Computing Culture
This is a syllabus and references for a class I taught at University of Denver in the Spring of 2024. This was an undergraduate course open to everyone at the university. I had students majoring in Computer Science, Art, Marketing, Business and others. Diversity made our discussion lively. I’m very happy with the overall experiences and output of this class.
This course focuses on the history and theory of computing technologies, and their impact on the arts and society. Computing, in this context, ranges from ancient mechanical computers, telecommunication, and colonial infrastructure and contemporary highspeed networks, social networks, and Artificial Intelligence. How do these technologies impact modern societies? What artworks (visual art, literature, music and more) utilize computing in creative and critical ways? How can art and computing create social change? What are the negative legacies of colonialism embedded in both art and computation? What are meaningful decolonial practices stemming from the Global South and North that enable the collective stewardship of new technologies? Students will analyze technologies, art, and human creations through qualitative analysis and creative interpretations. Each class will center around a reading assignment, group and individual presentations, and discussion. For the online research project, each student will be expected to create a multimedia document in the class Canvas, based on their analytical, creative and personal research throughout the quarter. The midterm and final exams will consist of onsite, written responses to a series of research questions prepared by the professor. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.
Learning Objectives
Students will learn the history and theory behind contemporary art and technology, poetic computation, critical engineering and social practices in contemporary art.
Students will grow their understanding of the relationships between computational systems, colonialism past and present, art institutions and the art market.
Develop a complex and nuanced appreciation of social justice, transformative justice, and social practices.
AI-SOCIETY & CULTURE LEARNING OUTCOMES
In this course, students learn to:
- Apply the methods or techniques appropriate to disciplines in the arts or humanities in order to interpret texts, ideas or artifacts, or engage in creative activity (performance, composition, etc.).
- Analyze the relationship between texts, ideas, or creative works and a broader context (intellectual, political, artistic, etc.) in ways appropriate to disciplines in the arts or humanities.
- Create unique research methodologies that combine quantitative and qualitative analysis of arts and culture, build a framework for others to utilize the research methodologies.
Lecture videos
Some of the lectures were recorded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD7GG_2GfvI
Lab 1 Computing, Finance and Art
1. What NFTs Mean for Contemporary Art
2. Metakovan, the mystery Beeple art buyer, and his NFT/DeFi scheme
3. Q&A: Are NFTs the Future of Art?
Read all three essays, make notes of key terms and be ready to debate in class about Pros/Cons of NFT for Contemporary Art
Lab activity
1. Submit a pdf of your notes from the reading. the note can contain key terms, questions, links and images. PDF format. no page limit.
2. Research how you can create NFT art work. Find platforms, create log in accounts, make your own NFT if possible. Create a diagram of the steps. PDF horizontal format. no page limit.
3. Research how you can purchase NFT art work using cryptocurrency. Create a diagram of every steps. PDF horizontal format. no page limit.
Lab 2 Meta cringe
1. Shane Denson, From sublime awe to abject cringe: on the embodied processing of AI art.
2. Refik Anadol’s “Unsupervised”
Lab activity
1. Submit a pdf of your notes from the reading. the note can contain key terms, questions, links and images. PDF format. no page limit.
2. Research how you can create AI art work. Find services, softwares, create log in accounts, make your own AI art if possible. Create a diagram of the steps. PDF horizontal format. no page limit.
3. Research AI art you actually like. Describe why you like it, what values you find from it. 1 page PDF.
Lab 3 Investigative Journalism, Forensic Algorithm
Required readings and viewings
1. Triple Chaser,Links to an external site. Living ArcheologyLinks to an external site., Palestine/Israel
2. When Does Artistic Research Become Fake News? Forensic Architecture Keeps Dodging The Question
3.”Humanitarian Violence” in Gaza: Architect Eyal Weizman on Mapping Israel’s “Genocidal Campaign” and Digital authoritarianism and how to fight it
Submissions
1. Submit a pdf of your notes from the reading. the note can contain key terms, questions, links and images. PDF format. no page limit.
2. Research about the qualitative research methods employed by Forensic Architecture. Create a diagram and/or summary. PDF format. no page limit.
3. Research about the quantitative research methods employed by Forensic Architecture. Create a diagram and/or summary. PDF format. no page limit.
Lab 4 Computing and Colonialism
1.Where would you like to place your pet giraffe?
2. See No Evil
3. Dark Side of Electrical Cars
Lab submissions
1. Submit a pdf of your notes from the reading. the note can contain key terms, questions, links and images. PDF format. no page limit.
2. Create a map, diagram of how an element (one particular technical component, like battery, chip, glass) in iPhone. PDF
3. Create a map, diagram of how an iPhone is discarded after you throw away. PDF.
Midterm
Proposal → Quiz → Project Submission → Class Presentation
Main Readings: Computational, Legal, Social Operating Systems by Tara McPherson
Essay contribution to class Zine.Illustrated essay, 6 pages, each page 8.5 in x 11 in. CMYK. Full bleed printing. up to 6 points.
The essay needs to address the key concepts in Tara McPherson’s essay, and at least one of the essays covered between lab 1~4.
The essay needs to be accompanied with illustration (created digitally or by hand) and the key textual component need to be legible.
Presentation
In-class, in-person presentation. up to 4 points.
You may use keynote or powerpoint to highlight the zine contribution and your ideas.
Final
Proposal → Quiz → Project Submission
Main Reading: Climate Change and all of our relationships
First, please read/ watch the video on your own time.
The Final Project is text submission in direct response to Nabil Hassein’s ask in the final section.
how are all of your relationships, I hope that I have made my perspective very clear for all of you throughout this talk that I’m not asking for charity work — that I am not saying, like, oh, how can we as privileged, well-off people help those poor unenlightened people over there? That is simply not how I view it. I view it very differently. And to drive this home, I leave you with the words of James Baldwin speaking in 1962, in a time, in some ways, very different from ours, in other ways, not so different. His words really resonated with me following the organizing work that I previously mentioned and the movement for Black Lives. And I hope that these same words resonate with you all today, as well.
I am tired of being told, well, not only to wait, but I’m tired of people saying, what should I do? They mean, what should I do about the Negro problem? What can I do for you? There is nothing you can do for me. There is nothing you can do for Negroes. It must be done for you.
It must be done for you. We must repair all of our relationships, not for anyone else’s sake, but for our own
What will you do — to repair your relationships with technology, environment, and society?
In the essay, you must
- Quote or reference Hassein’s speech directly, and offer your responses or interpretations
- Include 3(reference or original) images and captions for each images
- numbered bibliography, Chicago style citation
The Final Project needs to be 1500~1700 words essay in docx format.
- One-inch margins.
- Double-spaced text.
- Easy-to-read font (typically Times New Roman) in size 12.
- New paragraphs indented 0.5 inches.
- Italicized media titles (books, magazines, etc.), no underlining.
- Page numbers in the header 0.5 inches from the top of the page.
- All images need to be caption
Grading
- Up to 5 points for timely proposal in 1 page.
- Up to 10 points for the Quality of your writing.
- Up to 5 points for final art work submission.
How I see the quality of your writing
- Is your writing original — uniquely your own voice?
- Is your grammar and logic excellent?
- Is your content provocative? (You Do NOT need to agree with my politics, or Nabil Hassein’s politics, as long as you offer constructive feedback)
- Is your work scholarly? (Do you refer to other scholars, theory, history or engineering
Additionally, I will ask 1 original art work or diagram that demonstrates your idea in the final.
The art work needs to be letter size, 8.5 by 11 inches, Letter Size, CMYK and in PDF format. The art work can be your own drawing, or computer generated. The artwork will amount for 5 points.
Student Evaluation
• Taeyoon Choi is really good about feedback, and does everything in a timely manner. He genuinely cares about student success, and wants us all to learn and increase our knowledge. Assignments felt like a lot of work at times, but were also effective and I didn’t mind really We learned about current issues that felt really relevant, and I could use things I learned in class in discussion outside of class. I felt I was challenged in a good way by this course and instructor.
• the lectures were interesting and engaging, the labs were pretty useful for helping me understand the concepts that we were learning and also taught me some graphics design basics • he is passionate about his personal opinions
• I like how opinionated he is. I like that I get to share my own strong opinions in his class as well.
• When I started this class, I was worried that I wouldn’t do well based on the first couple of grades, feedback, and quiz. I’m not a strong test taker and I struggled at first with the material. However, I’ve never received more honest and helpful criticism than I have in this class, and when I implemented that feedback, I feel like it was noticed and valued. There was always room for growth in this class and I learned more in 10 weeks in this class than some other quarters in their entirety. When I did start getting the grades I wanted, it felt earned, and a lot of classes at DU hand out an A just for showing up. I really appreciated the depth of this class and the material; it pushed me to be a more critical thinker, more outspoken about my beliefs, confront by own biases and and more perceptive of the world around me. It’s clear that the professor has a fresh, well-developed understanding of the material. This class was hard, in a good way.
