OUTLINE

Instructor: Jesse Colin Jackson

Teaching Assistants: Steve Rosa and Kim Zumpfe

Time: Tuesday and Thursdays, 9:30–10:50

Place: HG 1800

Office Hours: By Appointment

Digital Media: History and Foundations (Arts 11) is an introduction to the historical and theoretical foundations of digital media art and design. The course traces how information technologies informed the growth of new expressive mediums, and considers how today’s pervasive digital culture evolved through interdisciplinary collaborations between artists, engineers, scientists and scholars. Through a series of lectures, assignments, and discussion, students will examine critical issues relevant to digital media and related cultural phenomenon, and will develop an appreciation of how art-making practices have shaped – and been shaped by – trajectories of technological change.

Arts 11 can be used to satisfy one General Education (GE) Requirement in Category IV, Arts and Humanities.

Arts 11 is a core course in the Digital Arts Minor, offered by the Department of Art in the
Claire Trevor School of the Arts.

REQUIREMENTS

The course will consist of a combination of instructor lectures, group discussion, student submissions of rhetorical and creative work, and formal examination. Students will be required to complete weekly reading and written response assignments; a midterm quiz and a final exam; and a project. Readings will be assigned and discussed in class, and knowledge of these readings will be assessed by means of the written responses. Knowledge of the lecture material will be assessed by means of the quiz and exam. The ability to creatively engage with the course topics will be assessed by means of the project.

 

GRADING

The final grade will consider the written assignments (25%), the midterm quiz (10%), the final exam (25%), the project (25%), and participation (15%). Specific evaluation criteria for each of the above will be provided on the course website.

 

ATTENDANCE

Attendance is mandatory. Notes will not be provided with the lecture material. The instructor reserves the right to document attendance at any time; any unexcused absence will result in an automatic penalty applied to the participation grade.

 

PARTICIPATION

Participation will be assessed through a combination of attendance, contributions to in-class discussion, and contributions to the course website. Arriving late to class is extremely disruptive and will count against your participation grade.

LATENESS

Late submissions of assignments will not be accepted except as a result of legitimate extenuating circumstances. Please let us know right away if you are having a problem completing an assignment on time.

RESOURCES

All required resources (e.g. readings, assignments, visual material) will be made available on the course website. The course website can be found at

https://sites.uci.edu/01807w14/

Details on the schedule, lectures, assignments and examinations will be posted on the course we site. Whenever possible, all questions should be directed towards the course website, in the form of a comment on the appropriate page.

TOPICS

The course studies a range of ideas, essays, artworks, technologies and other materials created by visual artists, computer scientists, scholars, writers, musicians, performing artists, interface designers, cultural critics, and individuals working across disciplines, including:

  • The evolution of computing technology: Babbage, Turing, Xerox PARC.
  • Two hundred years of networks: from semaphore, telegraph, telephone, radio and TV broadcast, international submarine cable and satellite networks, to the Internet and the Web.
  • The robot in literature and cinema: Asimov’s laws, Frankenstein, Metropolis, Blade Runner, Robocop, Terminator, Star Wars.
  • Emerging technologies as media shaped by power relations and the politics of race, gender, and class.
  • Approaches to computing discourse: cybernetics, artificial intelligence, artificial life, genetic programming and autonomous agents.
  • Gaming as a new cultural form: gaming, simulations, VR training, war games, and the military involvement in games and simulation.
  • Computers and music: technologies and theories of composition; early electronic music.
  • User experience, human-computer interaction, interface as medium.
  • Programming as medium, programming as literature.
  • Surveillance, cyborgs, technology as prosthesis.
  • Hypertext, hypermedia, rhizomes, the Web and Internet art.
  • Worms, viruses, hackers, hacktivism, resistance, and social media
  • Computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing

26 thoughts on “OUTLINE”

  1. Hi Professor,
    I’ve noticed that my writing 7 grade is still missing. Is it only for me or is the grade haven’t been posted for the whole class?

    Thank You.

    Reply ↓

  2. Hi Professor Jackson,

    I was curious as to how long it will be before we will recieve our grade for the final exam. Will we get our results back immediately or will we have to wait till when our final cumulative grade is posted?

    Reply ↓

  3. Hi Professor Jackson,

    I’m a little curious and confused about the grading system for the writings. Is it out of 21? 8*3=24, drop the lowest score = out of 21? The bonus writing says it’s 3/3 and not just a score of 3. And then we would calculate it by… Adding all our scores up +3 (from the bonus) and make it out of 21 then? So it’s possible (but unlikely) that a person is able to get a score of 24/21 if they were able to have perfects each time?

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Tiffany,

      That’s basically right. The maximum theoretical score is 24/21. This is then converted into 25% of your final grade.

      -J

    • I believe the Luddite question was basically asking what Luddites were generally opposed to, and the answer was concerning “labor-saving machinery”. Hope that helps!

  5. I saw that the mid-term quiz has been pulled down, but i need it as a review info for my final. Can someone share the midterm questions &answer here?
    Thank you so much guys.
    and good luck on all finals!

    Reply ↓

    • I have no objection to this clever use of digital media. Can anyone help Andrew remember the midterm quiz questions and answers? We went over the correct answers at length in class on February 11.

    • The final is cumulative but will heavily favor the post-midterm material.

      This was discussed several times in class.

      -J

  7. Hi Jesse,

    I have a question in regard for the homework grading. Do you drop the lowest grade of our writing assignment?

    Reply ↓

    • I recall the professor saying that exam results will be posted after the window to take the midterm is finished. So probably tomorrow at noon is when our quiz grades are released.

  11. Hi Jesse,

    I was wondering if we had to stick to a strictly formal tone for these writing assignments, or if we could waver and use appropriate semi-formal tone and language (conversational). Thank you!

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Purva,

      (I answered Purva offline but I thought this might be of interest to many of you).

      Absolutely! Mix it up! Clear, concise, coherent and creative writing takes many forms. The different Writings call for different response styles.

      -J

  12. Hello Professor Jackson,

    You mentioned surveys during class today. I’m having trouble finding any on the class website, could you help direct me?

    Thanks.

    John

    Reply ↓

    • Hi John,

      You must have misheard me somehow — there’s no actual surveys. Sometimes I take informal polls of the class.

      -J

    • I may occasionally take spot attendance, as described in the outline. Otherwise there’s no formal procedure.

      -J

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