INTERMEDIA ARTS
FA 215 – Intermedia Studio, Introduction to digital video, motion and interactivity
Spring 2008
Instructor: Joel Tauber e-mail: [email protected] Office hours: email me for an appointment
215 Course Objective: An overview of Video Art, from 1970’s single-channel projects to current new-media oriented interactive and installation-based projects, will acquaint students with the medium of video, its relation to technology and its potential for interactivity in both analog performance and digital programming. To execute their own ideas, students will be trained to create work using the digital video camera, desktop editing and basic interactive programming.
Course Description: This introductory class will acquaint the students with the computer, the digital video camera, video editing via Final Cut Pro, video presentation via DVD Studio Pro, and basic interactivity via Flash as well as the processes of production, reproduction and presentation that help define and disseminate this media into culture. An overview of Video Art, from 1970’s single-channel projects to current new-media oriented interactive and installation-based work, will support your further understanding of the history and potential of this medium. Discussions, screenings and readings will help establish a strong fine art platform for considering how you might progress and experiment in this area of art-making. While providing a basic familiarity with digital video, desktop video production and interactivity, this course will also develop a critical and interdisciplinary framework for evaluating digital work on aesthetic terms. Students will formulate objectives for their art projects through a careful consideration of the implications of video and interactivity for their own aesthetic interests.
Required Materials Firewire external hard drive. The following drives are available at the bookstore and are recommended: LaCie mini Hard Drive & Hub 250GB, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 $99.99
LaCie mini Hard Drive & Hub 320GB, FireWire 400, Hi-Speed USB 2.0 $159.99
Video: 2 DVD-R (4.7GB, any brand) Mini DV tapes – source footage 1 CD-RW
Web: USC e-mail account
Student generated source materials
Required Books Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Hands-On Training Todd Perkins, Peach Pit Press ISBN: 0321509838
The Course Reader
Optional Book Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro 6 Diana Weynand, Peach Pit Press, 2007, ISBN: 0321502655
Grading Attendance Attendance will be taken at all meetings and is MANDATORY.
Your final grade can be dropped one full letter grade with 2 unexcused absences. 2 tardies = 1 absence. 4 unexcused absences can result in a failing grade.
Grade Breakdown 10% - Participation in Discussion of Readings, Critiques, and Screenings 10% - Tech Project 45% - Project 1 [prep 1 and 2 – 15% / final project – 30%] 35% - Project 2 [prep 1 – 10% / final project – 25%]
Projects: Projects are graded on the conceptual and aesthetic quality of finished work, technical/craft expertise, and conceptual and technical investment of time. No late assignments will be accepted.
Participation Your grade will be lowered if you do not actively and constructively participate in critiques. Your grade will be lowered if you do not come to class prepared to productively work on projects during open studio times.
Integrity policy Any student found guilty of plagiarism, fabrication, cheating on examinations, or purchasing papers or other assignments will immediately receive a failing grade in the course. There are no exceptions to this rule.
Students with Disabilities and Academic Accommodations Students requesting academic accommodations based on a disability are required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP when adequate documentation is filed. Please be sure the letter is delivered to the professor as early in the term as possible. DSP is open Monday through Friday, 8:30-5:00. The office is located in the Student Union room 301 and their phone number is 213-740-0776.
PROJECTS
Explanation of Grading
Project grades are determined based on your attention to and investment in the overall process of art-making. While the final product of your work will be the focal point of critiques and will be a major component of your grade, you must satisfy other criteria as well:
Conceptual Merit: Your projects should be interesting and well thought-out. They will be evaluated in terms of degree of ambition and complexity, and should also reflect a growing understanding of the art historical and theoretical concepts discussed in class.
Technical Execution and Effort: In addition to the overall level of skill you bring to your projects, they will be evaluated for the degree to which they answer the technical requirements of the assignment and the amount of in-class and out-of-class effort evident in the project.
Planning and Organization: Because the overall process is often the most challenging and innovative aspect of art-making, your project grade will take into account the level of thought and preparation of your work at each stage: from initial proposal, through the stages of work, to the presentation of the final piece. On-time and thorough presentations are a significant aspect of your final project grade. Your project preparation will also be considered in this component of your grade (see below).
TECHNICAL PROJECT
The technical project will require the class to split into groups of 3 students. Each group of students will work as a team in realizing the first assignment, which is to shoot three short and simple scenes. These scenes will be edited by each member of the group in different ways.
Each member of the three-person group will be responsible to shoot a scene that focuses on one of the following:
1) Physical Activity (Such as blinking, eating, running etc) 2) A local Place (Such as under a desk in Harris 220, in the elevator in Watt 6 etc) 3) Human-made Sound (Such as coughing, whistling, humming, talking…)
Be prepared on the technical shooting day of class to present your specific idea of what to shoot to the group. You will have to consider how you will use the camera to create different kinds of shots. Consider not only the content of each shot, but also the form.
This Technical Project will focus on technical learning including shooting, modes of camera movement, log and capture, basic editing, and exporting to QuickTime. Final technical projects will be presented for critique as an exported QuickTime file.
PROJECT 1 “PERSONAL/PUBLIC SELF”
Project Concept:
This project will be a personal and social investigation of self, considering the public self that results from identity politics (such as gender, race, class, religion or nationality), and the personal self that exists through internal truths and personal mythologies. Your goal is to create an in-depth exploration of both a personal understanding of self and a social understanding of self, through image, sound, language and action. This project does not have to be narrative, and you are encouraged to consider more nonlinear, abstract and experimental means of communication. Most important is that you carefully consider what kind of representation will best reveal your thoughts about identity and self-definition.
Project preparation (step 1)
Create a list of ten or more elements that help define who you are to yourself, and who you feel you are to society. These elements must include both the personal (such as a coveted object, a greatest phobia, or your dynamic with a parent) and broader social categories (such as what it means to inhabit your body/self as a member of a certain gender, race, religion, nationality). For each item you list, you must explain specifically why it is significant: why is it important to you, and what does it communicate to others about you?
This assignment is NOT a list of your favorite things. Rather, imagine that you are making a map of who you are and of the things that currently define that person to yourself and to the world. What’s important is that your list encompasses the full range of who and what you are, so that another person could accurately imagine you by reading your list.
Project preparation (step 2)
Following discussion with the instructor, you will choose 3-5 of your ten elements for further investigation. Your goal will be to illustrate how such an investigation would take place as a video, considering the roles of visuals, audio, time and movement. You will create a plan (this could include drawings, snap shots and written description) that outlines how you intend to approach your chosen elements and in what way you plan to have them work into a video piece.
Project specifications:
You will create a 5 – 10 minute video that captures 3 - 5 elements of self in the most creative and conceptually ambitious manner possible. This video will require that you carefully consider what approach to aesthetics, sound, time and movement will best communicate your ideas. Further, the project will require that you consider which video form is most appropriate for communicating the particular aspects of personal identity you wish to explore— documentary, fiction or abstraction…? Examples of such projects will be viewed in class to help you further understand the breadth of this form of expression. The final form of the video project will be burned to a DVD with a menu interface designed to relate to the project’s concept.
PROJECT 2 “INTERACTIVE SELF”
Project Concept:
This project calls for an interactive artwork that further explores the personal and public notions of self. You will design an interactive experience that allows the viewer to actively take part in your investigation of self. Consider how a viewer / user might navigate through and venture deeper into a map of who you are to yourself and who you feel you are to society. You will need to create more video footage for this project. You may also need to create sound, photo, text and animation components to create a rich and communicative work.
Project preparation
Create a flow chart that explores some aspect or aspects of your identity. Each level of the chart should lead the user through a process of further understanding, adding personal or societal meaning. What kind of representation of the self or aspect of the self makes sense for your starting point? What will branch off from this starting point? In your chart – and in your project – there must be at least 3 levels and 5 elements.
Your flow chart should not only take each element deeper in a linear way, but must also offer elements opportunities to combine with / link to other elements, allowing the user to move in multiple directions. Consider how these components relate to each other, and how the notion of a whole self may be best illustrated when multiple elements are triggered at once.
Project specifications
You will create an online interactive Flash site that explores the self in a dynamic manner, with at least 5 elements and 3 levels of interactive expression. There must be at least 3 (very) short videos in this project comprised of new video footage. The site will have as its starting point (or homepage) a representation of self that can be as abstract or literal as you wish. The interactive components will take the user through multiple layers that unfold and further develop the meaning and interrelationship of each element. Using all that you have learned in Flash and all that you have learned about video, you will build an interactive experience online that considers how motion, sound, image, animation and video can tell a story, unfold a riddle or create a mood that relates to your notion of self in both the personal and public sphere.
Week 1
1/15 T Course intro and overview Intermedia lab intro: Student handbook, lab use and protocol, OSX, loan agreements Discuss the terms: form, structure, content, and ideology
Screen: Student work from previous terms Formalist Works Old and New: • Stan Brakhage: Mothlight • Douglas Weathersby: Environmental Services
1/17 TH Intro to video cameras and tripods Technical introduction to the video camera, including white balance, manual focus, shutter speed, and exposure Styles and modes of camera movement including tracking, panning, and handheld
Intro to Technical Project – Form groups, discuss the assignment Tech Project will focus on technical learning, including shooting, logging and capturing, basic editing, and exporting to QuickTime Tech Project will be in groups of three and will be primarily executed in class with final project critique in week three.
Screen: Documentary: • Todd Haynes, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story or: Sick: The Bob Flanagan Story 70’s Performance Art: • Ant Farm: Media Burn • Chris Burden: multiple videos from 1971-1974 Big Wrench
Week 2
1/22 T Review setting White Balance and Manual Focus Tech Project video camera shooting - Bring your ideas, be prepared to start shooting Bring mini DV tapes
1/24 TH FCPro: System Settings - Scratch Disks… Audio/Video Settings – Sequence, Capture Presets Introduction to Logging and Capturing Final Cut Pro File Management Introduction to Interface: browser, viewer, canvas, timeline Introduction to Basic Editing – 3 point editing, insert, overwrite, replace, razor tool Exporting to QuickTime Capture Tech Project – export to QT
[Students must have hard drive at this point]
Screen: More Single Channel Performance Works, 70s • Bas Jan Ader • William Wegman – Selected Works, 1972 • Yoko Ono, Cut Piece
Discuss: Jennie Klein, “Bad Girls Video: The Wight Gallery, University of California in Los Angeles”, Afterimage, January1995.
Week 3
1/29 T Intro to Project 1: discussion of process of execution including project prep 1, project prep 2, final project, and written analysis.
Screen: Identity work, exploring the “documented” subject • Martha Rosler – Vital Statistics, 1977
Studio
1/31 TH TECHNICAL PROJECT DUE: Critiques, discussions
Screen: Identity work, exploring the “documented” subject (continued) • Sick: The Bob Flanagan Story
Week 4
2/5 T PROJECT PREPARATION STEP 1 DUE Discuss written paper (teacher-student conferences)
FCPro: Refinement of Editing skills - Trimming Edits: Ripple, Roll, Slip, Slide, Swap… Sound Editing Text
Screen: Matthew Barney, Cremaster 4
Discuss: Jerry Saltz, “The Next Sex: Matthew Barney”, Art In America, October 1996.
2/7 TH Discuss written paper (teacher-student conferences)
FCPro: Modify Speed Effects: Video Filters – color correction, useful filters, transitions
Screen: Structuralist Films: • Michael Snow: Wavelength: For Those Who Don’t Have The Time, 2003 • Bill Morrison: Decasia: The State of Decay, 2004
Week 5
2/12 T PROJECT PREPARATION STEP 2 DUE Storyboard presentations and critiques
FCPro: Motion properties – wireframe, scaling, rotating, cropping, opacity
Discuss: Barbara Rose, “Is It Art? Orlan and the Transgressive Act”, Art in America, February 1993.
Screen: More Personal Documentary Strategies Su Fredrich: The Ties That Bind
2/14 TH Storyboard presentations (continued)
FCPro: Superimposition and Composite modes
Discuss: Barbara Pollack, “The Art of Public Disturbance: William Pope.L”, Art in America, May 2003.
Screen: More Identity Based Work / Narration Strategies Sadie Benning
Week 6
2/19 T FCPro: Using Keyframes - Motion Path, Key, Matte Filter
Screen: More Formalist Documentary approaches: Doug Aitken
Studio
2/21 TH Screen: More Narrative Strategies Tacita Dean: A Bag of Air Martyrdom of St Agatha Julie Lequin: The Skateboarding Project
Studio
Week 7
2/26 T Presentation of captured footage
Studio
2/28 TH DVD Studio Pro: simple interactivity, menus, looping videos…
Screen: Sculptural Video Installations • Diana Thater, The Dolphin Project and Edition For Parkett
Discuss: Peter Lunenfeld, “Diana Thater: Constraint Decree”, Snap to Grid: A User’s Guide to Digital Arts, Media, and Cultures, 2001.
Studio
Week 8
3/4 T Presentation of edited footage
Studio
3/6 TH Discuss: Peter Weibel, "Expanded Cinema, Video and Virtual Environments," Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary After Film, 2003.
Screen: Incorporating Flash in video projects: Jen Liu
Studio
Week 9
3/11 T PROJECT 1 DUE: In-class critiques
3/13 TH Continuation of project 1 critiques
Week 10
3/25 T Introduction to Project 2 and Project Preparation
Flash: Introduction to Interface: Timeline, Stage, Properties, Toolbar Text Drawing tools, Strokes and Fills Introduction to Basic Animation: Step-by-Step animation Understanding frames/ keyframes, onion skinning Motion tweening animation Testing movies and publishing: understanding .fla, .html, .swf
Studio: In class animation assignment
Screen: Student work from previous terms Two models of interactive web based video art: Dorothy Cross, Foxglove http://www.diacenter.org/cross/ Ana Torfs, Approximations/Contradictions http://www.diacenter.org/torfs/ An interesting model of exploring identity on the web: Michael Mandiberg http://mandiberg.com/
3/27 TH Flash: Understanding Symbols and Instances: movie clip and graphic symbols buttons: basic, rollover, invisible
Using Still Bitmap images: Exporting Bitmap Stills from Video in Final Cut Pro Importing Bitmap Stills into Photoshop, resizing and saving for the web Importing Bitmap still images into Flash Compressing Bitmaps in Flash Bitmaps to vectors, basic masking
Studio: In class assignment: using bitmaps and symbols
Discuss: Rachel Green, “Web Work: A History of Internet Art”, Art Forum, May 2000.
Screening: More art viewing for hyper and database narratives: Jillian Mcdonald, To Vincent With Love [Whitney, February 05] David Crawford - Stop Motion Studies, Series 7, [Whitney, March 03] database narrative Motomichi Nakamura Whitney - Bcc, [Whitney, August 03] animation, single interface Gary Simmonds, Wake http://www.diacenter.org/simmons/ Jody Zellen - Crowds and Power, 2002 http://ghostcity.com/ Adrianne Wortzel, Robot Psychiatrist [Whitney, August 05] Abe Linkoln and Marisa Olson, Abe and Mo Sing the Blogs [Whitney, January 06] The Atlas Group http://www.theatlasgroup.org/
Week 11
4/1 T PROJECT 2 PREPARATION DUE: Discussions
4/3 TH Flash: Exporting QT video from FCPro using QT conversion, Importing QT video into Flash Exporting Audio from Final Cut Pro, Creating mp3s, Importing Audio into Flash
Screen: Art viewing for mapping design/interface/interactivity: Jessica Irish - Inflat-o-scape http://www.inflatoscape.com/index2.html Stanza - The Central City http://www.thecentralcity.co.uk/ WORDCOUNT http://wordcount.org/ Mapping the news http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/ Future Farmers, They Rule http://theyrule.net/ http://futurefarmers.com/
Week 12
4/8 T Flash: Introduction to interactivity: basic interactivity concepts: Frame actions, button actions, scenes stop and play actions for video
Studio: In class interactivity assignment
Discuss: Stephen Mamber, “Narrative Mapping”, New Media, Theories and Practices of Digitextuality, 2003.
Screen: Anthology of many more interactive narratives http://bornmagazine.org/ Some more interactive personal narrative strategies: http://www.patagonia.com/bendtobaja/index2.shtml
4/10 TH Flash: More interactivity: Jumping from level to level for video Loading external audio files – if there is time
Studio
Week 13
4/15 T PRESENTATION OF PROJECTS (IN PROGRESS) – Discussions
Flash: Publishing in Flash Uploading to the web via fetch – explanation of index.html and file organization Web Space: Setting up USC student web server space
Studio
4/17 TH Studio
Week 14
4/22 T Studio
4/24 TH Studio
Week 15
4/29 T PROJECT 2 DUE: critiques
5/1 TH PROJECT 2 critiques (continued)