Teaching / Courses

Information and syllabi on courses taught by Robert Spahr

Courses

Creating Web Documents
MAT/NME 2730.46
The Web is revolutionizing the way the world communicates. In this course, we will investigate how the Internet works, and the tools and techniques used for creating web documents. Topics include: HTML & XHTML authoring, Cascading Style Sheets, scripting languages, data retrieval, and incorporating sound, video, and images into web pages. We will also explore issues of web design and usability, as well as the legal and ethical responsibilities of being a consumer and producer of web content. There will be regular reading assignments, written responses and group discussions relevant to the class.

Propaganda & Persuasion in a Digital Age
This class will explore the concepts of persuasion, propaganda and public opinion. By examining the applied techniques of advertisers, activists, and political campaigns, we'll learn basic persuasive tactics which can be effective in changing the attitudes and behavior of others. We will also discuss the ethics of using the same techniques for different purposes. This seminar is designed to teach you about influence, and it's relevance to an artist working in the digital age.

New Media Studio
This studio course exposes students to current issues in New Media art such as non-linear & linear narrative, games, open source programming, performance, installation, tactical media, and surveillance. We will use historical texts, theoretical writings, analysis and ensemble work to better understand the history of art leading to current New Media art practice. Primary source material will come from Futurism, Dada, Pop Art, Happenings, Environmental Art, Conceptual Art, and New Media.

Students will research new media art based on specific themes and create an online presentation to be presented in the class. Students will also create individual and a collaborative new media projects.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will have developed a deeper understanding of the history and theory of New Media art. They will have developed new productions skills, and applied this knowledge in critiques and the creation of individual and collaborative New Media studio projects.

Introduction to Media Arts
Introduction to Media Arts exposes students to a wide range of technology and concepts related to web documents, digital images, sound and video. Students learn basic XHTML, CSS, image editing, creating, sampling and editing sound, shooting and editing video, as well as exporting media into optimized formats for the web. This course does not provide comprehensive instruction in all of these media, as much as give the student a chance to explore and discover their interests, while they continue to develop a personal artistic vision. We explore the creative possibilites of artists working in new media, as well as the social and political issues contained in the history of the web and open source software. Students will learn about computing in the arts, as well as theories and trends in new media. Throughout the class students will discuss the required readings, present their work before the class and gain insight from regular critiques.

Digital Video / Explorations in Live Art
Digital Video / Explorations in Live Art exposes students to the history of performance art of the twentieth century, tracing it's development which foreshadows and predicts many of the current issues in todays New Media. For this course we will define performance simply as live art by artists. Students will draw on any number of disciplines and media for material, such as visual art, literature, theatre, poetry, music, dance, and installation art as well as video, film, and the Internet. We will use historical texts, theoretical writings, analysis and ensemble work to better understand the history of performance art and the various forms it takes. Classroom lectures will show that the development of ideas in the history of performance art mirror some of the same issues computer scientists were dealing with when they developed such things as hypertext, networked computers, graphical user interfaces, and data retrieval and storage. We will see recorded performances and early technology demos to enhance our discussion. Students will create two original pieces of live art, as well as a group project that will contain each individual project, and be presented in an evening of Live Art for the public. Date and location TBA. Each student will keep a journal to record his or her thoughts and responses to the semester's work, and use the journal to identify their strengths as artists and areas they may want to explore for future development. Projects must be documented on any suitable medium, CD, VHS, DV, or DVD.

History of Graphic Design
This lecture course has a studio component, where students will work on a graphic art project while completing their traditional studies. Students will explore the ways visual communications relate to other visual endeavors, the development of new technologies, and the rise of mass culture. Research is carried out in the college gallery and in New York City.

Designing with the Computer I
This studio course provides a foundation for students to explore the traditional elements of design via weekly assignments and semester long artistic exploration. As in most studio classes students work to develop their ideas creatively while maintaining respect and mastery of their respective medium. Using computer generated digital imagery students explore: traditional photography; create a personalized image bank; examine positive and negative form in composition; type as form; page layout and design composition; image as collage traditional color theory; exploration to secure a personal voice that yields a work of art; ethical concerns regarding copyright and trademark; critical analysis of readings related to culture and perception; the history of type and the universality of the art of the comic strip narrative to tell a story. This class is not a tutorial for industry software programs, but rather a creative investigative journey destined to open new vistas, promote discussions, while problem solving all the way. Students produce a portfolio of work along with a written museum assignment that chronicles on-site research done in conjunction with a final project. Research is carried out in the college gallery and in New York City.

Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction
This course provides an introduction to critical studies regarding art making in the age of digital reproduction. Students will learn to analyze the political, philosophical, and cultural forces affecting the techniques and technologies of digital media. Using Walter Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", as well as historically significant texts from the last sixty years, students will examine the issues that have helped define digital art. We will question assumptions related to authorship, reproduction, context and temporality. Lectures and demonstrations will complement the readings by introducing students to a wide range of issues useful for the study and presentation of digital art. Throughout the term students will work on projects to explore, analyze and participate in the possiblities of being art makers in the age of digital reproduction. By the end of the class students will be both critical observers of and participants in digital art making.

Algorithms and Procedural Art Processes
This course will expose students to very basic perl and shell scripting in a linux environment as well as command line image manipulation. Spiders are programs used by search engines to index the content of the Internet. We will create a "spider" whose sole purpose is art making, and it will be automated to go out onto the Internet and harvest content that we will then re-process to create art. The class will develop and share blocks of code that will perform simple tasks that will form the basis of our "digital toolkit." Using this toolkit we will create procedural processes for the generation of art images. After taking this course, students will have had an introduction to simple perl and shell scripts, as well as a deeper understanding of how technology, automation, and the Internet can be used in the creation of art. We will explore the use of chance as well as the implications of using the Internet as source material and its impact on authorship.