1	Announcements Agenda Computer art Assignment preview One critique, possibly two End of 3D Interested in a critique from Walker? Email ams@cs.brown.edu He’ll be here April 4,5, and 6 Reading Handout
2	The Computer in the Fine Arts Origins Controversy Future
3	Two Goals Today Integration of disciplines Art and design (Is it art? What traditional criteria apply? What new criteria?) Semiotics (how does computer art make meaning? What do we need to know to understand it?) Discourse theory (how have the discourses of science and art interacted in the field of computer art?) Perception—many early works done as perception studies, e.g., Knowlton Nude at Bell Labs Computer graphics (ever-changing technology affected what could be done and by whom) See original works (from early days, esp)
4	Original Works Ironically, for a medium in which “original” has complex meaning, it’s hard to view these works Don’t reproduction well Many plotter pieces use fine, delicate lines Small jpg’s on web give little sense of feeling of real work No high-quality posters available (as with well known movements like Impressionism) Few coffee-table type book with really good reproductions, in color No permanent displays in museums 2D static computer-based work has met with great hostility 3D and time-based works and performance an installations more easily accepted
5	The Real Thing This is why today’s class will be based on examination of real pieces This history is happening now—most of the artists still alive, but… “For many of its critics, computer art was the product of many discursive assumptions, methodologies, and vocabulary as science.” Victim of “sustained hostility toward the computer” Sign of “subordination of the individual to the emerging technocracy” Seemed more in line with modernist abstract work—seemed outdated to postmodernist artists and critiques
6	Prints/drawings Ben Laposky, Oscillon #4 (1954-1956 ) [photo of screen] Ken Knowlton and Leon Harmon, Nude (1957) [originally mural-sized, this is reproduction] More Knowlton: http://www.knowltonmosaics.com/ Michael A. Noll, Gaussian Quadratic (1965) Vera Molnar, seria: interruptions (1968-69/1983) Manfred Mohr, P-159 (1973-74) More Mohr http://www.emohr.com/ Cynthia Beth Rubin, doorways piece (1990s) More Rubin http://www.cbrubin.net/ Roman Verostko, Diamond Lake Apocalypse (1994) More Verostko http://www.verostko.com/ Jean-Pierre Hebert, Minotaure: detail, date? More Hebert http://hebert.kitp.ucsb.edu/gallery/perso.html Algorists http://www.verostko.com/algorist.html#hebert James Faure Walker –piece from office— Moore Walker http://dam.org/faure-walker/artworks.htm
7	Films Lillian Schwartz and Ken Knowlton Films from 1970s, created with Knowlton’s EXPLOR animation language at Bell Labs Stan Vanderbeek and Ken Knowlton Poemfields and Man and His World (late 1960s) Ken Knowlton 9 Spots Leon Harmon and Ken Knowlton, Studies in Perception I (aka “Nude”), 1966 Michael A. Noll 3D Ballet (stereo) and 3D Ballet (non-stereo) Edward E. Zajac Simulation of a Two-Gyro Gravity-Gradient Attitude Control System, 1961 R. N. Shepard and Edward E. Zajac., Pair of Paradoxes
8	Books and Catalogs Out of print books Ruth, Leavitt (Ed.) Artist and Computer, 1976 Catalogs from computer art shows, including Cybernetic Serendipity, 1968 "The machine as seen at the end of the mechanical age” 1967 MOMA show Lots more…
9	Web Sampler Paul Brown Part of Algorists, animated and interactive work based on AI algorithms http://www.paul-brown.com/GALLERY/TIMEBASE/SANDLINE/SANDSND.HTM Casey Reas Animated and interactive works. http://www.groupc.net/ The Digital Art Museum (DAM) http://www.dam.org Teleculture site http://www.teleculture.com BitForms Gallery, NYC http://www.bitforms.com SIGGRAPH Art Shows online http://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/
10	Predictions 2D computer prints The separation between computer printmaking and traditional printmaking will disappear. 3D computer sculpture The use of rapid prototyping for traditional mold-making will help unite traditional and new media. approaches to 3D art works. Animation Use of the computer is now clearly necessary but not sufficient. Photography As prices of digital cameras continue to plummet and quality continues to soar, traditional film cameras will become obsolete collectors items. Interactive art Virtually all artists engaged in creating interactive works will consider the computer a useful too and incorporate it routinely. In the near future, static 2D and 3D visual computer pieces will seem to relate more to their traditional counterparts than they will to, say, an interactive and AI-based installation experience.
11	Modern Landscape [preview-not due until April 12] Overview Create a fine art piece that depicts or evokes a modern landscape. Use a variety of types of mark-making, at least in part by combining 2D raster and geometric elements Technical details Final pieces must be computer files (i.e., not paintings or other media) Final pieces can be viewed on screen or printed Yes, you can scan in things to get more mark variety (drawings, paintings, whatever) but you still need to use at least two types of graphics software as well—2D raster and vector, or raster and 3D, etc. No size constraints. If file is over 20MB make me a CD or email me for a ftp address. Does not have to be representational Advice Unlike the more graphic design-oriented projects we have done to date, you do not need to begin with any specific “message” you want to convey. Start with a landscape or landscape object that appeals to you--even if you don't know why. You can go on-site and photograph it with a digital camera, get pictures from the Web, or draw things and scan them in. When you reach stopping points in the work, then take time to sit back and think about what it might be saying and whether it's working. At these points you can employ the concepts from semiotics and design that we covered in class. Don’t analyze while you work!