This is the second semester of DDA-645. As with the first semester, 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 designs and realizes two substantial imaging projects during the course of each semester.

There is a special emphasis this semester on the physicality of the image. This includes issues such as scale, materials, substrate, mixed media, virtuality, and the integration of traditional with digital imaging technologies. Through a series of demonstrations and exercises, students will be exposed to a variety of techniques intended to expand their awareness of imaging possibilities and enrich their studio practice.

Students have access to the DDA Printing Lab and the laser cutter in Myrtle Hall. They also have access to the Digital Output Center in the Engineering building.

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.

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; multimedia imaging.

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.

Research Presentation & Paper

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

Students will make one 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.

Technical Demonstrations

Each student will work with the instructor to prepare and present one technical demonstrations to the class. See technical demonstrations for details.

Homework, Exercises, & Blogs

Students will be expected to work regularly. 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, so your blog page also serves 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. Do not put any sort of password on your blog; it must be openly accessible to all without password.

Required Textbook

There is no required textbook for the course. Course readings will be online here.

Recommended Readings

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.

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 a combination of the thoughtfulness, originality, visual sophistication, conceptual depth, technical skill, and timely completion of projects.

The weighting of grades for this course is as follows:

Project #1 = 40%
Project #2 = 40%
Research Presentation = 5%
Technical Demonstration = 5%

Active participation in the classes, blogs, exercises and discussions = 10%

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.

Institute Grading Guidelines

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

Attendance & Participation

It is extremely important that you attend and fully participate in the weekly classes. Please note 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 half-way through the class 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.)

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.

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.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

(The following is derived from the Pratt Institute website. Please see also the Pratt Student Handbook for more details.)

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.