Intro: Deep Surfing

Plumb the depths of the World Wide Web, curate a selection artifacts that can only exist on the Internet or that can only be found and compiled through the Internet. They can be products of a sub-subculture, a new form of humor, a collection of digital ready made, indicators of an emerging trend. Present them in an artful form and explain their significance to the class.

Grading: automatic C- if somebody else in the class is already aware of your thing.
Works: Internet Surfing Clubs, #readymade.
Readings: Intro: The Dads of Tech by Astra Taylor, Joanne McNeil
Commodify your consumption (excerpt) by Curt Cloninger

Digital Utopianism

Create an art made of communication. It can be a digital performance, a social network intervention, an absurd protocol, a relational work, a misuse of a communication platform, a social engineering stunt, and identity performance

Grading: D if it doesn’t include other humans, bonus if it’s non-digital or low-tech.
Works: mail art, #communicationart #identity.
Reading: Taking the Whole Earth Digital - from Counterculture to Cyberculture by Fred Turner

Mememaking

A class exercise: let's create and remix memes commenting on a current topic.

Grading: Same vote for the whole class! A for 10K+ views. B for 1K+ views. C for less than 1K. D/E for viral catastrophe (outrageous attention whoring, illegal stuff like bomb threats etc)
Works: #memes, a brief history of Internet memes, features and strategies.
Readings: It’s Supposed to Look Like Shit - The Internet Ugly Aesthetic Nick Douglas.
Batman, Pandaman and the Blind Man - A Case Study in Social Change Memes and Internet Censorship in China by An Xiao Mina.
Does this Meme Prove Donald Trump is a White Supremacist? by Scott Wark.

Net.art != art on the net

Create a browser plugin that radically or subtly but meaningfully alters the user’s experience.

Grading: D if it doesn’t work, C if it’s just silly.
Works: #net.art, #plugin, #browser
Readings: Introduction to net.art (1994-1999) by Natalie Bookchin, Alexei Shulgin.
Utopian Promises / Net Realities by Critical Art Ensemble 1996
Excerpt from Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity by Douglas Rushkoff.

Online hustling

Part one:
1) Find a creative way to make money on the Internet.
2) Make money.

Part two:
1) Work as mechanical turker.
2) Employ mechanical turkers to make your art.

Grading: A $100+, B $100-$10, C $10 or less.
Works: #money
Reading: Excerpt from The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age by Astra Taylor.
Is There Life Beyond Money? by Franco "Bifo" Berardi.
How to Sell Digital Art an Make a Million Visits by Pau Waelder.

Counter Algorithms

Analyze an algorithm that deeply and problematically affects our lives and devise an antidote to it. Present it as a work of speculative design: a site about a possibly existing or near-future artifact, envisioning its effect on society. It can be utopian or dystopian, operate by exaggeration/parody or by prefiguration.

Grading: A if somebody believes it's true.
Works: #net.art 2.0
Readings: The Internet's Original Sin by Ethan Zuckerman, Artificial Intelligence’s White Guy Problem by Kate Crawford, Israel, Gaza, War & Data – The Art of Personalizing Propaganda by Gilad Lotan, The Conservatism of Emoji by Luke Stark and Kate Crawford, How algorithms shape our world by Kevin Slavin, The Coming Civil War over General Purpose Computing by Cory Doctorow, Rich User Experience, UX and Desktopization of War by Olia Lialina.

2016 election special: voting machines, weird polling, russian bots, fake news farms, filter bubbles! readings TBD

Long Screenings (scheduled flexibly throughout the semester)
Sleep Dealer
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
Citizenfour

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

💩 Create online artworks and interventions using tactically appropriate tools.

💩 Approach critical issues related to art and cultural production in the networked age.

💩 Discuss their works in the context of new media art and in relation with pop culture.

💩 Question authority (both political and algorithmic) and problematize narratives of technological progress.