Sabbatical Leave Report 2019 – 2020 James MacDevitt, M.A. Associate Professor of Art History and Visual & Cultural Studies Director, Cerritos College Art Gallery Department of Art and Design Fine Arts and Communications Division Cerritos College January 2021 Table of Contents Title Page i Table of Contents ii Sabbatical Leave Application iii Statement of Purpose 35 Objectives and Outcomes 36 OER Textbook: Disciplinary Entanglements 36 Getty PST Art x Science x LA Research Grant Application 37 Conference Presentation: Just Futures 38 Academic Publication: Algorithmic Culture 38 Service and Practical Application 39 Concluding Statement 40 Appendix List (A-E) 41 A. Disciplinary Entanglements | Table of Contents 42 B. Disciplinary Entanglements | Screenshots 70 C. Getty PST Art x Science x LA | Research Grant Application 78 D. Algorithmic Culture | Book and Chapter Details 101 E. Just Futures | Conference and Presentation Details 103 2 SABBATICAL LEAVE APPLICATION TO: Dr. Rick Miranda, Jr., Vice President of Academic Affairs FROM: James MacDevitt, Associate Professor of Visual & Cultural Studies DATE: October 30, 2018 SUBJECT: Request for Sabbatical Leave for the 2019-20 School Year I. REQUEST FOR SABBATICAL LEAVE. I am requesting a 100% sabbatical leave for the 2019-2020 academic year. Employed as a fulltime faculty member at Cerritos College since August 2005, I have never requested sabbatical leave during the past thirteen years of service. II. PURPOSE OF LEAVE Scientific advancements and technological capabilities, most notably within the last few decades, have evolved at ever-accelerating rates. Artists, like everyone else, now live in a contemporary world completely restructured by recent phenomena such as satellite imagery, augmented reality, digital surveillance, mass extinctions, artificial intelligence, prosthetic limbs, climate change, big data, genetic modification, drone warfare, biometrics, computer viruses, and social media (and that’s by no means meant to be an all-inclusive list). Artists and humanities scholars alike have had to grapple with these new developments, many producing important interdisciplinary research publications and creative projects exploring their cultural significance. During this leave, I will review recent academic publications and visit notable academic institutions that explore the emerging intersections between art, science, and technology. This research will allow me to prepare an Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook for use in the recently established Art, Science, and Technology course (Art 113), part of the new Visual and Cultural Studies Program, as well as to curate future interdisciplinary exhibitions for the Cerritos College Art Gallery as a compliment to the existing science and technology-based curriculum at the college. III. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES A. In order to better understand the issues surrounding the complex relationships between art, science, and technology, I will first conduct a self-directed study into recent and relevant academic research. a. I will review recent academic publications that confront the numerous intersections between art, science, and technology (see Appendix I for preliminary bibliography). 3 b. I will visit institutions that research and exhibit artwork dealing with the intersections of art, science, and technology (see Appendix II for relevant institutions). c. I will attend talks, conferences, and symposiums examining the intersections of art, science, and technology (see Appendix III for relevant events). B. Using the information gleaned from the primary sources I review, the institutional spaces I visit, and the academic conferences I attend, I will develop and produce a free OER textbook built around key thematic foci and then integrate this material into the existing Art, Science, and Technology course (Art 113). a. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of this course, finding a single comprehensive textbook is effectively impossible and the book that most closely meets the curriculum, Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology by Stephen Wilson, is itself fifteen years old (which might as well be a hundred years old, considering how quickly this material has changed). Having an OER textbook would not only save students money on the purchase of their course reading, it would also allow for the regular and frequent updating of material in order to better evolve with the topic of study. As an OER textbook, it will also be available free on the Internet for any Cerritos faculty that might wish to integrate relevant modules into their existing courses. b. Thematic foci will include, but may not be limited to: The ‘Two Cultures’ of Art and Science, Cabinets of Curiosity, the Scientist as Subject, Artistic Interventions in the Laboratory, Techniques of the Observer, Envisioning the Cosmos, The Machine Aesthetic, Experiments in Art and Technology, Video Art, Imagining the Future, Science Fictions, Speculative Design, Animal Studies, Ecological Art, the Anthropocene, Medical Imaging, the Cyborg and Post-Humanism, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Algorithmic Art, Data Visualization, Social Media, (Dis)Information, Surveillance Studies, Net Art, Video Games, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Digital Humanities, Software Studies, Media Archaeologies, and Media Infrastructures. C. The bibliographic list of recent academic publications that I use as primary sources for my own research in developing this OER, along with any new resources I encounter during the research, will also serve as a booklist that I will submit to the Cerritos College Library for purchase and/or acquisition. a. This will ensure that the Cerritos College library contains the most current and important texts in these key areas of focus, which, because of its interdisciplinary nature, will benefit students from across the disciplinary spectrum. b. Visual and Cultural Studies majors who transfer to four-year universities are expected to conduct their own research in primary sources and to successfully integrate those sources into their research papers. All courses in the Visual and Cultural Studies program include an independent research project that relies heavily on students having access to current academic research in the topics they choose to investigate. Having the most up-to-date academic texts in the library for our students’ independent research projects will better prepare them for this challenge. 4 D. As the Director/Curator of the Cerritos College Art Gallery, I have committed myself to presenting exhibitions that cut across disciplines and which are cutting-edge in terms of their thematic foci. I will build upon this record and the research I conduct during the sabbatical leave to produce multiple exhibitions at the gallery during the 2020-2021 annual exhibitionary cycle that will provide direct and immediate access to art projects that operate within these interdisciplinary areas. IV. PREPARATION A. Curriculum Development a. Along with my colleagues in the Art History program, I oversaw the creation and approval of a new AA degree in Visual and Cultural Studies. Cerritos College is the first, and currently the only, community college to have this advanced interdisciplinary degree approved by the Chancellor’s Office. Visual and Cultural Studies draws from a number of disciplines to explore the meanings, practices, and processes of looking and imaging across historical periods and diverse cultures. It is inclusive and broad ranging both in its methods and approaches and in its objects of inquiry, which include digital technologies, photography, film, painting, television, performance, sculpture, video games, exhibitionary display, sound, the built environment, and many other elements of popular culture. Numerous four- year institutions have recently expanded their curriculum beyond traditional Art History programs by creating Visual and Cultural Studies departments, including UC Riverside’s undergraduate program in Media and Cultural Studies, UC Irvine’s doctoral program in Visual Studies, and USC’s Visual Studies Research Institute. Our students are well placed to successfully transfer to these programs because of the early adoption of this new curriculum here at Cerritos College. b. As part of the new Visual and Cultural Studies degree, I wrote and passed through the curriculum approval process (locally and at the Chancellor’s Office) a new interdisciplinary course in “Art, Science, and Technology” (Art 113). This course is an overview of the intersections between art, science, and technology, as well as their broader impact on, and interaction with, visual and material culture. Areas of focus include the social impact of scientific innovations, technology-driven art, and art/science collaborative projects, including discussions of code-based and algorithmic art, data visualization, robotic and interactive art, machine aesthetics, body modification and cyborg experiments, ecological and environmental art, conceptual Internet projects, culture jamming and hacktivist art, game art and virtual reality, surveillance art, and tele-presence and locative media. Art 113 has so far only been taught once in the Spring 2018 semester and it will again be offered in Spring 2019. These initial offerings have been (and will be, in the case of Spring 2019) insightful, in particular in identifying the lacunas in the currently approved textbook. The experience I gained from developing and now teaching this course will be instrumental in ensuring the OER textbook