ICAM 160 A

Senior Thesis Project

Winter Quarter 2002

Tuesday 9:35 – 12:25

Tony Allard, Instructor

Office Hours: 8:30 – 9:30 Tues. VAF Rm 228

Senior Projects Course Objectives.

This is the first of two courses designed to enable you to conceive, organize and produce an original interdisciplinary research/art project. In this first course we will conduct a rigorous examination of your ideas and your process for developing your Senior Project. The primary emphasis will be a cross disciplinary approach with the computer serving as the central medium to which all other mediums are integrated. The form(s) that your project takes can include web sites, animation, performance, installation, sound, etc. By the end of this course you will have begun production on your projects which will be completed next quarter.

Among other motivational factors, making art is a process of discovering what you want to say and how you say it. What you say can be greatly effected by how you say it and therefore your chief concern is to achieve a lucid and practical process in order to actualize your concept.

Course Requirements

Given the interdisciplinary nature of this course, you will be required to develop a flexible and expandable hybrid document which will be used to document your progress and for presentations of Work In Progress several times during the quarter. This hybrid document must combine analogue and digital mediums with a sizeable amount consisting of written text. For example, you might combine free-hand drawings with computer-generated drawings, pre-recorded sound files with spoken word, hyper texts with printed texts, live, closed circuit video with desktop teleconferencing software, research with experimentation. All of these combinations could then be presented as a performance during W.I.P. reviews. This hybrid document will clearly define the conceptual and aesthetic components of your project, your process, your resources, your technical needs, your time frame for production, your presentation space and relationship to your existing work and what you hope to achieve with the final project.

Website

Regardless of the form(s) that your hybrid document takes, you must also create a website where you will post basic information on your project. Your site must contain your first and subsequent drafts of your project description, your research and writing, the conceptual and aesthetic components of your project, your actual process, your resources/technical needs, your time frame for production, your presentation space and relationship to your existing work and what you hope to achieve with the final project. Your website must be kept up to date and in good order.

In addition to research and development of your projects, this class will include discussions of readings and artworks in the field and lectures/performances by the instructor on related topics. We will be “on line” in cyberspace which will also be your workspace.

Attendance

You are expected to attend ALL classes on time and be prepared to fully participate. You will be expected to present your work in progress to the class several times during the quarter and will also sign up for individual consultations with the instructor.

Course Evaluation:

20% attendance & participation

30% Hybrid Document for presentations

50% progress on project

Suggested Reading

I will make suggestions to each of you individually for readings that are pertinent to your project. I will also occasionally be handing out photocopies of articles that are related to my performance lectures and other related topics.

Course Schedule

WEEK ONE: 1/15

Introduction, course overview.

Student Interviews/Portfolio Presentations

Start a rough draft of production timeline

Suggested Readings assigned

WEEK TWO: 1/22

Scope of project; aim, define, set goals.

Intro to production concepts: designs for producing multidisciplinary art;

flowcharts and production timelines refined

Examples of previous student work presented

Discussions with individual students about projects

WEEK THREE: 1/29

Due: updated hybrid document

Tapping into resources on and off campus, collaboration discussed,

Suggested Readings assigned

WEEK FOUR: 2/5

Performance/Lecture (Tony Allard)

The Prophet of @: Re-defining & re-configuring the Desktop as performance space.

Discussion/Readings

Discussions with individual students about projects.

WEEK FIVE: 2/12

First W-I-P presentations.

Student project presentations of mid-quarter progress. Updated production timelines and interim goals required. Demonstrate one key technology that is being used in the project.

WEEK SIX: 2/19

Lecture/Performance:

T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy,

Poetic Terrorism—Hakim Bey’s concept of unmediated reality explored.

Discussions with individual students about projects.

WEEK SEVEN: 2/26

FIELD TRIP: TBA

WEEK EIGHT: 3/5

Due: Updated hybrid document.

In-class lab time, troubleshooting.

WEEK NINE: 3/12

FINAL W.I.P. public presentations

WEEK TEN: 3/19

FINAL W.I.P.public presentations

FINAL HYBRID DOCUMENT DUE: 3/26 by 12 PM