Art and Technology Studies: Courses

This course gives students a unique opportunity to explore this contemporary and living art form from the inside out. Emphasis is placed on the adaptation of technologies and techniques to the search for an authentic personal voice. The class introduces students to various Hip Hop production techniques, including both hardware and software. Students attain an understanding of the aesthetic differences from region to region in the United States as well as various parts of Europe. Rappers, DJs, and Producers are welcome!!

This team-taught, introductory studio course is the foundation for intermediate and advanced courses in the Art and Technology Studies department. Students are given the broad interdisciplinary grounding in the skills, concepts, and hands-on experiences that they will need to engage the potentials of modern technologies in digital art-making. Students are introduced to an in-depth understanding of electronics and how to integrate motors and sensors into their artistic practice. In addition, they learn how to solder basic circuits, control motors and design moving elements before integrating Arduino technology and other open source hardware and software into a final robotic and/or responsive object.

This course examines neon techniques used in both traditional and current sign making and their application in creating artworks. Contemporary technical developments are explored.

This class will be an exploration of the electric light as an art medium. Through the demonstration of various electric light technologies the student will learn both the traditional use of lighting and installation and also an experimental approach to lighting that will produce unexpected visual effects. Students may work in individual or group projects that will span the range of light use from architectural design to performance as well as merging with other media such as sound.

What are the concerns that drive one's creative practice? How does one set the terms for its future development? This course offers strategies for the evaluation and communication of students' individual practice as artists, designers and/or scholars. Through essential readings, studio projects, and writing, students will generate narratives about how and why they make art. To do so, they will investigate methods (visual, critical, written, and creative) for the reconsideration of their work and of its aims and priorities. Individual mentoring with the faculty member is a central and dedicated component of the class as a means of fostering the self-identification of goals and priorities. Students will also examine historical and contemporary precedents that relate to their own work in order to consider the ways in which their individual explorations can be brought into dialogue with other perspectives. Students participate in broad ranging discussions about the present status and future prospects of art and design through workshops, dialogues, and collaborations both in the class and in SAIC-wide conversations with other Sophomore Studio Seminars. An important function of this course is to build upon these insights in forming a practical plan that helps students effectively map the curriculum and resources of SAIC into their own needs. For more information see http://blogs.saic.edu/sophseminar/

This course explores the use of radio, light and sound as media through which an artist can create a public voice. This course takes a hands-on, do-it-yourself approach to these media, providing a basic background in electronics theory and practice, as well as in programming and use of microcontrollers. Topics covered in this course include, but are not limited to, low-power radio, locative media, hactivism and culture-jamming. Some examples of activities include the construction of AM/FM radio transmitters and receivers, laser projectors, persistence-of-vision displays and mobile audio rigs. A survey of the artistic significance of these media will be conducted throughout the course. Students are expected to research and present their findings in class, as well as to produce a personal or collaborative final project that augments their own practices.

DIY has become a widespread movement in the artistic community. Modifying, tinkering, tweaking and downright hijacking have become a commonplace practice among today?s artists. Many everyday electronic objects are yearning to be liberated from their banal existences. This course explores readily available materials with a goal of bringing out the hidden aesthetic potentials of electronic devices. Students dig beneath the shiny surfaces to uncover underlying workings, principles and mechanisms. Class projects result in new artworks by reanimating the physical presences and behaviors of the reassembled artifact.

This course covers the fundamentals of programming computers to control and generate music and sound compositions. It offers a general overview of specific programming strategies for the generation of sequences of events, and for generating and manipulating temporal information. Generative techniques based on approaches utilizing stochastic and other indeterminate approaches, as well as deterministic models are covered. Historical and theoretic approaches to the use of 'automatic' generative systems for composition are reviewed. Special emphasis is placed upon the use of programs for live performance, the interfacing of alternate controllers via MIDI, and hybrid physical/computational systems. All programming will be done in Max/MSP and Supercollider II.

This course explores programmatic approaches to sound creation using softwares such as PureData, SuperCollider, Processing, and more, as well as looking at sound libraries in programming languages such as Python. While intended primarily for sound artists looking to go beyond programs like Max/MSP it is also appropriate for anyone interested in code based sound, including web design, game creation, glitch artists, etc.

Few artists can become experts in every system and language necessary for their work, but that is no reason to limit creative vision. Students can join with screen-based, responsive or electronic projects already in mind or develop projects during the course. Stuents develop the ability to evaluate their programming needs and learn to confidently teach themselves to use and connect the specific components they need.

In this studio course the concept of network will be introduced and applied to the design of communication networks for everyday objects. The course implies no previous experience of computers, rather it will introduce students to methods for creating conceptual models of a network, and will introduce the use of the computer to simulate everyday objects communicating on the network model. Forms of communication will be explored based upon object characteristics. Object designs will be modified to include networking, which will impact the properties and behaviors of the objects. Using multiple computers and moving them around, students will study the impact of space on situated networks, and the impact of networks on different spaces. In the final project students will design a space, a network for the space, and the objects that inhabit the space/network, showing how each of three design has a working relationship with the others.

Writing in the twenty-first century is computational, writes literary critic N. Katherine Hayles. While this is true, she explains, of any work that uses digital software as its production environment before being output to print, it is particularly evident in works of electronic literature that are designed to be encountered on the computer screen. The practitioner of electronic writing is an author who combines human language and computer code to create new kinds of literary experience. Works of electronic literature can exceed the possibilities of print in their scale, dynamic variability, visual and temporal qualities, and attentiveness to the reader. The environment of the network (internet) also provides new opportunities for collaboration and sampling of found material. In this writing studio, we will survey varied forms of electronic literature including interactive hypertext / hypermedia, multi-user environments, codeworks, e-poetry, writing for virtual reality, and text-driven digital performance. Students will engage the potential of computational literature by creating original works using a variety of web-based programming languages taught in the weekly sessions. No previous programming experience is required.

This transdisciplinary studio course explores visual research, and emphasizes tools, techniques, and aesthetic approaches to digital imaging, illustration, and motion graphics. Students are introduced to established software packages as well as programming approaches to generating material for multimedia works. Tools covered in this course involve the Adobe Creative Suite, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects, and the Processing environment. Students are encouraged to experiment, while transforming and refining their ideas and visual research through a sequence of multimedia screen-based projects that build in scope and complexity. Projects focus on the development of visual systems that integrate concept through color, line, form, image, text, and media in meaningful and compelling ways.

This course is offered for those students interested in developing skills in the creation and application of digital audio. Using Apple's Logic software, students interested in exploring sound or music are introduced to audio manipulation techniques that allow them to create soundtracks, to record and produce songs or dance tracks, realize abstract sound pieces or manipulate sound for installations. Techniques of sound manipulation are introduced, including audio recording and editing, looping, and sound destruction. MIDI, drum programming, the use of software synthesis and basic music and composition techniques are addressed according to the needs of individual students. The class is structured to encourage the interaction of students with a wide range of technical ability in audio from beginners to advanced artists in the early stages of a professional practice.

This course is offered for those students interested in developing skills in the creation and application of digital audio. Using Apple's Logic software, students interested in exploring sound or music are introduced to audio manipulation techniques that allow them to create soundtracks, to record and produce songs or dance tracks, realize abstract sound pieces or manipulate sound for installations. Techniques of sound manipulation are introduced, including audio recording and editing, looping, and sound destruction. MIDI, drum programming, the use of software synthesis and basic music and composition techniques are addressed according to the needs of individual students. The class is structured to encourage the interaction of students with a wide range of technical ability in audio from beginners to advanced artists in the early stages of a professional practice.

This class will explore strategies and techniques for using emerging technology to create and convey stories in new ways, with particular focus on combining narratives and interaction. We will investigate the related formats and critical concepts in contemporary media art. Can a complex narrative be conveyed in a non-linear experience? How can interaction shape a narrative? How do new technologies change how and what we communicate? How does programmatically controlled medium enable new ways of telling? How does the viewer construct the narrative from representational, performative or procedural clues? Class meetings consist of a combination of artistic production and creative research -- reading, lectures, critiques and discussions. During the semester students will create smaller-scope projects and a more refined final project. The class will meet as a group for critiques and individually for work-in-progress consultations.

This course focuses on wearables and 'soft' computing as a vehicle for subversion and artistic appropriation. Readings emphasize theoretical discourse on the relationships of the body, technology, fashion, social interactions and environment. Concepts are developed, designed and prototyped into working pieces by participants addressing personal expression and social dialog. Soft circuits (conductive paint, fabric, etc), new and recycled materials are explored in the development of expressive computational forms.

Once a centralized, monolithic system, the computer has shrunk and transformed itself into the mobile, wireless devices that ride in our pockets. Smart-phones and tablets with built-in web browsers, cameras, GPS trackers and a growing list of sensors, 'smart' badges and clothes, all are components of an emerging area of so-called ubiquitous computing. In marketing rhetoric and in actuality, these technologies have the potential to alter the way we think about space in paradoxical ways elevating the personal space of the individual, celebrating constant movement in physical space, while erasing the distinctions between geographic locales. These technologies offer new possibilities for artists, a mode of presentation that is intimate and personal, a tool for creating networks, a way to explore the boundaries between physical and virtual spaces. Students explore ways to create art with wireless devices and networks as they are introduced to programming tools for wireless platforms.

In BioArt studio students participate in classroom exercises and individual projects exploring the manipulation of living matter. Rudimentary procedures serve as departure points for study of more sophisticated and advanced techniques utilized by artists as well as commercial entities. Subject matter includes core concepts of Food, Fuel and Fun. Specific activities include plant cloning, DNA extraction, gel electrophoresis, microbial culturing and bioinformatics analysis among others. No previous laboratory experience required.

Teaches the design, construction and programming of robotic projects, both artworks and designed objects, such as interactive furniture, objects, and habitable spaces. Topics to be covered include sensors, embedded micro-controllers, and motor control, lighting, etc. Student projects ranging from embedded interactive devices to autonomous spatial object-scaled, will be designed and built with a critical approach to normal market forces and human factors. Discussions investigate a range of robotic endeavors, examining connections with related fields such as interaction design, artificial intelligence, kinetic sculpture, etc., and critically examine works embodying these strategies.

The ever-increasing excess of online data has led to a proliferation of creative practices formulated around the collection, analysis, and sculpting of cultural materials. In this studio, we will engage with large bodies of content culled from archived and live information sources such as databases, search engines, media repositories, and social networks. Experiments will be informed by inquiries into historical archives and systems including libraries, memory theaters, astronomical clocks, and the stock exchange. Using contemporary web programming techniques that simplify real-time data acquisition and representation, we will attempt to give aesthetic form to human experience within worlds of information. Only basic HTML knowledge is required for the course (SAIC Wired: Culture and Community on the WWW, Web Art, or permission of instructor).

Public Light &Space examines concepts and develops plans for art projects based on light, space and public interaction. The projects are conceptualized and planned in response to the opportunities afforded by specific locations on campus. The course investigates concepts and understandings of public space and the history of art in public spaces. The class offers a critical examination of the active role played by light and its dynamics in selected art movements. Particular attention is focused on elements such as digital light projection, controlled light sources, and light-responsive materials. A series of technical workshops builds proficiency in all of these areas, and lends strong support to the development of the final, publicly exhibited projects. Visiting artists and critics assist in refining the project ideas as they are being chosen and developed.

This interdisciplinary studio course is designed for students who have a high level of art-making experience who are wishing to explore the possibilities of the medium of light, either as an enrichment to their present artistic direction or in new explorations. The illusionary aspects of light and its ability to define or distort space is investigated through models or environmental scale work. Light enhancement for both 3-D and 2-D art is included, with an emphasis on creating virtual physical spaces often incorporating aspects of motion, real or implied. The course will be tailored to individual interests. Lectures may include a variety of technical matters including air brushing, construction techniques, and electric light hardware and its control.

Immersive Environments is a studio course focused on setting up interactive, head and hand tracked, dynamic, collaborative, stereoscopic, three dimensional computer graphic spaces for large format displays such as the CAVE. The class will cover the necessary programming, modeling, interaction, and audio components to start mastering this digital craft. Through the course, we will consider various artworks realized in Virtual Reality as well as other immersive devices and mixed reality settings, and how they inform public consciousness of mental spaces. Accompanying readings are but a sample of current endeavors meant to open up a common discourse from where to discuss issues of immersion and human experience, such as metaphors of space, dynamic form in three dimensions, perception and representation, simulation, information, mapping, embodiment, and telepresence.

Art Games considers computer based games as New Media artworks and art as a game-like system. Computer-based games constitute a significant form of new screen media and cultural activity. Artists work with game-like structures and approaches to create New Media projects. Students will play, discuss and develop art games that share relationships to forms of gameplay from text-based adventure games to first-person shooters, strategy games and simulators to conceptual games of chance. This advanced level studio course enables students to hack, modify, and critique existing games, and independently author games as New Media artworks.

This course gives students a unique opportunity to explore this contemporary and living art form from the inside out. Emphasis is placed on the adaptation of technologies and techniques to the search for an authentic personal voice. The class introduces students to various Hip Hop production techniques, including both hardware and software. Students attain an understanding of the aesthetic differences from region to region in the United States as well as various parts of Europe. Rappers, DJs, and Producers are welcome!!

This course examines neon techniques used in both traditional and current sign making and their application in creating artworks. Contemporary technical developments are explored.

This course introduces the latest open-source options for designing dynamic content-management system based websites. Open-source software such as Drupal is now in use to create websites ranging in scope from small portfolio sites by individual artists to large user-based websites used by colleges and other large organizations. With this software, it is possibleto create dynamic websites, easy to edit and update, that allow easy integration of such features as user-logins, various levels of access for various types of users, user feedback and blogging, ecommerce, as well as dynamic content creation of all sorts. This course introduces the basics of the various concepts and structures involved in using dynamic content management software, and students implement a wide variety of website models via small assignments and tutorials in order to gain mastery over the various possibilities. Students each create a live website as a final project. A familiarity with HTML and visual design assumed.

This course focuses on wearables and 'soft' computing as a vehicle for subversion and artistic appropriation. Readings emphasize theoretical discourse on the relationships of the body, technology, fashion, social interactions and environment. Concepts are developed, designed and prototyped into working pieces by participants addressing personal expression and social dialog. Soft circuits (conductive paint, fabric, etc), new and recycled materials are explored in the development of expressive computational forms.

This team-taught, introductory studio course is the foundation for intermediate and advanced courses in the Art and Technology Studies department. Students are given the broad interdisciplinary grounding in the skills, concepts, and hands-on experiences that they will need to engage the potentials of modern technologies in digital art-making. Students are introduced to an in-depth understanding of electronics and how to integrate motors and sensors into their artistic practice. In addition, they learn how to solder basic circuits, control motors and design moving elements before integrating Arduino technology and other open source hardware and software into a final robotic and/or responsive object.

This team-taught, introductory studio course is the foundation for intermediate and advanced courses in the Art and Technology Studies department. Students are given the broad interdisciplinary grounding in the skills, concepts, and hands-on experiences that they will need to engage the potentials of modern technologies in digital art-making. Students are introduced to an in-depth understanding of electronics and how to integrate motors and sensors into their artistic practice. In addition, they learn how to solder basic circuits, control motors and design moving elements before integrating Arduino technology and other open source hardware and software into a final robotic and/or responsive object.

This course examines neon techniques used in both traditional and current sign making and their application in creating artworks. Contemporary technical developments are explored.

While there has been neon animation almost as long as there has been neon, the technology has, until recently, been unchanged. Until the advent of simple microprocessors and solid state transformers, the potential remained untapped. Students learn basic programming and circuit design skills with an emphasis on time and motion studies.

This course offers an exploration of computer-aided design and manufacture from concept and modeling through file creation and cutting processes, and addresses the aesthetic and critical concerns of its use in an artistic context. Using professional software and a state of the art four-axis CNC milling machine, students ranging from artists and beyond can build the elements of detailed models, fabricate a range of finished objects, or even create entire pieces. Class sessions will include hands-on tutorials in the use of software and machinery, examination and critique of art and design utilizing this technology, and class discussions informed by reading assignments. Students are REQUIRED to have a personal laptop.

This transdisciplinary studio course explores visual research, and emphasizes an introduction to tools, techniques, and aesthetic approaches to computer-based 3D graphics for use in a range of screen-based scenarios and platforms including motion graphics, game engines, augmented reality, and interactive media. Using Autodesk Maya software and developing technologies, students are introduced to the basics of 3D graphic techniques including modeling, materials, mapping, lighting, and rendering. Students produce a series of 3D works. Projects focus on the conditions and constraints for creating simulated photographic images, developing motion graphic sequences, and integrating 3D assets in virtual environments.

A rapidly increasing variety of objects in everyday life are acquiring an awareness of their environments, a repertoire of behaviors, and the ability to communicate with other objects, their owners, or, through networks, with more comprehensive integrated systems. This class explores the design processes, skills, and tools necessary to thrive in this exciting creative domain. The course incorporates substantial hands-on development experience in a lab environment. Students will conceptualize, prototype, and build working objects that respond to and cooperate with their owners and with each other.

Light is a material that can be shaped to express ideas, create experiences and increase the communicative potential of objects and spaces. Through a combination of lectures, demos, fields trips and most of all, hands-on lab work, students develop a degree of self sufficiency in the design, construction and prototyping of illuminated objects, physical graphics and environmental lighting. Students learn basic electronic and electrical circuit design, lamp specification and experiment with illumination technologies including incandescent, LED and cold cathode (neon).

This course embraces the concept of projection as a broad field of art practice. Beginning with the camera obscura, the course investigates the long series of projection related practices that continue to this day to shape the parameters of visual perception and communication. Deconstructing the concept of the screen, the course focuses on projection in sculptural and installation contexts. After Effects and other digital media software are used in unorthodox ways to shape visual elements for digital projection. Installation exercises investigate the interactions of projections with objects and spaces.

This course will provide an introduction to programming for sound synthesis and real-time performance using the Max/MSP and Supercollider II languages. Students will learn the basic structures, strategies, concepts, and vocabularies of these two languages in order to prepare them for using these techniques within other sound department courses.

The objective is to build virtual environments that incorporate 3D space, ambient/reactive audio, interactivity, weather, life forms, and/or objectives. Students develop the virtual space as an art practice in support of games space. The class introduces the Unity3D authoring tool and covers content production using 3D rendering in Maya, audio in Puredata/Max/MSP as well as on-site audio and recordings. Students are introduced to programming for Unity. We review the work of artists and game designers from Marcel Duchamp, to James Tai (Saints Row 2). The course begins with introductions to possibilities in virtual environments, ultimately focusing on the skills necessary to complete individual project(s).

Electronics can be a kind of language that, when an artist becomes fluent in it, opens doors to numerous aesthetic possibilities. Students will learn the basic principles of electronics along with hands-on techniques for putting the power of electrons into their work. They will be introduced to electronic components and circuits for switching, sensing, making decisions, and, to a limited degree, linking to computers. Students will encounter digital and analog answers to some of the most common art-making needs, gaining a foundation which will enable them to continue to expand their repertoire of aesthetic technological skills.

Constructing art objects that incorporate real or apparent motion often requires skills in a number of areas: physical shaping and fastening of elements, linking them to an actuator (such as a motor), and controlling the motion, most typically through electronics. This course will give students a grounding in all these techniques as well as initiate a discussion of some of the problems and possibilities inherent in the aesthetic use of motion.

This course is offered for those students interested in developing skills in the creation and application of digital audio. Using Apple's Logic software, students interested in exploring sound or music are introduced to audio manipulation techniques that allow them to create soundtracks, to record and produce songs or dance tracks, realize abstract sound pieces or manipulate sound for installations. Techniques of sound manipulation are introduced, including audio recording and editing, looping, and sound destruction. MIDI, drum programming, the use of software synthesis and basic music and composition techniques are addressed according to the needs of individual students. The class is structured to encourage the interaction of students with a wide range of technical ability in audio from beginners to advanced artists in the early stages of a professional practice.

This course is offered for those students interested in developing skills in the creation and application of digital audio. Using Apple's Logic software, students interested in exploring sound or music are introduced to audio manipulation techniques that allow them to create soundtracks, to record and produce songs or dance tracks, realize abstract sound pieces or manipulate sound for installations. Techniques of sound manipulation are introduced, including audio recording and editing, looping, and sound destruction. MIDI, drum programming, the use of software synthesis and basic music and composition techniques are addressed according to the needs of individual students. The class is structured to encourage the interaction of students with a wide range of technical ability in audio from beginners to advanced artists in the early stages of a professional practice.

This studio course investigates the creative possibilities in programming, from interactivity to information visualization. Students explore interactive narratives and games, software art, simulations and emergent behaviors, and other code-based forms. Lectures and demonstrations provide a conceptual, aesthetic and technical foundation in programming as a creative practice. Techniques and concepts are presented through the open-source programming environment Processing, with an introduction to advanced topics such as C++ and OpenFrameworks.

With the introduction of World Wide Web (WWW) browsers to the Internet, a whole new potential venue has emerged for artists. In this course, students will learn the Hypertext Mark-Up Language (HTML), which is the basis of WWW authoring. Students will learn to integrate text, images, sound, and video into their own web page, which they will create. Also, newer developments such as Java, and any other up-to-date concepts and possibilities for networked hypertext authoring will be introduced. Potential overall format and conceptual frameworks for developing a web site will be investigated, and ways of subverting the traditional web page format in order to create unique approaches to the dynamics of the web will be explored. This course is a valuable preparation for advanced courses such as the Telecommunication Arts course.

With the continuing ubiquity of physical computing and advances in wearable technologies, artists can bring new media art into expanding landscapes. This course examines ideas of nature and technology via Chicago's urban ecosystem, starting with on-site explorations within the Park District and public landscapes. Workshops focus on sensing and interfacing with the environment, implementing the arduino and the lily pad, and various methods of information storage/transmission. Critical readings, research and discussions about evolving ideas of landscape and environment support student work. Final projects employ new media techniques to interface with the urban ecosystems.

New technologies are constantly being introduced which impact the possibilities and the context for art making. This course allows students to investigate the impact and possibilities which a specific technology or personal approach offers by working directly with an artist who is actively exploring that specific new medium, method, or idea in their own work. The medium, methods, and ideas presented will vary depending on the instructor. Students will make use of the techniques and methodology covered in the course to produce their own artwork.

This class examines and experiments with cutting-edge technologies for creating interactive 3D virtual objects and images. Students build up internal links between software, such as MAX/MSP/Jitter and MAYA, and hardware such as sensors, Arduino and webcam to make interactive virtual installations. Students make OBJ model, 3D lighting/texture, and rendered images respond to the viewers' movement, sounds, and time.

This project-based course is geared for students interested in exploring motion, mechanics and kinetic systems within the scope of their current making practice. Students are exposed to a range of strategies to make things move, from industrial control systems to DIY components. They are assisted in formulating their own unique fabrication methods appropriate to their current and evolving project ideas.

Students dissect, expand, subvert, and critique computer games to develop new hybrid forms of interactive art. Beyond alluring graphics and fast reflexes, computer games often operate as stories, as simulations, or as social events. Screenings and examples in class analyze the language and structure of computer games, and the ways artists can use them to manifest new content. Technical workshops introduce methods of hacking games, building interactive artworks with game engines, and deploying them on both PCs and virtual reality environments.

Experimental Media introduces graduate students to the basic strategies and techniques associated with using experimental media such as robotics, microcontrollers, networked objects, and basic interactivity.