INTERMEDIA ARTS
FA 215 – Introduction to Digital Video and Interactivity
Spring 2009
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 drive is recommended: LaCie Hard Disk, Design by Neil Poulton eSATA, FireWire 400 & Hi-Speed USB 2.0, 500GB http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11062 $99.99 at the Campus Bookstore
Video: 3 DVD-R (4.7GB, any brand) Mini DV tapes – source footage 1 CD-RW or 1 flash drive Headphones
Web: USC e-mail account
Student generated source materials
Optional Books Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro 6 Diana Weynand, Peach Pit Press, 2007, ISBN: 0321502655
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Hands-On Training Todd Perkins, Peach Pit Press, ISBN: 0321509838
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 40% - Project 1 [prep 1 and 2 – 10% / final project – 30%] 40% - Project 2 [prep 1 – 10% / final project – 30%]
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 USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. Scampus, the Student Guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A: http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/SCAMPUS/gov/. Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can be found at: http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/.
Students with Disabilities and Academic Accommodations Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me (or to TA) as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.
Roski Admissions Information For information and an application to become a Fine Arts minor, please visit http://roski.usc.edu/minors/ Please contact Antonio Bartolome at [email protected] or 213-740-7567 with any questions about a minor in the Fine Arts. To become a Fine Arts major, please visit http://roski.usc.edu/undergraduate_programs/ Please contact Penelope Jones at [email protected] or 213-740-9153 with any questions about majoring in FA. Applications are due October 1st and March 1st every year.”
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 to shoot 3 short scenes. And, then each student will edit their own 30-second video from the footage their group shot.
The group should develop a cohesive idea that links the 3 scenes together. While students should help each other shoot the 3 scenes, each member of the group must take the lead in shooting one of the three scenes.
Each member of the group will have access to all of the footage shot by the group. The group may capture the footage together, but then each member of the group will be responsible to edit their own unique 30-second video from the footage that they gathered.
The group must meet before the technical shooting day of class to determine what they will be shooting. 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.
Each scene should be shot in a variety of ways (playing with different camera movements, shutter speeds, aperture…). Each scene needs to incorporate tracking and panning shots, and each scene needs to utilize both the shotgun and lavalier microphones.
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 suit your particular video project.
Project preparation (step 1)
Create a list of ten of things that speak about your identity in SPECIFIC ways. Your list should include specific and detailed narratives, experiences, or poetic images that are important to you and refer to your experiences in the world. Your list must refer to identity via the personal (your camping trip with your father, your fight with your sister…), while it addresses the social (such as what it means to inhabit your body/self as a member of a certain gender, race, religion, nationality).
Think about the potential for each item on the list in terms of generating art. What specific stories and experiences can you share with the viewer that will function on a poetic / political / cultural level? Which of the 10 items on your list will you choose to develop into a video project?
Project preparation (step 2)
Following discussion with the instructor, you will choose one of the 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 element and in what ways you plan to translate it into a video piece.
Project specifications:
You will create a 5-minute video that captures an aspect of your identity 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 “MULTI-CHANNEL SELF”
Project Concept:
This project calls for a multi-channel video project that further explores the personal and public notions of self. You will construct an identity based video project that has 2 or 3 videos of equal length that function as a coherent art piece. Consider what aspects of your identity you can mine to create a poetic and culturally relevant art project. Consider what each of your videos will look like and think about how they will work together to create a coherent project.
You will be broadcasting your projects on the Web via Flash. Your website will open with a photograph (and text if you desire), and the viewer will be able to navigate from the “main page” to the videos that will play at the same time.
Project preparation
Create detailed storyboards for each of your videos and design the layout for your website. Consider the arrangement on the screen of your 2-3 videos. What will the layout look like? What will the proportions be? Will there be any drawings around the videos? Will the videos be presented as rectangles or in some other way? Will they all be the same size? Think about your main page. What will the photograph be? Will there be any text?
Project specifications
You will create a multi-channel video project for the Web that explores identity in some form. There must be 2 or 3 videos of equal length – approximately 2 minutes each – that play at the same time. You will need to shoot new footage for each of these videos. The multi-channel video project will be presented on the Web via Flash. The site will have as its starting point (or homepage) a photograph with a button that links to the videos. Using all of the technical knowledge you have gathered in video – as well as in Flash – generate a project that explores identity in an interactive and multi-channel manner that is creatively and conceptually ambitious and culturally relevant.
Week 1
1/13 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
1/15 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 Shooting for the Tech Project will be done in groups of three Editing for the Tech Project will be done individually The final project critique for the Tech Project will be in week three
Screen: Documentary: • Todd Haynes, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story 70’s Performance Art: • Ant Farm: Media Burn • Chris Burden: multiple videos from 1971-1974 Big Wrench
Week 2
1/20 T Review camera settings: white balance, manual focus…
Tech Project video camera shooting: - Be prepared to shoot (know what you will be shooting) - Bring mini DV tapes and headphones
1/22 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. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2479/is_n6_v22/ai_16737237/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1
Week 3
1/27 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
1/29 TH TECHNICAL PROJECT DUE: critiques, discussions
Screen: Identity work, exploring the “documented” subject (continued): Sick: The Bob Flanagan Story
Week 4
2/3 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. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n10_v84/ai_18749034
2/5 TH Discuss written paper (teacher-student conferences)
FCPro: Modify speed Effects: video filters – color correction, useful filters, transitions
Screen: Structuralist films: • Michael Snow: Wavelength, 1967 • Bill Morrison: Decasia: The State of Decay, 2004
Week 5
2/10 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. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_/ai_13402687
Screen: More personal documentary strategies: • Orlan, Carnal Art (2001) • Su Friedrich: The Ties That Bind (1984)
2/12 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. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_5_91/ai_101010684/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1
Screen: More identity based work / narration strategies: Sadie Benning
Week 6
2/17 T FCPro: Using keyframes - motion path, key, matte filter
Screen: More formalist documentary approaches: Doug Aitken, Fury Eyes (1994) and Diamond Sea (1997)
Studio
2/19 TH Screen: More narrative strategies • Tacita Dean: A Bag of Air and Martyrdom of St Agatha • Julie Lequin: The Skateboarding Project
Discuss: Nancy Princenthal, “Gillian Wearing, Private I”, Art in America, March 2003. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_3_91/ai_98541216/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1
Studio
Week 7
2/24 T Presentation of captured footage
Studio
2/26 TH DVD Studio Pro: simple interactivity, menus, looping videos…
Screen: Sculptural video installations Diana Thater, Seven Screens (2001), Edition for Parkett, and other works
Discuss: • Diana Thater, “Hey Survey This”, catalog essay by Diana Thater for “Keep The Faith: A Survey Exhibition”, 2004 http://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/2/press_2004.htm • Jane Harris, “Diana Thater: Dia Art Foundation 2001”, Art Press, 2001 http://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/2/press_2001.htm
Studio
Week 8
3/3 T Presentation of edited footage
Studio
3/5 TH Discuss: • Doug Aitken, “A thousand words: Doug Aitken”, Art Forum, May 2000 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_9_38/ai_65649374 • Jill Conner, “Doug Aitken”, Art US, May-June 2007 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_6719/is_18/ai_n28436554/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1
Screen: More sculptural multi-channel video art installations: Doug Aitken, Sleepwalkers (2007), Electric Earth (1999), and These Restless Minds (1998)
Studio
Week 9
3/10 T PROJECT 1 DUE: In-class critiques
3/12 TH Continuation of project 1 critiques
Week 10
3/24 T Introduction to Project 2 and Project 2 Preparation
Discuss: Tom Holert, “Stan Douglas”, Art Forum, 2007. http://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/17/press_2007.htm
Screen: Student work from previous terms Multi channel and identity based video installation: Stan Douglas, Der Sandmann (1995) and Nu•tka• (1996)
Flash: Exporting QT video from FCPro using Flash compression Introduction to Flash interface: timeline, stage, properties, toolbar Understanding and creating movie clips Importing videos into movie clips Understanding frames/ keyframes Testing movies and publishing: understanding .fla, .html, .swf
Studio: In class assignment: presenting multiple videos in Flash
3/26 TH Flash: Text Drawing tools, strokes and fills 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, masks, and drawing tools
Discuss: Rachel Green, “Web Work: A History of Internet Art”, Art Forum, May 2000 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_9_38/ai_65649375
Screen: 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/
Week 11
3/31 T PROJECT 2 PREPARATION DUE: Discussions
4/2 TH Flash: Understanding and creating buttons: basic, rollover, invisible
Discuss: Greg Hilty. “I am the Person…”: The Complicit Work of Jane and Louise Wilson, Afterimage, Nov 1999 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2479/is_3_27/ai_58470198/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1
Screen: More sculptural multi channel video installation: Jane and Louise Wilson (selected works)
Week 12
4/7 T Flash: Introduction to interactivity: Basic interactivity concepts: frame actions, button actions Embedded videos as opposed to progressive download videos Stop and play actions for video
Studio: In class interactivity assignment
Screen: More interactive multi-channel video web art: Jillian Mcdonald, To Vincent With Love [Whitney, February 05] David Crawford - Stop Motion Studies, Series 7, [Whitney, March 03] Liliana Porter, Rehearsal, 2008. http://www.diacenter.org/porter/ Barbara Bloom, Half Full – Half Empty, 2008. http://www.diacenter.org/bloom/ Rosa Barba, Vertiginous Mapping, 2008. http://www.diacenter.org/barba/
4/9 TH Screen: Jessica Irish - Inflat-o-scape http://www.inflatoscape.com/index2.html Stanza - The Central City http://www.thecentralcity.co.uk/ Jody Zellen - Crowds and Power, 2002 http://ghostcity.com/ Gary Simmonds, Wake http://www.diacenter.org/simmons/
Studio
Week 13
4/14 T PRESENTATION OF PROJECTS (IN PROGRESS) – Discussions
4/16 TH Screen: Miscellaneous political web art WORDCOUNT http://wordcount.org/ Mapping the news http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/ Future Farmers, They Rule http://theyrule.net/ http://futurefarmers.com/ Studio
Week 14
4/21 T 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
4/23 TH Studio
Week 15
4/28 T PROJECT 2 DUE: critiques
4/30 TH PROJECT 2 critiques (continued)