This course will introduce students to the World Wide Web as a medium. Originating from efforts to create a standardized information-retrieval system, the WWW developed into a broadcast media, a shopping mall, a communication platform, and an environment for personal expression.
Although this class offers a wide range of workshops dealing with web technologies, it focuses on conceptual and aesthetic aspects of designing for the web. Creative projects and exercises will be developed throughout the course, by utilizing the various skills acquired in class in the service of perception and communication.
Web technologies are constantly and rapidly changing. By focusing on the concepts behind those technologies, the acquired skills working with HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Flash and PHP will be transferable to future contexts. The course wishes to develop the vocabulary necessary to speak to developers, to present and discuss Web projects, and to pursue individual research. Through the quarter students will have the opportunity to complete a series of exercises, analyze and discuss selected Web projects, and present a research report.
Evaluation:
Projects will be evaluated based on their originality, their aesthetic and conceptual qualities. Each exercise will be given numeric scores (1-3); all exercises must be completed in order to pass the course. Late assignments will reduce the numeric score of the assignment to a maximum of two. Exercises are only considered as complete when they are accessible form the course website. There will be a sign-up sheet for each class meeting; it is the studentsí responsibility to sign up to this list. More than two absences without the instructorsí permission, before the class meetings, will have a negative effect on the overall grade.
Grading:
10%: Participation, Attendance, 5 min presentation of selected web project.
60%: Exercises A ñ F
20%: Final Project G
10%: Research Report (X)
Required Readings:
Cloninger, Curt: Understanding the Web as Media, website, http://www.lab404.com/media/.
Niederst, Jennifer: Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition. Sebastopol: OíReilly, 1999.
Recommended Readings:
Druckrey, Timothy and Weibel, Peter: Net_condition, Art and Global Media. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: The MIT Press, 1999.
Lessig, Lawrence: Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology And The Law To Lock Down Culture And Control Creativity. New York: The Penguin Press, 2004.
Moock, Colin: ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide. Sebastopol: OíReilly, 2003.
Bolter, J. D. and Gromala D.: Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art, Andt The Myth Of Transparency. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: The MIT Press, 2003.
Greene, Rachel: Internet Art. New York: Thames & Hudson world of art, 2004.
Galloway, Alexander R.: Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: The MIT Press, 2004.
Exercises:
A. Introduction exercise
B. Text/Image
C. Animation exercises
D. Animation
E. Text/Image II
F. Response
G. Final Project
X. Research Report
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