Catherine D'Ignazio, Professor
Students will plot the field of digital media in relationship to place, by locating and visiting key institutions and practitioners in the greater New England region. A series of short lectures, activities, student presentations and a hands-on workshop will provide a sense of the breadth of practice, from art to design to business, that the term “digital media” encompasses. A brief historical introduction will trace artistic engagements with mapping & cartography against a wider background of globalization and socio-political transformation of the past 50 years. We will also see how the initial “placeless-ness” of cyberspace gave way to a near obsession with place (i.e., through Google Maps and GPS technologies), and near universal computing. Students will be introduced to a wide range of current technologies and will engage more deeply with the subject matter through short assignments, group discussions, and presentations. Students will build on the psychogeographic experiments begun in "Dialogue with History" module, and will create small works and prototypes that engage with the places that we visit together and the places from which the other students come (imagining place). In considering Place, we will take a day trip to Boston and a two-day trip to New York City. As delineated on the Syllabus, guided reflections, short assignments and feedback will help students to synthesize their experiences on site visits with other course work.
Friday, July 13th: Introduction to Digital Media & Place
Required Reading: (1) Art & Cartography by
Catherine D’Ignazio (2) Where/Abouts by Janet Abrams and
Peter Hall in New Cartographies of Networks & Territories, pp. 12-17
Saturday, July 14th: Site visits in Boston, MA
Required Homework: Develop 3-5 questions with your group.
Assignment while in Boston: Work with a partner to capture
field recordings of Boston.
Monday, July 16th: Imagining Place and Learning to Solder
Required Reading: Learning to solder
Tuesday, July 17th: Planting
Sounds in Public Space
Required Reading: (1) Towards a Situationist International
(pp. 94-101 in Participation)
(2) On Democracy (pp. 135-137 in Participation)
Friday, July 20th: Site visits in NYC
Required Homework: Develop 3-5 questions with your group.
Assignment while in NYC: Work with a partner to capture
field recordings of NYC.
Saturday, July 21st: Site visits in NYC
Required Homework: Develop 3-5 questions with your group.
Assignment while in NYC: Work with a partner to capture field
recordings of NYC.