Collaboration and Production | Spring 2016

Professor: Cory Metcalf

Course: EDPX 3950 Collaboration and Production

Class Times: Tuesdays & Thursdays 5:00PM - 7:50PM

Location: Shwayder Art Building, C-cubed Studios, HyperCube, room 226

Email: clmetcalf@gmail.com (correspondence Mon-Fri)

Office Hours: Wednesday 9-11AM, by appointment (e-mail confirmation required)

Office: NA - Location by appointment

Syllabus

The complete syllabus can be found here.

Course Schedule

*The course schedule is subject to change and may be updated reqularly. All students are responsible for checking the schedule reqularly to ensure they are aware of changes.

Basic Class Structure

Each class will begin with presentations of assigned materials and/or a brief review of the concepts discussed during the previous session. After giving all assignments for the next session, the remainder of each class period will be used for hands on learning of the space, one-on-one instruction, or group work on projects.

M, March 21 - Class 1

Course Overview
Review of syllabus and policies
Brief introductions
Tour of C-Cubed Studio spaces
Thinking about New Media productions and exhibitions
- Look at Currents New Media Festifal as example of large scale exhibition space

Homework - due at start of class #2

Part 1: Your work.
Prepare an informal presentation on your artistic practice using 2 or 3 primary works. For each work, site 2 or more artists or artworks that are relevant to your own. This should create a context for the works and exand our sense of how they fit within the larger cultural dialog about your areas of interst. For time based works, you may play samples, but media playback should make up no more than a total of 2 minutes of your presentation. It may be necessary to cue up your media prior to presentation to ensure you know what sections you want to play.
Part 2: Your background and skillset.
To give a sense of the scope of your work, your interests and skills, please email me the following (this is not a part of the presentation):
- A list of all EDP courses you have taken (and any relevant courses, such as studio art, computer science, etc.).
- Your primary areas of interest as related to EDP (ie, visualization, networked systems, social design, gamification, sensing environments, etc.)
- Your skills as you see them, ie, physical fabrication, coding (particular programming languages), video production, sound design, interaction, movement and dance, performance, etc.

W, March 23 - Class 2

Class cancelled due to snow

M, March 28 - Class 3

- Presentations
- Set up blogs and discuss blogging requirements and expectations
- Look at dates and times for exhibition evenings
- View examples of relevant work

Homework - Due by class 4
- Part 1 - Create a personal blog using the blogging platform of your choice. This blog will be used to document your working process, influences and critical dialog throughout the quarter.
- Part 2 - First post - Artist bio/statement - Write an artist statement to critically position you and your work at large. Artist statements and bios are an important part of creating an artistic identity, but often come under fire for being overly intellectual or completely jargon filled. Effective artist statements are short and to the point. They give a sense of the critical content (what), creative approaches (how) and interests (why) of the artist without being so discipline specific that they only communicate to others in the same field. Length should be between one paragraph and one page. If you get stuck, look up some artists that you respect and see how they approach their bios or artist statements. There are also a plethora of "how to write an artist statement" articles, though most of them say the sam thing - keep it short, to the point, clear, and accessible. What do you make, why do you make, and how.

* For examples of overldone artist statements, look up artist statement generators like this one - http://www.playdamage.org/market-o-matic/.

W, March 30 - Class 4

Technical Foundations and Best Practices
- Projection screens - assembly and types
- Cables - types and wrapping

Group Selection
- schedules, google docs/group workspace

Homework - Concept Due class 5, Final presentation Due class 6
- Group Curatorial Project. As a group, decide on a critical topic and curate a selection of 4 new media works that explore the theme. For the presentation:
- You must create a title for the curated selection as a whole and write a one-page statement of intent. This should begin with a synopsis of the central them and then briefly explore how each work expands on it.
- Each team member will be responsible for presenting one work and making a case for how it fits into the theme at large. You may contextualize the artist with additional works, but the body of the presentation should focus on one work in particular. Individual presentations should be formal and last approximately 5 minutes each.
- One team member will introduce the work, and one team member will summarize.
- Be prepared to answer questions as a panel.

M, April 4 - Class 5

Hypercube Video and Audio systems
- Crestron and video routing
- Mixing board, DaVinci and Surround sound audio

W, April 6 - Class 6

- Group Curatorial Project presentations
- Viewing - Multi-channel video works

Homework - Due Class 7
- sketch 3 different ideas for multi-channel installations.
- projects should utilize the HyperCube video and sound capabilities. Multiple screens, spatialized sound, additional design or sculptural elements and interactivion should all be sconsidered.
- sketches should include:
- a basic sense of conceptual territory
- techniques and tools (live video manipulation, sound mixing, overhead kinect, projection mapping, etc.)
- previsualization of layout.

M, April 11 - Class 7

DMX lighting in the hypercube
Group work
- Individual group meetings with professor to look at sketched project ideas
- Refinment of project ideas and presentation preparation

Homework - Due Class 8
Prepare a 20 minute presentation on your group installation proposals. Be prepared to workshop the ideas with the class as a whole.

W, April 13 - Class 8

Group proposals

Homework
- Group -
1 - Due Class 9 - Based on the in-class discussion, decide on a final installation idea to move forward with. Be prepared to present a finalized proposal during Class 11.
2 - Hypercube Curatorial project - Due Class 10
Each group will select a central thematic topic of interst to all group members and curate a selection of relevant works for display on (4) screens in the hypercube.
▪Topic - Your topic should be clearly defined and relate to the exploration of arts, technology and culture. Some possible topics might include: projection mapping, mobile computing, locative media, augmented or virtual reality, digital prosthesis, games for social change, sexuality in the digital age, (self) surveillance culture, data visualization or sonification, embodied computing, singularity, post-digital, etc., etc.
▪Curatorial Statement - A one to two page curatorial statement that clearly identifies the topic, provides a context for the topics exploration, expresses a well-considered justification for choosing the project, and illustrates why each artist or work was chosen to expand on the topic.

▪ Guidelines
▪ You must select at least (2) different groups are artists works' and have material on all (4) screens. Consider whether a screen(s) will show a single work or a program of works.
▪ Consider the interplay of sound and image. Are the images complimentary? Do they create a counterpoint or expand on each other when juxtaposed?
▪ Are screens synchronous, asynchronous and/or looping?
▪ Duration should be no more than 15 minutes. If individual works exceed 15 minutes, you must select a segment.
▪ Each group will have approx. 15 minutes setup, 15 minutes for viewing, and 10 minutes for feedback.
- Individual - Due by start of Class 9
- Each group member must create a blogpost that describes the proposed group installation project. This should be from each individuals perspective, using their own words and their own visualizations.

M, April 18 - Class 9
Blogpost Due
Intro to Kinect using Max Kinect basics -
depth mapping via jit.freenect.grab - [original][2] and [current beta][3]
and blob tracking using [cv.jit][4], based on [OpenCV][5]
* Skeletal tracking and OSC via [Synapse][6], using [OpenNI][7]

[7]: http://structure.io/openni
[6]: http://synapsekinect.tumblr.com
[3]: https://github.com/npnp/jit.freenect.grab/tree/master/release
[2]: http://jmpelletier.com/freenect/
[4]: http://jmpelletier.com/cvjit/
[5]: http://opencv.org

W, April 20 - Class 10

HyperCube Curatorial Projects Due

M, April 25 - Class 11

HyperCube Projects Cntd.

W, April 27 - Class 12

Presentation of finalized proposals for group installations.
Choose Date(s) for final presentations.

Homework - Due Class 13

Blog post with Final Presentation Proposal sketch. Individuals should introduce the project in their own words, then post the final proposal materials.
Be prepared to work in class on Monday, testing concepts, materials, technology, etc.

M, May 2 - Class 13

Blog post due.
In-class work day. This time should be spent testing materials, concepts and technologies in preparation for instructor/group meetings on Wednesday.

W, May 4 - Class 14

Instructor/Group meetings. Be prepared to discuss progress and problem areas for targeted development.
Determine schedule for development/testing in HyperCube following week. 2 groups each day have 1.5 hours in space.

Homework, Due Class 15 Artists statements and images for each group due.

M, May 9 - Class 15

Determine show name and begin work on e-flyer.