| [Brief] |
[Ergodynamics]
The Key Theme for this module is "Sustainability" -
A(merican Heritage Dictionary)
sus·tain (s-stn)
tr.v. sus·tained, sus·tain·ing, sus·tains
1. To keep in existence; maintain.
2. To supply with necessities or nourishment; provide for.
3. To support from below; keep from falling or sinking; prop.
4. To support the spirits, vitality, or resolution of; encourage.
5. To bear up under; withstand: can't sustain the blistering heat.
6. To experience or suffer: sustained a fatal injury.
7. To affirm the validity of: The judge has sustained the prosecutor's objection.
8. To prove or corroborate; confirm.
9. To keep up (a joke or assumed role, for example) competently.
Practical Sessions week 1:
Narrative Map Project:
Self-selecting groups of 5 (no bigger than 5, no smaller than 3).
“The eye itself has not, of course, remained in the monocular, fixed construction defined by Renaissance theories of perspective. The hegemonic eye has conquered new ground for visual perception and expression. The paintings of Bosch and Bruegel, for instance, already invite a participatory eye to travel across the scenes of multiple events. The seventeenth-century Dutch paintings of bourgeois life present casual scenes and objects of everyday use which expand beyond the boundaries of the Albertian window. Baroque paintings open up the viewer’s vision with hazy edges, soft focus and multiple perspectives, presenting a distinct, tactile invitation, enticing the body to travel through the illusory space.”
(Pallasmaa J, 1996, The Eyes of the Skin, Polemics, Academy Group Ltd, pp23.)
Instructions:
1: Form groups of 5 (no bigger than 5, no smaller than 3)/
2: Choose 2 locations in and around Plymouth and take a journey between them.
3: Using your workbooks as a receptacle, notate, annotate, record, draw, MAP your journey.
4: Construct a collaborative Narrative Map!
5: Present your Narrative Map!
Brief:
Working in groups of 5 (no bigger than 5, no smaller than 3), using your workbooks as the primary tool of investigation, construct a narrative for the journey between the local locations of your choice. This narrative must consider a mix of drawing styles, notation techniques, contemporary and historical data, reportage, existing and fictitious narratives, coincidences, lies, etc... all woven into a complex and sustainable narrative map of the environment. This project will form the groundwork for the mapping projects latter in the module and ensure that you have no excuse for not buying and using your workbook. In the following weeks sessions you wil be (randomly) expected to tell your narrative through your workbooks and a composite map (edited workbook material compiled into one map) [ie, individual members workbooks and a single group map].
“The percept of the body and the image of the world turn into one single continuous existential experience - there is no body separate from its domicile in space, and there is no space unrelated to the unconscious image of the perceiving self.”
(Pallasmaa J, 1996, The Eyes of the Skin, Polemics, Academy Group Ltd, pp27.)
Practical Sessions Week 2:
The ERGODYNAMIC [C20: from Greek ergon work + dunamis power] projects
will be used to develop critical creative skills in:
•Group Dynamics: production teamwork...
•Visual Thinking: generating ideas, creative thinking and ‘connectionist’
thought processes...
•Design & planning: organisation of material and ideas...
•Workbook activity: ideas capture, externalising internal dialogue,
the ‘Compost Heap Principle’...
•Audio/Visual/Spatial notation: documenting sensation and perception...
•Presentation: justification through dissemination, "ascend
their roofs to announce anything to the multitude"...
Group Dynamics
1: ...humming...
2: ...tell part of a story and pass it on.
3: ...Chinese whispers with pictures...
4:...twin...one...thinks of an image...other draws...a process of interrogation...yes
and no answers...
5:...one...blindfolded...draw image in others mind... Quads:
6:...4...draw...image...one piece of paper.
7:...Group Construction. Bondage project...
8:...Over to you..!
And there after.....
•Brain Storming Exercises, Mind Maps, thinking in images.
•Rendering audio structures, audio/visual translation, the score.
•Drawing, negative space, points in space (projected image), icons,
signs, and symbols.
•Moving images, drawing a figure in motion, Map drawing exercise.
The following Ergodynamic pieces will be produced, performed
and documented and presented as a "body of work" through the
Portfolio and workbook:
1: [Telematic Performance] (10% Group Work)
Working in groups select an image (A4). Devise a system for transferring
the image from one location to another. Each person will mark a stage
in the transfer which will require the image to be coded and decoded.
Each stage will be different from any other stage in the process. The
process should last approximately 5 minutes.
Look at: FAX machines/Modems/T.V./Film & slide projectors. You can’t
use any of these. (A slide projector may be used as a light source but
not for projecting slides). Semaphore/Morse code/shadows/grids. You
might want to use some of these.
Think about: Your audience, presentation, genre, style, timing.....
Requirements:
A: It should last 5 minutes,
B: be performed live with audience interaction.
C: You should also provide a ‘script/score’.
Deadline: Week beginning 04 Dec Location TBA.
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2: [Mapping Project] (20% Group Work)
The Mapping project requires your group to explore multidimensional
mappings of time and space. This project should/could explore issues
of scoring, traces, narrative structures, temporal mappings, notation
and choreography. The requirements for this project will be made clear
through the lecture programme.
Requirements:
A: Negotiated with each group.
Deadline: Week begining 15 January. By presentation.
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3: [Artefact] (20% Individual)
artefact or artifact ('a:tI,faekt)
n. 1. Something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work
of art, esp. an object or archaeological interest. 2. Cytology. a structure
seen in tissue after death, fixation, staining, etc., that is not normally
present in the living tissue.
[C19: from Latin phrase arte factum from ars skill + facere to make]
After reading the Borges short story you are required to research an
‘artefact’ and its maker/manufacturer. The exact nature
of that artefact will be negotiated during the tutorial sessions. It
is important that you are able to gain access to information concerning
its production, such as: biographical details of the maker; construction
material; construction process; details of the environment it was produced
in...
You are required to immerse yourself in research surrounding the artefact
and its maker. As far as possible you should experience the same/similar
investigative process undertaken by the artefacts manufacturer.
"… artefacts do not exist in a space of their own, transmitting
meaning to the spectator, but, on the contrary, are susceptible to a
multiform construction of meaning which is dependent on the design,
the context of other objects, the visual and historical representation,
the whole environment; … artefacts can change their meaning not
just over the years as different histriographical and institutional
currents pick them out and transform their significance, but from day
to day as different people view them and subject them to their own interpretation."
(Saumarez Smith, C. Museums, Artefacts, and Meanings. The New Museology.
Vergo, P, ed. pp19. Reaktion Books Ltd, London, 1989.)
Requirements:
A: Diary/logbook/workbook, an account of the production
representing the investigative research process, which should include
a short critical account of the process (Approx 1000 words).
B: Documentary evidence representing the reconstructed
artefact. The format and presentation of this material will be negotiated
with your tutor.
C:All of this material must be formatted as a discreet
section of the Portfolio.
Deadline: 19 March. Online/Presentation.
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4: [Interstices] (20% Pairs):
“Give me another 24 hours, and I'll give you a machine which no
none will be able to tell from a human being.”
Rotwang, Metropolis, 1926.
“In the electric age we wear all mankind as our skin.”
Marshall McLuhan 1964.
“We are at the farthest point of time!... Why look behind us when
we should be crashing down the doors of the impossible? Time and Space
died yesterday. We are now living in the absolute since we have created
eternal omnipresent speed.”
F.T. Marinetti. 1909
The Interstices Project requires you to explore, analyse and design
an ‘interface’. The outcome of this activity will be to
develop a ‘representation’ of a specific future, contemporary
or redundant technology operating in a social environment. This representation
may take the form of an T.V./multimedia ‘advert’ or sales
promotion for the ‘product/activity’, a short documentary
about the ‘product/activity’ (e.g. News footage/report),
a simulation that provides a real experience of the ‘product/activity’.
There are many possibilities, however your project must be based on
an extrapolation of current technology/social practice/cultural phenomena/documented
hypothesis, and not just whimsical speculation, i.e. the end of Western
Civilisation following a bacterial infection which turns out to be microscopic
Chinese following the self-miniaturisation of the entire Chinese population....
(see “Slapstick or Lonesome no more’ Kurt Vonnegut)...
Requirements:
A: Design documentation and output of negotiated process.
A full blown project is not required, an animatic of slide show will
suffice.
Deadline: 19 March. Online/Presentation.
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5:[Personal Documenta/Portfolio/Workbook]
(30% Individual Work)
This has 2 interlinked sections:
1: You will design and produce a personal
documenta which must be accessible on-line. This should be a professional
digital presence representing you, your skills and productions to an
external audience. This will be the first level of a dynamic and growing
personal documenta, which you must maintain throughout the next 4 years
will continue to update and use. This will include a C.V.
The project must have a navigational interface and each individual should
start to develop a consistent design style and identity. Be innovative,
but remember functionality and usability. Consider notions of branding
and identity. How do you want to portray yourself to external visitors
(future employees, fellow digital producers, artists, your mum…)?
It should incorporate documentation from the Ergodynamic activities,
(this could include sound, video, animation, text, live footage and
reconstruction/rehearsal footage and/or workbook). It can also incorporate
other academic and non-academic projects. (Remember to considerate limitations
on bandwidth).
2: The workbook is a vital component of the module.
You are expected to keep a personal workbook which should be brought
to all tutorials and timetabled sessions.Workbooks should contain: Screen
architectures; Plans and diagrams of project; Selection of images used;
annotated to indicate; your decision making; Timelines etc; Scripts;
sources/bibliography; critical analysis; etc. The workbook will be the
meeting point of your practical production design and planning, and
the theoretical research activity for the essay/reconstruction element
of the module. Your ergodynamic activities will be documented in the
workbook (see above). The workbook should be used to present your research
during seminars. You are unlikely to pass the module if you cannot effectively
demonstrate a commited and critical design process informed by your
own research.
No workbook, no discussion!
Deadline: 19 March. Online/Presentation.
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