Composing With Media (fa07)

Review of course objectives, readings, assignments, projects, and grading. Blogging as a medium for research, discourse, and documentation.

Sign-up on Blogger.com. For written assignments, pose a rhetorical question with brief answer (approx. 200 words), which will form the basis for discussion in class.

Discussion of graduate work and its integration with digital media.

Review Rhizome resources, an on-line community for digital artists, including the news archives and setup Rhizome user accounts.

The composition of compositing. Examples of recent work that demonstrates the integration of digital media, physical space, traditional / mixed media, performance, and other ephemeral forms. Works by Matthew Barney, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and the production studio Lightborne with music by Bad Religion.

Reading: Lev Manivich, "Digital Cinema and the History of the Moving Image"

Assignment (due 8/30): blog entry - summary of "Digital Cinema"

Continue reading "Introductions" »

Visit the New Media Center, 210 Hurst Hall

Review Rhizome resources, an on-line community for digital artists, including the news archives and setup Rhizome user accounts.

Discussion of Lev Manovich, "Soft Cinema," and the essay, "What is Digital Cinema."

Introduction to the art of sound. Artists move across the boundaries of discipline without shifting their strategies. Conceptual approaches are reapplied to the medium of sound. In this assignment, we will explore sound art as a complex narrative medium situated in both physical and virtual space.

Project I: Each student will create a "soundscape," an audio environment based on the interpretation of a chosen locale or space using the form and process of the "situational tour."

Overview of Soundtrack and the fundamentals of digital audio.

Reading: Luigi Russolo, Art of Noises

Assignment (due 9/4): summary of "Art of Noises"
Assignment (due 9/13): Art of Sound project

Continue reading "Digital Cinema" »

Rhizome News: Media artist Eddo Stern, Game Freak

How do the interactive works of Eddo Stern subvert game culture?

Discussion of Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo's "The Art of Noises" & other examples of sound art. An overview of the composition of sound and noise in the early 20th century movement of the Futurists.

Review recording technique

-- setting up a digital audio recorder
-- use of a microphone
-- recording fundamentals
-- transferring files to the computer

Introduction to Apple Soundtrack

-- fundamentals of sound editing (waveform, sampling rate, bit depth, amplitude, stereo separation, envelopes, beats, SMPTE,
-- accessing sounds from the library
-- using the browser
-- selecting a sampling rate
-- auditioning and multi-track mixing in the timeline
-- editing in the file editor
-- editing volume, pan envelopes
-- exporting a mixdown file

Continue reading "Art of Sound" »

Discuss walkthrough recordings

Introduce Audio Tech Sound Library, review Soundtrack file import and editing

Work on projects

Continue reading "Art of Sound" »

Work on Soundscape projects

Class has the option of visiting the Options Show
Washington Project for the Arts

OPTIONS
SEPTEMBER 13 - OCTOBER 26, 2007

OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, September 13, 6:30-8:30 pm
CURATOR TALK: Sunday, October 7, 2:00 pm
ARTIST TALK: Friday, October 26, 6:30-8:30 pm

Pepco's Edison Place Gallery
702 Eighth Street NW
Washington, DC 20001

Curated by Paul Brewer

Critique I: Soundscape projects

Students are required to visit the Broadcast show. The Contemporary Museum is located at 100 West Centre Street, between Cathedral and Howard Street, in Baltimore, Maryland, a few blocks from the train station.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Baltimore
September 9 - November 18, 2007
Wednesday - Sunday, 12:00 pm - 5 pm, Thursday Evening Hours until 7 pm

Dara Birnbaum, 
Chris Burden, 
Gregory Green, 
Doug Hall, Chip Lord, Jody Procter, 
Christian Jankowski, 
Antoni Muntadas, 
Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, 
Nam June Paik
, neuroTransmitter
TV, Siebren Versteeg

Continue reading "Critique 1" »

The intermedial is the medium that lies between pure media, that connects the media, that reveals relationships between media, and the way in which media interact with one another.

Tutorial exercises in Adobe AfterEffects; Getting Started

Assignment (due 10/4): Intermedial project

The Intermedial project explores the relationship between the moving image and sound, the interaction between sound and image, ways in which they influence one another, respond to one another. Using Adobe AfterEffects, we will explore the following animation and compositing techniques: (1) panning and zooming a still image; (2) dynamically changing effects such brightness, contrast, saturation, and other filters; (3) blending effects for compositing and changing relationships between images; (4) 3d manipulation and camera movement of 2d images; (5) dynamic cropping and transitions; (6) etc.

Begin the assignment by choosing imagery you have already created and digitizing through scanning or photography. Sketch out a rough storyboard of how you intend to animate/composite the imagery. Experiment in AfterEffects and determine what works well with your images. Create small experiments and render them so they can be incorporated into the final project. When you have enough material, transfer the imagery to Final Cut Pro, layout the entire piece, and incorporate sound.

Discussion of Broadcast Show

Techniques for composition in AfterEffects & Photoshop

We will present and discuss the "Eulogy for the Death of the Nation," a work-in-progress from A Season in Hell. Techniques for discussion include: 3d animation of 2d graphics, color/luma keying, panning control, dynamic control of color and luminosity effects, layering, blending effects (darken, lighten, screen, etc.). We will also discuss resolution (SD / HD), aspect ratios, and strategies for playback.

Reading: Dick Higgins, “Intermedia”

Assignment (due 9/27): blog entry - summary of "Intermedia"

Continue reading "Composition in AfterEffects & Final Cut Pro" »

Work on projects.

Assignment (due 2/27): Broadcast Show - discuss one piece in the exhibition and detail its critique on the media. How was this critique conveyed through the use of the medium?

Be sure and write about the Futurist Manifesto: "Art of Noises." After having completed the first sound project, write about how the correspondences between sound and other artistic material. How are they similar, how are they different? Reference the Manifesto in your analysis. (due asap)

Overview of techniques in Final Cut Pro for dynamic control: keyframes and envelopes for the transformation of scale, position, contrast, and special effects.

Continue reading "Intermedial" »

Discussion of Intermedia, Dick Higgins

Review project development and determine techniques for realization.

Discussion of techniques in AfterEffects for the time-based, dynamic control of position, scale, levels, and special effects.

Continue reading "Intermedial" »

Preliminary critique of Intermedial project

We will look at projects currently in development to discuss aesthetic and technical issues before their completion next week. Render a short clip from the project (30" - 1") for review and discussion.

Final critique of completed project 2.

Be sure all critical work is up to date for midterm grade, including summaries of the following no later than October 11:

-- Futurists "Art of Noises" manifesto (correspondences between sound and physical media)
-- Broadcast exhibition at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore (summarize one work, detailing the critique of broadcast media through the medium of broadcast)
-- Dick Higgins essay, "Intermedia," I am particularly interested in your critique of his argument for interdisciplinary work that explores the intermedial relationships between media and discipline, in support of more ephemeral forms and the dissolution of the object.
-- Mircea Cantor's films of protest, tourism, politics, and labor, currently on view at the Hirshhorn Museum's Black Box Gallery. Discuss how video is incorporated into the gallery space and how the temporal aspects of the work support this form of viewing video.

The Recombinate Form

The technique of the recombinate work of collage, in which various media are combined or "recombined," involves the creation of new juxtapositions and the transformation of the relationship between media. We will explore compositional strategies for the development of narrative in the recombinant form.

Reading: Critical Art Ensemble, “Recombinant Theater and Digital Resistance,” Digital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media

Download YouTube utility program.

Assignment (due 10/16): blog entry - summary of "Recombinant Theater"
Assignment (due 10/25): Recombinant project

Continue reading "Recombinate Form" »

Discussion of "Recombinant Theater and Digital Resistance" by the Critical Art Ensemble

Critical Art Ensemble's work takes form as theory, performance, installation, blurring the edges between each of these areas. The Marching Plague project, which critiques the government's fear tactics regarding biological weapons, is an example that combines installation, performance, and a position paper.

"As we shall see, they (recombination and digitality) are the foundation of a new cosmology- a new way of understanding, ordering, valuing, and performing in the world."

Recombinant theater, as practiced by Critical Art Ensemble, means to insert the elements of lived experience, combined with documentation, to produce a hyperreality (suspension of disbelief) that engages the viewer in a participatory relationship to the content of the work.

Discussion of Mircea Cantor's Deerparture, currently on view at the Hirshhorn.

Continue reading "Recombinatory Theater" »

Discussion of the script. I am distributing an example script from Eulogy for the Nation, an approach to breaking down the piece into sections, indicating text to be used, imagery and sound, a roadmap for constructing the narrative of the work.

Review of scripts for current projects.

Discussion of the storyboard for the Religion of the Lie / Orf's Baptism performance at the Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery in Athens, Georgia. Incorporation of sketches and information regarding text, image and sound.

Work on projects

Critique of Recombinant project / projects in progress

Format for Critique

-- Present the work and give a 5 - 10 minute discussion of the central concept as well as the technical realization. I am interested in the methodology and success of the technical realization in its ability to convey the original intent of the work. What were the problems?

Hand in narrative outline with following:

- short description of concept
- description of technical realization
- outline of the piece, section by section

Discuss the process you employed for developing your narrative. How were the ideas constructed? I want a thorough analysis of this process and a discussion of how it can be improved. We are employing time-based narrative that requires technique that might be foreign to how visual artists typically work with material. For the final phase of the class, I want the script procedure to play a more central role in the conceptualization of the work. Experiment with a clearly defined script outline as a tool for developing the ideas; use the script outline as a data or repository of ideas that is updated during the process; allow the script to be a work in of itself, which evolves during the entire process of conceptualization/realization. You my incorporate images and sketches into your script in which case it becomes a storyboard form.

Reading Assignment (due 11/01): Bill Viola, Will There Be Condominiums in Cyberspace?
Prepare questions/ discussion on the idea of video as a medium for non-linear narrative

Discussion of the essay by Bill Viola: Will There be Condominiums in Cyberspace

Works for discussion:

The Crossing
Room for St. John of the Cross
He Weeps for You
Heaven and Earth
The Reflecting Pool

Requirements for final project.

Reading: Pierre Lévy, “The Art & Architecture of Cyberspace”

Assignment (due 11/6): blog entry - summary of “The Art & Architecture of Cyberspace”
Assignment (due 12/6): Final project (final critique)

Continue reading "Video Narrative" »

Discussion of plans for final project, unfinished work to be completed and incorporated into DVD project.

Overview of non-linear authoring in the DVD environment.

Introduction to DVD Studio Pro, go through tutorial.

Assignment: Create a flowchart and narrative outline for final project. (due Nov. 13)

Discussion of Jeremy Blake

This week we will explore the work of multimedia artist Jeremy Blake, whose work is currently on view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the exhibition Wild Choir: Cinematic Portraits.

Continue reading "Art of Jeremy Blake" »

Museum visit for Jeremy Blake's exhibition:
Wild Choir: Cinematic Portraits at the Corcoran Gallery of Art

Discussion of artists using interactivity as integral to the compositional process:

Golan Levin

Golan Levin develops artifacts and events which explore supple new modes of reactive expression. His work focuses on the design of systems for the creation, manipulation and performance of simultaneous image and sound, as part of a more general inquiry into the formal language of interactivity, and of nonverbal communications protocols in cybernetic systems. Through performances, digital artifacts, and virtual environments, often created with a variety of collaborators, Levin applies creative twists to digital technologies that highlight our relationship with machines, make visible our ways of interacting with each other, and explore the intersection of abstract communication and interactivity.

Stelarc

Stelarc's work is based on the central idea that the human body has become obsolete, or rather; "biologically inadequate." Since the late 1960's, Stelarc has created a vast and impressive body of work dedicated to the physical enhancement of the human body through technological means. Stelarc suggests that like computers, our physical bodies must be constantly upgraded to evolve and adapt to the highly technological culture we have created.

Continue reading "Interactive Methodologies" »

Overview of DVD authoring techniques for final projects:

-- graphical flowchart - provides a visual layout for the flow of material and interactivity.

-- assets - repository for organizing all video, audio, and graphical material

-- standard vs. layered menus - the pros and cons for utilizing the two types of menus

-- menu buttons - the creation of buttons that operate in the two types of menus, mapping selection state colors, inserting video

-- photoshop techniques for creating buttons with an alpha mask and highlight

-- creating slideshows and photoshop techniques for using video templates for graphic stills

-- integrating 16:9 video within a 4:3 project

Final critique of the Virtual Space project

Individual critiques to overview each student's work over the course of the semester.