Department of Art and Art History Pomona College
Fall Semester 2006
ART 22 Sec 1 Tuesday and Thursday 9:00 AM – 11:50 AM
ART 22 Sec 2 Tuesday and Thursday 1:15 PM – 4:00 PM

Professor: Mark Allen
Email: (obsessive usage) mark.allen@pomona.edu
AIM: (intermittent usage): mayormcmallen
Phone (infrequent usage) 18849
Room: 104 Rembrandt
Office hours 2-4pm Wednesday or by appointment

Course Overview:

Digital Art 1 addresses creative, conceptual, and practical strategies for artists working in the area of digital media. Due to the dramatic rate of change in technology-based arts, we will make no attempt to define canonically the practices and practitioners of digital media. Rather we will examine selected cells of aesthetic activity, unearth pockets of cultural resistance, and interrogate the very idea of art in a technoculture.

This class meets twice a week. Class time is divided into technical lectures and demonstrations, hands on labs and in class work on projects. Because of the breadth of technologies covered in this class, we will not cover all, or even most of the technical details of the software involved. Therefore, you will be responsible to a large degree for your own education. Mark, Jason, and our teaching assistants James and Seann will be available to help Monday-Thursday. The internet is available 24-7. Finally, we strongly encourage you to collaborate informally with your classmates – if we all help each other we just might survive this.

Course Objectives:
Buff up photoshop, web design, and audio collage skills
Gain a familiarity with contemporary art practice as related to computer based technologies
Gain familiarity with Los Angeles art community
Develop an aesthetic, critical, and cultural framework for assessing computer based art practices

Course Requirements:
Completion of all assignments on time
Visiting and discussion of linked web sites
Completion of assigned readings on time
Active Participation in online and classroom discussions and critiques

Miscellaneous details:

Attendance: Consistent attendance is absolutely crucial in order to do well in this course. Promptness is also extremely important; all instruction is given at the beginning of the class period and will not be repeated for late students. THREE or more absences will result in the final grade being lowered one full letter grade. Consistent tardiness will also be detrimental to the final grade, with multiple tardiness counting as an absence at the professors discretion.

Incompletes: No incompletes without confirmed extraordinary circumstances. Please consult the registrar for the definition of extraordinary circumstances.

Back up your data!
Hard drive crashes and data loss are a well known phenomenon. No computer disasters will be accepted for failing to submit work on time. Seriously. No really.

Material costs and textbook:
There is no textbook for this class, although we are happy to suggest supplemental reading material. All students will be required to register a domain (more info about this later) at an approximate cost of $15. This requires the use of a credit or debit card. Please alert your instructor if you anticipate any problems with this.

Websites:

darpa.pomona.edu
Jason Brown and I have built a website for the digital art labs. Go here for contact info, tutorials, lab and equipment info and other lab related information.

Grading:

100 points total

small projects + homework 5 points each

These projects are graded on a credit /no credit basis.

Lo Res Icon
Animated Gif
CSS template tweaks
Bad webpage
Personal webpage mockup
Register Domain
Audio cutup
Noise loop

projects 10 points each

Pixel Museum
Personal webpage
Collage
Soundscape
Avante Garde Power Point

These Projects are graded on a scale of 1 to 10 on following criteria:

Technical wonderment: demonstrates understanding and usage of course material
Aesthetic and conceptual value: project is interesting to look at and think about
Ambition: project attempts to achieve great things

Grading:
90-100 A
80-90 B
70-80 C
60-70 D
0-60 F

Depending on the nature of each project it will be submitted online or as a print out. We will teach you how to submit your work online. If all goes according to plan we will even teach you how to use the printers. If I can’t find your projects I can’t grade your projects and they will be counted as late. My goal for this semester is to have projects graded with one week of you turning them in. Please feel free to harass and humiliate me if I stray from this goal. Projects may be redone without penalty if handed in with the original work within 2 weeks from the original due date.

 

Weekly outline

(details may shift, please consult mynext.pomona.edu for weekly updates)

Week 1- Hello

Tuesday January 16th. Tuesday January 16th. Introduction and syllabus. Account setup. Class notes.

Thursday January 18th. Photoshop basics. LoRes lecture. LoRes icon assigned.

Week 2 – Pixel pushing

Tuesday January 23rd. Animated GIF tutorial. Animated GIF assigned. LoRes Icon due.

Thursday January 25th. Work on animated GIF

Week 3 Isometric Museum

Tuesday January 30th. Animated GIF due. Isometric drawing tutorial. Pixel Museum assigned.

Thursday February 1st Work in class on Pixel Museum.

Week 4 Web Design

Tuesday February 6th Pixel Museum due. Work in class on revisions.

Thursday February 8th Pixel Museum revisions due. Introduction to Text Wrangler. CSS and XHTML introduction. CSS template tweak assigned.

Week 5 Web design 2

Tuesday February 13th CSS template tweak due. CSS positioning. Bad Webpage assigned.
Thursday February 15th Bad webpage due. Graphic design for n00bs. Webpage mockup assigned.

Week 6 Web design 3

Tuesday February 20th- Web specific design issues. Webpage mockup critique. Webpage assigned

Thursday February 22nd – CSS and XHTML review. Visiting Artist Animal Charm

Week 7

Tuesday February 27th. Work on webpages. Register Domains assigned.

Thursday March 1st. Work on webpages. Domains registration due

Week 8 Collage

Tuesday March 6th Webpages due. Sound Art lecture. Introduction to Audio editing software. Cut-up assigned

Thursday March 8th Cut-ups due. Jason Brown lecture on “Mnemotechnnics and Symptomology”

Week 9 Spring Break

Tuesday March 13th. Vacation, yay!
Thursday March 15th. Vacation, yay!

Week 10 Sound art

Tuesday March 20th History of Collage lecture. Collage assigned
Thursday March 22nd. Work on Collage.

Week 11 Soundscape

Tuesday March 27th. Collage due. Battle of the loops assigned.

Thursday March 29th. Collage revision due. Work on loops.

Week 12

Tuesday April 3rd: Battle of the loops contest

Thursday April 5th: Advanced Audio editing tutorial. Soundscape assigned

Week 13

Tuesday April 10th Work on Soundscape.

Thursday April 12th Soundscape due. Soundscape Critique.

Week 14 Avante Garde Power Point

Tuesday April 19th: Soundscape revision due. Avante Garde Power Point assigned

Thursday April 20th: Work on Avante Garde Power Point

Week 15

Tuesday April 24th: Work on Avante Garde Power Point

Thursday April 26th: Present Avante Garde Power Point

Week 16

Tuesday May 1st Final presentation party with both sections