Art 511.01 Art and Emerging Technologies

FA 544   Tu/Th  9-12   Spring 08

Course Description and Prerequesites

Course Objectives

 1. to articulate the relevance of scientific research and emerging technology to art and media creation.

 2.  to develop critical perspectives about scientific and technology research processes and their relationship to contemporary culture.

 3.  to identify innovative artists working with research and technology and to articulate critical positions in regard to this work.

 4.   to become familiar with sources of information about current scientific and technology research including corporate and university research centers, scientific and trade journals, academic meetings, trade shows, world wide web sources, patent system, science museums, listservers, equipment catalogs, and vendor communication.

 5.  to develop literacy in interpreting scientific and technological sources.

 6. to be able to explain current research issues in the following scientific and technological areas:  biotechnology, bionics, brain functioning, artificial life, materials science, nanotechnology, rapid-prototyping, ubiquitous computing, information visualization, artificial intelligence, telepresence, gesture recognition,sonification, computer speech, GPS, surveillance technology.

7.  to develop art and media research proposals to build on emerging technologies

8 to develop the ability to identify particular researchers or devlopers with relevant information, to communicate with them about their research, and to gain access to resources.

Requirements, Attendance and Grading

- Active participation: The seminar requires each student to make many presentations with adequate research.  All students are expected to be prepared for their presentations at the designated times.

Probation, ADA Accomodation, Health and Safety

Details of Assignments

Major Assignments:

Final Art Proposal 2:  Elegant proposal and plan for project based on research/phenomenon.  This project should be developed as far as possible.

• Identify a phenomenon or research area that interests you (should be different topic than first proposal.) Conduct Web research for information relevant to your topic.  Read the section of Information Arts most related to your idea.  Create a web page that topically organizes research information on the topic.  Also include references to artists and theorists who work in related areas.
• Conduct field research if appropriate -- eg actual work with the technology.
• Arrange 2 interviews with people who can help elaborate the idea.
• Prepare a two part proposal:
• 1. A thorough review of the research and what you find interesting about it .  Post a web page with a short description of the project and preliminary links to relevant research.
• 2. a plan/elaboration/mock advertisement/etc. for a project that would build on that area of research or phenomenon. The plan should include evidence of research to identify technical, cultural analysis, and artistic sources.   Post both parts to a web page. Present orally to seminar.
•  Post the link and web site (html pages and images) into the Yahoo group site dedicated to this course.  (see details below).

Background Assignments:

Think Tank Presentation:  Pick a think tank that interests you. Review the way the center organizes its research.  Get a feel for the kinds of research they support. Identify one project they are working on that interests you.  Prepare a brief review of this project noting what you find interesting and problematic.  Post a brief review and link to the web using the class automatic update site.  Present longer oral presentation to present to the seminar.

Journal or magazine source presentation 1:  Browse the periodical collection.  Identify one that you have never seen that seems interesting.  Prepare a brief overview of its focus with examples of two articles you found noteworthy.  Post link and brief summary of interest to the web..  Present longer oral presentation to seminar.  Bring a copy of the journal back to the seminar.

Science museum project:  (Extra) Visit the Exploratorium.  Identify an area of inquiry treated in the exhibits that interests you.  Create a brief proposal of an art project based on that set of concerns.  Post it to the web.  Present longer oral presentation to seminar.

Reading- theory presentation 1,2  There are many theorists now writing about technoculture covering themes such as the impact of media and representation, the dissolution of the body, fluid identity, deconstruction of narratives of power, surveillance, control, progress, and scientific truth.  Identify two articles you find interesting and prepare reviews of the arguments and what you find interesting/problematic.  Post link and brief review to your web page and make oral presenations of 2 to the seminar.  Students will also be expected to read seveeral chapters from Information Arts including  chapters on art & research ( 1.1;1.2); chapter on art theory (7.1) and the relevant sections related to their projects.

Self Evaluation:   All students in the course will be required to write a self evaluation analyzing what projects were completed, what skills were learned, strong and weak points, effects on perspectives. Self Evaluation Guidelines are available on Infoarts web site.

Details for posting project 1, project 2, and patent, and other artist,thinktank,journal references

Uploading links and short summaries (experimental artists, think tank, journals, etc) to Yahoo

• 1.  go to the yahoo group page for this course.  You will need to join in order to be able to upload anything.  Click the join this group link and follow the directions
• 2. Once you join, options become available on the left side
• 3  Click on the "links" option
• 4. Several folders become available.  Click into the right folder to add your link - for example, "experimental artists 1".
• 5. Click on the "add bookmark" option.
• 6  It will take you to the add bookmark page  - it asks you to fill in 1. a short title (eg in this case maybe the artist name); 2. the url  (less mistakes if you can paste in from having copied the url when visiting the page); and 3. a short description.  Please add 2 or 3 sentences about what made you chose this particular web resource. End with your initials.
• 7 Click on the add bookmark option and it will be added to the growing list

Uploading mini web-sites - html page and images (project 1, project 2, patent)

Details for  1. Creating Web Sites and 2. Uploading the Web Pages and Images

Uploading Pages & Sites

• Create a local folder with your web page and images on local computer:  Use whatever web authoring environment you want to create your web page(or mini-site) on your local computer.  Create one folder that contains all the resources for each project - eg html page(s), images, sounds, whatever.  Use relative addressing for the files in the site so it will work when transferred to another computer.  (This is standard procedure in the industry because work must always be uploaded to servers.)
• Folder naming:  Please name that folder using the convention of words identifying which project it is.  For example, some of the  folders I might create during the semester would be project1f, patentf, and project2f.
• Create an index or entry page:  Determine the starting place for a web visitor.  Often these are named master.html or start.html.  This page will lead to the other pages.  You can name it whatever you want.  This is the page that you will use in the url link to your project. Include your initials as the first two letters in the name.  All the other files can be whatever you want.  Remember Use relative addressing - that is name links without using their full url for all local files.  For example my index page for first project might be named camindex.html.
• Upload using ftp:  Use FTP, Fetch, or similar program to send the whole folder as a unit up to the art511_h  web server.  Sign onto orion.sfsu.edu (computer name), account (art511_h)  You will need the secret password from the instructor to gain access to that server.  Click into the public_hml directory.  Click into the folder called Emerging08.   Click into your master folder (see next step)
• Create your master folder (one for each student) Ultimately you will put all  projects into one master folder.  If that folder doesn't already exist, please create it using Fetch or other ftp program.  Name it using your initials and the word "master".  For example, my master folder would be swmasterf.
• Big files:  Let me know if any of the files in your site's assets are larger than 500K.  I may need to give you space on another server for large files.
• My first project wouild be located thus - in the directory called public_html , in the subdirectory, swmasterf, in a subdirectory called project1 , and the main page called proj1index.html. (or some other name you give it)
• To the world the link would look like this:  http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~art511_h/emerging08/swmaster/project1/proj1index.html

If you follow these conventions it will be easy to create master indexes and to let this server function as an archive for the future.  Here is a rough diagram that illustrates.
 

3.  Uploading Links

Once you have uploaded your site into art511_h. then you are ready to put its link in the list of links on the Yahoo site.  All official postings of links  should be entered in the special Yahoo group for this course 'art511research08'.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/art511research08   Here are the steps for posting:

Join the group.  When you first sign on to the yahoo group link above it will ask you if you want to join.  You must join in order to post.  Its instructions are fairly straight forward. You will only need to join once.

Upload your pages:  Make sure your site has been uploaded to the art511_h site as indicated above.

Uploading links:  Once your site is loaded  you will need to upload the link to your entry page in the bookmarks area.  Get the link address of your entry page  Go to the book marks area.  Click into the folder that represents the particular assignment.  Choose the add bookmark option.  It will ask you for a tag line and the url.

Tentative Schedule - Spring, 2008

Class Resources - Web Links

• CIA Emerging Technologies Links  Introduction of Research Areas of Interest to Artists
• CIA Experimental Art Links(Artists, Festivals, Collaboratives, Journals, Organizations, Theorists, Science Resources)
• CIA Online Essay Links

• Wilson "Art as Research" - (21k)Artist.researcher abstract (2k)
• Wilson "Dark & Light Visions: The Relationship of Cultural Theory to Art that Uses Emerging Technologies" - (72k) Dark & Light Visions abstract (4k)
• Prepublication Chapters from Information Arts (Wilson, 2000, to be published by MIT Press - Sorry CIA students only)
• Wilson General Site (papers, documentation of art works)
• wilson's link to book information on Informaiton Art

View 1999-2004, 2007-8 Projects

Art & Emerging Research  - 2003 Project Summaries

View projects summaries from Spring, 2003   (plants respond to emotions, images based on underlying mathematics of African village layout, fractal sculpture, bioluminescent sky writing, sound visualization, augmented reality, etc.)  Links to tech artists, think tanks, interresting journals, misc sites

Art & Emerging Research  - 2001 Project Summaries

Research Proposals #1   visit site Designer corporate logo butterflies. -james m visit site A look at the future possibilities of chaos theory in art.weather control -  kerry l *** An idea page about wiring your entire home, and putting your life on display to the internet via Web Cams. -Nathan Shelley visit site  Dokodemo(Anywhere)Room- Ayumi Akasaka visit site the IC room allows visitors to manipulate a musical composition using gesture and touch. - bela visit site Interactive installation using biofeedback. -jonathan l  visit site  Xenosex (capsules with celebrity sexual experiences. JONATHAN APOUR visit site clothing goes beyond it's current function - changeable t-shirt logos (deadlink?) -mike p visit siteLil' Scientist Micro Injection Lab - transgenteitc fish -Laura t visit site  New kind of digital ink - andrew visit site The disposable GPS diaper. Jeff l visit site  Wearable computing out of control - mike o visit site  Electronic dream catcher - dagmara

Research Proposals #2   visit site The saga of Nikola Tesla and the student who couldn't type a link correctly! visit siteSynesthesia - the mixing of senses link site -  DB visit site 'Ware the stochastic sunusoidal reticulations! all books poltted - andrew wad visit site AURA SHADES.pseudoscience at its finest. jon apour visit site Call For Participants! Your chance to be part of an important study.swapping bodies -kl visit site Teleportation-Ayumi visit site An exploration of using hacking as a new medium for visual expression, protest and performance. -Nathan Shelley visit site FEED - webcasting to a TV near you... bÈla visit site Surveillance Disruption - jeff L visit site Perambulators roam the Earth... -Laura

Patent Proposals   visit site McTechnoGod - customizable spiritual interface - patent visit site Monochromatic Viewing Device with Contrast Control - kl ***Portable Lie Detector Patent -DB ***Dream recorder and dream imagery reconstruction device. -Nathan visit site A powerful electronic device which simulates a crowd so the neighbors don't have to know how lonely you really are. visit site This is the ULTIMATE BATHROOM BUDDY... >>>>>JDA visit site recently broke up? have an ex? send them a gift they'll never forget bad flower (dead link)... -mp visit site Method and device for replication of behavior patterns - wad visit site Eyeglass and belt buckel digital imaging system. Jeff visit site 24 hours available secure vending system- Ayumi visit site A lighted, enclosed shelving unit featuring electro-luminescent lighting panels!! -Laura

*** missing or dead link
 

Art & Emerging Research - 2000 Project Summaries  -
Index -http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~art511_j/emerging.2000.f/emerging.2000.index.html
 

Lillith Bailey-Kroll	Project 1 - A system to make breath visible (for example in yoga or dance) patent - Projection system that allows people to see different projections based on position
Alex Streczyn	Project 1 - System to bring down the Internet Project 2 - A visual cellular automata system Patent- evolving autonomous house
Jeremy Ehling	Project 1 - Virtual Labyrinth - a virtual and physical space that match exactly Project 2 - A videoconference optimized for international "cypher" rapping
Heather Logas	Project 2 - Autonomous bat robot Patent - a bicycle system to power personal electronics
Laura McDonald	Project 1 - system to generate 3-d image of your face based on DNA  Project 2 - A "safe" fire that burns cool Patent - rainbow fire system
Lisa Husby	Project 1 - Dream Home - techno house for women
Kenric McDowell	Project 1 - Immersive sound space Project 2 - Project for direct musicfrom seismic signals Project 3 - A 3-D system for displaying essays
Rene Garcia	Clone system for full range of traits - http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~dharma/genome/genome_overload.html
Jesse Jackson	Project 1 A sculpture generating system Patent - dream recognition material
Mark Gretzinger	Project 1 - how expensive would bionic man be today Project 2 - A personal "constellation" system of small satelites that can be controlled from earth Patent - bicycle shoulder attachment

Art & Emerging Research - 1999 Project Summaries

Index - http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~art511_j/emerging.1999.f/index.html
 

	1999 Projects
Vincent deWitt Huberts	Patent - Belly wheel for mobility of obese people   image  Project 1 - Holographic 3-D Words in Projection
Joe Schecter	Project 1 - night vision system  Project 2 - a variety of "hands" for prosthetic devices image1image2 patent - bycycle security system
Rachel Watson	Project 1 - A computer system to draw a portrait of what a person would like to look like Project 2 - An artificial 3-D Audience that would follow the presenter and respond appropriately (eg laughter, applause) Patent - Invisible tattoo system
Danny Lee	Project 1 - A system to make large scale sculptures that look life feces Project 2 - A "Road Rage" system that sensed conditions that generate road rage and then generate billboard displays designed to calm the drivers Patent - LCD contact lens
Isaiah Hirschfield	Project 1 - Voice activated portable journal Project 2 - A healthy interface for the computer in which physical activity is necessary to get work done
Steven Nobili	Project 1 - genetic design Project 2 - VR system for working with phobias Patent - a fart freshener
Jeff Pizzo	Project 1 - art pain  Project 2 - A projection/x-ray system that lets you dance with your own skeleton in real time Patent - "Nanny Helmet" gives rewards and punishments to children based on their behavior
Jenny West	Project 2 - Hearing health - a system that detects and creates sonic signals related to the health status of a person's body systems patent - tampon dispenser
Mike Hiskey	Project 1 - a system to record dreams project 2 - cybersex  Patent - battery operated heated bra
Carmela Bacani	Project 1 - Internal communication system in ears Project 2 - a system to simulate your appearance in 20 years based on your current lifestyle Patent - An internal communication system for direct playing and recording of music and text
Jonathan Cross	3-d Sculpting - intuitive system for generating 3-d models Fluid document interface for deconstructing texts on the web Patent - a video surveillance disrupter
Gregory Fischer	Project 1 - Home wired for verbal interface Project 2 - Sculpture built out of stem cells
Dave D	Project 1 - Genetic engineering company Project 2- Hyperbolic sound sculpture in space Patent - sexual stimulation telecommunication device
Lindsay Jones	Project 1 = Instant virtual reality glasses
Laura McGough	project 1 - blood & guts in cyberspace
Naomi	Project 1 - biofeedback automatic selection of MP3 files patent - heated garment