Mechatronics

DANM Project Group Proposal

Year: Spring 08 – Winter 09

Faculty: Elliot Anderson

Research Focus: Mechatronics

Title: Methodologies in Bio-Art: Biotechnologies and Environmentalism, Biological Metaphors and Environmental Social Activism in Artmaking

Abstract

The group will examine biology, environmentalism, genetic engineering, robotics, artificial life, genetic algorithms, and other synthetic biologies toward a critical and analysis of current issues and strategies in bio-art. The task is to examine concepts from biology and to use biological ideas, metaphors, and materials to create works of art.  The project group will also examine the historical, social, and cultural relationship to biology, the natural world, and biotechnologies.  Readings will include topics that reflect on history, environmentalism, and social and cultural criticism of bio-art and technologies toward examining ethics and social issues. Topics include an historical overview of human relationships to the natural world, criticism of contemporary technologies, environmental concerns, current strategies and works in bio-art, artists working in biotechnologies, the effects on communities, and ethical concerns in biotechnologies.

Students will develop projects as determined by the instructor with input from the group as a whole.  These projects should engage in a discursive examination of biological based technologies and social issues.  Students will be encouraged to create work that brings about discussions of biotechnologies and/or community activism around environmental concerns.

The work of this group will be published on a website of the group’s design.  This site will include theoretical discussions and information about projects being developed.

Weekly syllabus, including specific reading and writing assignments

Quarter Reading:

Marx, Leo The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964.

Pollan, Michael. The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World. New York: Random House, 2001.

Nye, David E. The American Technological Sublime. Cambridge: MIT, 1994.

Week 1: Overview of project group and discussion of student’s role in and expectations for the group.
Begin discussion of topics and projects.
Discuss and plan website development.

Week 2: Historical issues in cultural understanding and relationship to the natural world

Thoreau, Henry David. “Walking”. American Transcendentalism Website. <www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau>

Hawthorne, Nathaniel "My Visit to Niagara" Ibiblio. 4 Apr. 2006 <http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/niagara.html>.

Burke, Edmund. "On the Sublime and the Beautiful". Vol. XXIV, Part 2. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1904-14; Bartleby.com, 2001. 3 Feb. 2006. <http://www.bartleby.com/24/2/>

Week 3: Continued discussion of history.

	Selecions from:

	Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac. New York: Oxford, 1949.

Solnit, Rebecca. River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West. New York: Penguin, 2003.

Gould, Stephen Jay. The Flamingo’s Smile: Reflections on Natural History. New York: Norton, 1985.

	Begin development of projects
	Begin development of informational website

Week 4: Discussion of contemporary cultural criticism in biotechnologies and environmentalism

Lovins , Amory B. and Lovins, L. Hunter. “A Tale of Two Botanies”.  Wired Magazine: Issue 6.08 | Aug 1998
Joy, Bill. “Why The Future Doesn't Need Us: Our Most Powerful 21st-Century Technologies - Robotics, Genetic Engineering, And Nanotech - Are Threatening To Make Humans An Endangered Species”. Wired Magazine: Issue 8.04, Apr 2000

	Continue development of projects
	Continue work on website

Week 5:	Continuied discussion of cultural and social understanding of biotechnologies and environmentalism

Carlson, Allen and Berleant, Arnold. "Introduction". The Aesthetics of Natural Environments. Ed. Allen Carlson and Arnold Berleant. Ontario: Broadview, 2004. 11-42.

Selection from:
Lopold, Aldo. For the Health of the Land. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1999.

	Launch website.
	Begin work on projects.

Week 6: Land art and environmentalism

Selection from: Solnit, Rebecca. Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Landscape Wars of the American West. New York: Vintage, 1995.

Selection from: Nash, Roderick Frazier. Wilderness and the American Mind. New Haven: Yale, 2001.

	Center for Land Use Interpretation
	Review of website
	Evaluation of project development

Week 7: Artworks by artists working in environmentalism and bio-art.
	Strategies for creating art with biologies and biologically-based technologies

	Readings to be determined
Review/discuassion of The Machine in the Garden, The American Technological Sublime, and The Botany of Desire.

	Website update
	Status of projects

Week 8:	Social and community involvement in environmental issues

Selection from: Nash, Roderick Frazier. Wilderness and the American Mind. New Haven: Yale, 2001.

Other readings to be determined.

	Website update
	Status of projects

Week 9: Social and community discussion cont’d

Readings to be determined
Review/discuassion of The Machine in the Garden, The American Technological Sublime, and The Botany of Desire.

	Complete website
	Status of projects

Week 10: Evaluation of work completed: website and projects
	  Planning for continued work in the following quarter.


Reading list

Burke, Edmund. "On the Sublime and the Beautiful". Vol. XXIV, Part 2. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1904-14; Bartleby.com, 2001. 3 Feb. 2006. http://www.bartleby.com/24/2/.

Carlson, Allen and Berleant, Arnold. "Introduction". The Aesthetics of Natural Environments. Ed. Allen Carlson and Arnold Berleant. Ontario: Broadview, 2004. 11-42.

Gould, Stephen Jay. The Flamingo’s Smile: Reflections on Natural History. New York: Norton, 1985.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel "My Visit to Niagara" Ibiblio. 4 Apr. 2006 http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/niagara.html.

Joy, Bill. “Why The Future Doesn't Need Us: Our Most Powerful 21st-Century Technologies - Robotics, Genetic Engineering, And Nanotech - Are Threatening To Make Humans An Endangered Species”. Wired Magazine: Issue 8.04, Apr 2000

Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac. New York: Oxford, 1949.

Lopold, Aldo. For the Health of the Land. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1999.

Lovins , Amory B. and Lovins, L. Hunter. “A Tale of Two Botanies”.  Wired Magazine: Issue 6.08 | Aug 1998
Marx, Leo The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964.

Nash, Roderick Frazier. Wilderness and the American Mind. New Haven: Yale, 2001.

Nye, David E. The American Technological Sublime. Cambridge: MIT, 1994.

Nye, David E. America as Second Creation: Technology and Narratives of New Beginnings. Cambridge: MIT, 2004.

Nye, David E., et. al. Technology of Landscape: from Reaping to Recycling.  Ed. David E. Nye, Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1999.

Pollan, Michael. The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World. New York: Random House, 2001.

Schama, Simon. Landscape and Memory. New York: Vintage, 1996.

Solnit, Rebecca. River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West. New York: Penguin, 2003.

Solnit, Rebecca. Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Landscape Wars of the American West. New York: Vintage, 1995.

Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York: Dell, 1977.

Wilson, Alexander. The Culture of Nature.  Cambridge: Blackwell, 1992.

Criteria for evaluation

Students will be evaluated by their participation in discussion on topics introduced in class based on readings, the development of projects from conception to actualization, involvement in developing theories related to the topics at hand, and attendance.

Space and equipment needs

Meeting room with video projector and computer.  Studio (E102 Baskin) for development of projects.  Electronics Lab.





















rev. 5/24/06
View Source: Documents Of Record / Project Groups / 08-09 / Mechatronics

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