Thought Processes in Art
Michael van Hoogenhuyze
KC CAM30
Can art be considered as an alternative way of thinking in which verbal and mathematical thinking are paralleled by forms of imagination—visualization and audition—which communicate a type of information by directly speaking to the eye or the ear?
Dates: 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, 18 september
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: learning the basics of audiovisual literacy in art
Literature: to be announced in class
Competencies: C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7
Location: KC CAM.30
Number of Classes: 6 classes of 8 hours each
Examination: small assignments, attendance
0D
Taco Stolk
KC Binckhorst
In art, less is more.
Dates: 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, 18 september
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: reducing concepts to bare essentials
Literature: to be announced in class
Competencies: A1, A2, A3, B2, B3, C1, C2
Location: KC Binckhorst
Number of Classes: 6 classes of 8 hours each
Examination: small assignments, attendance
Synesthetics II: Synesthesia in Art
Frans Evers
KC CAM30
Synesthetics II departs from the science lab and enters the art studio where highlights of artistic experimentation with electric and electronic media are explored: light, film, kinetics, sound, video, and computer. The focus shifts from discussing theories of synesthesia to the inquiry of sensory qualities themselves and to the mediated synesthesia often aimed at by artists drawn to the challenges of multimedia composition. The new media have left their marks in the arts by generating new relations, not only between the senses, but also between the artists and the disciplines they represent.
Two ‘grand ideas’ often lie at the basis of multimedia concepts. Historically, both of these have a musical origin despite a difference in aim and scope. In 1725, Castel thought about the possibility of a new art form, musique muette: painting in the form of musically moving colored light. In today’s terminology we recognize Castel’s idea as a primordial form of generative thinking. After almost a century -the 19th- of experimentation with color organs, this idea came of age in the early 20th century in the form of visual music which was aimed at, and rather impressively realized by the new light art. Examples include Wilfred’s Lumia and Hirschfeld-Mack’s Farbenlichtspiele, as well as the ‘absolute’ films of the experimental film-makers such as Ruttmann, Eggeling, Fischinger and the creators of synaesthestic cinema in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
The other great, recurrent idea on relating art forms is the Gesamtkunstwerk, a term coined by Wagner in 1848 in a call to all the arts to interact with eachother and co-create one total work of art. The Gesamtkunstwerk can be concieved of as an early form of collaborative and interactive art, an idea which seems to be re-invented by almost each new generation of artists. In Synesthetics II, these artistic concepts are studied along with the associated technologies and ‘studiolabs’ were they were developed, and the places where and the contexts in which the works were presented.
Dates: 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, 19 february
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: to study the de-bordering of the arts
Literature: to be announced in class
Competencies: A1, A2, A3, A5, A6, A7, B2, B5, B6, C1, C2, C3, C5 C6
Location: KC CAM30
Number of classes: 6 classes of 8 hours each
Examination: Digital audiovisual montage
Diagonal Montage
Horst Rickels
KABK BB203
Diagonal Montage offers an introduction to the many ways to compose possible relationships between image and sound in time. Two ideas introduced by filmmaker and montage theorist Sergei Eisenstein will serve as points of departure: ‘horizontal montage’ arises from the interaction between meaningful elements juxtaposed within a temporal sequence, while ‘vertical montage’ refers to the interaction of simultaneously present layers within the work, for example the imagetrack and the soundtrack.
The course will consist of hands-on activities, using low-tech but hi-fi video and audio techniques to create image and sound experiments. Each experiment will be based on a radically different approach to montage, in order to explore the wide range of possibilities. Counterpoint to this practical activity will be the discussion of theoretical texts and the analysis of examples taken from the history of experimental cinema, music and sound.
Dates: 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, 19 february
Credits: 3 EC
Objective: theoretical and practical introduction to image and sound relationships
Literature, S. Eisenstein, The Film Sense, Harvest Book, 1941/1969
Competencies: A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, C3
Location: KABK BB203
Number of Classes: 6 classes of 8 hours each
Examination: small assignments, attendance
Introduction to Electronics
Lex van der Broek
KC Electronics Workshop
The students will work on three practical electronic measurements as an introduction to basic electronics. They will encounter terms like: current, voltage, phase, frequency, amplitude, gain and different waveforms (i.e. sinewave, squarewave, sawtooth). The very basics for assembling ones own circuit and the use of an oscilloscope, multimeter and function generator will be explained. The students will work together in little groups during two sessions.
This course is new and compulsory for first year BA students. It will be open to a limited number of other students, but you might also want to check out the "Hardware and Physical Computing" class at MediaTechnology if you are interested in these matters.
Dates: on appointment during the second semester
Credits: 1 EC
Objective: a practical and theoretical introduction to electronics
Literature: to be announced in class
Competencies: A1, A2, A3, A5, A6
Location: KC Electronics Workshop
Number of Classes: 2 appointments of 3 hours each
Examination: small assignments, attendance
