breeze /breeze 203 minicourse
Fabricio (Breeze) Olsson, DANM 203, 5/23/2007
Digital Hippie Art: Environmental Activism through Digital Art (4-week course)
Though the jury is still out on a formal definition, Environmental Art is “in a general sense, it is art that helps improve our relationship with the natural world.” (as suggested by greenmuseum.org)
This course explores environmental art within the historical context of contemporary activist art. It is a broad overview of environmental perspectives intended to enrich our analysis of current environmental concerns and their interpretation through (primarily digital) art.
In formal analysis of contemporary works of art (environmental design, ecological design, social restoration, ecological restoration) we investigate four main aspects of environmental art:
- Interpretation of nature, it’s processes, current environmental problem
- Work that affects, or is affected by environmental forces/materials (wind, water, lightning, earthquakes)
- Relationship with nature (co-existence)
- Reclamation and/or restoration of ecosystems through artistic intervention
Each student participates (individually or in small groups) in a creative project. Informed by our research, projects could include installations, performances, publications, or sculpture. The final digital media projects (music, multi-media, video montage, digital collage) will be presented in a gallery, alternative public space, and/or web site or CD-R formats. The goal of the project is to encourage public dialogue about the position of technology in current environmental issues. How can technology highlight environmental issues? What is technology's role in preserving nature? How does questioning reality, either virtual or real, help us improve our relationship with the natural world? How can technology enable communication about ecological conservation between people over distance?
Written Paper Guidelines:
- 750-1000 words (3-4 pages typed, double spaced)
- Write the paper in the first person.
- Position yourself (pick sides, if you will) in one of the paradigms described by Steven Cotgrove’s “Environmentalism and Utopia” -- Dominant Social (enlightenment) vs. Alternative Environmental (counter-enlightenment)
- Establish parallel examples of ‘early’ activist art and environmental art.
- Affects of digital age on activist art (stick to environmental whenever possible)
Digital Media Project Guidelines: Individually or in small groups
- Format: installations, performances, publications, or sculpture.
- Medium: music, multi-media, video montage, digital collage
- Presentation: gallery, alternative public space and/or web site, or CD-R/DVD
Week by week schedule:
Week 1: Activism (feminism, Chicano, gay, peace, AIDS, prison)
Reading:
Donna DeSalvo?, “Where We Begin, opening the system, c.1970”
Suggested:
Nina Felshin, But is it art? The spirit of art as activism, 1995
Lucy Lippard, A different war: Vietnam in art, 1990
Rob Baker, The art of AIDS, 1994
Week 2: Global Environmentalism: a historical overview
Reading:
Duncan M. Taylor, Environmentalism and Dualism in the History of Ideas
Sarah Graddy, Creative and Green: Art, Ecology, and Community
Suggested Films:
Pare Lorentz, The River: A U.S. Documentary Film, 1937 (archive.org)
Al Gore, Inconvenient Truth, 2006
Chris Paine, Who Killed the Electric Car?, 2006
Week 3: Local Environmental Art
Reading:
Gnarojin Park: National Award for Innovation (web)
Rumme: Living River (CD Rom)
Week 4: Ditial/New Media Environments
Reading:
Paradigmatic Performance: Data Flow and Practice in the Wild (web)
The Great Park Project: A field guide o surveying open space in urban areas (web)
Artists: 
http://danm.ucsc.edu/~breeze/danm203/artists/
Steven Cotgrove’s “Environmentalism and Utopia” -- Dominant Social (enlightenment) vs. Alternative Environmental (counter-enlightenment)
Pepon Osorio:
Trials and Turbulance, 2004
Buster Simpson:
Cydifiat (Confluence), 2003
Amy Franceschini:
Photosynthesis Robot, 2003
Frans Lanting:
http://www.LifeThroughTime.com , 2006
The Telegarden
1996-97: On Exhibit at the Ars Electronica Center
http://www.usc.edu/dept/garden/
Reading
Bibliography:
DeSalvo?, Donna. “Where We Begin, opening the system, c.1970.” Open Systems: Rethinking Art c. 1970 catalog, Tate Modern, London 1 June-29August 2005: pp. 10-23.
Felshin, Nina. But Is It Art? The spirit of art as activism. Washington: Bay Press, 2006.
Gnarojin Park: National Award for Innovation. 5/22/2007 < http://www.sustainability.murdoch.edu.au/community/su/gnarojinpark.html>
Graddy, Sarah E. Creative and Green: Art, Ecolog, and Community. (greenmuseum.org)
“Paradigmatic Performance: Data Flow and Practice in the Wild.” Leonardo Electronic Almanac (Vol 14 Iissue 07-08 Novermber 2006). 5/22/2007 < http://www.leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_14/lea_v14_n07-08/BStalbaum_LEA140708.pdf>
Rumme: Living River. MMPublishing Multi Media? (2003) <CD Rom>
Taylor, Duncan Mac Donald?. Environmentalism and Dualism in the History of Ideas. Santa Cruz: UCSC, 1985
“The Great Park Project: A field guide o surveying open space in urban areas.” 5/22/2007 < http://www.futurefarmers.com/greatpark/proposals.html>