Course Description

ART210 is a studio/performance oriented course. It is an introduction to the usage of electronic and digital tools for artistic creations from an aesthetic and artistic point of view. The main purpose of this class is to expand the students' creativity in the Digital Arts domain.

In this class we will study the history, evolution and theory of current technologies in order to understand their potential as creative tools, contextualizing the software and hardware that will be used by the students throughout the semester and their artistic career.

This class is a pre-requisite for multiple other classes in the Art department, as well as other departments. This is an ART class and you are expected to participate as open minded ARTISTS, even if you are not ART majors. Your authentic self-expression is what is going to make the class a full learning experience for everyone.

Process and Strategy

The class will be divided into two main areas. The first half will be devoted to understanding the nature of digital creation, the basics of pixel altering softwares such as Photoshop, vector based softwares such as Illustrator, and their applications in the printed world, using Adobe InDesign.

In the second half we will explore time based media, creating frame by frame animations and basic quicktime movies, with a general presentation of sound techniques, as well as some basic programming notions.

Knowing that this is also an introduction to the specificities of the digital creation in an artistic environment, we will study examples (websites, movies...) created by traditional and contemporary creators, reading also short essays and texts about digital artistic processes.

There will be a different assignment for each class, where the students will apply the concepts presented during the previous session, and a group critique in order to solve any misunderstandings and conflicts.

The assignments are there to ensure the students will learn how to use the hardware & software and start exploring their own abilities to express and create artistic content using digital tools.

Readings / assignments / requirements

Your best resource for this class - and a lot of other classes is ATOMIC LEARNING: you will find very detailed tutorials on every single application we will use for this class. Please log on using yor ut username and email password. If this does not work, please contact Joy Harris jeharris@ut.edu letting her know you are having problems logging into the system.

Create your own blogs for the class. In these blogs you will be posting your assignments and comments. Your blogs will be the equivalent of your journal and the participation for the class. They will need to be updated 1 day before the class and they will be graded. I will be checking these blogs using turnitin.com in order to track your evolution during the sessions, and also as a way to know that you are reading and exploring all the files I will be presenting. You can post any comments on your blogs, be aware these blogs will be public and accessible to everyone in the class.

Make sure you check your UT webmail account every day. Assignments and comments will be sent to your UT accounts. We will use Blackboard permanently, so make sure you check it regularly.

Short readings will be distributed throughout the semester. Most of the information will be provided by the professor or will be found freely online. Critiques will frequently be initiated from various topics covered in the readings. In order to participate effectively you will need to have read the required texts and be able to articulate your responses to them within the context of class discussion and critique. We will watch plenty of excerpts from movies / documentaries / Interactive Media during the class that will also be considered as part of the material for the class.

Use your own portable hard-drives / USB Drives to store your projects. Use the local CASS server as a backup, but do not rely on it to store sensitive or important information or documents, it is a PUBLIC server and anyone can have access to that. The day of a critique, bring the ORIGINAL files and store them in the CASS server so we can study and analyze your creative process.

The computer labs are refrigerated... BRING a sweater or a jacket.

Grading 

There will be several projects throughout the course, including papers, assignments, take home exams, and others. Each one of them will be a part of the final 100% of the grade inapproximately equal weights. If necessary I will do some pop quizes, depending on the students' participation and motivation, and depending on how certain sessions work, I might add an extra work not listed in the syllabus. The grades posted on BlackBoard may not reflect the final grade on SpartanWeb.

Possible last-minute changes

Although unlikely, it is possible that last-minute changes might be made to the dates for all assignments or class meetings, excepting only the final exam. In this unlikely event, I'll make all possible efforts to inform students with sufficient lead-time.

I reserve the right to modify this syllabus for any reason at any time.