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School of Art and Design · ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
Art in the Digital Age explores the various ways artists and designers use or develop emerging computational technologies to articulate conceptual ideas or transform cultural production of objects. This course examines the changing social dimensions of the digital age and the impact of networked connectivity on contemporary creative practices. It deals with some of the key debates and issues of the body, space and time, and outlines a range of outcomes through a hybridity and cross-disciplinarity; interactivity, cybernetics, robotics, physical augmentation, artificial intelligence, information and social networks, virtual reality, data visualisation, 2D and 3D digital and additive printing, programming and coding. It also touches on how hybrid art practices explore frontier sciences such as bio-art and genetic engineering. Framing creative works within broader historical and social contexts, art history and theory, this course also considers some of the ethical concerns that artists and designers address through an interdisciplinary practice. Students will develop a critical knowledge of the impact of digital and computational technologies on contemporary art and life, and learn to discuss and analyse the new kinds aesthetics that are created in an increasingly networked society. The course is complimented with relevant guest lectures and excursions.
Wattle forum and online quiz participation, 500 words
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 4
Major Essay, 2500 words
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 4
Tutorial presentation, 10 minutes
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
Participation
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
130 hours of total student learning time made up from: a) 36 hours of contact over 12 weeks: lectures, seminars and tutorials; and b) 94 hours of independent student research, reading and writing. Contact hours may include visits to major art institutions in Canberra.
Donna J. Haraway, Simians, cyborgs, and women : the reinvention of nature Routledge, New York, 1991. 304.5 Har Charlie Gere, Digital Culture, Reaktion Press, 2008. 303.4834 GER Darren Tofts and Murray McKeich, Memory Trade : A Prehistory of Cyberculture, Interface, North Ryde, 1998, 303.483 TOF Preliminary Reading Charlie Gere, Digital Culture, (Reaktion Press, 2008), 303.4834 GER Darren Tofts, Annemarie Jonson, and Alessio Cavallaro, Prefiguring cyberculture : an intellectual history (Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press ; Sydney : Power Publications, 2002 ), T173.8 .P688 2002 Darren Tofts and Murray McKeich, Memory Trade : A Prehistory of Cyberculture, (Interface, North Ryde, 1998), 303.483 TOF Darren Tofts, Interzone: Media Arts in Australia, (Craftsman House, Vic, 2005), N7433.84.A8T66 2006 David Bell and Barbara M. Kennedy, The Cybercultures Reader, (Routledge, New York, 2000), 303.4833 CYB Geert Lovink, Networks Without a Cause: A Critique of Social Media, (Polity Press, Cambridge, 2011), HM851 .L687 2011 Donna J. Haraway, Simians, cyborgs, and women : the reinvention of nature Routledge, New York, 1991. 304.5 Har Geert Lovink, Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture, (Routledge, New York, 2008), HM851 .L689 2008 Margaret Wertheim,, The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: a History of Space from Dante to the Internet, (Doubleday, Sydney and Auckland, 1999), 303.4834 WER Mathieu O’Neill,, Cyberchiefs: Autonomy and Authority in Online Tribes, (Pluto Press, London and New York, 2009), HM1017 .O54 2009 Rebecca MacKinnon,, Consent of the Networked: the Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom, (Basic Books, New York, 2012), HM851 .M3327 2012 Stephen Jones, Synthetics: Aspects of Art and Technology in Australia, 1956-75, (MIT Press Cambridge, Mass., 2011) , 700.105 JON Stephen Wilson, Art + Science Now, (Thames & Hudson, London, 2010), 701.05 WIL Ede Siân, Art and science (Palgrave, McMillan, 2005), 701.05 EDE William S. Haney, Cyberculture, cyborgs and science fiction : consciousness and the posthuman (Amsterdam ; New York : Rodopi, 2006), T173.8 .H36 2006