Art History 215: Printed Page/Virtual Page
Spring 2005/Fedorchuk

A seminar on the impact of the “digital revolution” on art, on everyday life and on fine lines and intersections between the two.

There are 3 (overlapping and interconnected) parts: Each of these may be addressed in one class session. It may sometimes seem like 3,000 overlapping and interconnected parts :

1. Ideology and History
• Overlapping histories of the book and the computer as well as a look at contested beliefs and ideologies surrounding its uses and cultural and social value.

2. Art
• How might art be reframed or redefined in light of current technology?

• How does the Internet impact and alter communities, relationships, space, artistic practice, ideas about public and private, fiction and fact?

• How might an artist maintain a critical position when relying on expensive "state-of-the-art" technologies which are supporting and being supported by Big Business. What is our stance as artists and designers regarding the "digital divide?"

• How might artists use and at the same time critique uses of electronic media?

3. New Models and New Obstacles
• New models are needed for describing and analyzing new media.

• How might digital media alter static and clearly delineated definitions of autonomous and distinct media?

• How do media that are potentially altered (and copied) at any moment - that are never permanent - affect ideas about value, permanence, physicality and materiality?

• The class will review new media practices and methods, while providing an historical overview of digital theory, design and art.

• Effective visual process communication; meaningful solutions; creative approaches to problem solving and method; and an understanding of the vocabulary of multimedia are some of the main objectives of this course. We will read and write about the works and words of artists and cultural critics actively engaging multimedia, placing it in its social, historical, and political context.



STUDENT PORTFOLIOS

MARIA BOLIVAR

KATLYN BRUSKIEWICZ

NICHOLAS COTTER

CHAD DODDS

DAN EVANS

BRAD HORTON

ALTON JANELLE

MIACHAEL MURPHY

ADAM SETALA

DIA TATREAUX

EVELYN TORREZ