Department of Art and Art History Pomona College
Fall Semester 2007
Monday and Wednesday 1:15 PM – 4:00 PM
Professor: Mark Allen
Email: (obsessive usage) mark.allen@pomona.edu
AIM: (intermittent usage): mayormcmallen
Room: 104 Rembrandt
Office hours 3-5pm Wednesday or by appointment
Course Overview:
Introduction to Digital Art is a broad, hands on survey of computer based art production. Technologies covered are Photoshop, web programming using HTML and CSS, sound editing and video editing. Students are encouraged to develop their own solutions and approaches to a wide variety of assisgnments. Collaboration is encouraged and occasionally mandatory.
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 and Jason 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 and video editing 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 three lates counting as an absence.
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. Flash Drives are cheap, buy a couple. 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.
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.
Pixel Icons
Animated Gif
Bad webpage
Webpage mockup
CSS positioning
Noise to Nice
projects 10 points each
Pixel Architecture
Webpage
Collage
Soundscape
Exquisite Video Corpse
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
participation 20 points
Show up. Talk.
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 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.
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Weekly outline
(details may shift, please consult darpa.pomona.edu for weekly updates)
Class 1 - Tuesday January 22nd Introduction and syllabus. Account setup. Class notes.
Class 2 - Thursday January 24th Photoshop basics. LoRes icon assigned.
Class 3 - January 29 Animated GIF tutorial. Animated GIF assigned. LoRes Icon due.
Class 4 - January 31 Animated GIF due. Isometric drawing tutorial. Pixel Architecture assigned.
Class 5 - February 5 Work in class on Pixel building
Class 6 - February 7 Pixel building due. Critique. Web orientation lecture.
Class 7 - February 12 Introduction to Text Wrangler. CSS and XHTML introduction. Bad website assigned
Class 8 - February 14 Visiting artist Ben Benjamin. Bad webpage due. Graphic design for n00bs. Webpage mockup assigned.
Class 9 - February 19 webpage mockup critique.
Class 10 - February 21 CSS positioning. css positioning homework in class. Begin programming webpage
Class 11 - February 26 CSS and XHTML review. Work on webpage in class.
Class 12 - February 28 Work on webpage in class. Lolcode lecture
Class 13 - March 4 Webpage due.
Class 14 - March 6 Visiting artist Kelly Sears. Basic compositing lecture. Collage assigned.
Class 15 - March 11 Visiting artist Kimberly Varella. Work on collage
Class 16 - March 13 Collage due. Critique.
Spring Break
Class 17 - March 25 Soldering workshop!
Class 18 - March 27 Visiting artist Sara Roberts. Introduction to sound editing. Noise to Nice assignment.
Class 19 - April 1st Advanced Audio editing tutorial. Soundscape assigned. Noise to Nice due.
Class 20 - April 3rd Anthony McCann Work on soundscape.
Class 21 - April 8th Soundscape due. Critique.
Class 22 - April 10th Jason Brown lecture.
Class 23 - April 15 Introduction to video editing. Video Dominos assigned
Class 24 - April 17 November 28 Video input and output. Work on Video Dominos
Class 25 - April 22 Video Dominos due. Exquisite Video Corpse assigned
Class 26 - April 24 December 5 Work on Exquisite Video Corpse
Class 27 - April 29 December 10 Critique Exquisite Video Corpse
Class 28 - May 1 December 12 Final Screening
Class 29 - May 6 December 12 Final Screening