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Vis147b
Electronic Technologies for Art, Pt 2: Social Technologies
Instructor: Micha Cárdenas
Thursdays, 12:30p - 3:20p, VAF 106
Office Hours, 3:00-4:00pm, Wednesdays
This syllabus is in perpetual beta, being updated in discussion with the needs and desires of the class.
Overview
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 social movements currently focused on resisting the budget cuts to education, including the 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.
Part of this class will be in conjunction with UCIRA's Social Technologies course, but the details are still being worked out...
Assignments
The class will consist of two main assignments, a mid term project and a final project.
Main Texts
Making Things Talk, Tom Igoe
The Exploit, Alexander Galloway and Eugene Thacker
Both available at Groundwork books
Example Code
Sample code from Making Things Talk here:
http://cachefly.oreilly.com/make/eg/MakingThingsTalk_Examples.zip
Equipment
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:
Choose the appropriate parts for your project:
A NOTE FROM THE XBEE GROUP
We HIGHLY suggest that you spring for the Arduino shields for the XBee lab. The process of configuring the XBees to work with the Arduinos is complicated enough, and having the convenience of a shield is invaluable. Additionally, the book doesn't cover wiring up our version of the Arduino to the XBee module, and it's not exactly intuitive.
XBee Arduino Shield
Breakout Board for XBee Module
Short Range Xbee Radio
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/
All lab sections meet in VAF 106 (the electronics lab next to the graduate student machine shop).
Certain course materials (lecture slides, lab handouts, links, etc.) will be available on WebCT.
More good supply stores:
http://www.trossenrobotics.com/
and locally, http://www.sdelectronicsupply.com/
Extra Credit
If you attend the tuesday night film series or the thursday night public culture lecture series, write a two paragraph response and you get two points towards your final grade.
Details here:
Public Culture Lecture Series
Demand Nothing Film Series
Bureaucracy
Grading
Participation: 20%
Midterm Project: 35%
Midterm Test: 15%
Final Project: 30%
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 Wednesday, 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?
Timeline
Week 1, Jan 7th - 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.
Call for Action MIT Seminar on Social Technology
Objects of Desire, Ludic Society
802.11 Apparel
If you were not in my vis47a class, 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 last quarter.
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
Networked Lamp Example Code
Week 2, Jan 14th
Reading Due:
The Problem With I Don't See Color, pgs. 1, chart on 6 and 7
Contemporary Politics Glossary
Protest Studies - New Yorker
The Necrosocial
Spineless in California - NYT
Optional - Fact sheet by UC Irvine faculty
Chapter 2 of Making Things Talk, up to Pg. 70.
And Chapter 1 if you need a review!
Case study: Institute for Applied Autonomy
To do in class: Monski Pong
Week 3, Jan 21st
Read Prolegomenon of the Exploit, Pg vii-23.
Occupy the University: Reconsidering the Local by Micha Cardenas
Making Things Talk, pgs. 70 - 93
Case studies we will look at in class: Queer Technologies
Bluetooth: Squirell
Xbee: Annina Rust - Thighmaster
Pigeonblog (link also shows Zapped project with RFID's)
Wearable Breast, More photos
Public Space: Krzysztof Wodiczko Poliscar and Homeless Vehicle, Photos
Wodiczko Alien Staff
Wodiczko Dis-Armor
Lab: Review Ohm's law and voltage divider circuits
Bluetooth Monski Pong
Project proposals postponed, due next week!
Note: Public Performance in Second Life that you may want to join, related to the question of social engagement in art
Week 4 Jan 28th
Week 4: Pre-occu-pied: The Logic of Occupation
REGARDING XBEE: Please see the vis147b#Equipment section for IMPORTANT XBee info.
Read Making Things Talk 94-113.
Add your group to the wiki, along with your one page project proposal and a list of group members, here: vis147b-groups
[edit] Week 5 Feb 4th
Billionaires for Fee Hikes
UCSD Alumni Organizes Survivaballs Performance that Ends in Arrest, "all in all, I'm ecstatic that they arrested me."
Eduardo Kac, Time Capsule, Telepresence Garment, The 8th Day
More about De Geuzen's Wearable Resistance
pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/degeuzen/sets/72157622985091136/
fun: http://www.fudgethefacts.com/hands/sandbox.html#%29
Chapter 6 of Making Things Talk
Arduino and Xbee communication, Project 10, pg 193
Work on Mid-Term projects. Your mid-term should explore the ways in which networked technologies may be used to create socially engaged artwork or to activate public space.
State attempts to relieve debt: current tv
More supply stores: http://www.trossenrobotics.com/
and locally, http://www.sdelectronicsupply.com/
Review of tip120 transistors:
http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Tutorials/HighCurrentLoads
http://wiki.roberttwomey.com/Week_3_Lab
Week 6 Feb 11th
Mid-Term projects due, present the project and documentation of public space intervention in class.
Week 7, Feb 18th
Post some documentation of your project here: vis147b-midterm-projects
Hand in a one page response, typed, with one paragraph about your group and your experience doing the project, one paragraph in your own words of how the project technically works, and one paragraph evaluating the group you were assigned to evaluate.
Mid-Term test covering circuit analysis and readings to date.
Examples to discuss in class: Blast Theory, Kidnap and various other projects
Week 6: Henry A. Giroux's "Democracy’s Nemesis: The Rise of the Corporate University" available at Sage
Pg 23-40 of the Exploit
Arduino and HTTP communication over Wi-Fi with the WiFly shield.
Week 8 Feb 25
Pg. 40-65 of the Exploit.
Continue Wifly lab.
9-10 , Mar 4th, Mar 11th
Work on final projects. Your final project should either further developed a networked engagement with public space or you can make a proposal for a final project related to your own ICAM senior thesis plans.
Finals week: Present final projects Monday, March 15, 2010 at 8:30pm in VAF160.
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