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Creative Approaches to Emerging Media

Instructor: Mimi Onuoha
Contact: cgo221@nyu.edu
Term: Spring 2020
Time: Tues and Thurs, 9am - 10:30am
Mimi Office Hours: sign up here (meet at Mimi's desk in the South Faculty Studio)
Arnab's office hours: Monday 5-6pm and Tuesday 2-3pm (you can find him in the IMA area close to the resident's office, North side of the floor)
Homework Form: https://forms.gle/m43A2Wevzaxx5UtB8
Submitted Homework Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BC3FaOsLf2JWXiw2RU1sdlfP3_trR5VoF9_bm-2IEX0/edit?usp=sharing (you can check here to see if your assignment was submitted)
Full Syllabus: https://github.com/MimiOnuoha/Creative-Approaches-NYU/blob/master/syllabus.md
NYU Official Syllabus: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lbDtHorHbAnfm1uLM2zJuvRyGIFishwNIUThFFgvkGw/edit

Course Description

We live in a world where we have more data, computational power, and access to digital connectivity than ever before. But how do we make sense of the promise inherent in this reality while also coming to terms with the challenges that it presents? How do we situate the technologies that we have come to take for granted? And more importantly, how do we create active and creative responses that interrogate and hint at the potential for different futures?

This course examines emergent technological fields, spanning topics like data collection/representation, artificial intelligence, social algorithms, surveillance, and digital mapping and asks how the technologies inherent to each can be leveraged for response, creation, and critique. Students will be asked to switch between historically considering the current technological moment and analyzing previous ones.

While this course is primarily conceptual and theory-based, the content covered will be technical in nature and students will be tasked with making three creative responses to the content in the tradition of the new media/digital art and design worlds.

Course Objectives

In this class, students will:

  • Consider technology from a sociotechnical and political gaze. This entails understanding what technology offers, does, and situating it within its context, history, and variable perspectives
  • Understand the various contours of the field of new media art
  • Investigate different types of and fields for creative response, creation, and exploration, situated within but not limited to, the arts.
  • Create works of art that engage with and further conversation about emerging technology

Format

The first third of the class are an introduction to thinking about and diving into making art and doing creative work. The last two thirds take this model, but then adapt it for considering and responding to emerging technology. Students will work individually, in pairs, and in groups over the course of the semester.

The workload for this class is not consistent, and there are different types of work that students will be asked to do. There are some weeks in which you'll be taking in and making sense of lots of material. In these weeks, you'll have many reading and writing assignments. In other weeks, you'll be pushed to prototype and create substantive work. Some weeks will require many hours of work, while in others you'll be asked to provide less. In the course, we jump between making and thinking, and spend a great deal of time doing research and critique, the two actions that support making and thinking.

This is not strictly a technical class. With the exception of a couple of lessons, we will rarely be teaching a distinct library, tool, or sensor. I am more interested in what you choose to make then what you are able to make. That said, we operate with the assumption that all students have the background of Creative Computing and HyperCinema, and therefore that all students are equipped to use electronics, physical computing, programming, animation, film, and more to create work. In addition, we ensure that all students have plenty of support to create the types of projects that they envision.

Expectations and Requirements

  • Class attendance and punctuality
  • Participation during class discussions and presentations
  • Weekly assignments
  • Three section projects + accompanying documentation posts

This class is an inclusive and harassment-free space for everyone, with no tolerations of discrimination based on gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or appearance. Please feel free to let me know privately if you have an academic accommodation.

All homework should be completed and submitted using the homework form the night before the day that it is due. No late work is accepted!

In accordance with NYU policy, students are allowed a maximum of two absences. It is worth stressing that because the class covers so much new material, it is very much to your advantage to not miss any classes, if possible.

Evaluation

Grades for the course will follow the standard A through F letter grading system and will be determined by the following breakdown:

25% Homework and Class Participation
10% Classmate Project Evaluations
20% Project 1
20% Project 2
25% Project 3

Communication

Arnab and I are both available for office hours.

For other inquiries, I can be reached via email at all times. During the week I respond to all student emails within 24 hours, during the weekend within 48 hours unless stated otherwise.

Social Codes

Here are the social codes we agreed on together on the first day:

  • No isms! And especially no subtle isms

  • No feigned surprise

  • A protocol for if we break the social rules:

    • Ouch (point it out)
    • Oops (acknowledge that you did something, apologize, etc)
    • Move on

  • Explanation: if an ouch + oops occurs, check in with Mimi or Arnab (or expect one of us so one of us can see if it makes sense to facilitate a discussion on it.

Syllabus

Week 13

April 28: Presentation on AI

Find class presentation in the week13 folder

  • Do (required):

    • Complete the course evaluation
    • Work on your final project/debate

April 30: Work in class on project

Arnab and I around to check in with people.

Week 12

April 23: Social Algorithms

Assignment:

Week 11

April 14: An overview of data

Now we move into the final few weeks of class where we'll be talking about data and automation. This is your final project, and this section is different because you get time that is built in to actually refine and iterate on your projects. In class we'll define data and do an exercise to see how much sense you can make of a particular dataset. An understanding of the forms that data takes and what it means to work with it.

Assignment:

  • Read (optional):

    • Introduction to Sorting Things Out by Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Starr (readings folder )
    • "Representation and the Necessity of Interpretation" by Laura Kurgan (excerpt from Close Up At A Distance, see readings folder)
    • The Point of Collection

  • Do (optional):

    • Check out this project: Iyapo Repository (Salome Asega + Ayodamola Okunseinde)

April 16: Data, surveillance and information flows

Find class presentation in the week11 folder

Week 10

April 7: Work on project 2 in class

Because of the shift to remote class, you're intentionally being given extra time in class to work on your projects. You will likely still have to do work outside of our class time, but you can use this time to meet with your group for collaborative work and discussion.

Assignment:

  • Do:
    • Whatever is required for your project.

April 9: Present Project 2

Presentations

Assignment:

Week 9

March 31: Work on project 2 in class

Because of the shift to remote class, you're intentionally being given extra time in class to work on your projects. You will likely still have to do work outside of our class time, but you can use this time to meet with your group for collaborative work and discussion.

April 2: Work on project 2 in class

Because of the shift to remote class, you're intentionally being given extra time in class to work on your projects. You will likely still have to do work outside of our class time, but you can use this time to meet with your group for collaborative work and discussion.

Assignment:

  • Do:
    • Whatever is required for your project.

Week 8

March 24: The Internet: advertising, business model, and platform accountability

Find the recording of class here

Assignment:

  • Read:

  • Do:

    • Think about ways in which your social experience of the internet has changed as a result of the pandemic. What are the sites, apps, platforms, and ways of connection that are saving you right now?
    • Take care of yourselves! Take walks (maintain social distancing!), reach out to NYU's health and wellness if you need, stay in touch with friends, support one another. Do not hesitate to reach out to me if anything changes in your situation or you find yourself struggling to focus.
    • NOTE: As I said in class, I'm not asking you to write about the readings anymore. If and only if you have the space/time/motivation, I'd recommend skimming them. In a life sense, it's useful to be aware of how the Internet works and advertising remains really essential to that.

March 26: The Internet: connection in the age of covid-19

Working through the way that capitalism and advertising affect the Internet that we experience.

Assignment:

  • Do:
    • Enjoy a rare writing assignment: Keeping in mind everything that we have discussed, read, and learned in the past few weeks, write up 200-400 words about the ideas and topics that have resonated with you the most about the Internet. What are you planning or would you like to explore with your group for the second project? Submit using the homework form under any of the categories for week 8.
      • NOTE: please take this seriously. It's not too many words and it will help Arnab and I as we're trying to support you in the upcoming weeks.
  • Do not:
    • Do anything else! In exchange for this writing assignment, you are not expected or required to meet with your group over the weekend. You can use the time in class next week to meet. This should make things a bit easier for those of you who are in different timezones.

Week 7

March 10: Non-traditional class/housekeeping

Make sure everyone is on the same page about remote class.

March 12: The Internet: governance, connection, different experiences online

What are the experiences like of different people online? Are there inequities that are built into the medium.

Assignment:

  • Do:

    • Begin thinking about ideas for project 2. For more information on the project, click on the "project2_guidelines" document in the project folder (it also says who is in what group! )

    • For inspiration, check out Rhizome's Net Art Anthology

    • More inspiration: Check out Julia Weist's piece (for background, read this)

    • Reach out to Arnab over email or Slack if you have any feedback or requests about our first remote class!

Week 6

March 3: The Internet: an historical overview

We spent the first six weeks walking through the process of what it means to do creative work, everything from evaluation, to what the work does, to how we present and show it. But that was all priming us to be able to do this is in a grander way, where we're responding to actual emerging technology. For the rest of the semester, we'll be focusing on two large topics: the internet and data + automation. You'll learn how to think about these from different perspectives and points of view, and then you'll be tasked with creating word that responds to them. We begin with the internet.

Assignment:

  • Read:
  • Do:
    • look at the Algorithmic Citizenship project by James Bridle
    • check out Ingrid Burrington's Field Guide to New York (note that Ingrid is a fellow at IMA this semester and can be a useful resource to you!)
    • Once you've finished all of the readings and other assignments, write a 200-300 word response on one or both of the readings. What stood out to you? What is compelling, what are you still thinking about? What are you considering about the internet that you didn't know before? What do you want to know more about? Submit using homework form, week 6.1.
      • ALSO! Optional, but I'm interested on if there's anything that you would add into the Timeline that we made in class. What are significant dates for you? Feel free to write about this instead in your response. (You can find the timeline and some other resources in the week6 folder)

March 5: The Internet: an infrastructural overview

How does the internet actually work? How does it show up in our everyday lives? What kind of internet infrastructure can you identify in the city and the building?

Assignment:

Week 5

Feb 25: Present Project 1

First half of class presents projects .

Assignment:

  • Make sure that you have created a documentation post for your project and submitted it using the homework link under Project 1.

Feb 27: Present Project 1

Second half of class presents projects .

Assignment:

  • Read:
  • Do:
    • Barlow's declaration is a famous document in Internet history because it captures the promise and orientation of many early hackers to the Internet when it was first being shaped. Do you agree with his claims, and do you think they still exist today? In addition, what do you know about the Internet more generally? Submit using homework form, week 5.2.

Week 4

Feb 18: Art as Argument, Technology as Material

Projects projects projects.

Assignment:

Feb 20: On presenting work

A quick discussion about presenting work and documenting work. Maybe we can bring Rob in to do a quick demo on staging things, using equipment from the ER, etc? Or a resident can come in and talk about this. Then the rest of the class is time to work.

Assignment:

Week 3

Feb 11: Introduction to Project 1

Summarize what we've covered in the first two weeks and discuss the first project. Provide a sample of working through a project in class as a group exercise (going from nothing to something)

Assignment:

  • Do:
    • Come to class on Thursday with some initial ideas for your project!
    • Note: the following assignment is due on 2/18. Go to an exhibition, gallery, or art screening/lecture. It must be something that you can't experience just by sitting at your computer, something that you have to physically attend, and it should involve media art in some way.
      • Document your experience and write about the exhibition, show, or work that you visited for your homework. Questions to use as starting places: What exhibition or event did you go to? What work stood out to you? If none of them did, why not? What didn't resonate with you? Describe the mood, the tone, and the qualities of the work, and then describe your reactions. How did the context of the work—including but not limited to staging and curation—affect your understanding? Did you look at the wall text or ask anyone for context on the work? How was the visit overall? Elaborate in your post and submit under Assignment 3.1.
  • Read:
    • The guidelines for the first project (find in project1 folder)
  • Exhibitions running now:

Feb 13: Work on Project 1

Time in class to work on and discuss the project. Arnab and I will lead the class in an activity and meet with each of you to check in about different aspects of the project.

Assignment:

  • Do:

    • Work on your project! Make some substantial progress. Bring in a prototype of something for class on Tuesday. It can be a sketch, a paper prototype, the beginnings of a website, code for a game, etc. Just something that shows you've made progress since our last meeting.
    • Go to an exhibition if you haven't done it yet, and post your response under assignment 3.1.

  • Read:

    • skim through Jentery Sayer's Before You Make A Thing. This is composed of tips, questions, and prototyping techniques that may be useful for you going forward.

Week 2

Feb 4: New Media Art

What is new media art? An introduction via an array of examples

Assignment:

  • Do:

    • Look at the rest of the examples of work! The link to the list of projects you saw is here. You can also find a copy in the week2 folder.

Feb 6: Evaluating New Media Art

We continue our discussion of the examples from class on Tuesday. What stood out to you? What did you notice?

Assignment:

  • Do:

    • Last week you read "Bad Writer", by Michael Mohammad Ahmad. In the text, Ahmad talks about the need for those making creative works to have communities who can engage critically with their work. Choose the work that most stood out to you and evaluate and respond to it by writing a 400-500 word review/critique of it. What is the piece trying to do or say? What about the piece appeals to you? What works about it? What doesn't work? What could make it stronger, and what is adding to or taking away from its impact? Consider aspects like content, form, style, context, etc. Be thorough and thoughtful. Post the response on your blog or website and submit it using the homework form under the category Assignment 2.2.
      • NOTE: When I say "critique", I don't mean that you should be mean or aggressive. What I mean is that you should deeply engage with the piece, whether it appealed to you or not. It is totally fine to take the position that the work you are reviewing is a masterpiece, but you do need to explain to us why you think this.
      • The link to the list of projects you saw is here. You can also find a copy in the week2 folder.

  • Read:

Week 1

Jan 28: Introductions, part 1

This class will introduce us to one another and set up the topics of the semester, conveying why we should even use art/creative mediums as a way to think through emerging technology, and why we should use emerging technology to make art.

Assignment:

  • Read:
    • " Bad Writer", Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Sydney Review of Books, 2016.
  • Do:
    • Set up a blog or website for this class. For more control under the hood, I recommend creating a site using Github Pages (for example, this one is very straightforward). But you can also use Are.na, Tumblr, Canvas, Wordpress, or any other platform. You just need a place where all of your homework goes!
    • After you've finished the reading and made your website, post a 250-300 word response on your thoughts about Bad Writer on your blog. Why do you think I've asked you to read this piece? What connection does it have to our class? Submit the link to this response using the homework form.

Jan 30: Introductions, part 2

Discussion: what does it mean to evaluate art? Introduce a shared vocabulary.

Assignment:

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