ARTH 353/4-AA - Technology & Contemporary Art

•  
•  
• Print

T-18:00-20:15
EV-1.605
INSTRUCTOR: ERNESTINE DAUBNER

Often provocative and engaging, art of the electronic age addresses significant issues relating to post-modern society.  To better understand the relevance of current art practices employing new technologies, we will begin our course by situating such art in an (art) historical context.  Our study will thus begin with artistic manifestations that relate to earlier technologies, as well as to video art and multi-media installations.  We will then proceed to examine examples of Internet art, computer-based installations, virtual reality, telematic presence and other interactive strategies; as well, we will consider the significance of selected techno-performances, artificial life, robotics, wearable computers and 'cyborg' artworks.
   
Culturally diverse, these various examples of new media art will prompt us to evaluate the paradigmatic changes brought about, at the turn of the millennium, by technoscience and telecommunication technologies in our "global village."  In this regard, we will assess the impact of such technologies on the human subject:  their effect upon our imaginary realm, upon our perceptions of the body and external reality, and our conceptions of gender.   Examining the intersection of art, science and technology, we will consider shifts in the role of art, the artist and the viewer/participant.  Our discussions will address issues surrounding the conjunction of the organic and digital body, the advent of cyberfeminism, theories of the post-human, and the problematics relating to hyperreality and the cyborgian condition.  We shall also evaluate the techno-utopian and apocalyptic attitudes elicited by these various new technologies.