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Course Syllabus
Course Information
ATEC 6331.001: Aesthetics of Interactive Arts
Professor Contact Information
Dr. Mihai Nadin ATEC Building, Office 1.618 (972) 883-2832 nadin@utdallas.edu
Office Hours:
 Mondays 2:15-4:15pm or by appointment.
Course Pre-requisites, Co-requisites, and/or Other Restrictions
This is a required graduate class. If an undergraduate student wishes to take it, ATEC approval is required.
Course Description
Aesthetics is present in everything we do. It is the underlying “logic of senses,” and as such it is expressed in the ways in which we perceive the world. Students in this class will
practice
 aesthetics as it relates to their educational focus. The outcome of this class is expressed in: a) Knowledge of aesthetics as it shaped, and continues to shape, our own activity  b) Aesthetic skills expressed in aesthetic value judgments and aesthetic innovation in the age of interactive media and computational design. The class will engage students in reading and reporting on foundational texts, in particular, informational aesthetics. Students will also explore the aesthetics of innovation and the aesthetic experiment. Guest lecturers will cover the “hot” topics of current developments (interactivity, immersion, virtuality, etc.). Students will be encouraged to post class-work on the website conceived for this class. Given the many choices open to students in ATEC, the class will also serve as an open forum for defining the students’ focus in the program.
Course Syllabus Page 1
 
 
Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes
The outcome of this graduate class can be compared to the outcome of a class in mathematics for future scientists and engineers. Indeed, they will not become mathematicians, but should  be able to apply the powerful means of mathematics to the problems they will resolve as scientists or engineers. In our class, aesthetics is seen as the “mathematics” art and design, in particular, of interactive arts. More precisely, it provides a foundation for understanding the characteristics of interactive arts, for experimenting, for advancing innovation. Concretely, the students will explore: a) Knowledge of aesthetics, as it shaped, and it continues to shape, human activity in general, and in particular the emerging interactive forms of aesthetic expression  b) Aesthetic skills, expressed in aesthetic value judgments and aesthetic innovation in the age of interactive media and computational design.
Required Textbooks and Materials
 
 
Mihai Nadin,
The Civilization of Illiteracy
, Book IV, Chapter 1 (Language and the Visual), Chapter 8 (Art(ifacts) and Aesthetic Processes), Chapter 10 (The Sense of Design), and Book V, Chapter 1 (The Interactive Future: Individual, community and Society in the Age of the Web). Additionally: The chapters “Language and the Visual” (pp. 321-352); “Science and Philosophy” (especially pp. 511-524); “The Sense of Design” (pp. 590-611); and “A Sense of the Future” (pp. 729-767 will be discussed in class. This book is available in its entirety on the Web. A limited number of copies will  be offered for sale at the University Bookstore, at a discounted price for students.
 
Mihai Nadin,
 Anticipation—The End Is Where We Start From
. Basel: Muller Verlag, 2003. It will be offered for sale in the University Bookstore at a discounted price for students.
 
Mercedes Vilanova and Frederic Chorda, A Mind at Work, Synchron Publishers, 2003,  pp. 7-32 and 167-197. The book will be offered for sale at the University Bookstore at a discounted price for students.
 
Mihai Nadin, Science and Beauty: Aesthetic structuring of Knowledge,
 Leonardo
, 24/1, 1991. The article will be made available to students.
 
Mihai Nadin, Emergent Aesthetics. Aesthetic Issues in Computer Arts.,
 Leonardo,
 Special Issue: Computer Art in context, august 1989. The article will be made available to students.
 
Malcolm Gladwell, The formula. What if you built a machine to predict hit movies? In
The New Yorker 
, 10/16, 2006. The article will be made available to students. It is also  posted on the website of
The New Yorker 
.
Course Syllabus Page 2
 
 
Gaut, Berys Nigel and Lopes, Dominic,
The Routledge companion to aesthetics
[electronic resource], NetLibrary, 2005. Available as eBook at the McDermott Library of UTD.
 
Suggested Course Materials Storage (regardless of the procedure): Maintain a digital library of examples (painting, sculpture, music, literature, computer art, interactive works, etc.) to be shared in class. Respect strictly academic and intellectual property procedures when quoting a work or when presenting it as an example. Assignments & Academic Calendar Week 1:
 
January 8
. Introduction
Assignment 1:
 Define your own aesthetics. Create an interactive presentation of your aesthetics (Flash, Website, PowerPoint, animation—It’s up to you). Post your presentation on the class Website.
 Due January 15
 
Reading:
 chapter on history of aesthetics in
 
Gaut, Berys Nigel and Lopes, Dominic,
The Routledge companion to aesthetics
[electronic resource],  NetLibrary, 2005. Available as eBook at the McDermott Library of UTD.
Week 2: January 15:
Class presentation of first assignment Aesthetics in the age of computation
Assignment 2:
Write a report on the assigned reading. Try to define what has changed since 1989.
Due January 22
 
Reading
: Mihai Nadin, Emergent Aesthetics. Aesthetic Issues in Computer Arts,
 Leonardo
, Special Issue: Computer Art in Context, August 1989.
Week 3:
 
January 22
Is aesthetics deterministic?
 Assignment 3:
 Can you imagine a machine that will generate aesthetic artifacts? Based upon the purpose you
 
define for your aesthetic machine, prepare a  presentation to the class of how such a machine will work and what kind of artifacts it will eventually produce. You can use digital means (such as modeling, software, animation, interactive diagrams), or you can use traditional means (clay, wood, or paper models). The project and your current competence dictate the medium you will use; but
you will have to justify your choice of medium and explain how the machine you conceived works
. Within 2 weeks, “make” an aesthetic machine: a program, a device, or an illustration. Show the input variables, the machine state, the output. Make a  professional presentation of your machine.
Presentation in class: February 12 Reading:
 Malcolm Gladwell, The formula. What if you built a machine to  predict hit movies? In
The New Yorker 
, 10/16, 2006.
Week 4 January 29
Course Syllabus Page 3

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