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

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

3

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Learning outcomes of the course unit

Graduates of the course are oriented in the field of software art, the Internet environment and related topics and take a critical and authorial approach to them, which they can further apply in their own artistic work.

Prerequisites

None.

Co-requisites

Not applicable.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Theoretical lectures, discussions, reading and analysis of texts and works, participation.

Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes

The following conditions are set for the award of the examination:
• 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

1. Digitality: Jaquard's knitting machine, Babbage's calculating machine and the first programmer Ada Lovelace, Memex (reading: The language of new media - Lev Manovich).
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

Not applicable.

Aims

The aim of the course is to introduce students to software art in the networked environment and related areas and topics such as: history and aspects of digital media, history of the Internet, its power panorama and social implications, Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and responding artistic expressions - net.art, post-internet, data art, automated interventions, etc., the discipline of software studies, issues of privacy invasion, data surveillance and the possibilities of their reversal through encryption or data obfuscation. Rather than a comprehensive overview or linear exposition, the course seeks to provide a plural view of the broad field of the thematic triangle: net-software-art.

Specification of controlled education, way of implementation and compensation for absences

Teaching takes place in the classrooms of the KTDU FaVU BUT weekly in hours determined by the schedule. The minimum participation is 50%. Make-up for missed classes is done by adding/developing/updating course-related passwords on the wiki monoskop.org.

Recommended optional programme components

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Not applicable.

Recommended reading

BOLTER, Jay David a Richard. GRUSIN. Remediation: understanding new media. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000. ISBN 02-625-2279-9. (EN)
BEAUDE, Boris. The Ends of the Internet [online]. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2016. ISBN 9789492302069. Dostupné z: https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/no-11-the-ends-of-the-internet-boris-beaude/ (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-D , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

26 hours, compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer