Digital Arts & the Environment: VSAR 313
COURSE REQUIREMENTS Spring 2018
SIGN WAIVERS for the semester
Deborah Small
Office Hours: Weds 3:30-5:30
dsmall@csusm.edu
Deborah’s Ethnobotany blog
DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS
Students with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations must be approved for services by providing appropriate and recent documentation to the Office of Disabled Student Services (DSS). This office is located in Craven Hall 5205, and can be contacted by phone at (760) 750-4905, or TTY (760) 750-4909. Students authorized by DSS to receive reasonable accommodations should meet with me during my office hours in order to ensure confidentiality.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
Students will be expected to adhere to standards of academic honesty and integrity, as outlined in the Student Academic Honesty Policy. All assignments must be original work, clear and error-free. All ideas/material that are borrowed from other sources must have appropriate references to the original sources. Any quoted material should give credit to the source and be punctuated accordingly.
Information on what constitutes plagiarism can be found at:
http://www.csusm.edu/policies/active/documents/Academic_Honesty_Policy.html
WRITING CENTER
Writing Center Infographic
The Writing Center’s mission is to be a welcoming learning environment where certified student consultants offer constructive guidance to all writers at any stage of the writing process – idea generation, argument development, polishing of sentences and more. FREE tutoring is available at the Writing Center by certified student consultants. The WC helps you review the prompt and ask guiding questions, as students work to develop compelling texts. The WC is committed to providing non-judgmental feedback. Additional services include assistance with Academic English.
DISRUPTIONS
Disruptions are not tolerated. Read http://www.csusm.edu/dos/conduct/studentconduct.html for complete information.
RECORDINGS
“Students may not record (audio or video) in this class except in accordance with ADA accommodations. Any recordings made in connection with a disability accommodation are for the student’s personal academic use only and may not be distributed in any manner to any other individual.”
CIVILITY AND CLASS CONDUCT
Our four hour class meetings require your complete attention. If you engage with the class by: doing work from other classes, surfing the web, facebook, youtube, gaming, texting, taking calls, hiding behind a personal computer or tablet, listening to music, chatting online, or otherwise avoiding participation—you will be marked absent for the class meeting. I encourage a strong sense of commitment to the class, which will be apparent in your work and reflected in your grade.
EQUIPMENT CHECK-OUT: Chad Huggins and Albert Rascon
You may only check out equipment during the posted hours. Checkout hours are posted on the door to Arts 239.
Chad Huggins: Instructional Support Technician III
PH: (760) 750-8052 Fax: (760) 750-3090
Use your own hi-end digital cameras and tripods or check out our Canon cameras from ARTS 239. You can reserve the equipment online.
TUTORIALS
Julianne Kost: Getting Started with Lightroom
Julianne Kost: Recent Lightroom Tutorials
Julianne Kost: What’s New in Lightroom CC
or, if you haven’t used Lightroom or Photoshop, or even if you have and you want to home your skills:
STORAGE:
ALWAYS back-up your work. Buy an external hard drive immediately, or check out an external hard drive for the semester from check-out. These drives are old and not recommended.
LAB ACCESS
Arts 239 is open so you can do your homework assignments. Hours are posted on the door. Labs are open 24/7, except when a class is in session. Please never let anyone in if you don’t recognize them. All software is also available on computers in the library on the 2nd floor.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The Digital Arts & the Environment class will investigate a broad range of artistic practices and contemporary artists who use digital media to comment on and shape current environmental debates.
The course will explore a broad range of environmental perspectives to enrich your understanding of current environmental concerns and their interpretation through digital media, with a primary focus on photographic practices. You will engage in serious critical inquiry as well as hands-on experimentation and investigation with digital technologies, including DSLR cameras and cutting-edge software for editing and enhancing your images. You will develop skills by learning panoramic and HDR imaging, formal and informal outdoor lighting techniques, and the use of plugins, such as the Google Nik Collection, for processing your photos, among other techniques.
Students will experiment with different conceptual approaches to art making and develop aesthetic strategies for engaging audiences in particular environment concerns. The class will combine lectures, screenings, group discussions, research, presentations, and individual and collaborative projects.
We also will explore the work of contemporary environmental artists and photographers and their documentary and experimental uses of digital media. In addition, you will attend the photographic exhibitions at MOPA, the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park.
The class is conducted as a workshop: all students must participate actively and consistently. Part of the class will be devoted to the work of contemporary photographers, and to the development and discussion of your projects.
MOPA EXHIBITIONs
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES A
1. Learn the language
Software: We will focus on Adobe Lightroom and the Google Nik Collection for editing and enhancing your images. You will learn the software through classroom lectures and use of the online tutorials. Learning will take place via classroom lectures, demonstrations, online tutorials at lynda.com, and discussions and critiques of the projects that you will complete for the class.
Digital cameras, lenses, tripods: In this class, you continue to use DSLR cameras and various lenses, focusing on understanding the controls on your camera to effectively manipulate the exposure triangle: aperture/depth of field, shutter speed, and ISO, to create compelling images.
Contemporary Artists: Through classroom lectures, discussion, screenings, and web research, we will explore contemporary environmental photographers and artists. By viewing and discussing a broad range of artistic practices, you will learn how art making is a means to discover and develop your ideas about the world and to extend the power, clarity, and range of your voice and vision.
You will blog about 2 online environmental photographers who will inspire your own art practices and final project. Each of the two blog posts will a minimum of 250 words, or the equivalent of one page. You also will write a one page, 250 word post about your MOPA visit focusing on one photographer whose work is compelling to you from the Prix Pictet exhibition.
For these more lengthy posts, you will research and study their work, and then write on your blog about the work in relation to your own: what inspires you about the photographer’s work, how has their work has influenced your way of seeing and photographing the world, etc.
Student Learning Outcomes B
Using the Language/Creating Artwork: For the class, you will complete the following four projects:
Projects:
1. Blog: You will create a blog at wordpress.com for weekly posts of all thoughts, ideas, research, and images.
2, Project Proposal: I’d like to encourage collaboration, although your project can also be created as an individual. If collaborative, it has to be incorporate the work of the collaborators equally. One can contriubte more text, one more images, one graphic design, etc.
3. Final Magazine, Website, or other Platform Project which will include a substantial amount of research and writing/reflection about your relationship to the images you have produced and the subject matter of your project. Much of this can be taken from your weekly blog posts. This could also be an environmental campaign, a series of posters, a proposal to ameliorate an environmental issue in our society, etc .
4. Funes Digital Arts Competition: you will submit online to the annual competition your 3 best photographs and write a blog post about why you chose the particular images you submitted.Submissions are limited to Arts Majors only, but everyone will go through the process.
ASSESSMENT:
Attendance
Attendance is mandatory! Part of your final evaluation will focus on your ability to respond thoughtfully to other students’ artwork and to work collaboratively with each other. It is essential that you attend class regularly. Two unexcused absences will result in lowering your final grade.
FIELDTRIPS close to the university will be scheduled during class time later in the spring when there will be more light available to shoot.
10% Class Participation
35% Blog
15% Final Environmental Project Proposal, Supporting Research, and materials
10% Funes Digital Arts Competition
30% Final Environmental Magazine Project, Website/Blogsite, Poster Series, Printed Photo Series (with text) or media platform best suited to your project
Deborah Small's Ethnobotany Blog 