Cyber Arts (Virtual Spaces, 3D WEB)
Kathleen Ruiz, Assistant Professor of Computer Art & Information Technology
email: ruiz@rpi.edu phone: 518-276-2539
Rich Czyzewski, Teaching Assistant
office: DCC 122 office hours: Thursday.11:00-1:00 PM and by appointment
Course Meetings: Tues. & Thurs 2 to 3:50 PM, Sage Intel Studio Lab 4711, Sage 2112
Cyber Arts is a hands on studio course which explores the integration of computer and network technologies into the art-making process and the implications of this integration. Students create interactive virtual environments and visualize 3 dimensional conceptual constructs on the World Wide Web and for interactive art installation. The course addresses newly emerging issues of VR as they apply to art theory and practice. Students investigate interactive 3d object creation, spatial & environment simulation, and invent "worlds" which contain textures, animations, sound & video clips. Short studies mastering these techniques and building skill sets lead to a student directed final project which may, if desired, be collaborative. Dialogue of timely issues is encouraged based on readings, videos, CD ROMs, and visits to galleries, museums, WWW sites, and alternative spaces.
Short Studies:
Please keep all your images, scans, and animations under 1 MB each and store in your RCS account along with the digital files of your worlds. Please plan, model, place, edit & polish your work, always remembering to optimize. Preview & test at each step, before publishing to the web.
#1: Create a 3D Object - navigate through it and explore it from all sides inside and out then create a series of objects within objects and set 4 different viewpoints - what, if any, context or narrative emerges? (turn off collision detection)
#2: Visualize a dream or fantasy or a datascape by creating a spatial environment
#3: Create & post your 3D Portrait or "Avatar"
#4: Create an interactive 3D Map of a real place, embed a trigger to activate a viewer action
#5: Create a collection of objects and embed sound into 2 of them - do any new meanings emerge?
#6: Create a collaborative world with a fellow student
Midterm Project:
The Midterm Project is a small project which starts to resonate your individual ideas utilizing the techniques learned in class and in individual research.
Final Project:
Visualize an interactive 3D world of your choosing to post to the Internet. The Final Project may, if desired, be collaborative. A clearly articulated artist statement of 1 to 2 paragraphs which elaborates upon the theme, goals and purpose of the project must accompany this project indicating the responsibilities of each party if of a collaborative nature. Your Final Project is meant to be a compelling, purposeful work resonating in depth & substance. Please consider disk space and limited web conditions. A copy of your final project will be placed in a special account for future reference. If you have any questions at any time about your work please speak with me
A digital portfolio will be required consisting of one print of most your most favored short study world and one print of the final project world.
Grading:
Grading is based on the following:
30% Short studies (5% each x 6)
5% participation
15% Midterm Project
50% Final Project
Letter grade equivalents for the course are as follows:
90 - 100 A
80 - 89.99 B
70 - 79.99 C
60 - 69.99 D
0 - 59.99 F
If you are concerned about your grade at any point during the semester, please do not hesitate to contact me or schedule an appointment during office hours.
Required materials:
An active RCS account with extra storage space (approximately 20 MB of disk space on your RCS account) and three PC formatted 100MB ZIP disks.
Important Tips:
Always back-up your work frequently; that is, every time you make something you think is worth keeping. Systems crash when least expected and you could lose all your work. It is a good idea to make three backups (on different disks), as storage media are sometimes unstable.
General: Please keep in mind that manuals are for your use in class and lab. You will sign out & be responsible for them. They are very useful as reference guides. Try not to batter or deface the equipment in any way or lose files and folders belonging to our class or other classes. Please report lab problems to me in class or lab staff during lab times immediately. Please follow the guidelines for working in each studio very carefully, as you will be held personally responsible for problems you incur.
Always save onto your zip, Jazz or into your RCS account as files left on the hard drive will be removed.
Also, please keep in mind the highly addictive aspects of working with computers. Many people lose track of time and later wonder why they have severe back, neck and eye problems. It is a good idea to take a rest every 15 to 20 minutes. Look up or beyond your computer or, better still, at a long distance to relax your eyes. Take a walk or stretch. Fatigue can lead to frustration. Stay in touch with your body's needs. Working with computers can at times be frustrating. Before having a breakdown, take a break.
Required Readings:
Spalter, Ann Morgan. The Computer in the Visual Arts. Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999.
Kelly, Kevin & Adam Heilbrun. "Virtual Reality: An Interview with Jaron Lanier", The Whole Earth Catalog. Cali.: 1993. Reality Check with Jaron Lanier, 1995.
Hollands, Robin. The Virtual Reality Homebrewer's Handbook. West Suxxex, England:1996.
Postman, Neil. Technolopy: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York:
Vintage Books, 1993.
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulations, New York, Semiotext(e), Inc., Columbia University, 1983.
Stone, Allucquere, Rosanne. The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the
Mechanical Age. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1995.
Laurel, Brenda. The Art of Human Computer Interface Design. New York: Addison Wesley,
1990.
Malraux, André. "Museum Without Walls". In The Voices of Silence.New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1978.
Dodsworth, Clark Jr., Digital Illusion: Entertaining the Future with High Technology,
Chapter 11 PLACEHOLDER: Landscape and Narrative in Virtual Environments, by Brenda Laurel, Rachel Strickland & RobTow, pgs. 181-208
Chapter 12 Beyond Shoot your Friends: A Call to Arms in the Battle Against Violence, by Celia Pearce, pgs, 209-228
Moser, Mary Anne and MacLeod, Douglas. Immersed in Technology: Art and Virtual Environments. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996.
Bender, Gretchen & Druckery, Timothy. Culture on the Brink. "Making Sense Out of Nonsense" by Gary Chapman
Virilio, Paul. The Lost Dimension. New York, Semiotext(e), Inc., New York: Columbia University, 1991.
Other Recommended Readings:
Casey, Steven. Set Phasers on Stun : And Other True Tales of Design,
Technology, and Human Error, 1998 Aegean Pub Co; ISBN: 0963617885
Benedict, Michael. Cyberspace: First Steps.Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1994.
Morse, Margret. Virtualities : Television, Media Art, and Cyberculture
(Theories of Contemporary Culture) Indiana Univ Pr; ISBN: 0253211778
Anders, Peter. Envisioning Cyberspace, New York:. McGraw Hill, 1998. ISBN
0-07-001632-1 Copyright 1998.
Damer, Bruce. Avatars!: Exploring and Building Virtual Worlds on the Internet.PeachpitPress, 1998.
Graham, IanS. HTML Sourcebook, A Complete Guide to HTML 3.0, end ed. John Wiley & Sons, 1996.
Ritchin, Fred. In Our Own Image. New York: Aperture, 1990.
Gombrich, E.H. Art & Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial
Representation. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1960.
Boyer, Christine, Cybercities, Labrynths of the Mind and the City
Real and Virtual pgs 45-71
Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace Book, 1984.
Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash, New York, Bantam Spectra, 1996.
Pimentel, Ken & Teixeira, Kevin. Virtual Reality: through the new looking glass. New
York: Intel/Sindcrest/McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1993.
Kandinsky, Wassily. Concerning the Spiritual in Art. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.,
1977.
Penley, Constance, Ross, Andrew eds., Technoculture. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1991.
Lemay, Laura. Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 3.2 in a Week, 3rd ed.
Dams.net Publishing, 1996.
Weiman,Lynda. Deconstructing Web Graphics, 2. New Riders, 1997.
Ames, Andrea L.; Nadeau, David R.; and Moreland, John L.. VRML 2.0 Sourcebook.
New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1997.
Hartman, Jed; Wernecke, Josie; and Carrie, Rikk. The VRML Handbook : Building
Moving Worlds on the Web. New York: Addison-Wesley Pub Co, 1996.
Roehl, Bernie; Couch, Justin; Reed-Ballreich, Cindy; Rohaly, Tim; and Brown, Geoff.
Late Night VRML with Java. New York: Ziff-Davis Press, 1997.
Lyotard, Jean-Francois. "Can thought exist without a body?". In The Inhuman. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1991.
Jacobs, Karrie. "Robobabes: Why Girls Don't Play Video Games", in I.D. May/June, 1994.
Kantrowitz, Barbara. "Men, Women & Computers" in Newsweek, May 16, 1994, pp. 48-52. Tannen, Deborah. "Gender Gap in Cyberspace" in Newsweek, May 16, 1994, p. 52-53.
Heidegger, Martin. "The Age of the World Picture". In: M. Heidegger, The Question
Concerning Technology and Other Essays. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.
Kitchens, Susan A. The QuickTime VR Book : Creating Immersive Imaging on Your Desktop Peachpit Pr; ISBN: 0201696843
De Goes, John,& Lampton, Christopher F.. Cutting-Edge 3d Game Programming
With C++ (August 1996) The Coriolis Group; ISBN: 1883577705
URL's
CyberArts Class Website
courses, Cyberarts
Ghostcatching
http://www.cooper.edu/art/ghostcatching
Victoria Vesna's Bodies Inc.
http://www.arts.ucsb.edu/bodiesinc
@Art Gallery
http://www.art/uiuc.edu/@art/gallery.html
Perry Hoberman's BarCode Hotel:
http://www.portola.com.people/perry/Barcodehotel
Blaxxun
http://www.blaxxun.com/
ColonyCity
http://www.colonycity.com/index.html
Cosmo
http://www.cosmosoftware.sgi.com/
Blaxxun specifications
http://www.blaxxun.com/developer/content/avatars/avatar.html
VRML Humanoid Animation Working Group
http://ece.uwaterloo.ca:80/~h-anim/
3Name3D
http://www.ywd.com/
Spazz3D
http://www.spazz3d.com/index_ns4.html
VRML97 Specification
http://www.vrml.org/Specifications/VRML97/
VRML Consortium
http://www.vrml.org
VRML Repository
http://www.sdsc.edu/vrml/
VRMLSite
http://www.vrmlsite.com/
Proteinman's Top Ten VRML Worlds
http://www.virtpark.com/theme/proteinman/
Mesh Mart VRML
http://www.meshmart.org/vrml.htm
MetaStream
http://www.metastream.com/
Newsgroup
comp.lang.vrml
Peter Anders
WEEK 1.
Tues Jan12
• Introduction to the class
* Explore web sites of CyberArts, & ColonyCity , Vesna, etc.
* The Process of creating a virtual enviroment
* What makes a compelling virtual environment?
What is Cyberspace?
William Gibson first used this term in his 1984 Sci fi novel Neuromancer describing it as a virtual realm of 3D visualizations of information structures contained in the world's interconnected computers.
Discussion about the possibilities of Cyberart.
Today & the Future: What is VRML?
The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) is a file format for describing interactive 3D objects and worlds. VRML is designed to be used on the Internet, intranets, and local client systems. VRML is also intended to be a universal interchange format for integrated 3D graphics and multimedia. VRML is used in a variety of application areas such as engineering and scientific visualization, multimedia presentations, entertainment and education, web pages, and shared virtual worlds. As always, there are new formats emerging such as MetaStream, MSChrome & others. We will try to stay abreast of these changes.
Create a 3D Object
Assignment:
Start Cosmo tutorial and user guides
Bring in one of your best works to class Thursday, Jan 14 - not a critique, but an entry way
Thurs Jan 14
Students show one of their best works as an entry way to further work in the class
Overview: User Interface, Modeling & Basic Shape Editing, Setting ViewPoints
Assignment: Study #1 Create an object within an object and set 4 different viewpoints what, if any, context or narrative emerges? (turn off collision detection)
Read: Spalter, Ann Morgan. The Computer in the Visual Arts. Addison Wesley Longman,
Inc., 1999.
Kelly, Kevin & Adam Heilbrun. "Virtual Reality: An Interview with Jaron Lanier", The Whole Earth
Catalog. Cali. 1993. & Reality Check with Jaron Lanier
WEEK 2.
Tues Jan 19
Present Study #1: Create an object within an object and set 4 different viewpoints - what, if any, context or narrative emerges? (turn off collision detection)
Thurs Jan 21
Discuss: Spalter & Lanier
Troubleshooting Studio
Assignment: Study #2: Visualize a dream or fantasy or a datascape by creating a spatial environment
Read: Hollands, Robin. The Virtual Reality Homebrewer's Handbook. West Suxxex, England:1996.
WEEK 3.
Tues Jan 26
Present Study #2 Visualize a dream or fantasy or a datascape by creating a spatial environment
Overview: Manipulating Objects and Specific Properties
Thurs Jan 28
Discuss: Hollands, Robin. The Virtual Reality Homebrewer's Handbook. West Suxxex, England:1996.
Troubleshooting Studio
View & Discuss portraits & avatars
Assignment: prep for Study #3 Create & post your 3D Portrait or "Avatar"
Read: Postman, Neil. Technolopy: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York: Vintage Books, 1993.& Baudrillard, Jean. Simulations,New York, Semiotext(e), Inc., Columbia University, 1983
WEEK 4.
Tues Feb 2
• Present Study #3 Create & post your 3D Portrait or "Avatar".
Overview: Advanced PEP Modeling & Material & Texture Appearance of Objects
Thurs Feb 4
Discuss: Postman & Baudrillard
Troubleshooting Studio
Assignment: prep for Study #4: Create an interactive 3D Map of a real place, embed a trigger to activate a viewer action
Read: Stone, Allucquere, Rosanne. The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1995.
WEEK 5.
Tues Feb 9
Present Study #4 : Create an interactive 3D Map of a real place, embed a trigger to activate a viewer action
Overview: Editing Nodes, Animation & Interaction
Thurs Feb 11
Discuss: Stone
Troubleshooting Studio Visiting Artist
Assignment: prep for Study #5: Create a collection of objects and embed sound into 2 of them - do any new meanings emerge?
Read: Laurel, Brenda. The Art of Human Computer Interface Design. New York: Addison Wesley, 1990.
& Malraux, André. "Museum Without Walls". In The Voices of Silence.New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978.
WEEK 6.
Tues Feb 16 OFF
Thurs Feb 18
Present Study #5: Create a collection of objects and embed sound into 2 of them - do any new meanings emerge?
Discuss: Laurel & Malraux
WEEK 7.
Tues Feb 23 STUDIO prep for midterm
Thurs Feb 25 STUDIO prep for midterm
WEEK 8. Shift in Crits now stressing user interaction
Tues March 2 MidTerm Project Review SAGE 2112
Thurs March 4 MidTerm Project Review SAGE 2112
Overview: Techniques of Creating an Environment & User Guided Navigation
Assignment: prep for Study #6: Create a collection of objects and embed sound into 2 of them - does any new meanings emerge?
Read: Dodsworth, Clark Jr., Digital Illusion: Entertaining the Future with High Technology, Chapter 11 PLACEHOLDER: Landscape and Narrative in Virtual Environments, by Brenda Laurel, Rachel Strickland & RobTow, pgs 181-208
& Chapter 12 Beyond Shoot your Friends: A Call to Arms in the Battle Against Violence, by Celia Pearce, pgs, 209-228
WEEK 9. Tues March 9 OFF Spring Break
Thurs March 11 OFF Spring Break
WEEK 10.
Tues March 16
*Students present study #6: Create a collaborative world with a fellow student
Overview: Optimizing, Publishing & Testing your work
Thurs March 18
Discuss: PLACEHOLDER & Beyond Shoot your Friends: A Call to Arms in the Battle Against Violence
Assignment: prep for Study #6: Create a collaborative world with a fellow student
Read: Moser, Mary Anne and MacLeod, Douglas. Immersed in Technology: Art and Virtual Environments. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996.
Check out Perry Hoberman's BarCode Hotel work at:
http://www.portola.com.people/perry/Barcodehotel\
& Bender, Gretchen & Druckery, Timothy. Culture on the Brink. "Making Sense Out of Nonsense"by Gary Chapman
WEEK 11. Tues March 23 & Thurs March 25 no class
FIELD TRIP Friday March 26
Discuss: Moser, Mary Anne and MacLeod, Douglas. Immersed in Technology: Art and Virtual Environments. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996. Perry Hoberman's Bar Code Hotel
& "Making Sense Out of Nonsense" by Gary Chapman
Assignment: prep for study #6: Create a collaborative world with a fellow student
Read: Virilio, Paul. The Lost Dimension.New York, Semiotext(e), Inc., New York: Columbia University, 1991.
WEEK 12.
Tues March 30
Overview: Advanced VRML Editing and Scripting and the Future of Web 3D
Thurs April 1
Discuss: Virilio, Paul. The Lost Dimension
Studio Work individually with students
Assignment: prep for Final Project and prepare artist statement
WEEK 13.
Tues April 6
Overview: Printing, MPeg Movies into Cosmo, Walkthroughs to video
Thurs April 8
Readings of Artist Statements & Studio
Assignment: prep for Final Project:
WEEK 14.
Tues April 13 Final Project Reviews
Thurs April 15 Final Project Reviews
Assignment: prep for Final Project:
WEEK 15. Tues April 20 *FINAL PROJECT CRITIQUE SAGE 2112
Thurs April 22 *FINAL PROJECT CRITIQUE SAGE 2112
WEEK 16. Tues April 27 Semester Review & Ideas for the Future
Electronic Communication:
Email: All students are expected to have an active electronic mail account, and should check mail at
least twice a week for class information. Some essential class information is communicated by email only.
Statement On Academic Integrity:
Collaboration and discussion about class projects is actively encouraged, and is in no way considered cheating. This is a studio course, and personal ownership of information is not deemed to be appropriate. Projects are expected to reflect personal endeavor, but may also be collaborative in nature.
Class Attendance Policy:
Class attendance is mandatory. As an enrolled student, you have made a commitment to this class, and your attendance is a significant part of that commitment. Attendance will be taken at every class. Two (2) unexcused absences will result in a reduction of one entire letter grade. An absence is considered excused if the student has informed the course instructor by phone, email or in person before the beginning of the class and the excuse is considered reasonable by the instructor.
Generally we will meet Tuesdays in Sage 4711 for studies review and demos of techniques and Thursdays in Sage 2112 for readings reviews and troubleshooting.