ARTS341 :: Image Practice:: Projects

Project info will be posted as needed.

Meta-Projects

This class is project driven, meaning we will learn and explore the material largely through the completion of individual and group exercises and projects.

Blog Writing: For every reading assigned, each student is responsible for a 100-300 word write up on their own blog. These write ups MUST be completed before class meets on the day the reading is due. You will not be able to make these up. They should summarize what the text was about - the main points addressed by the author. You can use anecdotal narratives and make criticisms of the text, but to receive credit, your write up must attempt to interpret the texts assigned.

Portfolio: Each student must also keep a portfolio of all completed assignments and exercises. This will be turned in at the end of the course, so that I can evaluate progress and effort in the class.

Project 1: The Iconographic City

Part 1: archival exercise

The first part of this exercise involves the development of a basic research methodology - creating an archive of images used in popular media, film, art, literature and other sources (we will not rely on Google image search!). YOU ARE EXPECTED TO COLLECT A DIVERSITY OF FORMS, NOT ALL FROM THE WEB! The purpose of this component is to develop a functional and critical understanding of the deployment of images to create a sense of space and place in a seemingly non-sequential manner. Students should be able to discuss the difference in representational forms chosen, referring to Chandler's text on signs and myth.

Each person is responsible for gathering images on their own - and should have a minimum of 10, and all should be digitized and archived in an accessible manner (meaning you should scan texts and images you find on paper, and get segments of video in an accessible format).

In class, student groups will meet and analyze their members' images more thoroughly, creating a classification system that can help locate meaning. Think of this as a "tagging" system that you can use to find commonalities and differences among your selected images.
We will be using these archives to trace and analyze the construction of images through recent history and using our analysis to construct images for Champaign in Part 2.
Timeline: due in 2 weeks
Research resources:
Ricker Library's Guide to Finding Images
UIUC Library tutorial on primary source document research.
Library of Congress Prints and Photos (Now on flickr)

Part 2: photo-spatial exercise

Students will create a series of 5 iconographic pictures of Champaign-Urbana using a digital camera. Each picture should attempt to convey an interpretive notion of the city through an economy of means, using visual conventions and pictorial concepts that you can argue are socially recognizable. This should be supported and informed by the archive created in Part 1.
Requirements: Each of the photographs will be printed at 8x10 inches (in B/W or color), at 300 ppi, on letter size paper. Pictures should be taken by each student with a camera.
Timeline: due in 1 week

Project 1 skills: research methodologies, use of digital cameras, basic digital image manipulation (sizing, color correction/manipulation in Photoshop)
Resources:
Basic primer on digital cameras and images

Project 2: The Semiotic City

Students will explore the theoretical methodology of semiotics through a further investigation into the notions of perception and image production begun in project 1. Specifically, we will start to look at our surroundings as a readable, yet spatial, text, one with multiple meanings and interpretations.
This exploration will consist of multiple parts, and will employ 2 specific methods of image production: montage and sequential.

Part 1: As Above, So Below?
Each group will examine 2 perspectives of portions of Champaign-Urbana. One is the view "from above" - the area as represented in statistics, averages, satellite images, political and topographic maps and the official narratives told by goverment, media and civic leaders. The other is a view "from below" - the embodied, specific, used, lived in, contested and heterogenous. The position "from below" must represent a position not solely your own, and does not even have to represent a "human" perspective (how do animals use the space, for example?).
Each group will pick a geographic location within Champaign-Urbana that is both part of the cities as well as somehow also their own distinct location.
As in project 1, students will start by producing a usable body of research in the form of images and texts, but this time you will broaden the kinds of research conducted to include interviews, sound recordings, video footage, notes from your own experience (as well as looking at 2d images).
This 2-part analysis will be presented by each group to the class in the form of a short powerpoint or video presentation (10 minute presentations with 5 minutes for Q&A). Each presentation will be evaluated both for the quality of the research and the aesthetic thoughtfulness of the visual presentation. Images should be edited, manipulated and collaged in order to highlight and develop certain aspects of the research. Think of this as storytelling as much as a representation of information.
The group will split tasks along the lines of "above" v "below", with half the group taking on the "above" the other half the "below".
For some basic notes on powerpoint presentations:
Ellen Lupton's "Powerpoint Do's and Don'ts" (download the ppt file!)

Resources of use:

Finding Local and Regional Information
Archive images of campus architectural design
Historical Map archive
Illinois Harvest Digital resources
Champaign County Cultural Memory Project
Geography and Map Library online resources
The Civic Studio's "Alabama St.: Placement" Research Project (at Grand Valley State U in Michigan)
Thinking about borders with Multiplicity

Timeline: 2 weeks

Part 2: Disorientation
Using the information gathered and presented in part 1, each student will construct an interpretive map that uses the codes of cartography and sign systems to tell a story "from below". The purpose of these maps is to generate an alternate reading of a space - creating a sense of place that is not found in the perspective of official maps. Create new symbols and use existing ones in new ways, play with the form and expectations of a map... your map can be a literal representation of a place or a visualization of what goes on in that place, or something in between.
These maps will be produced using Photoshop and Illustrator and printed in color from a final Illustrator file. They should be in tabloid format (11x17).
Timeline: 3 weeks
** DUE: MON NOV 3 **
References:
Counter Cartography's Disorientation Guide
Guy Debord's Theory of the Derive
Timo Arnall's "Graphic Language for Touch" (see the full research report as a PDF)
US National Park Service Map Symbols + Patterns
Homeland Security Symbology study
ETC Group's Nanotech warning symbol
Other hazard symbols
Trevor Paglen's "Symbology"
Terrorism/resistance logos

Project 2 skills: creative research methods, complex digital image manipulation (layers, masking, mark making in Photoshop), vector graphic creation (Illustrator)

Project 3: Transforming Place

This project will focus more intently on one specific place, but rather than simply aggregating existing information and representing it, we will investigate its potential for transformation through the production of images. Through investigations of relevant histories, stories and experiences, you will create a document (or series of documents) that transforms some aspect(s) of the given place. We will do site visits, discuss concerns related to planning and designing places with urban planning scholars, and conduct other forms of experiential, archival and investigative research.
This research phase will be documented and archived as we have been doing throughout the course, using Flickr as a repository for images and your blog for written ideas.

Q. What is the place?
A. The old train depot/platform and water tower near the intersection of E. Main St. & N. Market St. in downtown Champaign - we visited this site with Dave Monk.

In particular, we will consider the production of images as part of a broader, collaborative process. For this project, the images created will be responsive to ideas and desires generated by communities and individuals existing beyond our internal discussions, as well as our own experiences. The basic, abstract goal of the project is to produce images that represent a transformation of the place that attempts to synthesize the interests (even if idiosyncratically) of different segments of the population that might inhabit the place.

To do this, your research methodology is going to include documentary interviews with 3 people. Two of these people must be: 1) someone you do not already know 2) not a student 3) someone who may regularly be in the vicinity of the place. Who can they be? Business owners/employees/customers, nearby residents/tenants, others who occupy/move through the space. Try to talk to a variety of people who might have different perspectives.
You need to thoroughly document these interviews. You can utilize photography, audio and video recording if desired, but these forms will not be required.

Some interviewing techniques to consider:
1. Be prepared with questions relevant to the project.
Some suggestions: What is already here that you enjoy? What is missing from this area that would improve your life? What kinds of places/spaces do you enjoy? What is your history here?
2. Have one person asking the questions and conducting the conversation, while another person records it. Don't overly edit the conversation while recording it, and try to listen to things that may at first not seem related to your goals, give people room to speak beyond the constraints of your specific questions.
3. This is not a sociological research interview. You are not studying these people as subjects or to make generalizations about groups of people. The purpose of the interviews is to inform your proposals, providing narratives and histories that you will respond to.

Students will work in self-selected small groups (of 2 - 4) to produce a work that proposes a transformation of the place, responding to the discussions, interviews and research.

The project will take the following form:
A proposal for transforming the place through addition/subtraction/re-organization. Proposals can be for concrete, architectural structures as well as for temporary, ephemeral, event-based structures, but they must be "public" in nature and cannot consist of traditional business institutions.
(These must take the form of at least 1 18x24 poster and one other form of visual representation, such as animations, 3D renderings (in something like Google SketchUp), comic/zine, video, sculptural/architectural model)
The idea is not necessarily to produce practical, efficient, or even realizable proposals, but to re-imagine how places might be designed to reflect a different set of interests and desires than those that typically underly design decisions.

DEADLINES

+ Interviews must be conducted no later than Wednesday, November 12.
+ First draft proposals for work are due no later than Monday Nov 17 (this must include a synthesis of the research, an outline/sketch of your idea, plan for execution. Visual research must be archived on Flickr.)
+ Final work will be due on Monday Dec 8.
+ A public exhibition and reception will take place during class on Wednesday Dec 10.

Examples: Harrell Fletcher, Park Fiction, Ricardo Miranda Zuniga "From Darkness to Daylight", Experimental Station, Mel Ziegler/Kate Ericson, Jackie Sumell/Herman Wallace

Experiential Exercises: Listening exercise in place, photo derive around place.