Art and Technology 1900 to Now
Professor: Edward Kac [pronounce “Katz”]
Board of Governors Professor of Art and Technology
email: ekac@saic.edu, http://www.ekac.org
Tuesdays 12:15 PM - 3 PM
Department: Art History, Theory, and Criticism
Area of Study: Interaction and Participation, Art and Science
Location: Online
Teacher Assistant: Rose Ansari, MFA ransar@saic.edu
Description
This course examines the impact of new technologies on the aesthetics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Issues explored in the course include the structure of synthetic pictorial spaces, creating art in a global scale, responding to images of pure light, the aesthetics of motion, behavior in virtual environments and the experience of interactive artworks. In some cases the emphasis is on a particular new medium and the multiple artistic approaches to it; in other cases, the emphasis is on particular artists and their experimental work. Main lecture topics include: Moholy-Nagy's work, early radio and the impact of auditory images, kinetic art, robotic art, telecommunication art, computer art, digital photography, virtual reality, telepresence, holographic art, and bio art Readings include texts by featured artists and historians including Dieter Daniels, Rudolf Frieling, Philip Auslander, as well as original texts by the instructor. Course work will include weekly reading assignments, in-class discussions, a midterm research proposal, a 15-page research paper, and a final presentation.
About the Professor, Edward Kac
Professor, Art and Technology Studies (1997). Education: BA, 1985, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro; MFA, 1990, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; PhD, 2003, University of Wales, Great Britain. Exhibitions: Kac’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues such as Pompidou Center, Paris; MAXXI-Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; Power Station of Art, Shanghai; and Seoul Museum of Art, Korea. Kac's work has been showcased in biennials such as Yokohama Triennial, Japan; Biennial of the End of the World, Ushuaia, Argentina; Gwangju Biennale, Korea; Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil; International Triennial of New Media Art, National Art Museum of China, Beijing; and Bienal de Habana, Cuba. Collections: His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Frac Occitanie—Regional collections of contemporary art, Les Abattoirs—Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Toulouse, France; the Museum of Modern Art of Valencia, Spain; the ZKM Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany; Art Center Nabi, Seoul; and the Museum of Contemporary Art of São Paulo, among others. Awards: Kac has received many awards, including the Golden Nica Award, the most prestigious award in the field of media arts and the highest prize awarded by Ars Electronica.
WEEKLY ASSIGNMENT:
Every week (starting with the second week), any time before class, you’ll send to the instructor (E. Kac) and the TA (Rose Ansari), via email, three comments or questions about the course material (texts, websites and/or videos). These comments or questions are meant to stimulate class discussion — so be prepared to read them out loud in class.
Introduction
Week 1: September 05
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
The Electromagnetic Landscape
Week 2: September 12
Radio Art and the Disembodied Voic
Week 3: September 19
Moholy-Nagy: From the Telephone Pictures to the Light-Space Modulator
Week 4: September 26
Kinetic Art: From Representation to Actual Motion
Week 5: October 03
Five Kinetic Artists: Fischinger, Bute, Palatnik, Tinguely and Liliane Lijn
The New Image: Electronic and Digital
Week 6: October 10
Television and Video: Art and Mass Media
Week 7: October 17
Computer Art: From Digital Graphics to Interactivity and VR
Behavior, Awareness, and Interactivity
Week 8: October 24
Cyborg Performance: Technology and the Human Body
“Prosthetics, Robotics and Remote Existence: Postevolutionary Strategies,” Stelarc, Leonardo
Week 9: October 31
Art and Robotics: Behavioral Aesthetics
Week 10: November 07
Telecommunications, Web Art, and Telepresence: Global Scale in Real Time
Life as an Art Medium
Week 11: November 14
Bio Art
Student Presentations
Week 12: November 21
5 Student Presentations.
Week 13: November 28
5 Student Presentations.
Week 14: December 05
Critique week – no class
--> DECEMBER 4–8: Critique Week
Week 15: December 12 (Our last day of class)
5 Student Presentations.
SAIC Classes end: December 18
Learning Outcomes
Students will learn how artists employed a wide range of new technologies in their practice throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Students will be able to identify different strategies employed by artists in their use of new media and will understand how artists channeled these strategies in the production of specific works of art. A midterm Research Proposal, participation in class discussion, a final presentation, and the final Research Paper will evaluate students' grasp of the historical and conceptual issues relevant to this aim.
Students may vary in their learning; achieving course goals requires work on the students' part.
Class Schedule and Readings
The readings are included below in the form of links (webliography) and online Flaxman sources. Students are expected to read the assigned texts before class. Please note that the lecture plan and the reading list are subject to change without notice. Students are advised to monitor and refresh the Canvas Home page.
Class Participation
Please prepare three questions/comments for every class. Class participation is required. This means that students must ask questions, make comments and discuss the topics raised by both classmates and the instructor. Students may participate via video, voice and/or text.