Software Art: Image
NYU Abu Dhabi — Interactive Media
IM-UH 2115 Spring 2022
Software Art: Image is an applied introduction to the history, theory and practice of computer-aided artistic endeavors in the field of visual arts.
Spring 2022
Instructor: Michael Ang (michael.ang@nyu.edu)
Meeting Time: Mondays 2:40 - 5:20pm & Wednesdays 4:05pm - 5:20pm (all times Abu Dhabi/GST)
Location: C3-019 Film Edit Lab (Arts Center ground floor behind Equipment Center)
Office Hours: By appointment (email or Discord)
Credits: 2
Course website:
https://github.com/NYUAD-IM/Software-Art-Image
Discord channel #softwareart: invite on Brightspace->Content
NYUAD - Interactive Media Software Art: Image
This course appears in:
- Majors > Art and Art History > Visual Arts/Practice Electives
- Majors > Interactive Media > Computational Media
- Minors > Interactive Media
- Minors > Visual Arts
Course Description
Although computers only appeared a few decades ago, automation, repetition and process are concepts that have been floating around artists’ minds for almost a century. As machines enabled us to operate on a different scale, they escaped the domain of the purely functional and started to be used, and understood, by artists. The result has been the emergence of code-based art, a relatively new field in the rich tradition of arts history that today acts as an accessible new medium in the practice of visual artists, sculptors, musicians and performers. Software Art: Image is an introduction to the history, theory and practice of computer-aided artistic endeavours in the field of visual arts. This class will focus on the appearance of computers as a new tool for artists to integrate in their artistic practice, how it shaped a specific aesthetic language and what it reveals about technology and art today. We will be elaborating and discussing concepts and paradigms specific to computing platforms, such as system art, generative art, image processing and motion art. Drawing on those, students will explore their own artistic practice through the exclusive use of their computers. The course will also serve as a technical introduction to the OpenFrameworks programming environment to create works of visual art. As such, Software Art: Image will be an art history and critical studies course with a studio component. This computational playground will highlight and reflect upon the broader impact of digital technologies on our relationship to art and art-making.
Software Art: Image is a complement to Software Art: Text, a 7-week course approaching computation from the perspective of poetry and fiction.The two courses can be taken in series or independently.
Course Objectives
When the course is finished, students will:
- Have developed an understanding of process-based artistic practice.
- Have been introduced to the history and impact of software on visual arts and culture.
- Have developed their own artistic voice through writing software.
- Be accustomed to presenting and discussing software-based artworks.
- Have developed a familiarity creating visual work in C++ and OpenFrameworks.
- Have developed a critical outlook on art and aesthetics in the digital age.