Digital Art: Theory and Practice Christian Nold 2005

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Structure of Unit 2 hours per week contact time 1 hour lecture - I show you some stuff, talk about ways of thinking about it. 1 hour discussion - We communally talk about the stuff I showed as well as things you bring in for discussion – photos, texts etc. “Students are expected to spend approximately 7 hours a week on independent study, research and seminar presentation.” – Unit Guide

Key Issues: What is the relationship between technology and art/design ? How will the two continue to do develop and influence each other? What role does culture play in all this? What is the relevance of art/design history to making art? What themes and approaches do artists take today and why?

Assessment While we focusing on the practice of art this is a theory module and the assessment is as follows: Power Point Presentation 25% 1500 word Essay75%

Crude Media History 4000 BCCave Painting 2000 BCHieroglyphs 1000 BCWriting 1200 ADPainting 1500 Printing Press 1839Photography 1900Cinema 1950sTelevision 1990sInternet 2000 …Mobile Media

What is important? Vermeer, The Milkmaid

What is important? Principle of the Camera Obscura, after Kircher,1671. Madrid

Old vs. New Media? Analogue Drawing Printing Photography Film Video Sound tape Vinyl recording Digital Digital Image Digital Audio Digital Video CD’s DVD’s Websites

Analogue and Digital The principal characteristic of analogue representations is that they are continuous. In contrast, digital representations consist of values measured at discrete intervals. Digital watches are called digital because they go from one value to the next without displaying all intermediate values. In contrast, watches with hands are analogue, because the hands move continuously around the clock face.

Conversion In general, humans experience the world in an analogue way. Vision, for example, is an analogue experience because we perceive infinitely smooth gradations of shapes and colours. Most analogue events, however, can be simulated digitally. CD audio for example samples an analogue wave times per second. Digital formats are useful because they are easy to store and manipulate. On playback this digital data is converted back to analogue sound again.

What is New Media? Lev Manovich – Language of New Media - 3 copies in the library Numerical Representation and Manipulation Modularity Variability Cultural Transcoding

Sources of Information London based curating group - Net Art Locator US based new media resource - very good mailing list