[observation > inquiry > interpretation > presentation] · foundations of art, design,...

A E ST H E T I C S + SY N T H E S I S

[OBSERVATION > INQUIRY > INTERPRETATION > PRESENTATION]

D I S COV E RY

Jeff Barg, FAD&DC, Fall 2014

Foundations of Art, Design, & Digital Culture FNAR 264/910 Fall 2015 T/R 130-430

David Comberg

Seeing comes before words. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.

John Berger, Ways of Seeing

It’s simple, you just take something and do something to it, and then do something else to it. Keep doing

this and pretty soon you’ve got something.

Jasper Johns

The more we learn to conform to (digital culture’s) available choices, the more predictable and

machinelike we become ourselves.

Douglas Rushkoff, Program or be Programmed

If you work intensely and slowly, things will happen that you would never imagine.

Aaron Siskind

This course is an introduction to the fundamental perception, representation, aesthetics, and

design that shape today’s visual culture. It addresses the way artists and designers create images;

design with analog and digital tools; communicate, exchange, and express meaning over a broad

range of media; and find their voices within the fabric of contemporary art, design, and visual

culture. Emphasis is placed on building visual literacy by studying and making images using a

variety of representation techniques; learning to organize and structure two-dimensional and three-

dimensional space, and designing with time-based and procedural media. Students learn to develop

an individual style of idea-generation, experimentation, iteration, and critique as part of their

creative and critical responses to visual culture.

The course is about learning to see and think like an artist/designer. It seeks a balance between

free exploration and discovery within parameters. The course focuses on design as both a mental

discipline and a set of skills; as both a process and a focused practice. It positions art and design as a

state-of-mind: speculative, critical, and a form of inquiry. The course should prepare students to:

• think clearly, critically and creatively about visual design

• research and analyze design problems thoroughly and from multiple perspectives

• develop concepts and multiple project proposals, focusing on quantity and quality

• make meaningful images, objects, environments

• speak critically about art and design, both your own design and the work of others

• take creative risks and sustain curiosity

• create with a variety of digital and manual tools

• continue studies in related fields

The course will serve as a laboratory for rigorous, directed investigation and creative problem

solving. Students will explore through making, developing preliminary plans and drawings and refining

work for presentation in a variety of media. Students should keep an up-to-date sketchbook or

journal of progress and will produce a number of short exercises and larger projects. A brief

mid-term meeting will be held with each student to review progress. A portfolio, showing both

finished works and the process through which that work was developed, will be due at the conclusion

of the course. Course work will follow a general model of observation, inquiry, interpretation, and

presentation. Class time will be used for project work, gallery visits, short presentations, discussion,

and critiques. Plan on spending approximately 6 hours per week outside of class working on

projects.

Exercise:

100 Arrows

Videos:

Tim Brown: The Powerful

Link Between Creativity and

Play

Powers of 10

To Kill a Mockingbird, title

sequence

Foundations of Art, Design, & Digital Culture FNAR 264/910 Fall 2015

Course requirements:

• attend all classes on time and prepared to work

• complete all assignments fully and on time

• participate in critiques, explaining and justifying work and offering criticism of other students’ work

• use your sketchbook as a journal, testing out ideas, taking notes on readings, etc.

• submit completed projects to Course Folder on FNAR server and course blog on date due

• complete readings and participate in discussion and class blog

• turn in a portfolio of course work on the last day of class

• Social media, email, text, food and drinks: be considerate and responsible

Grading (and see blog post on grading):

50% of your grade is based on attendance and participation in class; 50% is based on work produced. Three absences

results in one letter grade drop in final grade. The projects are weighted equally and will be evaluated based on your design

process and how effectively designs are completed. The SAS grading system is as follows: A+/ A= 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B

= 3.0, B- = 2.7, C+ = 2.3, C = 2.0, C- = 1.7, D+ = 1.3, D = 1.0, F = 0.0. See the SAS web site for more information. I will schedule

a short meeting with each student at mid-semester to discuss work to date, progress, and grade. Please see me if you have

any questions about grading.

Tutorials: (addtional support available on lynda.com, Adobe.com, Vitale Digital Media Lab)

Systems Info:

Penn Design systems info: https://www.design.upenn.edu/computing

Penn Design Remote Access: www.design.upenn.edu/remoteaccess

To view your printing charges see PennDesign Resources > Printing & Plotting

Student Property:

Work produced in courses at the School of Design is the property of the student. By participating in a course each student

grants the School of Design a non-exclusive right and license to use, copy, distribute, display and perform such work in

any and all media for educational, programmatic and/or promotional purposes. The School of Design will exercise care

with respect to student-created materials submitted in conjunction with a course; however, the School of Design does not

assume liability for their loss or damage. PennDesign Student Handbook

Readings for Sept 1: The Nature of Representation, p 32–53, Davis; ‘Image’ definition, Wikipedia;

Arranging Things, Koren

Reference Books:

Design Basics, David Lauer, Wadsworth, 1999

Form+Code, Casey Reas, Princeton Architectural Press, 2010

Designing Programmes, Karl Gerstner, Lars Muller, 2007

Principles of Two-Dimensional Design, Wucius Wong, Van Nostrand, 1972

Creative Code: Aesthetics + Computation, John Maeda, 2004

Design by Numbers, John Maeda, MIT Press, 1999

Abstracting Craft: The Practiced Digital Hand, Malcolm McCullough, MIT Press, 1998

Basic Design: The Dynamics of Visual Form, Maurice de Sausmarez, Design Press, 1980

Typographie: A Manual of Design, Emil Ruder, Verlag Niggli, 1967

Ways of Seeing, John Berger, BBC/Penguin, 1972

Abstraction in Art and Nature, Nathan Cabot Hale, Dover, 1993

Graphic Design Theory, Meredith Davis, Thames & Hudson, 2012

Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design, John Bowers, 2008

NOTE: Lab fees not refunded after week 2

Office Hours: by appointment

David Comberg: [email protected]

Teaching Assistant: TBD

Class Blog:

fall2015foundations.wordpress.

com

3-5 posts/wk

Lab/Systems:

iMac 3.4GHz Intel core i7

running Mac OS 10.10

Adobe Creative Cloud

HP Design Jet Z6200 & Z6100

42” Large Format Plotter

Phaser 7760GX Color Laser

Printer

HP 5550 LaserJet printer

Epson Stylus Pro 4900 Printer

Remote Access to Server

Student allocation: 2GB on the

PennDesign Server

Resources:

lynda.com (faculty)

www.upenn.edu

Pennkey ID/password

Vitale Digital Media Lab

Adobe tutorials

Photoshop animation tutorial

Processing tutorial

Readings:

Each project has a related

reading. Discussion group

leaders will be responsible for

summarizing themes, relating

to studio in an engaging

manner, raising questions

(approx 15 mins). Readings are

posted on blog or in Course

Folder.

Discussion leaders:

1 Image

2 Animation

3 Data Vis Wearable

4 Intervention

Illustrator 1

Sun. August 30th

Session 1: 1-3pm

Session 2: 3:30-5:30pm

Illustrator 2 (w/exercise)

Sun. Sept 6th

Session 1: 12-2pm


Photoshop 1

Sun. Sept 20th

Session 1: 12-2pm


Photoshop 2 (w/exercise)

Sun. Sept 27th

Session 1: 12-2pm


Processing

Oct 15


Art: the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination.

“. . . All art is deception and so is nature,” Vladimir Nabokov, Strong Opinions

An art object is always “about something” as opposed to just “being something.” Leonard Koren

Design: the process and activity of ‘making things better for people’; an activity that translates an

idea into a blueprint for something ‘useful’ for people; also, a preliminary sketch indicating the plan for

something; the act of working out the form of something; an arrangement scheme; the framework or

instructions for making something

Digital Culture: a description of contemporary human life as defined by data/information,

computerization, and communication via the Internet and related knowledge-based networked

technologies

Abstraction: a genre of art where artistic content depends on internal form rather than pictorial

representation; painting or sculpture, which simplifies, distills, or distorts figures from the real world.

Abstract art emphasizes forms, lines, and colors. Abstract elements include line, shape, pattern, space,

lightness/darkness, and color. Abstraction in Art and Nature, Hale

Synthesis: a process of combining things into a (new) unified whole; also distill, refine

Gestalt: a German word for “form,” defined as an organized whole in experience. The Gestalt

psychologists, about 1912, advanced the theory, which explains psychological phenomena by their

relationships to total forms rather than their parts. A perceptual pattern or structure possessing

qualities as a whole that cannot be described merely as a sum of its parts, like the figure/ground

relationship

Aesthetics: derived from aisthesis, the Greek word for perceptual or sensory knowledge, refers to

the branch of studies (philosophy, cultures) dealing with such notions as beauty, comedy, disgust,

the sublime, etc., as applicable to culture (design/arts), with a view to establishing the meaning and

validity of critical judgments concerning works of art, and the principles underlying or justifying such

judgments. Also related to definitions of style, appearance, taste.

Critique: to judge critically; a serious examination/inquiry in order to understand and supply useful

criticism to the creator; expression of a critical point of view

Vectors: graphics that use geometric primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygons to

represent images.

Pixel: or picture element, is a physical point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable element on a

screen.

Supplies:

sketch/notebook — wire-o bound, 8x10” or similar

dropbox, optional digital storage

digital camera and cable (cameras, etc. also available for loan from Weigle/Vitale, Penn Library)

misc project materials

Lockers in the hallway are available for storage—get a lock

Dick Blick

1330 Chestnut St

(215) 525-3214

www.dickblick.com

Plaza Art Supply

3200 Chestnut Street

215-823-6893

plazaart.com

★


Project 1: What is an Image and How Does it Mean? Aug 27–Sept 22 Critique Sept 22

You break it down in order to build it back up. What does it mean, why does it matter?

What is abstract art good for? What’s the use—for us as individuals, or for any society—of pictures of

nothing, of paintings and sculptures or prints or drawings that do not seem to show anything except

themselves? Kirk Varnedoe, Curator, Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art

The eye does not see things but images of things that mean other things. Italo Calvino

In this first exercise you will develop manual sketches into digital (vector) drawings, creating abstract,

non-representational shapes and simple symbolic forms in a fixed space, using a variety of tools,

methods, and organizing principles.

In Illustrator, open a new document and set up a Custom (12” x 12”) page:

Open Illustrator Prefs and set grid lines every .5” with subdivision of 1

Use the Rectangle Tool and draw a 6” square

Under View menu, turn on Snap to Grid

Center the square, position 3” from the top of page and 3” from the left edge

Outline the path of the square with a .5 pt black stroke

View grids so that you see a grid of .5” squares

Under Object menu, Lock Selection and in Layer dialog box make a New Layer

Save to the Home/Local Data drive

Project 1 has 3 parts. For each phase produce 6 or more studies and one final, 12x12” composition:

1.1 Literacy Aug 27–Sept 3 visual literacy: image analysis, translation/abstraction/repetition

Discuss assigned readings, bring a few images to class and describe—identify source, media, visual

character. Review reduction strategies for one of the images, translate/draw your interpretation in

Illustrator; develop as repeating unit in a pattern composition.

Final: 6+ studies, 12x12” 1-color (black)

1.2 Meaning Sept 3–Sept 10 symbolic representation: visual research, reduction

Design a symbol for a contemporary or fictional issue/situation. Research and appropriate/adapt/hybrid

designs using existing vector symbol libraries.

Final: 6+ studies, 12x12” 2-color (black plus 1-color)

1.3 Abstraction Sept 10–Sept 17 interpretation of Calvino city

Final: 6+ studies, 12x12” 12x12” (color)

Readings:

Communication Models, GD Theory, Davis, p 14–31

Arranging Things, Koren

Invisible Cities (selected),

Italo Calvino

Artists/designers:

The Shapes Project, Allan

McCollum

Bridget Riley

Tauba Auerbach

Sol Lewitt

Brice Marden

They Live, John Carpenter

Resources:

Inventing Abstraction, MoMA

www.patternfoundry.com/

thenounproject.com/

www.aiga.org/symbol-signs/

Data collection:

For Project 3 you’ll need to

work with data, so start now

by recording.

★

Gionni Ponce

Noma BarAli Lotz

Elyssa Edelman Gina Alm


Project 2: Representation/Animation Sept 22–Oct 13

A picture means I know where I was every minute. That’s why I take pictures. It’s a visual diary.

Andy Warhol

Context: the circumstances in which an event occurs; a setting; that part of an entire situation which

explains another part…. Jacques Barzun, Simple & Direct

The signs of our time: semiotics, the hidden messages of environments, objects, and cultural images

Jack Solomon, Professor of English, California State University

If one wanted to make a work of art devoid of meaning, it would be impossible because we’ve already

given meaning to the work by indicating that it’s a work of art. Joseph Kosuth, Artist

In this project you will compose short original texts (6-word story/maifesto, aphorisms, proverbs) then

visually translate to create a collection of looping animated representations, exploring how meaning

can be transmitted through composition, context, sequence and other design choices. The work will

begin with discussion of experimental and avant-garde (dada) poetry and collage. Like contemporary

postmodern, digital culture, dada poetry is a relevant starting point as it originates in media and, when

mashed-up, can be simultaneously nonsensical, random and curiously poignant.

There are 2 parts to Project 2:

2.1 Sept 22 –Oct 1: Static image translation of text

Final: printed 12x12,” RGB, 1600x1200px 300dpi .tiff

2.2 Oct 1–Oct 13: Storyboard and looping animation

Final: RGB, 1200x900px 72dpi .gif

Critique: Oct 13

Exercise:

Remote Associates Test

Readings/Research:

The Nature of Representation, p34–53,Davis

How to Make a dada Poem, Tzara

Artful Accidents, Goldsmith

Animated Gif as Art?

Postmodernism, definition,

Hebdige

Artists/designers

Cory Arcangel

Sally McKay

Christina Kerns

Glenn Ligon

Ed Ruscha

Lorna Mills

Lawrence Weiner


Project 3: Wearable Data Visualization Oct 15–Nov 10 (Processing charrette, Oct 15)

Today, visualization has the potential to become a mass medium. Engagement—grabbing and keeping

the attention of a viewer—is the key to its broader success.

Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg, Google Big Picture visualization research group.

In this project you will work with a variety of digital tools, focusing on Processing, a programming

environment that supports digital literacy within the visual arts and visual literacy within technology.

Working with the data you’ve been collecting for the past weeks you’ll create visualizations, transform

them into a printed material, and construct a wearable data portrait.

1. Processing charrette: intro to drawing and using data

2. Quantify yourself: count, measure, collect personal data and vital statistics.

3. Compile your data sets in a text file, then classify and organize into information that reveals patterns,

outliers, trends.

4. Analyze and write Processing code to produce multiple visualizations of the data.

5. Output Processing visualizations as PDF and edit in Illustrator.

6. Print on the plotters and transform printed output into 3-dimensional wearable constructions.

Critique/runway show: Nov 10 (photo documentation)

Readings:

Form + Code in Design, Art,

and Architecture, Reas

Artistic Data Visualization: Beyond Visual Analytics, Wattenberg

How to Make Data Look Sexy, Wattenberg, Viegas

Program or be Programmed, Rushkoff

Computer Science for the

Rest of Us, Stross

Artists/designers

Anreas Fischer

Giorgia Lupi

Lev Manovich

Philip Treacy

Casey Reas

Ear Studio/Ben Rubin

Nicholas Felton

Genvieve Dion

Idy Akpan, paper headpiece, FADDC

Summer 2013

Kamila SarkovaMax Wang, DDF Fall 2012


Project 4: Public Intervention (critical dialog/design installation)

Nov 10–Dec 3/Dec 10

Observation > Concept development > Form analysis > Site Research > Public installation

What happens when you express something unexpected in a public space?

In this project you’ll create an intervention in a specific public space, initiating a dialog with those

who use the space. Students will need to select a site and issue/theme, then analyze forms—words,

images, symbols, signs, objects, and translate into an appropriate visual language. Conceptual design,

preliminary model, construction, installation, observation video and documentation.

Install for on-site critique Dec 3; final critique/video documentation Dec 10

Readings:

Citizen Designer, McCoy

The Casual Passerby

Critical Design FAQ

What is This Thing Called Design Criticism?, Rock,

Poynor

Art Intervention, Wikipedia

Artists/designers:

Trail of Silence, Shakiel

Greely

Braco Dimitrijevic

BroLab

Banksy

Class Action


Project Summary

1 What is an Image? How Does it Mean? Aug 27–Sept 22

Reading: Communication Models, Davis; Invisible Cities, Calvino

2 Illustrator tutorials

Analysis of images, exploration of abstraction, basic non-objective shapes in a fixed space—three

separate compositions addressing space, figure ground, relationships, reduction, symbol design,

meaning, and abstraction:

1.1 Literacy 12x12” B+W image translation

1.2 Meaning 12x12” 2c fictional symbol

1.3 Abstraction 12x12” color interpretation of Calvino city

2 Representation/Animation Sept 22–Oct 13

Reading: Nature of Representation, Davis; How to Make a dada Poem, Tzara; Artful Accidents, Goldsmith;

Animated Gif as Art?

2 Photoshop tutorials (image editing and animation)

Compose short original texts and translate into static and animated representations, exploring how

meaning can be transmitted through composition, context, sequence and other design choices.

2.1 Static image translation of text

2.2 Storyboard and looping animation

3 Wearable Data Visualization Oct 15–Nov 5

Reading: Form + Code in Design, Art, and Architecture, Reas; Artistic Data Visualization: Wattenberg

Processing charrette and tutorials (intro and working with data)

Quantify, analyze and write Processing code to produce multiple visualizations of personal data. Output

and print/transform into wearable design.

4 Public Intervention (critical dialog/design installation) Nov 10–Dec 3

Reading: Citizen Designer, McCoy; Critical Design FAQ, Dunne & Raby; What is This Thing Called Design

Criticism?, Rock, Poynor

Design an intervention in a specific public space, initiating a dialog using visual forms to provoke a

response in the viewer: questions or thoughts, laughter, delight, re-examination of assumptions —

medium is open. Photo/video documentation.

Portfolio Dec 3–Dec 10

Design and produce a compelling visual presentation of work produced in class with a brief artists’

statement to be submitted at final critique/review.

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