Course detail

Net – art – software

FaVU-2SUSAcad. year: 2026/2027

This course introduces students to the interplay of networks, art, and software through relatively well-established foundational topics: the historical roots and specific aspects of digital media, and the history of the Internet and Web 1.0–2.0, which are further explored later in the semester through more specialized texts and topics. For example: surveillance capitalism, techno-feudalism, permacomputing, feminist and community servers, neoluddism, data centers, web scraping and AI, data obfuscation and resistance to data mining, online interventions and disruptions of digital space, historical transformations of the Internet’s power structures, and the resulting technological and infrastructural changes to the Internet.

Individual topics will be explored not only through reading and discussion of course texts, but primarily through the presentation of related works of art and collective reflection on them, as well as through hands-on experimentation with alternative open-source software, social networks, and other protocols. Several sessions per semester will be devoted to topics and texts selected by the students, which will allow us not only to reflect on the students’ specific interests but also to respond to current issues and the latest literature.

Language of instruction

Czech, English

Number of ECTS credits

3

Assignment to study programme types

Master's

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Entry knowledge

None. A large portion of the texts are in English.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

The following conditions must be met to pass the exam:
- At least 50% active participation in class, consisting of submitting a brief reflection on the assigned text and discussing it in class,
- Writing an essay of at least 5,000 characters, which will be graded.

The minimum attendance requirement is 50%. Missed classes may be made up by adding to, expanding on, or updating course-related entries on the monoskop.org wiki.

Aims

The aim of the course is to familiarize students with art in the online environment and related fields and topics, such as: the history and aspects of digital media, the history of the Internet, its power dynamics and social impacts, Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and the artistic expressions that respond to them—net.art, post-internet art, data art, automated interventions, etc.; the discipline of software studies; issues of privacy infringement and data surveillance, and ways to counter them through encryption or data obfuscation; sustainable approaches; decomputation; and neoludism. Rather than providing a comprehensive overview or a linear explanation, the course aims to offer a pluralistic perspective on the broad field of the thematic triangle: network-software-art.

Graduates are well-versed in the fields of network and software art, digital media criticism and current trends in this area, the Internet environment, and related topics; they adopt a critical and artistically distinctive approach to these subjects, which they can further apply in their own artistic practice.

Study aids

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Not applicable.

Recommended reading

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)
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 DES_M Master's 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
  • Programme VUM_M Master's 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    2 year of study, winter semester, elective

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

26 hours, compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

Syllabus

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.