VIS242.
Theories of Media and New Media
UCSD, Fall 2002
Instructor: Dr. Lev Manovich <www.manovich.net> <manovich@ucsd.edu>
office hours: Thursday 4-5pm
class time: Thursday 6:30p-9:20p
location: 366 VAF (Visual Arts Facility)
This seminar will examine the key texts in media and new media theory (1960-2002).
We will read and discuss theoretical texts by Marshall McLuhan, Friedrich
Kittler, Paul Virilio, Pierre Levy, Katherine Hayles, and others. We
will also read a number of original founding texts of computer culture by
Alan Kay, Ted Nelson, Berners-Lee (the inventor of modern human computer interface,
the inventor of hypertext, and the inventor of the Web, respectively) and
other pioneers of computer culture. Along with the readings we will also view
and discuss a number of historically important and recent new media artworks
and computer programs/interfaces which conceptually tie in with the topics
of the class. We will conclude by reviewing the current and emerging trends
in new media art and culture: software art, data visualization, tools for
online collaborative projects, hybrid cinema, database art.
The key theoretical assumption which underlies the seminar and which will
be further investigated and questioned is that the media society of 1840-1980
is now gradually giving way to a new software society. Therefore, we will
discuss the gradual shift from media to software and its consequences for
culture, art, and theory. We will also think about the relationships between
media aesthetics and media technology in general. These two perspectives will
guide our interrogation of theoretical and historical readings, and media
and software artifacts during the seminar.
BOOKS:
1. New Media Reader
(Forthcoming from The MIT Press, 2003). Selected articles will be made
available.
2. MULTIMEDIA: FROM WAGNER TO VIRTUAL REALITY
Edited by Randall Packer and Ken Jordan
Hardcover: 394 pages ;
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393049795; 1 Ed edition
(January 15, 2001)
3. Levy, Pierre. Cyberculture
Paperback: 208 pages ;
Publisher: Univ of Minnesota Pr (Trd); ISBN: 0816636109; (October 2001)
4. Virilio, Paul. Open Sky
Paperback: 144 pages ;
Publisher: Verso Books; ISBN: 1859841813; (August 1997)
5. Kittler, Friedrich. Literature, Media, Information Systems.
Paperback: 208 pages ;
Publisher: Routledge; ISBN: 9057010615; (December 1, 1997)
ADDITIONAL TEXTS - AVAILABLE ONLINE
REQUIREMENTS:
1. Final paper: 4000 words.
2. A few times, you will be asked to submit a 300-400 summary of the key ideas
the assignedweekly readings. Failure to submit one summary will lower the
final grade half a grade.
3. Attendance - you are allowed one absence. Beoynd that, missing more than
one class meeting will lower the final grade half a grade.
CLASS OUTLINE:
1. Media (2 weeks).
2. Software (2 weeks).
3. Media and Software: Computer as Metamedium | Interface (2 weeks)
4. The Effects: Cyberculture (2 weeks).
5. The Effects: Current and Emerging Trends in New Media Culture and Art (2
weeks).
CLASS SCHEDULE:
Class 1 - September 26.
Introduction to course topics. Media, media arts, and new media.
Mass media: [electro] mechanical recording of reality; mass distribution of
identical copies.
The connection between modern audio-visual media and modern mass society.
Class topic: Application of software logic to culture
- examples from new media art.
Works shown:
-John Simon's "art appliances" (1999-2001, shown on DVD; Simon's
URL: www.numeral.com): work of art as a running computer; artificial life
algorithms.
www.numeral.com
-Viagem (1999; available on Ars 99' DVD): modularity of software-> compositing
in film (layers).
-an interactive virtua set for an opera "The Jew of Malta", Jachim
Sauter, art+com (www.artcom.de, 2002) - software replaces every constant by
a variable - application to space representtaion
-Carnivore by Galloway/RSB (www.rhizome.orh/carnivore ): new media as "software
art" - parallel to (and critique of) commercial software.
Class
2 -October 3.
Class topic: Cultural effects of software - continuation
of the discussion of recent trends in new media culture and art from Class
1.
Reading assignment: Kittler ,Literature, Media, Information Systems
[start reading: introduction and essays 1-6]
Projects shown:
"Invisible Shape" from art+com - www.artcome.de (tape): new media
as research into new interfaces to media
data visualisation - therule, carnivore, microtasking - from Ars Electronica
2002 net awards - www.aec.at, Whitney Biennale net seletions - www.whitney.org).
social simulation - a game from Ars Electronica net award.
Class
3 -October 10.
Class topic: theories of media: McLuhan and Kittler.
Reading assignment:
Kittler, Literature, Media, Information Systems [finish reading: introduction
and essays 1-6];
Mcluhan's selections from New Media Reader
recommended: Manovich, "Anti-Sublime Ideal in New Media Art" [available
at www.manovich.net/TEXTS_04.HTM)
Writing assignment: write 200-250 summary of what you see are the similarities
and diffirences between McLuhan and Kittler's approches to media.
Please use double space;
put your name, student number and e-mail address in the upper left corner.
Class 4 -October 17.
Class topic: Archeology of Software I [1944-1968]: making
the digital computer; the origins of computer media
Class wil be devoted to screening of tapes on the history of computers and
primary video sources:
1. The machine that changed the world - Epsode
1: Great Brains [video, 50min]
2. Segments from Douglas Engelbart 1968 demo - available
online in RealVideo
3. The machine that changed the world - Episodo
3: Paperless Computer [video, 50min]
Reading assignment [primary sources]:
Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence [In New Media Reader]
J.C.R. Licklider, Man-Machine Symbiosis [in Multimedia anthology]
Douglas Engelbardt, Augmenting Human Intellect [in Multimedia anthology]
Vannevar Bush, As We May Think [in Multimedia anthology]
Ted Nelson, from Computer Lib [in Multimedia anthology]
Ted Nelson, all his texts (as single author and as co-author] in New Media
Reader
Ivan Sutherland, Sketchpad [In New Media Reader]
Ivan Sutherland, The Ultimate Display [in Multimedia anthology]
recommended [theory]: Manovich,
New Media From Borges to HTML [an introduction to New Media Reader] [available
at www.manovich.net/TEXTS_04.HTM]
Class
5 -October 24. Class will be conducted by Dr.
Peter Lunenfeld, Graduate Faculty, Art Center
Class topic: Peter Lunenfeld on
>> the difference between systematic theorization versus object
>> based criticism and what the pros and cons of each strategy are.
Reading assignment: a selection of Lunenfeld's USER columns for Art+Text
- will be made available on 10/17
Class
6 -October 31.
Class topic: Archeology of Software II [1968-1996]:
the digital computer meets media
Reading assignment [primary sources]:
Myron Krueger, Responsive Environments [in
Multimedia anthology]
Alan Kay, User Interface: a Personal view [in
Multimedia anthology]
Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg, Personal Dynamic Media [in
Multimedia anthology]
Negroponte, from Soft Archiecture Machines [in New Media Reader]
Seymor Papert, from Mindstorms [in
New Media Reader]
Rchard Bot, "Put-That-There" [in
New Media Reader]
Ben Schneideiman, Direct Manipulation [in New
Media Reader]
Scott Fisher, Virtual Interface Environments [in
Multimedia anthology]
Marc Canter, The New Workstation [in
Multimedia anthology]
Tim Berners-Lee, Information Managment [in
Multimedia anthology]
Tim Berners-Lee and others, The
World Wide Web [in
Multimedia anthology]
Gentner, Don and Nielsen,
Jakob. The
Anti-Mac Interface [1996]
recommended [theory]:
Chris Chesher, Why
the Digital Computer is Dead, in CTHEORY
Mathew Fuller,
essays from the forthcoming book on software culture [It Looks Like You're
Writing a Letter: Microsoft Word; Visceral façades, taking Gordon Natta-Clark's
Crowbar to Software]
Kittler, essays 7 and 8 from Literature, Media, Information Systems
Writing assingment: based
on the histrorical readings assigned for Class 4 and class 6, write a summary
(200-250 words) of the key concepts which today define our interaction with
computers and digital data. Give each idea a name, define it, and name the
people responsible for it (and, if you can the contribution of each).
For instance: "Hypertext. Hypertext is ...[expanation in 2-3 sentences]...
The concept of hypertext can be traced to... [key people and what each contributed
to the development of this concept].
Examples of possible candidates for key concepts: direct manipulation, data
space, telepresence, metamedium.
Examples of concepts which are too generaland therefore should not be part
of your summary: interactivity, immersion.
If you can present your summary in a graphic form (for instance as a graph
done in Illustrator with blocks of text and arrows) this will be great but
it is not required.
Class
7- November 7.
Class topic: computer as a medium; multimedia; hypermedia;
metamedia; simulation; parallels between experimental modern art and literature
and modern computer; new media art as reseach in new interfaces for media
Reading assignment:
if you have not done this finish all the readings assigned for class 5 and
6
Jay Bolter and David Grusin, Introduction
to Remediation [read all of introduction and summaries under Part I: Theory;
other summaries are optional]
Wagner [in
Multimedia anthology]
Moholy-Nagy [in
Multimedia anthology]
Higgins
[in
Multimedia anthology]
Cage [in
Multimedia anthology]
Olipu selections [in New
Media Reader]
William Burrougs [in New
Media Reader and in
Multimedia anthology]
Nam Juin Paik [in New
Media Reade and
in
Multimedia anthology]
recommended:
web site for
Multimedia anthology: http://www.artmuseum.net/w2vr/index.html
Works shown in class:
- Auto-Illustrator software, 2001 (and reference to README fesival, Moscow
2002, Transmediale 02)
- toos for online colloboration: OPUS by Sarai (New Delhi) / 2002
- hypermedia: David Blair's Wax / 1993
- new interfaces to media - "spatial image" installations at Documenta
11; Athila DVD; 1960's expanded cinema"
- new interfaces to media - "total" recordinds: Jeffrey Shaw + Luc
Curschesne
- database art: George Legrady's
Pockets Full of Memories (2001) (and a reference to DEAF 03 - "data knitting")
Class
8- November 14.
Visiting Lecture by Celia Pierce (UCI).
Class
9 - November 21.
Panel on digital media at CRCA
organised to coinside with class times (therefore you are requried to attend)
by 3 faculty members from UCSD Communication Department.
November 28 - Thanksgiving - no class.
December 5.
(1st part
of the class, 6:30- 7:30 ao CRCA)
Lecture at CRCA by Bill Tomlinson (MIT
Media Lab): 6:30-7:30 pm
(2nd part
of the class, 7:30 - 9:30 at the usual room)
Topic:
Theories of Cyberculture: Virilio and Levy.
Reading assignment:
Levy, Pierre. Cyberculture.
Virilio, Paul. Open Sky.