Interactive Studio Syllabus
From Visual Studies
Contents |
Description
Interactive Studio addresses the study and creation of art works in which the audience is involved in an interactive exchange. Media explored include interactive situations, community collaborations, social/political interactions, and current electronic interactive interfaces.
Prerequisites: Art and Design Majors: completion of Foundations and permission of instructor. Non-Art and Design Majors: Junior Standing and permission of instructor. 3 credit hours
Introduction
Interactive studio is organized around an experiential form (interaction) which has it’s own considerations and may also incorporate products and considerations rooted in various other media. The focus on digital and electronic interfaces is within the context of other art-making and presentation formats.
Course Objectives
At the end of the course students are able to:
- 1. Construct presentations of culture that are deliberate and appropriate to existing and created contexts and conditions in works involving interactivity.
- 2. Demonstrate the effective and appropriate use current digital technologies in the creation of visual works involving interaction within the context of other studio practice.
- 3. Demonstrate an understanding of the use of networks and servers in collaborative and interactive applications.
- 4. Plan and Implement various types of documentation of works involving interaction. This includes how the documentation is presented.
- 5. Demonstrate an ability to work collaboratively and cooperatively in the production, presentation, and evaluation of interactive cultural forms.
- 6. Demonstrate proficiency in the use verbal, written, and visual means to engage in effective and critical discourse about works involving space. This includes visual, conceptual, historical, and theoretical considerations.
- 7. Recognize and describe the relationships between the practice of art and other human, civic, and commercial enterprise.
Course Topics
- electronic interactive interfaces
- networks
- interactive installations
- participatory performance
- community collaborations
- social/political interactions
Texts
(recommended – these texts are supplemental to studio work and may be used in other studio courses)
- The Language of New Media by Lev Manovich
- New Media Reader by MIT Press
Course Requirements
The studio work in this course is focused on the understanding of interactivity as a primary element in studio work: including interactive installations, participatory performance, community based art, social/political interactions, or electronic interfaces. The course also addresses digital technology as it pertains to the creation and presentation of works in visual art contexts that use interactivity. Use of appropriate digital technology in studio projects is a significant portion of the course.
Evaluation
Students are evaluated in 3 areas. Standard pedagogy in studio art varies in how these areas are weighted. Some faculty put much more emphasis on the studio production. Others prefer distributing evaluation criteria to reflect the range of criteria. These reflect the range of standard weighting of such criteria.
- 1. Studio production
This includes interim and finished studio products or productions: Exhibitions and public presentations of studio products, individual or collaboratively produced studio products. Studio products include: interactive installations, participatory performance, community based art, social/political interactions, electronic interfaces, project proposals, and documentation or re-presentations of projects. 33%-70%
- 2. Studio Discourse: Writing, Reading, and Discussion, Critique
The operation of the studio and learning involve effective participation in communicating about ideas, studio work, and historical and theoretical texts. This can include the content of discussion participation, written responses to texts, written and verbal statements on studio work and ideas, and written and verbal critique. 10%-40%
- 3. Studio Performance/Contribution to the Group:
Studio work and learning is a highly social and dynamic activity that requires active participation by its members. This can be assessed by attendance as well as observed contributions to the studio organization, production, and progress. 10%-40%
