syllabus

instructor: Alison Sant
e-mail: asant@cca.edu
course: UDIS0604
time: Monday + Wednesday 12:00-3:00
location: SF SANF N9

jan_17
Lecture Janet Cardiff + Georges Bures Miller, Timken Lecture Hall 7:00 pm.

jan_18
introduction
Introduction and overview to the themes of the class including wireless networks and emerging forms of public art practice.

jan_23
investigation
Lecture and discussion about Hertzian space. The class will focus on mobile phone networks, as an example, and include a survey or projects examining and utilizing mobile phones.

Due: and Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects (London: Birkhäuser, 2001)p. 15-43.

jan_25
investigation
Bring your mobile phones to class for an in-class exercise.

Due: Read Fiona Raby + Ben Hooker. Project #26765-FLIRT: Flexible Information and Recreation for Mobile Users (London: Royal College of Art, 2000).

jan_30
investigation
Review mobile phone projects. Meet with Susan Schwartzenberg + Peter Richards of the San Francisco Exploratorium to discuss their current project exploring technology in urban space.

Due: Mobile phone exercise. See assignments for description.

feb_1
investigation
Wifi workshop with Jonathan Foerster (confirmed). Bring a can with a metal end (at least 2" in diameter) to make your own wifi transmitter.

Due: Read Lev Manovich, "The Poetics of Augmented Space: Learning from Prada," 2002 also available at www.manovich.net under texts.


feb_6
investigation
Visit Rick Prelinger's Archive (confirmed). Guest lecture on technology and the landscape.

Due: Read William Mitchell, "Wireless Bipeds " in Me++ (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003) p. 41-62.

feb_8
investigation
"Warwalking" exericise. Discussion of reading (Mitchell assigned Feb. 6 + 8).

Due: Read William Mitchell, "Electronic Mnemotechnics" in Me++ (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003) p. 113-129.

feb_13
investigation
Review of WiFi maps.

Due: WiFi mapping exercise. See assignments for description. Review Mitchell articles.

feb_15
investigation
Guest lecture Anthony Townsend (confirmed).

Due: Read Anthony Townsend "Envisioning the Ubiquitous City" in ed. Marc Tuters + Rasa Smite, Acoustic Space: Trans Cultural Mapping (Riga: The Center for New Media Culture RICX, 2004). Also available online at www.locative.net/tcmreader. Anthony Townsend "Digitally Mediated Urban Space: New Lessons for Design" Praxis (2004) Available online at: http://urban.blogs.com/research/townsend.pdf

feb_20
investigation
Lecture and discussion about locative media + projects (GPS, geo-caching). In-class exercise using GPS.

Due: Read Pall Thayer "On narrative, abstract and location: A few words on lacation-based data in art" (Creative Commons, 2004). Available on Pall Thayer's web site:http://this.is/pallit/ Simon Pope, "The Shape of Locative Media", Mute Magazine Issue 29, February 9, 2005. Available online at: http://www.metamute.com

feb_21
Lecture Steve Dietz, Timken Lecture Hall 7:00 pm. (required)

feb_22
investigation
In class exercise using GPS.

Due: Post comments on Steve Dietz' lecture to class blog as comments under "Stieve Dietz lecture." Post route proposals under "route proposals for three hour tour." Read Jo Walsh "Exploring the Eurospatial Cartel" and Alison Sant "Redefining the Basemap" in ed. Marc Tuters + Rasa Smite, Acoustic Space: Trans Cultural Mapping (Riga: The Center for New Media Culture RICX, 2004). Also available online at www.locative.net/tcmreader.

feb_27
investigation
Tour of GPS projects.

Due: GPS projects.

feb_28
Proposals due for SoEx offsite. See gallery website www.soex.org for submission guidelines.

mar_1
intervention: mapping
Guest lecture David Pinder (confirmed) via video conference.

Due: David Pinder, “Situationist Adventures” in Visions of the City: Utopianism, Power and Politics in Twentieth-Century Urbanism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; and New York: Routledge, 2005) p. 127-159 and Guy Dubord "Theory of the Dérive" (International Situationiste #2, 1958). Also republished at nothingness.org.

mar_6
intervention: mapping
Lecture and discussion about mapping in art practice.

Due: Read Simon Sadler, "A Passion for Maps" in The Situationist City (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998)p. 82.-91,"Making Sense of Psychogeography" p. 76-81 and "Drifting as a Revolution in Everyday Life" p. 91-95.

mar_8
student presentations
Students will present work on an artist, artistic group or theme to the class that is relevant to their final project

mar_13
intervention: probes
Guest lecture Eric Paulos (confirmed). Lecture and discussion about artists that have inserted objects in to the urban landscape as a means of artistic research.

Due: Read Eric Paulos, "Our Emergent Urban Computing Landscape: Familiar Strangers" in Receiver #10, 2004. and Urban Probes: Encountering our Emerging Urban Atmospheres Eric Paulos and Tom Jenkins (ACM SIGCHI, April 2005). Available at: http://www.urbanatmospheres.net/UrbanProbes/index.htm.

mar_15
student meetings
Work on final project proposals.

Due: Complete class survey. Write paragraph description of your final project proposal to discuss.

mar_20
spring break
no class

mar_22
spring break
no class

mar_27
intervention: probes
Guest: Jamie Schulte of the Preemtive Media Collective. RFID workshop.

Due: Review the Preemtive Media Collective's web site http://www.preemptivemedia.net/

mar_29
student presentations
Final project proposals due. Students will present a proposal of their final project for the semester to the class and several outside reviewers.

apr_3
intervention: tour
A discussion of the strategies of the tour from the Dadaists in Paris and the Fluxus in New York to Michelle Teran's surveillance walks and Kate Pocrass' Mundane Journeys.

Due: Read Francesco Cerari "Anti-walk" in Walkscapes (Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2002) p. 68-94. and Robert Smithison, "A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic New Jersey" in Jack Flam ed. Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996) p. 68-74.

apr_5
intervention: tour
Guest lecture David Pinder via videoconference (confirmed).

Due: David Pinder, “Urban Encounters: Derives from Surrealism” in Eliza Adamowicz, Ed., Surrealism: Crossing/Frontiers (London: Peter Lang, In Press, 2006).

apr_10
intervention: tour
Walk with Kate Pocrass.

Due: Work on final projects. Post proposals for final review to the class blog.

apr_12
desk critiques
Review of progress on final projects.

apr_17
desk critiques
Review of progress on final projects.

apr_19
intervention: performance
Lecture and discussion on tactics of performance in public space using new media. Guest lecture by Michelle Kasprzak (confirmed) via video conference.

Due: Work on final projects.

apr_24
No class meeting. Work on final projects.

apr_26
desk critiques
Review of progress on final projects.

Due: Final project web site due. Post all background materials to a web page and post the URL to the class blog.

may_1
Final review.

may_3
Final review