This course allows students working at an advanced level of digital imaging to work independently on a variety of digital imaging projects of their own choosing. Each student develops and realizes two substantial imaging projects during the course of each semester.

Students are encouraged to think of digital imaging in terms of contemporary multimedia and digital technologies. This means that your imaging may involve not only printed imagery, but also projected or screen imagery, moving imagery or still imagery, interactivity, or three-dimensionality, etc..

That said, there is an emphasis in this course on the technicalities of high-quality digital printing of physical prints. Students have access to the small DDA Printing Lab on the fifth floor of Myrtle Hall and also to the very large Digital Output Center of the Institute in the Engineering building. Through a series of demonstrations and exercises, all students will become comfortable with the processes and issues involved in high-end digital printing, including calibration, ink choices, choice of substrates, using a large-format printer, making print transfers, and preserving prints.

The weekly class meetings entail peer-to-peer critique of work in progress, technical demonstrations and exercises, instructor lectures, and student research presentations. There will also be occasional field trips to museums and/or galleries. This course is the first in the two-part DDA-645A/B sequence.

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.

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 automatic 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 or the Pratt Student Health center to avoid your absence being listed as "unexcused".

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

Imaging Assignments

Students will work on two half-semester-long projects. The second project may be an extension of the first if both student and instructor feel that is warranted. In all cases, projects should be of a complexity and sophistication to warrant the amount of time devoted to them. Some suggested possibilities for students to consider for their projects are: a series of fine-art prints; combining digital and traditional imaging techniques; installations; book art.

Typically, students work individually on their own projects. If two or more students wish to work as a team on a project, that may be possible. Please talk to the instructor about this possibility if you are interested.

There will be a ungraded mid-point critique for each project. After the critique, the instructor will provide a written assessment to each student for their project.

Research Presentation & Paper

Ocassional short readings will be assigned to stimulate thinking on certain issues.

Students will make one short research presentation to the class on an issue relevant to their art practice and of interest to them. Topics will be chosen by the student in consultation with the instructor. The presentation will be accompanied by a short paper prepared by each student. See Research Presentations for details.

Homework, Exercises, & Blogs

Students will be expected to work at a steady pace. To help with this, the instructor will sometimes (but not always) make specific homework assignments.

Each student will also create a blog page for this course and will keep their blog page up to date with samples of their research, thoughts, tests, and work in progress. This blog page is important, as it will serve as a record of your day-to-day and week-to-week progress. Blog pages will be accessible to all students in the class. It serves both to allow me to follow your progress and as a way for you to get feedback from other students in the class. Your blog page for this course must be separate from other blogs you may have. It can be embedded within an existing blog, but it must have a separate link so that we can easily access your entries that are specific to this course. Your blog page should not have a password.

Required Textbook

Fine Art Printing for Photographers, Third Edition. U. Steinmueller, J. Gulbins. Rocky Nook Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-937538-24-8

This book contains a wealth of extremely useful technical information on numerous issues related to digital imaging and printing.

Recommended Readings

Mastering Digital Printing, Second Edition. Harald Johnson. Thomson Course Technology, 2005. ISBN 1-59200-431-8. Another very good technical book. Covers much of same material as U.Steinmueller, but a bit older than that book.

Digital Art Studio. K. Schminke, D.S. Krause, B. P. Lhotka. Watson Guptill, 2004. ISBN 0-8230-132-1. Lots of non-standard techniques explained in great detail. Special focus is on combining traditional art techniques with digital techniques.

As your work develops, specific readings related to your projects, to art history, to technical issues and/or to critical paradigms may be suggested . Students will be expected to do these readings, and to research their project as necessary.

Grading will be based on the originality, visual sophistication, conceptual depth, technical skill, and timely completion of projects.

The weighting of grades for this course is as follows:

Project #1 = 35%
Project #2 = 40%
Research Presentation = 10%
Active participation in the classes, blogs, exercises and discussions = 15%

All assignments must be handed in on the due date. If you have not finished your work or as much as you had intended, you should hand in whatever you have finished up to that point. Your work will be graded based on whatever portion you have handed in as of the due date. Please note that technical problems, lab problems, or being “really busy” do not constitute an excuse for unfinished work. Such issues are part of life and life with computers, and you should assume they will occur. It is your responsibility to schedule your time and your work to allow for this sort of problem and still get your work done well and on time.

See this link for Pratt's official guidelines for Grading.

Given that graduate students must keep an overall GPA of 3.0 (B), this can be interpreted as follows:

A = Extremely good work
A- = Very good work
B+ = Good work, better than average
B = Reasonably good, but not outstanding
B- = OK, somewhat 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

The following is a list of technical topics that will be addressed during the course. (Additional technical topics will be addressed as they may be raised by students' projects.) The goal of this list is for all students to be very comfortable by the end of the semester with all basic aspects of digital printing.

Operating Epson printers (all available in DDA Print Lab)
Preparing and printing files in the Pratt Digital Output Center
Physiology of color vision
Digital color management systems
Digital printing papers
Inks
Printing profiles
Color-calibrating a monitor
Factors affecting permanence
Storing prints
Mounting prints
Framing prints
RIPs

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"

STUDENTS WITH LEARNING ISSUES

If you have a significant learning issue or disability, you are strongly encouraged to work with the Offiice of Disability Services (Main Bldg, Tel: 718 636 3711). Through them you can get guidance and support and request special accomodations if appropriate. You are also very strongly encouraged to notifiy your instructor if you have a special learning difficulty, as we cannot help you or make accomodations unless we know what your situation is.

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 oneís 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.