Goals for Advanced Computer Art Course this Semester
This semester the class I’m taking that will be work of an entirely different variety than my other three classes is the advanced level Computer Art course (I was in the lower level of it freshmen year). Part of this course will get individualized based on the students’ goals. As one of the requirements of the course is to write blog entries as we work on our projects, and in my case that will be in the new “Computer Art” category here, I thought that it would be beneficial to describe my goals as the first post in that category.
To start out let me list the progress I made back in my freshmen year by linking to the projects I did in that course:
In the first course I did all computer art based on digital photos up until the final project, which was a mix of snippets of older digital photos with digital drawings all shown off purely as a website. Since taking Computer Art 1 I have done mostly art interlaced with software development. Some of that was in an iPad app I haven’t found the time to complete, while another area of that was website development, for which my summer internship creating a blogging site for the Saint Paul Area Council of Churches was the main example of.
My goals this semester will be to further interweave these two areas of art and design work. Initially, throughout the first half of the semester, I will be side-by-side learning more about the tools these computer art classes are built around as well as the tools I will find myself using on my own computer to advance the work outside of normal class times.
As the individual paths form for the second half of the semester I will already have a set of images to enhance, and also inevitably endless inspiration for further projects. Likewise I’ll continue to learn as much as I can about all the tools involved. My individualized path will encompass the weaving of the static forms of mounting an art exhibition with the fluidity that the web design and development world can lend to such art exhibitions. Most art exhibitions don’t utilize the still-new options the web provides. Therefore I will challenge myself throughout the semester to look at what “regular” art exhibitions provide by way of the full experience and strive to create a fluid fully digital equivalent for the exhibition mounting of my final project. This should be a great way of weaving the two artistic areas that my work flows within together.
The content of this final project lies within the other primary goal I have for this computer art course. In many ways visual arts, a little like math actually, are a universal language. My studies within Peace Studies fold together the importance and functioning of nonviolence with current academic discourse on these issues as well as the role social media plays in peace and nonviolence. I will make it a goal of mine to have whatever the images/experiences I create for all my projects, but wholly in my final project, be a widely accessible and understandable representation of the studies I have done for this major throughout my time at CSB/SJU that in themselves advance my goals within the major.
I realize that I cannot describe the specifics of what these goals will entail, but that is part of why they are goals of mine. As this semester, in all my courses, meanders forward I will learn what the tasks and subjects for these goals and my projects will be. Documenting that learning adventure is what a number of the blog posts I do for the computer art class will be doing. I am looking forward to this course where my goals are designed to both further my “regular” computer art skills as well as directly apply them to the fields of web and software design which is consistently looking like it may become more than just a hobby of mine.
One final note: The posts I will post under the “Computer Art” category are all for the computer art class (until Christmas, that is). They will be used in the process and evaluating of my academic projects (so I will be posting some short raw project ideas from time to time), and thus my professor will be keeping track of and maybe even commenting on these posts. That said, one of the main advantages for me doing this blogging within Day by Day versus a separate site for the course alone is that all my normal readers see every post. I welcome you all to comment as you see fit on any of the posts I post for my computer art class this semester. Your suggestions will find their way into my projects as they continuously evolve.
Let the Fall of my senior year begin!