Syllabus

MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE OF ART
Department of Art Education


Seminar II: New Media
http://seminariinewmedia.blogspot.com/

AE 204 - 02
Spring 2007

Tuesday: 9:10 – 12:00
Room: Tower 310



Faculty Contact
Dr. Dan Serig
Office: South 107A
Office Hours: Mon. 3:00 – 5:00; Tue. 2:00 – 3:00; also available by appointment
Office Phone: 617-879-7549
Email: Dan.Serig@massart.edu



Services for Students with Disabilities. If you believe you have a disability that may warrant accommodations in this class, I urge you to register with Mercedes Evens, Director of Diversity and Civil Rights Compliance, Tower 808, telephone extension 7060. As your instructor, I am happy to discuss specific needs with you as well.



Course Description
The course focuses on an examination of new media, concepts, and attitudes, both in their current forms as well as future applications for the developing visual arts teacher. Participants will investigate artists, critique methods and learning strategies as well as develop a project based on the theme of identity. Learning occurs through creation of artworks, demonstrations, observations, readings and dialogues. “New” media may mean different things to different people. Certain software may be new to me but be a standard for an industry. These and other issues are explored in surrounding the question: What does new media literacy mean and offer for visual arts teachers and their students?


Aims
Most often, learning new media comes from a perceived need. Then, if the media offers an easy interface, it’s integrated into our daily, creative lives. This course takes a more reflexive approach and focuses on using new media as a means for self-expression and for creating learning experiences for others. This turns the art education student into a creator rather than a consumer. This leads to a series of central questions and issues for the course:

How do you learn a new media?
What unique qualities do new media offer that other media do not?
What forms can the products of new media take?
How can new media be blended with other non-digital media and for what purpose?
How can the learning of new media be done through a combination of intuitive and didactic approaches?
How do critiques and reflection inform and impact learning?
What does the implication of the answer to these questions have on our work with students?

These questions represent some of the issues to be dealt with this semester. Other questions will emerge from class discussions and readings.

Another way to describe this course is to identify what it is not. This course is not a course on ‘learning’ a specific technology. Certain software will be highlighted and certain hardware will be used more than others, but those decisions depend on individual student projects, as well as getting an overview of what’s out there. I am not an expert on technology tools. I do not pretend to be an expert of Photoshop or any other software. I have always been a self-directed, intuitively-minded user of technology. I learn by playing, and the course explores this approach.

Objectives
Students in this course will:

Develop new media literacy through projects, assignments, readings and discussions.

Use resources available at the college and online to develop art work, presentations, reflections and other assignments.

Critically examine the role of new media in their art practice, in other artists and in art education.

Participate in group dialogues and critiques that interrogate issues and artists related to working in new media

Develop abilities to use new media to document, organize and reflect on learning and teaching.



Content Overview

Classes will be approximately three hours and broken into a format that begins with a review of an artist with an accompanying critique method used in art education. This will be followed by a crash course in an application. Then students may engage in a structured dialogue on readings or other assignments. Time is also incorporated for studio work (play). A re-grouping concludes each session for us to share, debrief and set goals for ‘next steps’. As the course progresses, more time is allotted for studio work (play) on final projects.

The required text for this course is A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink.

The approach taken in this course leads to the following content:

Studio work (play)
This course is a seminar. The work (play) with the new media lies at the core of the course and will inform our dialogues both online and in class. Most often the studio work (play) will be self-directed depending on individually developed projects. The resources of MassArt will be discussed and presented to enable decisions on types of and approaches to projects.

Studio work (play) for this course requires a dual focus: First, a focus on the media and technology in concert with ideas and subject matter – the ‘doing’ of the projects; Second, a meta-focus on how the work happens, what approaches are taken and why. This second focus requires a reflexive awareness. Reflexivity requires more than reflective thought, but reflective thought specifically on how you and your personality affect the processes and products. Then these reflections get turned back onto to the project in the form of continual making – doing things with the new media.

Since developing an understanding of the role of new media in a studio practice forms the central component for our dialogues and reflections, class attendance is paramount. Not only does attendance affect individual projects, but individual endeavors need to be shared in this course to benefit all of our learning.

Readings
Reading assignments serve as starting points for dialogue and reflection. A focus of the readings will be current debates on using new media as a means of expression and using technology as an expressive media in education. We are also exploring how conceptual thinking impacts art education, specifically with new media.

Reflections
You will be keeping a blog in which you comment on your studio work (play), readings, class discussions, and other assignments. These will be updated weekly. In addition, short reflection prompts will be assigned based on specific issues or questions to be addressed in class. These will not require further outside reading, but may always be enhanced by the connections you can make to your topics of interest outside of this course.

Projects and presentations
A final project will be required. This project culminates the explorations and investigations undertaken within your chosen theme, topic or concept. The project must be new media-based but does not have to reside in the digital world in its final form. We will discuss this in class.

Many other projects lead to the final one. You will be expected to document your progress and at times share your work. I expect you to develop a body of work that develops your ideas. You may want to think of it as developing a portfolio of your thinking and learning.

You will be expected to formally present your final project to the class focusing on the two strands mentioned previously: 1. describing the artwork and the ideas, intentions and influences; 2. explaining your processes and thinking along the journey of creating the project. Less formally, most classes will include a sharing of your work, and at scheduled points I will expect a progress-report-type of presentation.

The course is divided into three main components in which art making, reflexive practice, dialogue, readings and projects will help students engage with the material presented.

New Media Explorations
This component will address artists’ engagement with new media and the implications of that engagement for teaching and for continued artistic/personal growth. Explorations will include play (trial and error) and planned projects (open to the unplanned). All learning objectives for this course stem from the engagement with new media in and out of class.

Idea Development for the Artist/Teacher
Starting from the exploration of new media, this component addresses a cycle of reflexivity. Reflexivity is a combination of reflection and action. This cycle will be introduced as a means for developing ideas as an artist/teacher. Included in this component are the processes of identifying influences, creating motivations, developing a theme, dialogue and critique.

Self-Directed Identity Project and Presentation
This involves each student developing a project to present to the class. This will occur through a series of individual and group processes. In this component the project is meant to serve as a means to provide a learning experience for the student that derives from individual explorations into a new media. A series of assessment projects done in and out of class will prepare students for this project and presentation.



Assessment Projects

The assessment tasks for this course are linked directly to the three sections around which the course content is framed. Details for each project will be discussed in class and provided in handouts. Attendance is required to fulfill the assessment projects. Students with more than two absences will not pass the course. Arriving late or leaving early constitutes a partial absence.

New Media Explorations
In-class Play and Critiques (20%)
Almost every class includes opportunities to explore media through purposeful play and projects. Some explorations are self-driven while others are whole-class. Six classes include a review of a new media artist coupled with a critique method. Students are expected to participate in the critiques and reflect on the purpose and uses of the critique methods in art education settings.

Idea Development for the Artist/Teacher
Blog (20%)
Students are expected to keep a blog of writing and visuals that includes but is not limited to the following: reflections on each class; final project development; new media explorations; learning experiences; identification of influences; and divergent thinking. I do not want to see a recitation of class notes. This is a place to expand and explore ideas.

Project Ideas with Throughlines (20%)
A major component of the blogs will be development of possible projects for use in educational settings. These brainstorms are based on our new media explorations in and out of class. Each posting will include three Throughlines. Throughlines are…

Self-Directed Identity Project and Presentation
Self-Directed Identity Project (20%)
Students will design a new media project and present it to the class for critique. Development of the project and format will be discussed and individualized.

Presentation of Project (20%)
The culminating project for this course of an identity-themed work will be presented and critiqued. The presentations include students’ new media explorations, what the student has learned about new media, the project and a dialogue with the class. Each presentation will be between 10-15 minutes with another 10-15 minutes of critique.

Behavioral Expectations
The classroom is a social environment. We will be constructing our meaning through engagement with materials, content and each other. To facilitate this kind of atmosphere, refrain from using cell phones or other electronic devices. Food and drink need to be reserved for break time.