ofzach / recreatingthepast_summer16

recreating the past class at SFPC for summer 2016

recreatingThePast_summer16

recreating the past class at SFPC for summer 2016

Each week, we take a look at a different famous media artworks that have been made in code (or computationally driven) and recreate them from scratch, discussing the algorithmic approaches and tools, as well as poetic underpinnings. By recreating these works, we can investigate also what modern tools and approaches have to offer. We will also look at broader examples about what the artwork teaches us about code and algorithmic approaches. For example, seminal works like Camille Utterback and Romy Achituv's "Text Rain" can be used as a starting point for discussing computer vision based interaction. The class takes inspiration from the re:code project which aims to recode older media artworks, and participants will be invited through homework assignments to contribute.

We will also be exploring the history of media art practice. Reading will be assigned from:

• When the Machine Made Art The Troubled History of Computer Art
• 10 Print

In addition we will have two seminars around my own current interests, simulating light and animated blobs and explore a set of code samples that illustrate how computational principles such as recursion and simluation can be used for artistic sketching.

Students will be encouraged through this class to begin a practice of generative visual sketching in whatever framework they feel comfortable in. Class examples will be prepared in openFrameworks and p5.js.

Here's a general break down of the 8 weeks:

• LINES and DRAWING / Vera Molnar / Collette and Charles Bangert
• ANGLES / John & James Whitney / LIA
• Seminar - simulating light: reflection, refraction and recursion
• REPETITION AND COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN / John Maeda / Muriel Cooper
• PATTERN / Bridgette Riley
• Seminar - animation: blobs studies walk through
• PIXELS / Ken Knowlton
• IMAGES Jason Salavon / Nancy Burson. MOVING IMAGE Utterback and Achituv

Additonal topics to reivew if we have time:

GLITCH / DEFORMATION / Rosa Menkman / Vesulkas DATA / Lisa Jevbratt INTERFACE / Yugo Nakamura

(some examples require these frames: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92337283/forSFPC/frames.zip)