Irony and Utopia: History of Computer Art

Quick Links

1. 1965 - 1975: Procedures and Randomness
2. Cybernetic Serendipity and E.A.T.
3. Computer Music
4. Video
5. The Chrome Age: commercial and scientific computer graphics
6. Virtual Reality
7. net.art
8. Computer and Video Games
9. Visualization and Eco Art
10. Amateur and sub-amateur, weak gestures, defaults, and crowds

Course Description

Each week we’ll read about and examine documentation of a selection of artworks which in some way engage computers or ideas about computing. The selection of works will highlight the philosophical, cultural, and ideological differences separating technological optimists, or utopians, and technological pessimists, skeptics, or ironists. Class will consist entirely of open discussion about the work; occasionally we’ll have a guest with some special expertise in the topic at hand, in which case we’ll adopt a seminar or lecture format. The final two classes will be devoted to project presentations.

Objectives

We will:

• Develop familiarity with the work and ideas of a wide range of computer artists.
• Critically asses the development of utopian and skeptical discursive traditions within computer art practice.
• Create new works which participate in these discourses.

Meeting Place/Time

We'll meet on Tuesdays from 7-9pm at Bruce High Quality Foundation University. Exception: the first class will be on Wednesday, June 23, 2010. All subsequent classes will be on Tuesdays, 7-9pm.

Contact Info

Email:

Web: Website, works. Twitter.

Class Schedule & Materials

The following list contains a tenative list of classes with links to readings and other media. It will get filled in gradually as the course procedes. All of the materials for a given topic will be ready at least one week in advance.

1. 1965 - 1975: Procedures and Randomness

   There's a lot of material here. Don't worry about memorizing dates or anything, but try to pick a few pieces which you think are particularly interesting and have something to say about them in class. Make sure you read at least the Dietrich article as well as There Should Be No Computer Art. The issues of PAGE are short; you can skip over all of the announcements of conferences and so on, there's about one proper article per issue.

   Artists

   • Frieder Nake
     • Random Polygon, plotter drawing, 40 x 40cm, 1965.
     • Hommage à Paul Klee, plotter drawing, 20 x 20in, 1965.
     • Matrix Multiplication Series, plotter drawings, each 10 x 10cm, 1967
   • Charles Csuri
     • Sine Curve Man, plotter drawing, 104 x 104cm, 1967
     • Hummingbird, animation, 1968. More information.
   • Herbert Franke
   • Selected works 1953-1978 at the Digital Art Museum
   • Squares (Quadrate), plotter drawing, 1969/1970.
   • Vera Molnar
   • Artist's statement
   • Croix X (1950-1955), pencil on paper, 23 x 30cm 1955.
   • Untitled, plotter drawing, 16 x 14.5cm 1968.
   • Computer-Torah, plotter drawing, 16 x 14.5cm 1968. More info here, in French, about halfway down the page.
   • Other works, 1968-1976. Her output is much broader than the plotter drawings highlighted here. Look for works which make connections to Mondrian and Klee.
   • Edward Zajec
   • Artist's statement
   • RAM series, plotter drawings, 1969.
   • Prostor (1969), Spatial Metaphor (1972), and Diagonal White (1975), plotter drawings, plotter drawings, and acrylic on canvas, respectively.
   • TVC series, plotter drawings, 1971. Description of the TVC process.
   • Michael Noll
   • Human or Machine: A Subjective Comparison of Piet Mondrian's "Composition with lines" (1917) and a Computer-Generated Picture. This paper is a really interesting gesture; it's not necessary to read the whole thing, just the abstract at the top.
   • Selected works from the 1960s
   • Hypersphere, stereoscopic computer animation, mid-1960s.
   • Kinetic Sculpture, stereoscopic computer animation, mid-1960s.
   • Georg Nees
   • Schotter, plotter drawing, late 1960s. Code for Schotter (from Futures Past: Twenty Years of Arts Computing).
   • Perspective (title might be incorrect?), plotter drawing, late 1960s.
   • Computer Sculpture, milled alluminum (according to this other syllabus anyway), 1969.
   • Manfred Mohr
   • Selection from early algorithmic experiments, 1969-1973.
   • Cubic Limit I, 1973-1976
   • Cubic Limit II, 1976-1978
   • John Conway
   • The Game of Life, computer program, described 1970.

   Readings

   • Frank Dietrich, Visual Intelligence: The First Decade of Computer Art (1965-1975)
   • Issues of PAGE: 5, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17
   • Frieder Nake, There Should Be No Computer Art, in PAGE #18, and the follow-ups in PAGE #19 and PAGE #21.
   • Max Bense, The projects of generative aesthetics
   • Optionally, Wikipedia, Conway’s Game of Life
   • Optionally, more issues of PAGE Magazine
2. Cybernetic Serendipity and E.A.T.

   Artists

   • Edward Ihnatowicz
   • Sound Activated Mobile, cybernetic sculpture, exhibited at Cybernetic Serendipity, 1968. Detailed information and photo gallery. YouTube video.
   • The Senster, cybernetic sculpture, 1970. Detailed information, photo gallery, and film of The Senster. Alternate YouTube link for film of The Senster.
   • Billy Klüver in collaboration with:
   • Robert Rauschenberg
   • Open Score, performance at 9 Evenings, 1966. Documentary clip about Open Score.
   • John Cage
   • Variations VII, performance at 9 Evenings, 1966. Documentary clip about Variations VII.
   • Jean Tinguely
   • Homage to New York, kinetic sculpture, MOMA sculpture garden, 1960. MOMA audio lecture about Homage to New York. Video of Homage to New York in action. Negative review in Time Magazine.
   • Andy Warhol
   • Silver Floatations, kinetic sculpture, 1966. Film by Willard Maas.
   • Robert Breer, Frosty Myers, Robert Whitman, and David Tudor
   • The Pepsi Pavilion, multi-media extravaganza at the 1970 World Expo in Osaka. greg.org blog post about the Pepsi Pavilion.
   • Gordon Pask
   • The Colloquy of Mobiles, cybernetic sculpture, exhibited at Cybernetic Serendipity, 1968. Grainy black and white Quicktime movie of the Colloquy of Mobiles. Video of Pask discussing The Colloquy of Mobiles. Article with images, explanation, and must-see Colloquy of Mobiles flowchart.
   • Nam June Paik and Shuya Abe
   • Robot K-456, robot, 1964.
   • The First Catastrophe of the Twenty-First Century, with Robot K-456 and Bill Anastasi, performance, 1982.
   • Gustav Metzger
   • Auto-destructive art texts, 1959-61
   • Nylon painting, acid on nylon, 1966.
   • Lucinda Childs
   • Vehicle, performance at 9 Evenings, 1966. Collaboration with Peter Hirsch from Bell Labs.
   • Bruce Lacey
   • R.O.S.A. B.O.S.O.M. and Mate, robots, 1965-67. Those links are golden.
   • The Womanizer, robot, 1966.
   • Jean Tinguely
   • Meta-matic, art making automata, 1959-?. Additional images: 1, 2, 3, 4.
   • Cedric Price
   • Fun Palace, architecture, 1961-70.
   • Generator, architecture, 1976-79. Additional images at MoMA's Cedric Price artist page.
   • Lucky Bonus: Amenity Space radio show about Cedric Price.
   • Carolee Schneemann
   • Snows, performance, 1967. Snows, Part 1; Snows, part 2 Program notes. Truncated description of the Snows in Happenings and other acts.

   Readings

   • Fred Turner, Romantic Automatism: Art, Technology, and Collaborative Labor in Cold War America
   • Norbert Weiner, Cybernetics in History from The Human Use of Human Beings
   • Eduardo Kac, Foundation and Development of Robotic Art
   • Optionally, a great deal more information about EAT and Cybernetic Serendipity can be found in Oliver Grau's White Heat Cold Logic
3. Early Computer Music

   Artists

   • Bell Labs
   • Propaganda Piece For Computer Music, 1962
   • Max Matthews
   • Numerology, 1960
   • Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson
   • The Illiac Suite (excerpt), 1957
   • Louis and Bebe Barron
   • Main theme from Forbidden Planet, 1956
   • Clip from Forbidden Planet at YouTube
   • Wikipedia article about the Barrons
   • John Cage
   • Williams Mix, 1952-53. Blurb explaining Williams Mix from Media Art net.
   • Optional: Freeman Etude #23, 1990. Notation example. One of his later works based on star charts.
   • James Tenney
   • Collage #1 (Blue Suede), 1961
   • Analog #1 (Noise Study), 1961
   • Optional: Ergodos II with string complement (for John Cage), 1964
   • Jean-Claude Risset
   • Mutations
   • Herbert Brün
   • U-Turn-To, 1980
   • More Dust With Percussion, 1977
   • Gottfried Michael Koenig
   • Optional: Funktion Grau, 1969
   • Luc Ferrari
   • Tautologos 3: Part 2, Part 3, 1970
   • Robert Ashley
   • The Wolfman, 1966

   Readings

   • Herbert Brün, ...to hold discourse—at least—with a computer...
   • Charles Ames, Automated Composition in Retrospect
   • Optional: F. Richard Moore, Dreams of Computer Music: Then and Now
   • Optional: Max Matthews interviewed by Curtis Roads
4. Video

   Lots of stuff in this unit. Feel free to focus on whatever is most interesting to you.

   Artists

   • Nam June Paik
   • With Shuya Abe: Paik/Abe Synthesizer, video synthesizer, 1969-71. Video at MediaArtNet. More info at AudioVisualizers.
   • TV Buddha, video installation, 1974
   • With Charlotte Moorman: TV Cello, 1984.
   • Eric Siegel
   • EVS and Eric Siegel Colorizer, video processing hardware, 1970-71.
   • Einstine, video, 1968. Postage-stamp sized excerpt from VDB.
   • More information about Eric Siegel, interviews, etc., from EAI.
   • Optional: Afghanistan Before the Wars, video, 1972. First installment of a multi-part version of Afghanistan Before the Wars on YouTube.
   • Circle Graphics Habitat/EVL at UChicago
   • 5 minute romp thru the IP, demo of the Sandin Image Processor, 1973.
   • ZGrass Paint Demo, 1980.
   • Phil Morton: Colorful Colorado, video, 1974.
   • Peter Campus
   • Three Transitions, video, 1973.
   • Bruce Nauman
   • Live-Taped Video Corridor, video installation, 1970. Explanation at MediaArtNet.
   • Shigeko Kubota
   • Duchampiana: Nude Descending a Staircase, video installation, 1976. It's the second piece featured in this first-person YouTube video of video art works at MoMA.
   • Brian Eno
   • 14 Video Paintings, video, 1981 and 1984.
   • 77 Million Paintings, digital video, 2006.
   • Steina & Woody Vasulka
   • Interface, video, 1970.
   • Woody Vasulka
   • The Matter, video, 1974.
   • C-Trend, video with Rutt-Etra scan processor, 1974.
   • Steina Vasulka
   • Flux, video, 1977.
   • John Whitney
   • Catalog, film [!!!], 1961 [!!!].
   • Permutations, 1966.
   • Arabesque, animation on vector display, 1975.
   • Larry Cuba
   • Computer graphics for Star Wars, 1977. Making of the Computer Graphics for Star Wars.
   • Calculated Movements, video, 1985.
   • Hollis Frampton
   • Gloria, 1979.

   Readings

   • Excerpts from Radical Software. Tons of stuff here, so no pressure to read all of it. Highlights include: Random Notes on the Special Case or (LOOP-DE-LOoP) by Frank Gilette; Expanded Education for the Paperless Society by Nam June Paik; Televisionaries vs. Televisigoths by David Silver; Excerpts from Technology Against Technology by TAKIS; Towards founding a Society for Visual Anthropology by Sol Worth and Jay Ruby; Geometric Extensions of Consciousness by Anne Tyng; and Vol. 2 Issue #2's mega-intense approach to broadcast television.
   • Paul Ryan, A Genealogy of Video
   • Dan Graham, Essay on Video, Architecture and Television
   • Lucinda Furlong, Notes Toward a History of Image-Processed Video
   • Optional: Hollis Frampton, About the Digital Arts Lab and Proposal: Hardware and Software for Computer-Processed and -Generated Video
   • Optional: a very informal history of video synthesizers from AudioVisualizers.
5. The Chrome Age: commercial and scientific computer graphics

   Artists

   • Nelson Max
   • DNA with Ethidium, computer generated video, 1978.
   • Carla's Island, computer generated video, 1981.
   • John Hart
   • Dynamics in the Quaternions, computer generated video, 1989. More information at EVL's Hypercomplex Iterations site. A video of John Hart demonstrating his interactive visualizations at a PhD student.
   • Sierpinski Blows His Gasket, computer generated video, 1990.
   • unNatural Phenomena, computer generated video, 1991.
   • Ronald Baecker
   • Sorting out Sorting (part 1; part 2), computer generated video, 1980.
   • Optional: a more recent take on sorting algorithm animations by David R. Martin.
   • Jean-François Colonna
   • FROM THE INFINITELY SMALL TO THE INFINITELY BIG, web site with computer generated images, 1997.
   • Monument Valley au coucher du Soleil, computer generated images, 1997.
   • All these and more from Colonna's website, A VIRTUAL SPACE-TIME TRAVEL MACHINE.
   • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Visualization Group
   • Gallery of science collaborations, 1993-1998.
   • (art)ⁿ
   • Rhinovirus Ion Channel, computer generated image, 1992.
   • YAV-8B Harrier Flow Simulation, computer generated image, 1994.
   • Window, computer generated image, 1996.
   • Various artists and mathematicians from the American Mathematical Society
   • Mathematical Imagery. Ton of stuff in here, don't worry about looking at all of it.
   • Turner Whitted
   • The Compleat Angler, raytraced computer generated video, 1978. Starring: spheres and the checkerboard, two deeply important images moving forward. These characters live on in more recent works by other artists, notably this very excellent trailer for the 2009 Breda International Film Festival.
   • IBM
   • Tipsy Turvy, computer generated video, 1989. Starring the Utah teapot, another recurring character with whom we'll get pretty familiar.
   • Close Encounter in the Fourth Dimension, computer generated video, 1988.
   • Pixar
   • Volume Visualization with the Pixar Image Computer, computer generated video, 1987.
   • Cranston/Csuri Productions Inc.
   • Demo Reel, 1983
   • Demo Reel, 1985
   • Demo Reel, 1986
   • Marks & Marks
   • Demo Reel, 1981
   • Pacific Data Images
   • Demo Reel, 1983
   • Chromosaurus, computer generated video, 1985.
   • Steven Lisberger & Walt Disney Pictures
   • Tron, feature film, 1982. The trailer for Tron.
   • Justice
   • Nostalgia watch: lots of imagery similar to PDI, Cranston/Csuri and Marks & Marks was appropriated for use in Justice's recent video for their hit single DVNO. A breakdown of all the original logos Justice used.

   Readings

   • Benoit Mandelbrot, Fractals and an Art for the Sake of Science
   • Noel Gray, Critique and a Science for the Sake of Art: Fractals and the Visual Arts
   • Sonya Shannon, The Chrome Age: Dawn of Virtual Reality
   • Michele Emmer, Mathematicians: The New Artists?
   • Optional: Donna J. Cox, The Tao of Postmodernism: Computer Art, Scientific Visualization and Other Paradoxes
6. Virtual Reality

   Again, tons of material here. Don't feel compelled to watch everything if you're short on time, but definitely be sure to check out Davies and Benayoun.

   Artists

   • David Em
   • Aku, virtual environment, 1977.
   • Transjovian Pipeline, virtual environment, 1979.
   • Other works in the Worlds section of David Em's website.
   • Optional: David Em interviewed by Jeremy Gardiner.
   • EVL
   • Virtual Reality: Immersed in High Performance Computing and Communications, documentary video about virtual reality. Part 1, Part 2.
   • CAVE. 1992 video about CAVE. 1993 video about CAVE. News broadcast about CAVE and SIGGRAPH.
   • Optional: peruse the catalog of all VR art at EVL.
   • Char Davies
   • Osmose, virtual environment, 1995. A walkthrough of Osmose on YouTube. Essay on Osmose by Oliver Grau.
   • Éphémère, virtual environment, 1998. Video of Éphémère (with extensive commentary) on YouTube. Essay on Éphémère by Patrick McDonagh.
   • Optional: Virtual Space, an essay by Davies which contains detailed descriptions of Osmose and Éphémère.
   • Maurice Benayoun
   • Is the Devil Curved?, virtual environment, 1994.
   • The Tunnel under the Atlantic, networked virtual environment, 1995.
   • World Skin, virtual environment, 1997.
   • Optional: More works at Maurice Benayoun's website.
   • Perry Hoberman
   • Bar Code Hotel, interactive/virtual environment, 1994.
   • Lightpools or El Ball del Fanalet, interactive environment, 1998.
   • Rebecca Allen
   • The Bush Soul (#1), virtual environment, 1997.
   • The Bush Soul (#2), virtual environment, 1998.
   • The Bush Soul (#3), virtual environment, 1999.
   • Statement about The Bush Soul.
   • David Pape
   • Crayoland, virtual environment, 1995.
   • Knowbotic Research
   For both of the following, make sure to click on the images at the top which lead to more information about the works.
   • SMDK, interactive environment, 1993.
   • Dialogue with the Knowbotic South, virtual environment, 1994-1997.
   • Brenda Laurel and Rachel Strickland
   • Placeholder, virtual environment, 1992. Torrent of Placeholder video, unfortunately unseeded as of this writing. Placeholder: Landscape and Narrative In Virtual Environments, by Brenda Laurel, Rachel Strickland, and Rob Tow.
   • Rita Addison
   • Detour: Brain Deconstruction Area Ahead, virtual environment, 1994.
   • Synesthesia: Collaborative Biosignal Experience, virtual environment, 1995.
   • Margaret Watson and Rita Addison
   • Journey, virtual environment, 1995-1996. Video of Journey.
   • Virtual World Entertainment, LLC
   • BattleTech, virtual reality game, 1990-?. BattleTech System 1 in action. BattleTech 3.0 "Dooley" training video.
   • Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation
   • CT-5, flight simulator, 1981. The Tactical Edge, a demonstration of CT-5, part 1 and part 2.
   • US Army
   • Virtual Army Experience, recruiting event. Video of the Virtual Army Experience at YouTube.
   • NewYorkerDotCom at YouTube
   • Not a Game: Inside Virtual Iraq, documentary about using virtual-reality to treat veterans with PTSD.

   Readings

   • Char Davies, Rethinking VR: Key Concepts and Concerns
   • Ralph Schroeder, Cyberculture, cyborg post-modernism and the sociology of virtual reality technologies: surfing the soul in the information age
   • Stephen Jones, Towards a Philosophy of Virtual Reality: Issues Implicit in "Consciousness Reframed"
   • Optional: Wayne Carlson, Virtual Reality
7. net.art

   Artists

   • Jodi
   • http://wwwwwwwww.jodi.org/, website, 1995.
   • http://404.jodi.org/, website, 1998.
   • http://oss.jodi.org/, website, 1998. Turn off pop-up blocking. This will hijack your browser, so you might want to open a fresh browsing session before viewing.
   • http://asdfg.jodi.org/, website, 1999. Epilepsy warning: serious flashing.
   • Wrong Browser, web browser, 2002.
   • http://text.jodi.org/, website, 2002.
   • Optional: motherboard.tv interview with Jodi.
   • Olia Lialina
   • My Boyfriend Came Back from the War, website, 1996. Link to original version in upper left.
   • Agatha Appears, website, 1997. Information on Ela Wysocka's restoration of Agatha Appears.
   • Alexei Shulgin
   • Remedy for Information Disease, website, 1996.
   • Form Art, website, 1997.
   • Vuk Ćosić
   • history of art for airports, website.
   • ASCII history of moving images, website, 1999.
   • war map, animated GIF, probably 1999.
   • war, website, 1999.
   • etoy corporation
   • digital hijack, website, web performance, 1996.
   • etoy.TIMEZONE, website, 1998.
   • TOYWAR, website, web performance, 1999-2000. Blurb about TOYWAR.
   • ®TMark
   • gwbush.com, website, 1999.
   • gatt.org, website, 1999. Statment about gatt.org.
   • Mark Amerika
     • Grammatron, website, 1997.
   • Shin'ichi Takemura and Nobuhiro Furuse
   • Breathing Earth, animated GIFs, 2000.
   • John F. Simon Jr.
   • Every Icon, website, 1997.
   • www.0100101110101101.org
   • Hybrids, websites, 1998-1999.
   • Copies, websites, 1999.
   • Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries
   • Dakota, Flash animation, 2002.
   • Artist's Statement No. 45,730,944: The Perfect Artistic website, Flash animation, 2001.
   • Lotus Blossom, Flash animation, circa 2000.
   • Optional: Interview with Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries.
   • Douglas Adams
   • Optional because it's 50 minutes long: Hyperland, video, 1990. A documentary about hypertext.
   • Walker Art Center
     • Gallery 9, the Walker's net art exhibition website.
   • Whitney Museum
     • The Whitney's list of net art exhibitions.

   Readings

   • Natalie Bookchin and Alexei Shulgin, Introduction to net.art (1994-1999)
   • Julian Stallabrass, The Aesthetics of Net.Art
   • Tilman Baumgärtel, Art on the Internet. Part 1, Part 2.
   • Reinhold Grether, How the etoy Campaign Was Won: An Agent’s Report
   • Optional: peruse the nettime mailing list archives.
8. Computer and Video Games

   Artists

   • Natalie Bookchin
   • The Intruder, website with games, 1999. Statement about The Intruder.
   • Cory Arcangel
   • Super Mario Clouds, NES cartridge, 2002.
   • I Shot Andy Warhol, NES cartridge, 2002.
   • Space Invader, Atari cartridge, 2004.
   • F1 Racer Mod, Famicom cartridge, 2004.
   • Jodi
   • SOD, Wolfenstein mod, 2000.
   • Untitled Game, Quake mod, 2002. Review of Untitled Game by Anne-Marie Schleiner.
   • Jet Set Willy Variations, ZX Spectrum ROMs, 2003.
   • Max Payne Cheats Only, videos, 2006.
   • Optional: An interview with JODI by Francis Hunger focusing on game art.
   • Brody Condon
   • Worship, performance in Anarchy Online, 2001.
   • DeResFX.Kill(KarmaPhysics < Elvis), self-playing Unreal 2003 mod, 2004.
   • Suicide Solution, video of in-game performances, 2004.
   • DefaultProperties();, self-playing computer game, 2006.
   • Resurrection (after Bouts), self-playing computer game, 2007.
   • Death Animations, performance, 2008. Another death animation performance, 2007.
   • Peggy Ahwesh
   • She Puppet, video, 2001.
   • Interview with Peggy Ahwesh inside Halo on This Spartan Life.
   • Anne-Marie Schleiner
   • Velvet-Strike, digital images for use in Counter Strike, 2002-2004.
   • OUT, intervention in-game in America's Army and in real life at the Republican National Convention, 2004.
   • PS2 Diaries, video (machinima), 2005.
   • Corridos, computer game, 2005.
   • Tobias Bernstrup
   • Museum Meltdown: Episode I: Arken; Episode II: The Vilnius Vengeance; Modernλ Museet, computer game mods, 1995-1999. The Modernλ Museet website contains FAQs and other information.
   • Potsdamer Platz (Unreal edit), Unreal mod, 2001.
   • Nekropolis, game mod, 2002.
   • Optional: Bernstrup interviewed by Francis Hunger.
   • Tilman Reiff and Volker Morawe
   • Painstation, installation, 2001.
   • Jason Rohrer
   • Passage, computer game, 2007.
   • Sleep is Death, computer game, 2010. Alternatives to buying and playing the game: watch this YouTube video of two other people playing the game, or watch these Sleep is Death tutorials by Jason Rohrer.
   • Mark Essen
   • Punishment, computer game, 2005.
   • Flywrench, computer game, 2007.
   • Punishment: The Punishing, computer game, 2008.
   • Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist, computer game, 2008.
   • Nick Smith
   • Description of Nick Smith's mind game, website.
   • The Supernatural Olympics, computer game, dates unclear.
   • Platform Masters, computer game, dates unclear.

   Readings

   • Optional: Antoinette LaFarge, WINside out. This should fill in a lot of holes if you're not familiar with gaming culture.
   • Tilman Baumgärtel, Gaming Culture and Computer Games by Artists
   • Martin Pichlmair, Pwned - 10 Tales of Appropriation in Video games
   • Anne-Marie Schleiner, Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons?
9. Visualizers, Eco-Utopians, Eco-Skeptics

   Artists

   • Lisa Jevbratt
   • 1:1 (2), web site, installation, 1999-2002.
   • Out of the Ordinary, network visualization software, 2002.
   • The Infome Imager, web crawler/visualization software, 2002-2008.
   • Also see Interspecies Collaboration, a website for "documenting the progress of art projects made together with non-human animals and for posting resources relevant to such endeavors."
   • Natalie Bookchin
   • Marking Time, installation, 1997.
   • With Jin Lee: BioTaylorism, PowerPoint presentation, 2000.
   • Ben Fry
   • Atmosphere, installation, 2001.
   • Genome Valence, visualization software, 2002.
   • Deprocess, print of a visualization of one of Casey Reas' text visualizations (Process 6), 2006.
   • On the Origin of Species: The Preservation of Favoured Traces, visualization of changes in On the Origin of Species, 2009.
   • Casey Reas
   • Path Prints, prints, 2001.
   • Process 4, visualization software which operates on a source text, 2005. Examples: 1, 2, 3, installation views.
   • Process 11, visualization software which operates on a source text, 2006. Examples: 1, 2, installation views.
   • Andreas Fischer
   • A Week in the Life, sculpture, 2008.
   • Reflection, sculpture, 2008.
   • Fundament, sculpture, 2008.
   • Alex Dragulescu
   • Sorts, prints.
   • Spam Architecture, digital 3D models.
   • Spam Plants, digital 3D models.
   • Extrusions in C Major, digital 3D models.
   • Lexigraphs I, visualization software.
   • Doug Repetto
   • How to Annoy a Plant, installation, 2002.
   • Happiness Too, Is Inevitable, installation, 2003.
   • One day we will be mysterious, installation, 2004.
   • With LoVid: Bonding Energy, 2007.
   • With LoVid: Circular Spectrum Analyzer, 2008.
   • Fly Away (Not Going Very Far), installation, 2005/2009.
   • Miya Masaoka
   • Pieces for Plants, interactive installation/performance, 2003.
   • David Bowen
   • Growth Modeling Device, installation.
   • Fly Drawing Device, installation.
   • Growth Rendering Device, installation.
   • Tele-present wind, installation.
   • Eduardo Kac
   • Move 36, installation with genetically engineered plant, 2002/2004.
   • Natural History of the Enigma, genetically engineered flower, 2009.
   • Philip Ross
   • Jarred In, hydroponic installation, 2002.
   • Juggernaut, hydroponic installation, 2004.
   • Junior Return, hydroponic installation, 2005.

   Readings

   • Lev Manovich, The Anti-Sublime Ideal in Data Art
   • Warren Sack, Aesthetics of Information Visualization
   • Ursula Huws, Nature, Technology and Art: The Emergence of a New Relationship?
   • John Maeda, 10 Laws of Simplicity
   • Optional: browse Infosthetics, an information aesthetics blog.
10. Amateur and sub-amateur, weak gestures, defaults, and crowds

    Artists

    • Evan Roth
    • White Glove Tracking, website/Mechanical Turk project, 2007.
    • Aaron Koblin
    • The Sheep Market, website/Mechanical Turk project. Statement about The Sheep Market.
    • Ten thousand cents, website/Mechanical Turk project, 2008.
    • With Daniel Massey: Bicycle Built for Two Thousand, website/Mechanical Turk project.
    • Ryan Trecartin
    • Ryan Trecartin's YouTube channel. See some of his uploads.
    • Paul Slocum
    • You're Not My Father, video, 2008.
    • One frame of a GIF animation printed and hung above a video projection of the same animation scaled to approximately 66%, digital print and video, 2008. Installation view, original GIF animation.
    • Transformer Fire, posting at Spirit Surfers, 2008.
    • With others: Spirit Surfers, surf club, 2008-.
    • Surf clubs
    • nasty nets
    • dump.fm
    • Dragan Espenschied
    • Shutdown, website, 2002.
    • GRAVITY, website, 2003.
    • With Olia Lialina: Midnight, website, 2006.
    • Petra Cortright
    • vvwebcam, video, 2007.
    • cats spirit spsit spit, video, 2008.
    • Male female child, website with video, 2008.
    • sparkling i & ii, videos, 2010.
    • Marble workx, 2009.
    • Guthrie Lonergan
    • Internet Group Shot, website, 2006.
    • Hacking vs. Defaults, website.
    • Skim through the Best Of collection on the site.
    • Cory Arcangel
    • Photoshop CS: 110 by 72 inches, 300 DPI, RGB, square pixels, default gradient “Spectrum”, mousedown y=1098 x=1749.9, mouse up y=0 x=4160, c-print, 2008. A show curated by Arcangel containing other works in this series.
    • Drei Klavierstücke op. 11, videos, 2009.
    • Tom Moody
    • Web Cam Girl, photo installation, 2000.
    • MSPaintbrush drawings.
    • Portraits.
    • JODI
    • blogspot.jodi.org, website and Blogspot blogs, 2007.
    • MyDesktop, website.
    • Thumbing, website, 2010.

    Readings

    • Boris Groys, The Weak Universalism
    • Ed Halter, After the Amateur: Notes
    • Olia Lialina, A Vernacular Web & Vernacular Web 2
    • Optional lucky bonus blog posts: Art Fag City discussions re: Halter, and Groys. Duncan Alexander's Broad Generalizations about Net Artists, lalBLOG's Surf Camp: An Amateur-ish Essay on the Sub-Amateur and Tom Moody's Notes on Surf Camps.
11. Presentations, discussions, critiques.
12. Presentations, discussions, critiques.