ICAM 150 | winter 2007

FINAL

You are provided with 2 questions. Write 2 essays answering these questions. Each essay should be between 1200 and 1500 words (not counting footnotes). You can include pictures.

1. Contrast the new artistic forms created in the early decades of the 20th century with the new artistic forms being created today.
Your essay should cover a number of media from the following list: architecture, graphic/web design (2D design), industrial design (product design), abstract art, moving image. (Try to cover as many as you can.) In comparing selected works and/or artistic movements from the early 20th century and today, explain why each work/movement can be seen as a response to a new type of society in which artists were/are living (i.e., industrial society or information society.) As examples, you should refer both to material presented in lectures and additional material presented in sections.


2. One particular type of contemporary form which we have analyzed in detail are hybrid media forms. Since these forms can combine not only content but also techniques of multiple media, we differentiated these forms from simple remixes using the term "deep remixability." As examples, we looked at 2D design (graphic design, web design), motion graphics, and software applications (After Effects, Google Earth and Invisible Shape of Things Past).

In your essay, first briefly summarize the general concepts of "hybrid forms" and "deep remixability" as presented in course readings. Following this summary, analyze in detail different types of hybridity in a popular software application. You can select your application from the following: wikipedia, myspace, flickr, youtube, Microsoft Office suite, Adobe Creative Suite, Apple's iLife, iWork, and Pro applications. Your analysis should cover the interface of the software, its tools, and the kind of media which can be created with it. (Don't analyse your own web pages/projects. )