INTERACTIVE MEDIA ART
Language of Instruction: English Professor: Roc Parés Professor’s Contact and Office Hours: [email protected] Course Contact Hours: 30 hours Recommended Credit: 4 ECTS credits Weeks: 2 Course Prerequisites: None Language Requirements: English
Course Description: Organized and conducted as a workshop, this course focuses on the Contemporary Art practices known as Interactive Media Art. Strategically situated at the intersection of the Arts, Humanities, Science, Technology and Society, Interactive Media Arts offer a privileged field from which the Human Condition can be re-examined. The interdisciplinary nature of this subject will allow students from any field of endeavour to bring their own personal knowledge, skills and perspectives into discussion, into class activities and into their own course project. The expected outcome of the course is a personal project which will be developed, completed, presented and evaluated within the two-week course. The process will be structured in the following six interrelated stages: Education, Research, Experimentation, Production, Dissemination and Reception. Evaluation will consider both the creative process and the final presentation. Assessment criteria will be adapted to each particular project, but will contemplate the formal, conceptual, contextual and relational aspects of the interactive art works produced.
Learning Objectives: • To learn how to enjoy the vast diversity of non-conventional discourse strategies and participation modes which are emerging in Interactive Media Art.
• To expand the notion of the artist beyond the role of “producer” and to assume the challenges of being an interdisciplinary cultural agent.
• To intensify our own artistic practice by connecting it through local and global networks.
Course Workload The course is divided into lectures, discussions, and practice-based art research. Students should be prepared to engage in group discussion and most especially about their own process.
Methods of Instruction: Our computer equipped classroom will be the place for case-study, discussion and practice-based art research. Each session will start with the presentation of an art project related to one of the five topics in our Syllabus. These presentations will be conducted by the professor and will be followed by discussion. The second part of each session will be organized as an art workshop in which each student will be developing a personal art project reflecting on the mediation of human relations through computers and networks. The professor will follow the progress of all the projects from their inception to their final presentation on the last day of the course.
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Method of Assessment Course Project 85% (50% process + 35% final presentation) Class participation 15%
Absence Policy
Attending class is mandatory and will be monitored daily by professors. The impact of absences on the final grade is as follows:
Absences Penalization Up to one (1) absences No penalization. Two (2) absences 1 point subtracted from final grade (on a 10 point scale) Three (3) absences The student receives an INCOMPLETE for the course
The BISS attendance policy does not distinguish between justified or unjustified absences. The student is deemed responsible to manage his/her absences.
Emergency situations (hospitalization, family emergency, etc.) will be analyzed on a case by case basis by the Academic Director of the UPF Summer School.
Classroom Norms:
· No food or drink is permitted. · There will be a ten-minute break during the class. · Students must come to class fully prepared.
Course Contents:
Week 1 Computer Interfaces as Art. Interactive art and digital networks.
Session 1 Course description (Mon, July st) Syllabus, assessment, readings and viewings Introduction to “Interactive Media Art”. Viewing and class discussion: “Hyperreality” (2017), by Keiichi Matsuda. From contemplation to participation. Interactive art before computers Architecture as an interactive art. First assignment: Use the software of your choice to reproduce a special place from your childhood.
Session 2 From Human-Computer Interaction to Artificial Intelligence (Tues, July. 2nd) Viewing and class discussion: “Verbot.exe/Verbot.txt” (2000), by Roc Parés. Desktop multi-modal interaction I Viewing and class discussion: “Artintact 5” (1999), ZKM First assignment: Finish the reproduction of your room by adding sounds (sound effects, sound landscape, descriptions…). Finishing your first assignment.
Session 3 Desktop multi-modal interaction II (Wed, July. 3rd) Reading and class discussion: “Realtime art manifesto” (2006), by Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn http://www.tale-of-tales.com/tales/RAM.html Presentation and discussion about your first assignment. Interactive art and digital networks Viewing and class discussion: net.art anthology https://anthology.rhizome.org/ Second assignment: Adapting the result of your first assignment to be shared on the WWW.
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Session 4 Remote participation in art (Thu, July. 4th) Viewing and class discussion: “Our (remote) selves” (2013) and “La vecindad” (2006), by Roc Parés. Socially Engaged Art Viewing and class discussion: “megafone.net” (2004-2014), by Antoni Abad. Second assignment: Sharing the result of your first assignment on the WWW. Assessing your work around cooperation and cocreation.
Session 5 Second assignment presentation and discussion. (Fri, July. 5th)
Week 2 Interactive art installations
Session 6 Augmented Reality Art and Locative Media Art (Mon, July. 8th) Viewing and class discussion: “Deriva” (2010), by Roc Parés. “Chronica Mobilis” (2014), by Vanessa Santos. “Blind.Wiki” (2014-2018), by Antoni Abad. Biggâr (2010), by Sander Veenhof. Final assignment: Prototype your project’s display.
Session 7 Mixed and Virtual Reality Art: worlds and selves (Tues, July. 9th) Viewing and class discussion: “Lightpools or El Ball del Fanalet” (1998), by Perry Hoberman and Galeria Virtual. “Babble. The Virtual Tower of Babbel” (1995-96), by Màrius Serra and Galeria Virtual. Final assignment: Prototype your project’s display.
Session 8 Robots in art (Wed, July. 10th) Viewing and class discussion: “His Master’s Voice” (2007), “Pétanque Électronique” (2007) and “Self&Other” (2015), by Roc Parés. Final assignment: Prototype your project’s display.
Session 9 Final Project: last workshop day (Thu, July. 11th) Finish your work and get ready for tomorrow’s Final Project presentations.
Session 10 Final Project Presentations (Fri, July. 12th) Final Project Presentations Closing remarks.
Required Viewing:
Ars Electronica, Linz http://aec.at Catalonia in Venice 2017 http://blind.wiki/venice GridSpinoza https://gridspinoza.net/en Rhizome http://rhizome.org/ ZKM, Karlsruhe http://zkm.de
Recommended bibliography:
Santos, V (2017). Doctoral Thesis Research: Designing Mobile Narratives - discursive strategies and participation modes in Locative Media Art. Hipertext.net, n. 15, p. 74-83. DOI: 10.2436/20.8050.01.48
Stott, Tim. Play and participation in contemporary arts practices. New York : Routledge, 2015.
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Parés, Roc. "Cybernetic nightmares, Google street ghosts, Dispersed bodies, Death media archeology and Carbon monoxide poisoning. ." In media art. TOWARDS A NEW DEFINITION OF ARTS IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGY, edited by Valentino Catricalà, 143-150. Rome: Copyright © 2015 Fondazione Mondo Digitale per l’edizione Gli Ori, 2015.
Thompson, Nato (editor). Living as Form. Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011. Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 2014.
Parés, Roc, Gerard Goggin, Kimberly Sawchuk, Pablo La Parra Pérez, Alberto López Cuenca, Jorge Morales, Eliezer Muniz dos Santos, and Mery Cuesta. Antoni Abad. megafone.net/2004-2014, Edited by Roc Parés. Madrid: AC/E, MACBA, TURNER, 2014.
Parés, Narcís, Anna Carreras, Jaume Durany, Jaume Ferrer, Pere Freixa, David Gómez, Orit Kruglanski, Roc Parés, J. Ignasi Ribas, Miquel Soler et al. "Starting Research in Interaction Design with Visuals for Low Functioning PAS Children." CyberPsychology & Behavior 9, no. 2 (2006).
Latour, Bruno. Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford university press, 2005.
Parés, Narcís, Anna Carreras, Jaume Durany, Jaume Ferrer, Pere Freixa, David Gómez, Orit Kruglanski, Roc Parés, J. Ignasi Ribas, Miquel Soler et al. "Promotion of Creative Activity in Children with Severe Autism Through Visuals in an Interactive Multisensory Environment." In Proceedings of the 2005 Conference on Interaction Design and Children, 110-116. IDC '05. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2005.
Parés, Narcís, and Roc Parés. "Interaction-Driven Virtual Reality Application Design (A Particular Case: El Ball Del Fanalet or Lightpools)." Presence: Teleoper. Virtual Environ. 10 (2001): 236-245.
Last revised, December 2018
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