:: NET-ART ::
Professor Ryan Seslow
Contact – Rseslow@york.cuny.edu or Rseslow@bmcc.cuny.ed
Semester – This is an Ongoing Open Source Course created for the CUNY Academic Commons
Course Description:
Net-Art is an online digital art, design & storytelling course intended to expose and expand the vocabulary of new media art to the student’s personal visual statements. Students are encouraged to produce a related series of electronic art works with a concentration on experimentation, narrative and the transcendence of their ideas. Through various processes, both analog and technology based, students will be exposed to the use and application of electronic media via desktop and mobile art practice. Students may reference their work in conjunction with prior interests in drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, installation, video & performance art as well as any other inter-disciplinary subjects of interest. The course will take place here on this URL using (OER) Open Education Resources, Public Domain and other Creative Commons Sources. This course description is co-dependent on the hacking interests of each student. We encourage you to expand upon it based upon your individual learning needs and or inspirations.
Course Objectives:
1. To define, redefine and reconsider the creative process using New Media technologies and Open Education Resources (OER).
2. To expose and give students new technical skills, tools and techniques for working with, presenting and archiving new media art forms.
3. To facilitate and encourage student collaboration and interdisciplinary practice towards creative learning methods and electronic art-making.
4. To provide a network, community and virtual environment to help develop the student’s personal vision.
5. To help the student archive and share their work in various online presentation formats for collaboration, exhibition, pedagogy and research.
Instructional Activities:
1. Manual and technical demonstrations, applications and methods in the the digital space.
2. Viewing of animated GIFs, Net-Art and New Media in various formats, including video art, experimental digital film, vapor wave aesthetic , basic and intermediate motion graphics and performance in conjunction with discussions, blogging, commenting, storytelling and tutorial creation.
3. Guest Artist presentations, contributions, exhibitions and collaboration.
Course Participation:
Participation in the academic activity of each course is highly recommended and an important component of the learning process. What role do you play as a fragment of the whole? Participation can play a vital role in the overall student academic achievement. Each student can define and craft how their participation plays a role in their individual process as well as to the whole. Academic activities may include, but are not limited to, attending class, generating and submitting assignments, engaging in in-class or online activities, and/or participating in group / collaborative work. Each student has the right to establish their own class participation policy and take responsibility for their practice. Students are encouraged to communicate with the professor and their class mates about their individual learning needs, desired skills of interest and relatedness to the process of growing as a contributor to the course.
The NET-ART course is committed to the health and well‐being of all students and community members.
Structured projects using Open Education Resources:
(The projects listed below will be explained in further detail as blog posts published to the course website, visual examples will be present to support each project with suggested means of experimentation and outcome).
- Project #1– The Power in the Static 2D – Working from a social or political theme, concept or specific subject, each student will generate a new 2-dimensional static work of electronic art to communicate a feeling, philosophy, point of view, or aesthetic. You may work in any form of electronic media using the applications and suggestions on the class resources page (and beyond of course). Your final piece or pieces should be documented in a series of narrative steps with screen shots and digital images as they will be used and applied as content to manipulate, render, animate, remix and present. Output file formats include: .JPEG, .PNG or static .GIF
- Project #2– Static to Animated Loops – GIFs – To further communicate and compliment the meaning of the piece(s) created in project #1 above students will generate a series of Animated GIFs to support and expand the works. You may work in any format or application that you wish using the applications and suggestions on the class resources page – (and beyond of course). Your final piece(s) should be documented in a series of steps with screen shots and digital images as they will be used and applied as content to manipulate, render, animate and present. Output file formats should be: .GIF
- Project #3– 4D – Video Art / Duration & Motion Graphics – By utilizing the medium of smart phone mobile video, students will create and develop 2-3 new works of video art that emphasized time and duration to communicates an idea, feeling, philosophy, sequence or aesthetic. Existing video can be used from previous projects, the NYPL, OER, public domain or by creating new content using the capturing device of your choice. The works may be projected onto an existing object or wall space, or you may present the pieces using a video monitor (or as many monitors as you may need.) Please consider the following options to work with: The subject matter can be one of which that already exists or one that you may create that has relevance to your prior work. You may consider using one of the completed projects that you have created for this class. You may consider projecting a still image, a series of still images, or motion video. You may wish to create an environment to present your work with in. The video captures can be edited and turned into animations or assets for collaborations. Output file formats should be: .MOV or .MP4
- Project #4– Presentation for the Web – Student Portfolios – A process / tutorial based blog post series of individual posts will be created by each student to support all of their completed work. The posts will also be a part of a larger collaborative whole. The posts will document and illustrate each student’s work as each project has evolved throughout the course. Students will later select their best works for a student exhibition here on the NET ART website. Output file formats should be via URL or relatedness submitted by the student.