This course is designed to immerse students in the critical discourse and practice of digital art. The students will formulate and hone their thesis ideas and studio practice as they gain theoretical fluency. The course format will combine seminar sessions, guest lectures, student presentations and field trips. Guest critics will be visiting throughout the year. Students will begin to consider their thesis work at the beginning of this semester which they will continue to explore and develop throughout the first year.

While continuing to study and gain exposure to issues and examples of contemporary digital art, students also develop a specific thesis project idea and plan. This entails assembling a relevant body of work, doing technical tests, writing, and eventually presenting their project ideas to a Thesis Committee.

This second semester of Graduate Seminar continues to provide an overview of the history of and current state of contemporary digital art and theory in all three areas of emphasis in digital arts: Animation and Motion Arts, Interactive Arts, Digital Imaging. Topics include the evolution of the field, the development of digital art disciplines, the impact of technology, the pioneers and leading figures in electronic art and design, the digital art/computer graphic community, and contemporary works and activities in digital art. The course examines digital art within a fine-arts context, an historical context, a critical context, a philosophical and a social context.

The class will meet both as a group and occassionally as a series of individual meetings. The class will include occassional field trips, guest lectures, visiting critics, readings, discussions, writings, and presentations.

Grad Seminar I and II

This Graduate Seminar II course is the second of a two-semester sequence -- Seminar I in the Fall, and Seminar II in the Spring (DDA-606A and DDA-606B). In both courses, students work on and develop their thesis project ideas. The emphasis in the first semester is on laying the conceptual, theoretical, and historical groundwork for the development of each student's thesis project. In the second semester, the emphasis shifts to the development of the specifics of each student's thesis project plan.

Additional Appointments

If you wish to meet with me outside of our normally scheduled class time to discuss your project or your situation, speak to me and we will schedule a time to do so. See above for my contact information and office hours.

This course is designed to continue immersing students in the critical discourse surrounding digital art and to help students use that discourse to formulate and refine their own artistic ideas, practice, and thesis project plan. Students will formulate and hone their thesis ideas as they gain theoretical fluency and develop their studio practice.

Toward the end of the semester, each student will make a presentation of their thesis project ideas and plan to a committee of departmental faculty.

Students will discuss with and mutually select a Thesis Advisor toward the end of the semester.

Some of the goals of the course are to help each student to:

• Discover, articulate, and develop his/her own questions and concerns related to digital art
• Enhance his/her ability to present creative work
• Enhance their ability to benefit from others’ feedback on their work
• Improve their ability to thoughtfully and meaningfully critique others' work

• Situate their own work within an historical and contemporary context
• Gain greater familiarity with key ideas, practitioners, and projects in digital art
• Think critically about digital art in contemporary culture
• Further develop research and presentation skills

• Formulate a coherent and well developed set of ideas and plan for a thesis project.
• Produce well developed samples of the artwork their thesis project entails.

Attendance
It is extremely important that you attend all classes. Please note also that it is Pratt Institute policy that three unexcused absences constitute grounds for an F for the course, and that two latenesses are considered the equivalent of one absence. Arriving more than 10 minutes after the scheduled start of class will be considered late. Arriving more than one hour after the scheduled start time will be considered absent. Students are 100% responsible for their own attendance and must allow for delays due to subways, traffic, etc. If you miss class because of illness, you should bring in a note from your physician to avoid your absence being listed as "unexcused". (Pratt Student Health services can be of help to you here.)

If you miss a session, you are 100% responsible for finding out what you missed and for making it up.

Participation
Students are expected to participate in all discussions and activities in a meaningful way. While it is not necessary to understand every word, students should come to class having done the homework assignments, and prepared to discuss those intelligently. In attending guest lectures, students are advised to prepare a list of possible questions before the lecture, based on the lecturer's website and background.

Blogs

Each student will create a blog for this course as described in this blogs assignments page. Your blog will serve as a journal of your thinking, research, study, and development. It is an extremely important part of this course. It will become effectively a record of everything you did during the course. Your blog journal should record your critical responses to all of the lectures, all required readings, all field trips, all external critiques, and all your student assignments. Blogs should be both verbal and visual, with your written thoughts as well as relevant pictures, videos or links.

Blog pages must be accessible to all students in the class. Your blog page for this course must be separate from other blogs you may have for other courses. It can be embedded within another blog, but it must have a separate link so that we can easily access your entries that are specific to this course. Do not password-protect your blog page. Within your blog for Seminar II include a link to your blog for Seminar I. This will allow us to easily reference work and thinking you did in Seminar I.

Blog entries are due by Monday 5:00pm, the day before our class. Late posts may result in reduced grades.

Readings & Videos
There will be assigned readings and videos as listed below ithin the syllabus. You should comment on these readings in your blog. There may be assigned readings from other sources assigned as well.

External Critiques
There will be several required critiques of your thesis project plans by other faculty. Some of these will be by DDA faculty and some by visiting critics from outside of Pratt. See the External Critiques link for details.

Thesis Project Plan - Midterm & Final

Each student will research, plan and make a significant start on the thesis project they want to do in their second year of this M.F.A. degree. See the Final Thesis Proposal document for more details. Students will make a presentation of their ideas and plan to a committe of DDA faculty toward the end of the semester. Students should consult the Thesis Benchmarks file developed by DDA faculty to understand what DDA expects of a thesis proposal by the end of Seminar II. A preliminary version of this proposal will be presented in class at mid-term as your Mid-term Thesis Proposal.

Guest Lectures
As part of this course, students will be required to attend several of the DDA Visiting Artist Guest Lecture series on Wednesdays from 12:45pm-1:45 pm. Before each lecture, you should look at the artist's website and/or other relevant materials and you should make notes of some questions or issues that occur to you. During the lecture and question period, you are encouraged to ask questions of the visiting lecturer. After each lecture, you should write your comments and thoughts about the lecture in your blog.

These guest lectures will be assignments and take place outside of and in addition to the normal Tuesday class.

Field Trips
During the semester, there will be several field trips to galleries or museums. Some of these may take place during our normal class time. Some field trips might be assigned as homework for you to do on your own time. On the day that we do a field trip together (that is, not as homework), our class is the field trip and attendance at and participation in the field trips are required just as in a normal class. After the field trip, enter your thoughts, comments and reactions in your blog.

Students are also strongly encouraged to attend the opening receptions for the exhibitions in our own DDA Gallery and to visit any other galleries, artworks, or museums. As always, comment in your blog on your reactions to what you experience.

There is no textbook of readings for this Seminar II course. Selected readings are assigned as per this syllabus and are available through the instructor's website and online.

Some additional readings may be assigned. These will be available through the instructor's website, other websites, Pratt Library books and periodicals, Pratt Library, or online sources.

Grading Percentages

Grading will be calculated as follows:

Participation = 15%
Blog responses to Lectures, Readings, Field Trips = 25%
Mid-term Thesis Proposal = 15%
External Critiques = 10%
Final Thesis Proposal= 35%

Timliness of Assignments

Technical difficulties are not an excuse for late or missing assignments. Technical problems are part of life in the digital world, and you must manage your time on the assumption that technical problems may or will occur.

Being "really busy" is not an excuse for late or missing assignments.

Handing in an assignment late will result in a significant reduction of your grade, typically a full letter grade. Assigments handed in more than one week late result in an F for that assignment.

If you experience an unusual and major personal difficulty - for example, a significant illness, or a death in the family - it may be possible to arrange for an "Incomplete" grade. Incompletes are unusual and require documentation. If you think your situation warrants an Incomplete, speak to the instructor.

Institute Grading Guidelines

According to the Pratt Institute guidelines, the meaning of grades is as follows:

A = Extremely good work
A- = Very good work
B+ = Good work, better than average
B = Satisfactory work, but not outstanding
B- OK, short of satisfactory
C+ = Slightly better than minimally passing, not acceptable quality
C = Minimally passing, not acceptable quality
Grades below C are considered non-passing at the graduate level

Student Responsibility

It is your responsibility to be aware of and understand all requirements for this course. Read this syllabus and the other materials provided by your instructor carefully. If you do not understand something, ask.

File Storage

As with all DDA courses, each student is 100% responsible for storing all of his or her files on their own removable storage media. You must make permanent backups of your files on regular basis onto your own storage media (Flash, CD, DVD, external HD, etc.). When you do so, please remember to make two backups -- the first is your "original", and the second is your "backup"

CLASSROOM ASSIGNMENTS

It is Pratt Institute policy that work done in one class cannot be submitted to fulfill assignments in another class. It is very possible to do work that overlaps or is closely related in two different courses, but you cannot fulfill two assignment requirements with one piece of work. If you have any questions, discuss the issue with all the instructors involved before proceeding.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

(The following is copied from the Pratt Institute website.)

Pratt Institute considers Academic Integrity highly important. Instances of cheating, plagiarism, and wrongful use of intellectual property will not be tolerated.

• Faculty members will report each incident to the registrar for inclusion in studentsí files.
• More than one report to the registrar during a studentís program of study at Pratt will result in a hearing before the Academic Integrity Board, at which time appropriate sanctions will be decided. These may include dismissal from the Institute.
• The nature and severity of the infraction will be determined by faculty members who can: ask students to repeat an assignment, fail students on the assignment, fail students in the course and/or refer the incident to the Academic Integrity Board.

For more details about these procedures please see the Pratt Student Handbook, the Pratt Bulletins, and the pamphlet entitled Judicial Procedures at Pratt.

CHEATING

If students use dishonest methods to fulfill course requirements, they are cheating. Examples of this include, but are not limited to:

• Obtaining or offering copies of exams or information about the content of exams in advance.
• Bringing notes in any form to a closed book exam.
• Looking at another studentís paper during an exam.
• Receiving or communicating any information from or to another student during an exam.

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is a bit more complicated, but the rules of documentation and citation are very specific and are tailored to different academic disciplines. Types of plagiarism include:

• Including any material from any source other than you in a paper or project without proper attribution. This includes material from the Internet, books, papers, or projects by other students, and from any other source.
• Using your own work to fulfill requirements for more than one course
• The extensive use of the ideas of others in your work without proper attribution.
• Turning in work done by another person or a fellow student as one's own.

Please remember that all work must be the student's own. If it is not, the source should be cited and documented appropriately.

If there are aspects of this statement that are not understood, ask faculty members for help.