Course detail
Net - art - software
FaVU-2SUSAcad. year: 2021/2022
The course introduces students to the subject through relatively established basic topics such as: aspects of digital media, the history of the Internet, Web 1.0-2.0, software studies and the sociological concept of the network society, which are further developed and supplemented with more specific texts and topics. It focuses on the topics of data-mining, the automation of the graphical interface of web services, intervention and disruption, data surveillance, encryption and data obfuscation, as well as the historical changes in the power structure of the Internet and the technological and infrastructural change of the Internet influenced by it. The different topics will be approached not only by reading and discussing the study texts, but especially by presenting related artworks and reflecting on them together. Two classes per semester will be devoted to topics and texts chosen by consensus by the students, allowing for reflection not only on the specific interests of the students, but also responding to emerging themes and new literature.
Language of instruction
Number of ECTS credits
Mode of study
Guarantor
Learning outcomes of the course unit
Prerequisites
Co-requisites
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes
• Active participation in the class (50% participation) - or compensating absence by adding/developing/updating course-related passwords on the monoskop.org wiki.
• completion of an essay of at least 5000 characters, which is subject to assessment.
Course curriculum
2. Connectivity: early history of the Internet, Arpanet, TCP/IP protocol family, HTTP(S), ISO/OSI model (reading: The Internet was always anarchist, so anarchists must learn to become responsible for operating it - Tech Learning Collective).
3. WWW: art on the web 1.0, internet art, net.art (read: Expanded Internet Art - Ceci Moss).
4. Society: sociological aspects of networks (reading: The Network Society - Jan van Dijk).
5. Power: from peer-to-peer technologies of web 1.0 to privatized services of web 2.0, post-internet (reading: The Telecommunist Manifesto - Dmytri Kleiner).
6. Mining: software-art working with data-mining of the web and social networks through APIs, data exploitation, appropriation and reinterpretation (reading: Social Sculptural Performance - Paolo Cirio).
7. Topic/texts identified by the students.
8. Software: software as part of culture (readings: Software takes command - Lev Manovich, Remediation - J.D. Bolter & R. Grusin).
9. Intervention: software-art working with the automation of the graphical user interface (GUI) of social networks, intervention, bots (The Ends of the Internet - Boris Beaude).
10. Code: software as a tool of communication between man, man and machine, "outsider" work - works by programmers without artistic training (reading: Speaking code: coding as aesthetic and political expression - G. Cox & A. McLean).
11. Confusion: spam, creation of irrelevant data, overwhelm, obfuscation (read: Obfuscation: A User's Guide for Privacy and Protest - F. Brunton & H. Nissenbaum).
12. Encryption: the art of working with the darknet, blockchain, cryptography (Cats, Frogs and Cryptoartists - Silvia Dal Dosso).
13. Topic/texts identified by the students.
Work placements
Aims
Specification of controlled education, way of implementation and compensation for absences
Recommended optional programme components
Prerequisites and corequisites
Basic literature
Recommended reading
BOLTER, Jay David a Richard. GRUSIN. Remediation: understanding new media. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000. ISBN 02-625-2279-9. (EN)
BRUNTON, Finn a Helen Fay NISSENBAUM. Obfuscation: a user's guide for privacy and protest. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, [2015]. Technoloy/Politics (MIT Press). ISBN 978-026-2029-735. (EN)
CIRIO, Paolo. Social sculptural performance. Persecuting.US [online]. Dostupné z: https://persecuting.us/_index.php?about=socialsculpturalperformance (EN)
CORNELL, Lauren a Ed HALTER, ed. Mass Effect: Art and the Internet in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2015. ISBN 9780262029261. (EN)
COX, Geoff a Alex MCLEAN. Speaking code: coding as aesthetic and political expression. 1. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2013. ISBN 978-026-2018-364. (EN)
DAL DOSSO, Silvia. Cats, Frogs and Cryptoartists: What if Auteur .jpgs Become a Luxury Good. Institute of Network Cultures [online]. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2021 [cit. 2021-4-27]. Dostupné z: https://networkcultures.org/longform/2021/03/11/cats-frogs-and-cryptoartists-what-if-auteur-jpgs-become-a-luxury-good/ (EN)
KLEINER, Dmytri. The Telekommunist Manifesto [online]. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2010. ISBN 978-90-816021-2-9. Dostupné z: https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/no-03-the-telekommunist-manifesto-dmytri-kleiner/ (EN)
MANOVICH, Lev. Software takes command extending the language of new media. 1. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013. ISBN 978162356672. (EN)
MANOVICH, Lev. The language of new media. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002. Leonardo (Series) (Cambridge, Mass.). ISBN 02-621-3374-1. (EN)
MOSS, Ceci. Expanded Internet Art: Twenty-First-Century Artistic Practice and the Informational Milieu. New York and London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019. ISBN 978-1-5013-4777-1. (EN)
TECH LEARNING COLLECTIVE. The Internet was always anarchist, so anarchists must learn to become responsible for operating it. Center for a Stateless Society: A Left Market Anarchist Think Tank & Media Center [online]. Tulsa (Oklahoma): C4SS, 2020. Dostupné z: https://c4ss.org/content/53593 (EN)
Classification of course in study plans
- Programme VUM Master's
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective