CA

New Course Proposal - IAT 322: Interactive Installation and Performance

S. Kozel, T. Schiphorst, School of Interactive Arts and Technology

12 November 2004

Calendar Information

Course Number: IAT 322

Course Title: Interactive Installation and Performance

Credit Hours: 3 Vector: 2-0-0

Course Description

Building from a contextual overview of live performance in the 20^th century that emphasizes performance art, happenings and the fluxus movement, this course guides students to explore live, mediated and interactive experience. Students develop their own substantial media performance or participatory installation project while introducing theoretical frameworks to critique, analyze and debate their own work and the work of others. Classes are part seminar and part physical workshop.

Prerequisite: none

Recommended:

Corequisite: IAT 301 Interactive Media Design is recommended.

Special Instructions: None.

Course(s) to be dropped if this course is approved:

None

Rationale for Introduction of this Course

As one of the core requirements of the Performance and Media Arts stream, this course leads students to create a performance or installation and to critique the process within a discursive cultural framework. It directly addresses performative practices and the spatial configuration of the work created which contains audience and performers. It demonstrates the necessity for an artist to be technically, artistically and theoretically proficient. It also strengthens students’ collaborative skills and working methods. This course prepares students for their 4^th year when they will be expected to think and create with increasing levels of maturity.

Will this be a required or elective course in the curriculum; probable enrolment when offered?

This course will be required for all PMA students. Enrolment is estimated at 50-100 students per year.

Scheduling and Registration Information

Indicate Semester and Year this course would be first offered and planned frequency of offering thereafter.

This course will initially be offered in spring 2006 and annually thereafter.

Which of your present CFL faculty have the expertise to offer this course? Will the course be taught by sessional or limited term faculty?

Of our present faculty, the following have the expertise to offer this course:

Susan Kozel, Associate Professor

Thecla Schiphorst, Associate Professor

It is anticipated that new faculty hires will also be able to teach this course.

Are there any proposed student fees associated with this course other than tuition fees?

No.

Is this course considered a `duplicate' of any current or prior course under the University's duplicate course policy? Specify, as appropriate.

No.

Resource Implications

Note: Senate has approved (S.93-11) that no new course should be approved by Senate until funding has been committed for necessary library materials. Each new course proposal must be accompanied by a library report and, if appropriate, confirmation that funding arrangements have been addressed.

Provide details on how existing instructional resources will be redistributed to accommodate this new course. For instance, will another course be eliminated or will the frequency of offering of other courses be reduced; are there changes in pedagogical style or class sizes that allow for this additional course offering.

This course has been offered for 3 years. The equipment resources are already in place. The classroom resources are the configurable studio teaching space with the suspension grid. Equipment needs include cameras, projectors, computers, lighting kits, software such as MAX/MSP and director, final cut pro, all of which are already in place.

Does the course require specialized space or equipment not readily available in the department or university, and if so, how will these resources be provided?

As with many PMA courses, we await the configurable studio teaching space that should be equipped by Sept 2005.

Does this course require computing resources (e.g. hardware, software, network wiring, use of computer laboratory space) and if so, describe how they will be provided.

No new resources are required that are not anticipated by existing plans for increasing classroom and lab space at the Surrey Campus.

Course Outline

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

* Situate current media performance practices within a historical framework of 20^th century avant-garde art.

* research, design, construct, present and critically analyze a collaborative media performance or installation.

* understand some of the wider aesthetic principles around integrating physical interfaces within a performance or installation.

Course Description

Topics covered will include: The history of performance art, with an emphasis on political and ideological underpinnings of happenings; the range of performance and practices with reference to established performance theories; the distinction between liveness and mediated experience; an in depth consideration of interactivity. Class improvisations will be conducted into the physicalization of networks, and experimentations in telematic connections. Students will present a prototype project and revise this for their final project presentation. The value of prototyping within the artistic process will be emphasized.

Learning Activities and Evaluation:

Activities will include class discussions, contribution to online discussion, physical improvisations (30%), project prototype and full project (30%) and production documents (40%)

Texts, Resources & Materials

Required:

Auslander, Philip. Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture. London and New York: Routledge.

Huxley & Witts, eds. 1999. The Twentiety Century Performance Reader. London: Routledge.

Schechner, Richard. 1988. Performance Theory. London and New York : Routledge.

Morse, Margaret. Virtualities: Television, media art and cyberculture. Indiana University Press.

Saltz, David. The Art of Interaction: Interactivity, performativity, and computers. Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism, Spring 1997, vol.55, issue 2, p117, 11p.