IMD 520 Topics
Here are some of the specific topics course we have offered under IMD 520.
IMD 520 Conceptual Drawing
During the 1960s and 1970s, when drawing was part of the development of “conceptual art,” artists were interested in drawing as process, as experimentation, the idea as important as the resulting object, almost documentation of the artists’ concepts. Contemporary artists, who likewise have been exploring line as an investigation of ideas, have been practicing drawing with labor-intensive processes, and pushing drawing to new forms and to include other media. Conceptual Drawing explores (through discussion and practice) drawing in the sense of that which is not necessarily drawing from life or for the sake of drawing, but rather drawing to support or explore ideas
[thoughts, opinions, plans, or purposes] and concepts [general ideas derived from specific instances]. The drawing explored might also be process-oriented, performative, experimental, collaborative, use traditional tools and surfaces, untraditional tools and surfaces, and/or incorporate other media such as photography, installation, video, and sound. Work discussed includes that of: Marcel Duchamp, Gyula Kosice, Robert Rauschenberg, Mel Bochner, Piero Manzoni, Fred Sandback, Joseph Beuys, Lygia Clark, Agnes Martin, Hanne Darboven, Trisha Brown, Bruce Nauman, Sol LeWitt, Rebecca Horn, Richard Long, Mark Lombardi, Dan Perjovschi, and Roman Ondák.
IMD 520 The Audio Lab: An Evolving Seminar in Composing with Sound
Sound as a material for composing has undergone radical transformation, particularly since the mid-20th century, and so too have the ideas of how it is composed. With the advent of recording and reproduction technologies, Music has been reconfigured and sound is now Art. This seminar is designed as a student-driven forum that can be used to address any and all aspects of composing with sound, including sound art and audio installations, electronic music composition, contemporary and experimental music composition, audio systems technology and design, sound design, or anything else in the realm of creative audio. It is also an opportunity to delve into the current and historical artists and ideas that are influential today.
The Audio Lab is primarily project oriented. Students interested in working with sound can bring projects currently under way, create new projects, or critically investigate the ideas and artists working in the field. Each term will be guided by the critical aims of the individual projects and the collective focus of the group as a whole. The Audio Lab will also actively reach out to the University community at large, and beyond, and try to bring a greater presence and understanding of this very broad-ranging and contemporary art form through performances, art and research projects, student and guest lectures and demonstrations, and a heightened local media presence.
IMD 520 Creative Networks
Tired of klunky Web sites, constipated messageboards, or lawsuit-laden file sharing networks? Then build your own creative network! This course helps students design new ways to share creativity, focusing on JavaScript as the connective tissue that holds together everything Web 2.0 and beyond.
In recent years JavaScript has become the most practical language in the media landscape, operating behind the scenes in environments as varied as AJaX, Max/MSP, and Photoshop. While such innovations continue to inspire new technical and economic models, the legal departments of mainstream media have done their best to obliterate these new methods for sharing online. As background for their creative work, students in this class will learn more about the legal and social issues surrounding today’s creative networks.
On the creative and technical side, the class will cover the fundamentals of JavaScript along with HTML and Cascading Stylesheets (CSS). That said, students will be encouraged to think beyond conventional Web design. Client-side coding will enable students to scrape Web pages, change the style and structure of third-party sites, to move news and other content “off the page” into mobile and desktop applications, and in general to take control of media that others consume passively.
IMD 520 Pop Culture/Low-end Aesthetics
The course will integrate the study of popular culture into the creation and examination of intermedia work. We will investigate a variety of expressions of popular culture and low-end aesthetics within 20th century art, as well as various theoretical and practical approaches to an individualís creative practice in intermedia. There will be a thorough analysis of the pervasive issues in media production and art making in our contemporary postmodern world, and we will take an interdisciplinary approach to intermedia art making. Varying artistic approaches and delivery systems will be discussed with reference to examples from pop culture including, but not limited to, content from advertisements, television, music videos, movies, literature, music and the internet.
IMD 520 Transforming Spaces: Intermedia Installation
Marcel Duchamp and the Surrealists began using installation as a means to expand the boundaries of art and engage the viewer within a space and practitioners have been pushing this concept ever since. What has this brought us to and what is the potential for it today? Through class discussions and production, this course will explore Intermedial modes of installation that push the traditional and develop student’s research and ideas into presentation of work. We will also look at examples of installation work through readings, media, field trips and in class dialogue on topics that include, but are not limited to immersive spaces, temporality, site specificity, video, sound, interactivity and performative installation to provide background to move forward. This course will involve hands on production and, as with the nature of installation, students will be encouraged to seek out spaces that work best for their projects, however, we will also work together on finding locations. There may be an option for collaboration with the IMD 561 Research Studio II: Projects in Collaborative Production course as it develops for students that are interested.