Lecturer: Andreas Schlegel
Class hours: Friday, 10am-1pm
Location: B309
Synopsis:
“In as much as a system may contain people, ideas, messages, atmospheric conditions, power sources, and so on, a system is, to quote the systems biologist, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, a 'complex of components in interaction', comprised of material, energy and information in various degrees of organization.” Jack Burnham, System Esthetics, 1968. Drawing Machines is a course that will look at art making strategies that use systems and rule based approaches. Participants will be exposed to a range of artists, works, and techniques that make use of rules, instructions, systems, data or code. Although these are rather technological terms they are not reserved exclusively for technological applications but are being used by artists as materials and tools with diverse outcomes reflecting upon society, politics, culture, nature or beauty.This course aims to discover the Art of Systems and Rule-Based Art making by going back in time and looking at various artists and movements creating works by applying systematic approaches and rules. We will explore techniques that allow us to generate images through instructions, we will look at the beauty and complexity of systems and their visual expressions and we will study and evaluate these based on their rules and sets of instructions. During this course, students may choose to work in any media including but not limited to sculpture, installation, performance, social practice, and/or conceptual art. To capture the development and process of outcome, participants are required to document their individual journey in form of a journal, blog or documentary video. Through lectures, research, and class discussion, students will examine the ways in which artists have responded to and recontextualized systems and rule-based strategies in their work.
Class hours: Friday, 10am-1pm
Location: B309
Synopsis:
“In as much as a system may contain people, ideas, messages, atmospheric conditions, power sources, and so on, a system is, to quote the systems biologist, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, a 'complex of components in interaction', comprised of material, energy and information in various degrees of organization.” Jack Burnham, System Esthetics, 1968. Drawing Machines is a course that will look at art making strategies that use systems and rule based approaches. Participants will be exposed to a range of artists, works, and techniques that make use of rules, instructions, systems, data or code. Although these are rather technological terms they are not reserved exclusively for technological applications but are being used by artists as materials and tools with diverse outcomes reflecting upon society, politics, culture, nature or beauty.This course aims to discover the Art of Systems and Rule-Based Art making by going back in time and looking at various artists and movements creating works by applying systematic approaches and rules. We will explore techniques that allow us to generate images through instructions, we will look at the beauty and complexity of systems and their visual expressions and we will study and evaluate these based on their rules and sets of instructions. During this course, students may choose to work in any media including but not limited to sculpture, installation, performance, social practice, and/or conceptual art. To capture the development and process of outcome, participants are required to document their individual journey in form of a journal, blog or documentary video. Through lectures, research, and class discussion, students will examine the ways in which artists have responded to and recontextualized systems and rule-based strategies in their work.