COURSE DESCRIPTION

ARS 495 // HYPER-ARCHITECTURE

M/W: 8a - 10:30p, AEIVA 204

Spring 2017

// COURSE DESCRIPTION

This is a practical course with a theoretical component that delves into the intersection between Art, Architecture and Science.

The class provides a platform for a group of UAB Department of Art and Art History students to assist Jessica Angel with the production of this site-specific installation. Participants are also gaining in-depth insight to the concepts and research that support the project.

Neo-futurism in architecture, geometry, relativity and the fourth dimension, will be the main subjects to be treated in the workshop. Students will examine different artistic skills ranging from perspective drawing, large-scale collage, and video editing/documentation. All processes concerning the production of the project at AEIVA will be shared with the students who will experience the professional aspect of art and large-scale installations production.

 

After the installation is completed, participants will continue working with John Thomas installing the BFA shown gaining experience in art handling.

// COURSE STRUCTURE

Theoretical Component:

The theoretical component of the course is structured in a way where participants have a creative approach to the bibliographical material Jessica Angel provides by creating mental structures based on networks and information visualization. The guest artist presents a lecture every Monday from 8:00am to 10:30 am.

Practical Component: Participants assist the artist to achieve the overall production of the installation inside the AEIVA building for 12 hours a week, A schedule is arranged so the artist is working with a minimum of two students at the same time.

// TEXTBOOK AND REQUIRED MATERIALS

The course will cover an extensive list of bibliographical material that students will access in a creative way.

WEEK 1: Art , Architecture and the City of Codification

Objective: Introduction to the project and program - Contextualizing the aesthetics of the project to its visual and conceptual references.

THEORETICAL COMPONENT: Neo-futurism in Architecture. Italian Futurism. ZERO Movement.

·       Introduction to Randal Stout and Frank Gehry

·       Analyzing Architectural references for the project such as Archigram, Superstudio, Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhaas.

·       Mies van der Rohe and futurism.

·       Drawn into the future: Italian Futurism 1909 - 1944. Ivo Pannaggi, Antonio Sant'Elia and Mario Chiattone

·       ZERO: Heinz Mack and Otto Piene

·       The highlights of architectural drawing in the 20th century

References:

·       Hal Foster, The Art- Architecture Complex (Verso Books, 2011)

·       Rem Koolhass, Delirious New York (The Monacelli Press, 1994)

·       Viviene Greene, Italian Futurism 1909-1944. Reconstructing the Universe (Guggenheim Museum Publications, 2014)

·       Valerie Hillings and Edouard Dermon. ZERO. Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950's - 60's (Guggenheim Museum Publications, 2015)

·       Neil Bingham, 100 Years of Architectural Drawing 1900-2000 (Laurence King Publishing 2013)

WEEK 2: Hard Edge Space vs. Dynamic Space

Objective: Understanding the concept of space in relationship to what inhabits it.

THEORETICAL COMPONENT: Space and Place.

·       Systems, flux and the interaction of the structure with the outside world.

·       Architectural Space and Awareness - Yi-Fu Tuan

·       Time in Experiential Space- Yi-Fu Tuan

·       Smooth and the striated spaces - Gilles Deleuze

·       Urban Utopias: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier

·       Ambience and Sight. Yi-Fu Tuan

References:

·       Robert Fishman, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century (The MIT Press, 2011)

·       Richard Register, Ecocities. Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature  (The Monacelli Press, 1982)

·       Yi-Fu Tuan, Segmented Worlds and Self. (University of Minnesota Press 1982)

·       Yi-Fu Tuan, Time and Place. (University of Minnesota Press 1977)

·       Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus (University of Minnesota Press 1994)

WEEK 3: Installation Art, Architecture and Immersive Environments

Objective: Revising examples of contemporary installation art, large-scale drawing and the history of immersive environments.

THEORETICAL COMPONENT:  From Illusion to Immersion

·       Installation art and experience

·       Virtuality vs. Reality

·       The history of panoramas

·       Spherical field of vision

·       Activated spectatorship

·       Kurt Schwitters. Merzbau

·       Installation artists: Sol LeWitt, Sarah Oppenheimer, Peter Kloger, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Morris, and Lucas Samaras

References:

·       Vitamin 3-D, New Perspectives in Sculpture and Installation (Phaidon Press, 2014)

·       Clair Bishop, Installation Art  (TATE Publishing, 2005)

·       Oliver Grau, Virtual Art, From Illusion to Immersion. (The MIT Press, 2003)

·       Susan Cross and Denise Markonish, Sol LeWitt. 100 Views. (Yale University Press, 2009)

 WEEK 4:  Perspective and Projections

Objective: Brief introduction to the history of perspective. Studying the different applications of perspective in installation art and architectural drawing.

THEORETICAL COMPONENT: Projections

·       Non Euclidean perspective

·       Graphical projection and descriptive geometry

·       The expanded field

·       Brief history of perspective

References:

·       Spyros Papapetros and Julian Rose, Retracting the Expanded Field: Encounters Between Art and Architecture (The MIT Press, 2014)

·       Erwin Panofsky, Perspective as a Symbolic Form  (Zone Books, 1991)

·       The Changing of the Avant-Garde. Visionary Architectural Drawings of the Howard Gilman Collection (The Museum of Modern Art, 2002)

 WEEK 5:  Visual Complexity

Objective: Understanding the net-structure of the installation advancement based on network and information visualization examples.

THEORETICAL COMPONENT: Networks

·       The structure of knowledge and the construction of ideas

·       The city as an organic network

·       Neuronal structure and its similarities with urban structures and the structure of the universe (patterns)

·       Cybernetics and collective intelligence

·       Micro and macro readings

·       Rhizomes

References:

·       Edward R. Tufte, Envisioning Information (Graphics Press, 1990)

·       Manuel Lima, Visual Complexity. Mapping Patterns of Information (Princeton Architectural Press 2011)

·       Lars Bang Larsen, Networks (Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art) (The MIT Press, 2014)

WEEK 6: Geometry and the Fourth Dimension

Objective: Presenting the footing to be able to understand the possibility of higher 

dimensions. These concepts are applied in the installation design

THEORETICAL COMPONET: Multi-Dimensional Space

·       Non-euclidean geometry

·       Curved space

·       Projective geometry

·       Hypercubes and hyperpheres

·       Manifolds- Riemann

·       Stereographic projection

References:

·       Rudolf V. Rucker, Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension (over Publications, 1977)

·       Chris McMullen, Visual Guide to Extra Dimensions. (Custom Books, 2008)

·       Claude Bragdon, Four-Dimensional Vistas (Custom Books)

·       Edwin A. Abbott. Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions (1984)

      https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Abbott/paper.pdf

WEEK 7: Space and Time

Objective: Connecting the subjects of architecture, geometry, and installation art to science, using the concept of "structure" as a common denominator.

THEORETICAL COMPONENT: The Architecture of the Universe

·       The fabric of space-time. Einstein's theory of relativity

·       Gravity vs. electromagnetism

·       Quantum geometry

·       The structure of the universe

References:

·       Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe (Vintage Books, 1999)

·       Hans Reichenbach, The Philosophy of Space and Time  (Dover Publications,1958)

·       Michael Benson, Cosmigraphics. Picturing Space Through Time. (Abrams Books, 2014)

WEEK 8: What is Cosmology?

Objective: Introduction to the history of cosmology finding analogies between the mega structures of the cosmos to the structural principles of the AEIVA building.

THEORETICAL COMPONENT: The universe at its largest scale

·       Deep universe

·       Lanyakea and the largest galaxy clusters  

·       Our place in the universe

·       Brief history of the Big Bang theory

·       Computer simulations of the largest scales of the universe

References:

Cosmology Lecture 1 History https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZatPur3oJ5o

Our Place in the Universe: Cosmology from Ancient Greece to Today  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Sh9IjoPzQ

Deep Universe: Hubble's Universe Unfiltered https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4GKf623Exk&list=LLT5Vy2bkYpxbNkAkRmjLb2A&in dex=37

Brian Greene, Envisioning Information (Vintage Books, 1999)

WEEK 9 Art and Science

Objective: Revising how cutting-edge science is redefining contemporary art.

THEORETICAL COMPONENT: What is Sci-Art?

·       Designing life

·       Art and technology

·       Beauty in Nature, beauty in art

·        

References:

·       Sian Ede, Art and Science (Published by I.B. Taurus, 2005)

·       Arthur L Miller, Colliding Worlds: How Science is Redefining Contemporary Art (W.W. Norton Press, 2014)

                                          

WEEK 10: Art and Participation

Objective: Developing concepts around the idea of art and participation considering the opportunity of opening the space to collaborations and activations from innovator in different fields.

THEORETICAL COMPONENT:

·       Community and Interaction

·       Multidisciplinary endeavors

·       Relational Aesthetics - Nicolas Bourriaud

·       The death of the author - Roland Barthes

·       On democracy in art

·       Participation - Assume Vivid Astro Focus (artist)

References:

·       Clair Bishop, Participation Networks (Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art) (The MIT Press, 2014)

·       Pablo Helguera, Education for Socially Engaged Art (W.W. Norton Press, 2014)

·       Grand H. Kester, The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context (Duke University Press, 2011)