m-DAT
IDAT503 Histories and Futures
(Geoff Cox)

Intro

Histories & Futures explores contemporary forms of cultural and technological production - using 'software art' as a case study.

This evokes a previous discussion around the impact of new technology on the conventions of art:
'Earlier much futile thought had been devoted to the question of whether photography is an art. The primary question - whether the very invention of photography had not transformed the nature of art - was not raised. Soon the film theoreticians asked the same ill-considered question with regard to film' (Benjamin 1999: 220).

The module focuses on 'software art' as an emergent practice that appears to exemplify both a technical and cultural processes. It emphasises that software is not merely functional but can have poetic qualities, and political significance. Whether software art is art or not is simply the wrong question to ask (as Benjamin suggests in the above quote).

This recent attention to software art is partly due to a range of cultural events that grant critical attention to the materiality of code, and drawing attention to the structures of programming that lie behind the work. This is part of a historical lacunae that has tended to overlook the material and aesthetic aspects of software, and recognise that programming code is inevitably a significant part of all art that is digitally produced.

The module will proceed in the manner of a reading group with postings on the bulletin board for group comment.

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Syllabus

A range of critical theories drawn from contemporary and historical texts and artefacts are placed within a framework to support critical thinking about digital media practice. These discussion texts are available on the bulletin board [linked through Communications]. The module runs like a 'reading group'.

There are key themes that run through the module that form the structure for debate and inquiry across 12 weeks, as follows:

1.1
Walter Benjamin (1999), ÔTheses on the Philosophy of HistoryÕ (written 1940, first published 1950), trans. Harry Zohn, in Illuminations, London: Pimlico, pp. 245-258. http://www.tasc.ac.uk/depart/media/staff/ls/WBenjamin/CONCEPT2.html

1.2
Marshall Berman (1983), 'Introduction: Modernity - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow', in All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: the experience of modernity, London: Verso, pp.15-36.
http://www2.english.uiuc.edu/finnegan/English%20251/all_that_is_solid_melts_into_air.htm

2.1
Lev Manovich (1999), 'Avant-garde as Software'
http://www.manovich.net/DOCS/avantgarde_as_software.doc

2.2
Filippo T. Marinetti (1909), 'The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism', in, Charles Harrison & Paul Wood, Art in Theory: 1900-1990: an anthology of changing ideas, Oxford: Blackwell 1998, pp.145-149.
http://www.santafe.edu/~shalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html
Tristan Tzara (1918) 'Dada Manifesto' & (1922) 'Lecture on Dada',
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jenglish/English104/tzara.html
AndrŽ Breton (1924), from 'The First Manifesto of Surrealism', in Harrison, op cit., pp.433-439.
http://www.tcf.ua.edu/classes/Jbutler/T340/F98/SurrealistManifesto.htm
other manifestos are available on the WHW web site, http://www.mi2.hr/whw/manifestos.htm

3.1
McKenzie Wark (2001), ÔHacker Manifesto 2.0Õ, http://www.feelergauge.net/projects/hackermanifesto/version_2.0/

3.2
Richard Barbrook & Pit Schultz (1997), ÔThe Digital Artisans ManifestoÕ, http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/hrc/theory/digitalartisans/t.1.1.html

4.
Walter Benjamin, 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' (extract) in, Charles Harrison & Paul Wood, Art in Theory: 1900-1990 (full version in Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, London: Fontana 1992, pp 211-244. http://bid.berkeley.edu/bidclass/readings/benjamin.html

5.1
Bill Nichols (1988), 'The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems', in Screen vol.29, no.2 Winter, pp.22-46.
http://www.calarts.edu/~bookchin/mediatheory/essays/43-nichols-03.pdf

5.2
Florian Cramer (2001), 'On literature and systems theory,' http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~cantsin/homepage/writings/theory/systems_theory//literature_and_system_theory.html

6.
Josephine Berry (2002), ÔBare Code: Net Art and the Free Software MovementÕ, http://netartcommons.walkerart.org/article.pl?sid=02/05/08/0615215&mode=threAd ; http://www.monoculartimes.co.uk/texts/avantgardening/barecode_1.shtml
[cf. Walter Benjamin (1983) 'The Author as Producer', in, Understanding Brecht, Verso, pp.85-103.]

7.1
Alan Sondheim (2001) ÔIntroductionÕ, Codework, in American Book Review 22 September, no. 6, pp. 1-4.
http://www.litline.org/ABR/issues/Volume22/Issue6/sondheim.pdf

7.2
McKenzie Wark (2002), ÔFrom Hypertext to CodeworkÕ, HJS vol.3, issue1, http://www.geocities.com/hypermedia_joyce/wark.html

8.
William Bowles (1990), ÔThe Macintosh Computer: Archetypal Capitalist Machine?Õ (first written in 1987) Retrofuturism 13,

9.
Matthew Fuller (2003), 'It Looks Like You're Writing a Letter', in Behind the Blip: essays on the Culture of Software, New York: Autonomedia, pp.137-165. http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/7073/1.html

10.
Matthew Fuller (2003), Behind the Blip: essays on the Culture of Software, New York: Autonomedia.
http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0201/msg00025.html

11.
Florian Cramer (2002), ÔConcepts, Notations, Software ArtÕ, in Signwave, Auto-Illustrator Users Guide, Plymouth: Liquid Press/Spacex, pp. 101-112; also in Olga Goriunova & Alexei Shulgin (2002) eds., ÔSoftware Art: ThoughtsÕ, Read_me festival 1.2, catalogue, Moscow: Rosizo, State Centre for Museums and Exhibitions, pp. 18-24.

12.
Geoff Cox, Alex McLean & Adrian Ward (2004), 'Coding Praxis: Reconsidering the Aesthetics of Generative Code,' in Olga Goriunova & Alexei Shulgin, eds., Read_me: Software Art & Cultures, Aarhus: Digital Aesthetics Research Centre, pp.161-174,
http://www.anti-thesis.net/texts/praxis.pdf/

Important further resources:
Run Me Software Art repository, http://runme.org/
Radical Software, http://www.radicalsoftware.org/ 

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Task

The module develops a critical perspective on production work through an integration of contextual theory and critical practice.

To successfully complete the module students are required to take an active part in the online seminar sessions posting comments for peer review. There are two formal components to submit for assessment (each carrying 50% of the overall mark).

Students must present issues and ideas arising from some material online (ie. through their website) that relates to the required reading. This should be used to inform their practice and their progress online. Students are required to present work in progress, facilitate group discussion and provide/receive feedback on ideas.

Initial description of project
A description of the proposed Runme and Readme should be posted on your website by 08/12/06.

1. RUNME
Students are required to produce and present an online project that relates to module contents (this might well be software), that encapsulates an argument and merges form/content.

2. README
Students must also supply a file (approx. 4000 words) that is fully referenced and supports the above. Students are encouraged to pay special attention to the form that this writing takes.

The deadline for the module is midnight 16/02/2007 at which point the work must be fully packaged on available from the student's website.

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See see http://m.i-dat.org/online/resources/DFassessment.pdf for assessment criteria.

Definitive Module Record
Please see http://m.i-dat.org/online/resources/IDAT503.pdf