Term: Fall 2010
Course number: 60210
Classroom: CFA 318 - CFA 310
Days / time: Monday Wednesday 08:30AM - 11:20AM
Professor: Paolo Pedercini - paolop [at] andrew [dot] cmu [dot] edu
GA: Scott Andrew - sandrew [at] andrew [dot] cmu [dot] edu
Office: School of art 419A - 4th Floor
Office hours: By appointment

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

> Work creatively with digital cameras, Premiere/Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects.

> Approach critical issues related to art and cultural production in the digital age.

> Discuss their works in the context of new media art and in relation with pop culture.

All students should have an external hard-drive (not a USB key) to back up and move their work from a computer to another.

> Attendance: three or more unexcused absences result in the drop of a letter grade.

> Absences: you are responsible for what happens in class whether you’re here or not. Organize with your classmates to get class information and material that you have missed.

> Participation: you are invited, encouraged, and expected to engage actively in discussion, reflection and activities.

> Net addiction: you can exist for few hours without tweettering, facebooking, chatting, texting or emailing. Any device for mediated communication is banned during theory classes, crits and discussions. A .5% grade reduction will result from being found using them.
During the lab hours you will be allowed to network as long as your behaviour is not disruptive.

> Assignments: late assignments are only accepted with permission of instructor. You lose 10% of your points per day late up to a max of 7 days late.

Every unit revolves around an assignment. Units might change or disappear, what follows is the best case scenario.

 

URBAN LANDSCAPES + A.D.D. VIDEO ART

A formal assignment: Shot a series of urban landscapes of an assigned Pittsburgh neighborhood, use the tripod and avoid camera movements. Pay attention to framing and light.
(Groups of 2)

And an highly conceptual one: make an art video that lasts exactly 2 seconds, not counting title screen and credits.

Screenings: Lumiere - Shorts, Dziga Vertov - The Man with the Movie Camera (excerpt), Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster - Parc Central, Eva Weber - the Solitary Life of Cranes, (Missed Connections).

Skills: camera: lenses, shutter, field of depth, light, white balance, composition, rule of thirds, tripod. Capturing and exporting, formats and codecs for HD

STEALING AND REMIXING

Create a found footage video by re-editing / remixing / manipulating one or more sources. Don't shoot original material.

Screenings: Grifi-Baruchello - La verifica incerta (excerpt), Dara Birnbaum - Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, Martin Arnold - Alone, Matthias Müller - home stories, Craig Baldwin - Tribulation 99 (excerpt), Bill Morrison - Decasia.

Virgil Widrich - Fast Film, Erik Bünger - the Allens, Fernando Sanchez - Me and My Girlfriend, Natalie Bookchin - Mass Ornament, Brody Condon - Without Sun, Cory Arcangel - Drei Klavierstucke op. 11, Takashi Murata - Monster Movie.

Skills: Online and offline archives, downloading, ripping, editing

YOUTUBE KILLED THE VIDEO ART STARS

Shoot a performance-based art video and post it on YouTube. Extra points if you get more than 1,000 views by the end of the semester.
(Groups of 2)

Screenings: Chris Burden - Shoot, Bruce Nauman - Lip Sync, Bouncing in the Corner, No. 1, Baldessarri - I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art, Warhol - blow job, William Wegman - 2 dogs and a ball, Pipilotti Rist - I'm not the girl who misses much, Lenka Clayton - People in Order, Everynone - Words.

Skills: screen capturing, risk taking

TRUE FICTIONS

Shoot and edit a short interview in a documentary style. The subject can tell a real story or make up a credible one.
(Groups of 2)

Screenings: Errol Morris - First person episode, Elizabeth Barrett - Stranger with a Camera.

V.V.A.A. - A Dog's World (excerpt), Matt McCormick - Art of graffiti removal, Jorge Furtado - Ilha das Flores, Jim Finn - Juche Idea (excerpt).

John Heyn and Jeff Krulik - Heavy metal parking lot, Chris Wait - Heavy metal Jr.

Skills: microphones, lighting, interviewing, documentary grammar.

COMPOSITING AND ANIMATION

Produce a short animation using external visual sources.

Screenings: Méliès - LHomme orchestre, Paik - Global Groove, Three Transitions - Peter Campus, Hermine Freed- Art Herstory, Michael Gondry + Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be, Michael Gondry + The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar, Explosions - tabor borak, Why Cecco Beppe Does Not Die (Scratch 'n' Sniff Edition) - Ben Coonley, Marco Brambilla - civilization, Marco Brambilla - Power, 2010 - A turn for the worse - Carl Burgess, Passenger 4 - Laurel Canyon, 2, Riley Harmon - Passenger 3 (Pineapple Express).

Terry Gilliam - The killer cars, Frank Film - Frank & Caroline Mouris, Jan van Nuenen -optimizer customizer, Drux Flux - Theodore Ushev, knightshift - anita fontaine, Martha Colburn imagines Diana Wagman An Electric Literature Single Sentence Animation, Cyriak - cows cows cows.

Skills: After effects, compositing, filters, chroma key, animation.

10% STEALING AND REMIXING
10% A.D.D. VIDEO-ART + URBAN LANDSCAPE
10% PERFORMANCE-BASED VIDEO
20% INTERVIEW - MOCKUMENTARY/DOCUMENTARY
10% POST PRODUCTION EXERCISE
20% ANIMATION
20% CLASS PARTICIPATION