Joseph Michael Kramer

This team-taught, introductory course provides a foundation for most additional coursework in the Art and Technology Studies department. Students are given a broad interdisciplinary grounding in the skills, concepts, and hands-on experiences they will need to engage the potentials of new technologies in art making. Every other week, a lecture and discussion group exposes students to concepts of electronic media, perception, inter-media composition, emerging venues, and other issues important to artists working with technologically based media. Students will attend a morning & afternoon section each day to gain hands-on experience with a variety of forms and techniques central to technologically-based art making.

This class goes beyond the idea of ?surround sound? to consider the possibilities and challenges inherent in presenting sonic compositions to listeners through something other than the default left and right loudspeakers. From the spatial illusions of stereo and ambisonic arrays to tiny, tinny speaker fields, techniques for designing and experiencing multichannel, spatialized sound work will be explored. Emphasis will be given to emerging technologies and experimental techniques. DIY approaches and accessible tools, such as those available for VR sound, will be explored on the path to a practice that foregrounds the presentation of sound in space. A case for mono will be considered. Some of the artists whose work we will explore include Janet Cardiff, Natasha Barrett, Iannis Xenakis, Florian Hecker, and Tristan Perich. Readings will include artist statements as well as technical manuals for relevant tools. Weekly assignments are designed to emphasize specific technical or aesthetic concerns such as issues of electronic and acoustic power, multichannel playback formats, spatial audio in virtual reality, audience experience and the ?sweet spot?. One to two portfolio projects will be created and presented in class in two formal critiques.

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 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.

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.