Art 412   Introduction: Art & Emerging Technologies:  Course  Objectives
Stephen Wilson, Professor Conceptual/Information Arts, SFSU

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Expanded Concepts of Art , Design, and Cultural Information

•  Approach  art making  focused on ideas not media
•  Learn techniques of working with non traditional ideas & materials  -Anything can be a focus for art
•  Learn to invent new media and approaches;  to combine traditional media in new ways
•  Learn skills of applying the world views, work styles, information bases, and problem solving processes of disciplines outside of the arts to art making
•  Learn skills of accessing and navigating cultural information sources such as: newspapers, popular media, academic and trade journals, academic meetings and trade shows, electronic on-line information systems , and patent system.
•  Feel comfortable in using the tools and concepts from science & technology in art applications
•  Be curious about and demonstrate skills in interpreting technologically related literature
•  Be able to apply systematic problem solving techniques to art making-  heuristics, algorithms, problem decomposition, hypothesis generation, testing & refinement cycles
•  Comprehend & adapt programming & digital electronics concepts to art making:  coding-decoding,   loops,  branching,  subroutines,  coordinate mapping,  sampling,  modeling,  simulation, intelligent systems, debugging, creative use of serendiptiy
•  Learn to design interactive events in which the audience acts as co-creators.
•  Demonstrate awareness of the social impact of technological developments in areas such as work, commerce, communication, entertainment, and education and their potential relevance to the arts.
•  Develop awareness of postmodern theory, critical theory, and other theoretical influences on art.
  
•  Demonstrate awareness of these areas of theoretical interest:  basic conceptions of  reality and our epistemological ability to know it ; the meaning of bodies and physical space in a world increasingly dominated by virtuality; the nature of identity and gender;  the interrelationships between digital technologies and larger socio-economic-cultural forces; the historical place of digital technologies and media;  interactivity; and the special challenges confronting artists that work with digital technology.
• Understand issues in intellectual property, copy-right, open-source,  free culture, and diy.
  

Increased Knowledge and Skills in General Principles of Computer Hardware, Software and Other Emerging Technologies

•  Use scientific and technical related vocabulary to interpret books, articles, and advertising about computers/technology in creative arts subjects
•  Explain in their words the electronic principles of computer operation and the principles of alternative number systems and digital logic
•  Write elementary computer programs to solve CA related problems

Increased Awareness of Applications of Computers in Creative Art Disciplines:

•  Understand and be able to locate and use computer graphics resources available in applications such as animation, paint programs, image digitization and computer aided desgin.
•  Understand and be able to locate and use music and sound -related resources in applications such as notation, synthesizer control, and sound digitization
•  Understand the principles of computer based planning aids such as word processing, data bases, communication technologies and be able to apply them to the arts.
•  Understand the principles of computer control of lighing, multiprojection, and other devices.  They will be able to describe applications such as use of computers to control cameras, theatrical lighting, videodisc, kinetic scultpture, and robotics

Awareness of Emerging Issues in Technology and Culture

•  Understand the cultural implications of the following technology trends and identify related opportunities for the arts:  Hypermedia and the structure of information; Telecommunications, networks, World Wide Web, groupware, remote omputing, and the changing nature of information sources; Simulation, virtual worlds, and artificial realities; Remote sensing, robotics, and telepresence; Artificial Intelligence; Gesture recoginition; New Biology; Materials Science; Space Science.
  

Changes in Orientations and Perspectives:

•  Feel sufficiently comfortable with computers and emerging technolgoies that further contact is sought either through additional courses or independent study.
•  Be aware of the use artists have made of technology and computers in areas such as computer graphics, computer music, and contemporarty intermedia experiments such as interactive environments.  They will be able to articulate aesthetics perspectives about these uses of computers.
•  Demonstrate awareness of artistic experimentation in these fields: Biology (microbiology, genetics, animal and plant behavior, ecology,  the body, brain & body processes, body imaging, and medicine); Physical Sciences (particle physics, atomic energy, geology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, space science, and GPS technology); Mathematics and Algorithms (algorists, fractals, genetic art, artificial life); Kinetics (conceptual electronics, sound installation, and robotics) ; Telecommunications (telephone, radio, telepresence, web art); and Digital Systems (interactive media, VR, alternative sensors - touch, motion, gaze, personal characteristics, activated objects, haptics, artificial intelligence, 3-D sound, speech, scientific visualization, surveillance, information systems)
•  Seek to use emerging technologies and computer concepts in future creative work.