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vis147b spring2010

Page history last edited by micha cárdenas 13 years, 9 months ago

Vis147b 

 

Electronic Technologies for Art, Pt 2: Public Networked Performance

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

Instructor: Micha Cárdenas

Tuesdays, 3:30p - 6:30p, VAF 106

 

Office Hours, 2-3pm Mondays, also VAF 106.

 

This syllabus is in perpetual beta, being updated in discussion with the needs and desires of the class.

 

Overview

 

"We destroy the present because we come from the future" 

-Proletarians from the occupied ASOEE, Athens

 

The recent movements that have coalesced around a dream of a better educational system and a rejection of the neoliberalization of education are of historic significance. From Greece, to New York to occupied California, these movements have built on histories of struggle from Mexico, France and Chile and reemerged as powerful waves of strikes, occupations and a myriad of other strategies. As contemporary artists working in the University of California, we must ask ourselves how we can and should respond to this moment. The contemporary tools of public networked performance offer an important toolset in considering a renewed engagement between the artist and public culture, the space of social struggle. Networked performance, construed broadly, can include augmented bodies, alternate reality games, performative objects, contestational robotics, alien technology, queer technology and novel forms of communication.

 

The viscous response to technological gestures such as the Transborder Immigrant Tool, virtual sit-ins, twitter copwatching and minor simulations only demonstrates the far reaching potential for new imaginings of the social to slip out of, transform or exploit existing networks of biopower and necropolitics. The occupiers call out "We are the Crisis", those who resist the use of the rhetoric of crisis in the service of neoliberal restructuring. We are also the crisis who refuse to accept the fantasies of the regents, business people and administrators and imagine, and begin creating, our own futures.    

 

This class will begin where my vis147a class left off and continue from there. Our focus will be on developing advanced Arduino projects using various forms of wireless networking technologies including Xbee, Bluetooth and Wifi. This will allow for a deeper consideration of the question of Social Technologies which we engaged in the first class. As a case study, we will be looking closely at the university as a site of political engagement, including the recent emerging social movements UC system, the CSU system and student uprisings around the world. Using this case study will provide us with a concrete example with which to consider ways in which social technologies such as networked electronics can be used to reactivate the possibilities of public space through performative practices.

 

Readings

 

The primary text for the course, which can be purchased at Groundwork Books, is Making Things Talk by Tom Igoe.

 

The weekly readings will be online. There will be a midterm test in which you must discuss two of the readings, which I will choose, in relation to each other. We will also be discussing the readings in class every week, so you are expected to come to class ready to discuss them, having read them, highlighted important quotes and written down any questions you have about the readings.

 

Those readings, which will be announced soon, will be in ereserves, http://reserves.ucsd.edu or at urls on websites online. They will include excerpts from:

 

Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks

This Bridge Called My Back, Moraga and Anzaldua

Multitude, Hardt and Negri

The Exploit by Galloway and Thacker

 

Example Code

 

Sample code from Making Things Talk here:

http://cachefly.oreilly.com/make/eg/MakingThingsTalk_Examples.zip

 

Equipment

 

Make sure you order your parts early. You are responsible for ordering your parts, with your group, and having them ready to do your lab if you want lab credit.

 

If you purchased a kit in my vis147a class, you have what you'll need to get started. If you purchased a kit in an earlier vis147a class, you'll need to buy an Arduino. I suggest buying a Freeduino and soldering it together, which will refresh your memory of soldering and circuits:

http://nkcelectronics.com/freeduino-arduino-diecimila-compatible-board-complete-kit.html

But only if you have experience with soldering. If not, then I suggest buying a pre-assembled Arduino Duuemilanove:

http://nkcelectronics.com/arduino-diecimila.html

If you don't have a mini usb cable, you'll also need one of those:

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&productId=673694

 

We will not be buying kits for vis147b. We will be working in groups and buying the necessary components together with our group, as they are too costly to justify each person buying one.

Some of the main components we'll be working with are:

 

Bluetooth:

BlueSMiRF Bluetooth modem module

 

XBee:

XBee Arduino Shield

 

don't forget the 8-pin headers!

 

and

 

Short Range Xbee Radio

or

Long Range Xbee Radio

 

XBEE Lab trouble shooting

* If using XBEE shields make sure the shunts are in the right position: towards "usb" when uploading Arduino code with shield attached, and towards "xbee" when actually testing.

* Make sure you change the right parts in the Arduino code xbee_analog_duplex to the specified 4 digit numbers you assigned to each Xbee. Remember "atmy" is the attached one, "atdh0" is the remote one.

* Make sure all wire/alligator clips and potentiometers are securely connected. This goes without saying, but even if just one connection is not secure it could prevent the "hand shake" and not even the transmitting (TX) LEDs would light up.

* If you get the lab to work, you might find that it wont work once you unplug your Arduino and replug it in (unless you reupload the Arduino code again). To avoid this, comment out the "setDestination();" line, after you've run it once.

 

Wifi instructions: http://groverfamily.org/arduino/

 

Misc fun stuff can be found also at: makershed.com

 

All lab sections meet in VAF 106 (the electronics lab next to the graduate student machine shop).

 

 

Bureaucracy

 

Grading

 

Participation: 20%

Midterm Project: 30%

Midterm Test: 15%

Final Project: 35%

 

Grading Scale: 100% A+, >=90% A, >=80% B, >=70% C, >=60% D, <=50% F

± grading for ± two percentage points around the remaining letter thresholds (examples: 91.99% is an A-, 88% a B+)

 

Attendance / Project completion

 

If you miss the first class you will be dropped, as there is a long waiting list, unless you have a documented excuse like a health issue or family emergency.

 

My approach to teaching is horizontal, based on the pedagogical model from Paolo Friere. My main goal is for everyone to be empowered as both learners and teachers. That means, do not only rely only on me, but also on each other and on yourself! That means, do not submit to me, the text or each other, instead, always feel empowered to ask questions. Your task here is to learn to ask better questions, to learn to think critically about electronics and technology and their interplay and intersections.

 

Participation in class discussions is critical to passing this class. The minimum amount of work to do in this class to get a C is to do all of the assignments, all the reading and attend every class. In order to participate in discussion, you must have completed all of the reading, highlighted or underlined important parts and have questions. You are expected to be engaging with the material in class, finding intersections, differences, problems, productive points. You are expected to be putting in, at very least, as much of your own time out of class on as we spend in class.

 

You are permitted one, and only one, unexcused absence from lecture or lab. Beyond that, you are required to provide a doctor's note or other acceptable third party written excuse. If you don't provide such documentation, your grade for this course will be reduced by one letter grade.

 

For the labs to go smoothly, everyone should be on time. If you are 5 minutes late or more for your lab section, I will subtract half a point from that lab. If you are 10 minutes late or more, it will be another half a point, etc.

 

Your projects must be turned in on time. A late project will result in grade reduction by one letter grade for that project, if it is submitted within one week of the original due date. Work submitted more than one week late will not be accepted. It is very possible that you will not finish your lab assignment within the duration of the lab. Therefore, you should plan to spend at least two more hours working on your lab assignment at home. If you are not able to complete a lab assignment within the duration of the lab, please bring the completed assignment to my office hours on the following week, or arrange a time with me to check you off.

 

How Discussions Will Work

 

A few guidelines for discussions are useful to create a more horizontal learning environment where everyone is empowered instead of a few people.

 

1. Don't interrupt when someone is speaking! If you want to say something and someone else is talking, raise your hand. Interrupting and talking over people is a common tool of privileged groups to dominate others.

2. Step up, step back. Make space for others. Make an effort to not be shy if you are. Be aware of how many people have talked and allow space for everyone to participate.

3. Treat each other with respect. When someone is presenting, pay attention. Listen actively and respond to what others have said. If you're on your laptop, you should be taking notes or looking up things we're discussing in class, not chatting on Facebook or Gchat or Twitter.

 

Grading Criteria

 

This is the criteria for grading the projects. In order of importance.

 

1. The concept behind your piece, how well it engages with the material, brings the concepts to life, responds to the concepts in the readings and discussions, finds productive or problematic intersections, asks good questions and brings those questions to life.

2. Effort! How much time went into both the thinking about the piece and the construction of it.

3. Functionality, does it work? Is it feasible? Can you explain how it should work and what went wrong if it doesn't?

 

Student Group Blogs

 

Furby Says

The Color of Sound

Expediated Diploma Manufacturing Services

Zombiesss by the Three Circuiteers

 

Final Project Presentations

 

 

http://banglabinexile.pbworks.com/f/vis147b-spring2010-openfinalcrit.png

 

 

Timeline

 

 

Week 1, Theoretical Introduction

 

An introduction to the major concepts presented in the class:

* Public Space, online public space, mediated public space

* Urban, Suburban and the University

* Networked practices, performance, urban games, remapping spaces, virtual geography

* The Crisis of Education, Occupations, Strikes, Budget Cuts, Public Education, Neoliberalism

 

Arduino review for students who were not in my vis147a class and suggestions for how to get caught up. This can also be time to talk about problems and experience people already have with Arduino and other electronics projects.

 

Examples: Call for Action MIT Seminar on Social Technology

Student Projects Last Quarter

 

If you are not familiar with Arduino, read chapter 1 of Making Things Talk before the first lecture.

 

Intro to Arduino Communication, read through RSS Reading Lamp example from Getting Started With Arduino book from vis147a.

If you don't have the book, the example is also here, with less explanation:

http://interactivityinstallation.blogspot.com/2009/12/arduino-network-lamp.html

 

Get a group of 4 people or less and email me your group members through webct.

 

Week 2, Arduino and Processing

 

Read: Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks, ereserves.

          Occupy the University, Reconsidering the Local, Micha Cárdenas

          We Are The Crisis, http://afterthefallcommuniques.info/

The Problem With I Don't See Color, pgs. 1, chart on 6 and 7

Contemporary Politics Glossary

 

Lab: Do Monski Pong example from Making Things Talk.

 

Week 3, Bluetooth

 

Read: Multitude, Hardt and Negri

The Necrosocial, Anti-Capital Projects

Contestational Robotics: Critical Art Ensemble and IAA

 

Chapter 2 of Making Things Talk, up to Pg. 79.

Basic Circuit Analysis: http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_5/6.html

 

Case Studies:

Institute for Applied Autonomy

Hans Haacke and Martha Rosler

Electronic Civil Disobedience: Inventing the Future of Online Agitprop Theater by Ricardo Dominguez, PMLA.

Artivists and Mobile Phones: The Transborder Immigrant Project | MobileActive.org

 

De Geuzen's Wearable Resistance

pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/degeuzen/sets/72157622985091136/

fun: http://www.fudgethefacts.com/hands/sandbox.html#%29

 

For more robotics parts and ideas: http://www.trossenrobotics.com/

 

Lab: Do Wireless Monski Pong from Making Things Talk

 

 

Week 4, Xbee

 

Case Studies:

Queer Technologies

Public Space: Krzysztof Wodiczko Poliscar and Homeless Vehicle, Photos

Wodiczko Alien Staff

Wodiczko Dis-Armor

MAICgregator by Nick Knouf

Pulse Park by Rafael Lozano-Hammer

 

Read: Socially Engaged Art: The Conscience of Urban Development in Emotional Cartography

Subversive Communication and Taking Space, Public Art Review Fall/Winter 2009

Henry A. Giroux's "Democracy’s Nemesis: The Rise of the Corporate University" available at Sage (if you're off campus you'll need the ucsd proxy setup in your browser)

vis147b-The Problem is not the Party

 

Making Things Talk, pgs. 81-93, 193-206.

 

Lab: Do Xbee Duplex Communication from Making Things Talk with 2 Xbees and 2 Arduinos, Project 10, pg 193

 

My XBee Tips from working with Xbee shield and Lilypad xbee:

 

- Remember that AT commands are in Hex, so ATBD 9600 doesn't work, it sets the baud rate to 38400! use ATBD 3 instead.

- Power your Arduino with a fresh battery! Xbee is a battery hog. USe a multimeter to make sure you're getting, say, 9v for an Arduino Duemilanove. Test with power over USB to make sure your batteries aren't the problem.

- Use a standard arduino to program the xbee, not the lilypad. Keep one arduino handy with its chip out, taking it out and putting it back in can break the pins on the Atmega!

- Try changing the code to take out the potentiometer to avoid janky connections with the potentiometer. Just write some code to automatically send a bit of data to turn the LED on, then delay, then turn it off.

 

- On the lilypad, the RX on the Xbee goes to the TX on the Arduino and vice versa!

- The xbee lilypad needs its own power! Hook up a separate battery to the xbee and the Lilypad.

 

See also: http://www.faludi.com/projects/common-xbee-mistakes/

 

Due: Mid-term project proposals on your group blog (or if making a blog proves too difficult, email me for wiki access).

 

Week 5, Work on Mid-Term Projects

 

Case Studies:

Bluetooth: Squirell

Xbee: Annina Rust - Thighmaster

 

 

Week 6, Mid-Term Test and present Mid-Term Projects

 

Week 7, Wifi

 

Case studies:

Blast Theory, Kidnap and various other projects

 

Read: The Frame of The Game: Blurring the Boundary between Fiction and Reality in Mobile Experiences

This Bridge Called My Back, Moraga and Anzaldua, ereserves

Imagine if the Tea Party Protesters Were Black

 

Lab: WiFly Shield Lab

 

How to get 2 aduinos to communicate with only wires, so you can use Xbee and Flash/Pd/Processing by linking 2 arduinos:

 

http://absences.sofianaudry.com/en/node/10

 

WiFly Links from Sami-Michael-Ryan group

 

Week 8, More Wifi

 

Case Studies:

Eduardo Kac, Time Capsule, Telepresence Garment, The 8th Day

 

Objects of Desire, Ludic Society

802.11 Apparel

 

Read:  Blast Theory - The Politics and Aesthetics of Interactivity by Natasha Lushetich

The Exploit by Galloway and Thacker

The Electronic Disturbance, Chapter 2 Nomadic Power and Cultural Resistance

 

 

Due, final project proposals.

 

Week 9, Work on Final Projects

 

BFA-report-on-UCOF-and-the-Cyber-Campus-Proposal.pdf

 

Week 10, Present Final Projects

 

 

 

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