Basic introduction to the use of a computer as a fine art tool and medium. Addresses basic skills, concepts relevant to contemporary art theories, and practices. Provides a hands-on introduction to fundamentals of graphics, image acquisition, and manipulation and programming with demonstrations of relevant software. Students work independently and in groups. Assignments include digital image acquisition and manipulation, basic scripting, hypertext and web publishing, and computer programming. Lectures, readings, and discussions examine new technology artwork and technology's relationship to contemporary culture.

An exploration will also be made into the history of the use of the computer for making art, from the early collaborations between Bell Telephone Labs in the mid 1960’s to the latest algorithmic explorations like Electric Sheep.

Link to Class Detail section of UCSC Schedule of Classes

Students will learn to construct interactive creative artworks displayed through a computer connected to the Internet and a web browser. To this end they will become familiar with the basics of creating two-dimensional digital images, the acquisition and modification of digital photographs, the creation of two-dimensional animation, and the assembling, coding and uploading of a web-site.