Overview

Description

COURSE DETAILS:

Course Description

Computational Poetics and New Media: Themes, Strategies and Curatorship

This graduate-level course will explore contemporary New Media and Computational Art in terms of the exhibition criteria of the leading Canadian art gallery specialized in the field.
Students will work closely with artists and directors of the New Media Gallery* in exploring the creation, curation, and contextualization of new media art - art that is made, presented, and transmitted by technology including computational media, time-based media, electronic media, digital media, robotics, and biotechnology.

This Semester the theme of the New Media Gallery Exhibitions are Zooveillance (Gallery Visit May 7th**) and the Summer Exhibition: Breath (Gallery visit June 14th***). Students will work within the context of these exhibitions to critically explore the respective themes and the artworks, as a means of engaging with aesthetic, philosophical, cultural, social economic political, social, technological and environmental issues. They will be expected to engage with the theoretical contents of the course readings while bringing their own research agendas, concerns, and values to bear on the interpretation and critique of aspects of the works and themes of the exhibition. Students may choose to take a theoretical artistic, technological, curatorial, or critical approach to their engagement with the course.

Throughout the course, students will be required to write and post individual weekly summaries of readings and lead class discussions. This will include oral presentations in which students will be expected to engage with the readings and lead the seminar discussion. The final project will consist of an essay and a public paper presentation on a theme emerging from the course readings, the themes of the two exhibitions, and the student's own research agenda.

Class are bi-weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays. We will meet in person on the Surrey Campus and or at the New Media Gallery in New Westminster. As the course involves talks by International Artists class times may be adjusted, with students consent, to facilitate Zoom scheduling.

* New Media Gallery is based in New Westminster and has presented more than 150 extraordinary, local, national, and international artists in almost 30 ground-breaking exhibitions since 2014 The gallery has an international profile and is known for highly focused exhibitions featuring in specially designed and rebuilt exhibition spaces. They work to the highest standards of curation, design, installation, handling, and display technologies. New Media Gallery is run by Executive Director Gordon Duggan and Director-Curator Sarah Joyce, each of whom has several decades of experience in time-based and electronic media art in international galleries.
https://newmediagallery.ca/

** Our first class will take place on 7th May 2024, 2.30pm - 5.20pm. at the New Media Gallery, 3rd Floor Anvil Centre, 777 Columbia Street, New Westminster, BC V3M 1B6.
https://newmediagallery.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/NMG-Directions-2023.pdf

*** This visit will take place on 14th June2024, 2.30pm - 5.20pm. at the New Media Gallery, 3rd Floor Anvil Centre, 777 Columbia Street, New Westminster, BC V3M 1B6.
https://newmediagallery.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/NMG-Directions-2023.pdf

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

On this course will learn to:

• Identify key theoretical, curatorial and critical themes and approaches to contemporary New Media and Computational Art.
• Apply these approaches in their own writing and research.
• Prepare, lead and participate in discussions based on the course readings.
• Engage in scholarly writing on the themes of the course.
• Deliver oral presentations of their scholarly writing.
  
  

   

   

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