Your course evaluation will be posted in the evaluations portion of our website, and your evaluation of the instructor will be presented to the department and not shared with me until after grading is complete.

a. In your self evaluation, you should assess your strengths and weaknesses as a student in this class. Evaluate your engagement with the readings and discussion. Comment on the quality of your written work, your research, your demonstration, and your project. Mention any and all aspects of the course that were important for you. Try to produce a careful and balanced analysis of your performance.

b. In your course evaluation, you should share with other members of the class your critical reflections on the trajectory of the semester.

The following two components may be regarded as optional, extra-curricular, or extra-credit components of the course.

8. Field Trips
The class may schedule several field trips outside of regular meeting times to see work or investigate technologies. You should also plan on attending directly related symposia and/or exhibitions that are brought to our attention throughout the semester.

9. Bibliography
A list of additional readings is attached and also posted under the “bibliography” heading of our on-line discussion. This list includes books that were considered as alternate course texts. Over the course of the semester, students are encouraged to add references to the list.

Grading

Grades in the course will reflect your successful completion of the seven “basic” components below. The two “additional” components will earn “extra credit.” To receive an “A” for the course, attend all meetings, participate actively in discussion, and complete all assignments in a timely manner. No further graded differentiation will be made to reflect “quality” of creative production. As graduate students, the care with which you do your work should be a matter of self-respect and of respect for fellow students. Be aware that attendance at scheduled classes and participation in discussion are integral to your success. One absence is permitted. Missing additional classes will negatively affect your grade, as will habitual lateness. There will, of necessity, be more flexibility with regard to the field trips and out-of-class demonstrations.

SCHEDULE

Wednesday, September 4

Introductions, etc.

Wednesday, September 11

Interaction: Artistic Practice in the NetworK