Why?

Net Art is already more than 30 years old. The Internet is not just a source for information, but also a place where art can be made and exhibited. It is worth exploring the possibilities of art that is native to the Internet.

Brief

You will conceptualize, plan, and launch a five-page (minimum) piece of Net Art with reciprocal links between the five+ pages. Your project must employ both HTML and CSS of your own design, and at least one image and one video. You will include your name in a comment at the top of each of your HTML pages. Your piece should be conceptually based, meaning that the idea helps drive the decisions you make as you execute the piece. Since this project is to be native to the Web, consider what that means to make work on the Internet and for display on the Internet in the twenty-first century.

Your piece could be a text-based narrative, a multi-page game, a formalist exercise in Post-Internet chaos, a frustration and complication of website expectations and design, an autobiographical videolog, a navigable treatise in the form of YouTube tutorials, or many other options. It should be more than just a “gallery,” but something that leverages interaction, navigation, and the possibilities of code and website structures.

Consider the following examples of Net Art through recent history:

• äda ‘web (1994–1998)
• intotime.com (2011)
• Dis Image (2013)
• Mezzanine (2022)

Your project can be hosted on Tumblr, GitHub, or a third party if you clear it with the instructor first.

Submission Checklist

Plan and execute a thoughtful and well-crafted Net Art project. Make sure you have employed at least one image and one video on your site. Make sure your code includes your name in a comment at the top of your HTML. Test your pages thoroughly and look for inconsistencies, code glitches, and dead links. Submit your site’s URL on Learning Suite in the text field. Submit your self evaluation as a Word doc along with your assignment.

Tips and Considerations

• Your project should be conceptually grounded, so let your central idea inform how you create the work.
• Consider the time given for you to plan and execute the project and come up with something appropriate and ambitious.
• Ask yourself what you are hoping to accomplish with this project.
• Set a production schedule for yourself to account to code, edit, and test.
• How will you capture the video and the sound? Do you need to have multiple cameras and/or microphones?
• Experiment! Ask yourself “what if” questions and try out those ideas with quick prototypes. Don’t make the first time you try out the ideas be for the final production.
• Own your decisions. Don’t just make decisions based on convenience or laziness. Make choices that are informative for the piece.
• Use the instructor! Ask questions. Seek input. Brainstorm with them.

Tutorials

Getting Started with GitHub

Introduction to GitHub

Once you have created a GitHub account, this walks you through some of the basics of working with GitHub Pages to host your site.

Creating a GitHub Pages Site

Words: 1,250

~8 minutes

“If you want to create a GitHub Pages site for a repository where not all of the files in the repository are related to the site, you will be able to configure a publishing source for your site. For example, you can have a dedicated branch and folder to hold your site source files, or you can use a custom GitHub Actions workflow to build and deploy your site source files.”

Getting Started with Tumblr

Create a Tumblr Blog – Complete Tutorial, David Utke

June 16. 2021

“Tumblr is owned and managed by the company behind the development of WordPress. So Tumblr is often over looked and forgotten about but it's a really fun, creative and expressive platform. Best of all, you can create your own website with it's own custom domain! On Tumblr you can design your own website to your liking, easily share blog posts, pictures, quotes, audio and more. It's perfect for anyone looking to curate content around a specific topic.”

Projects

• Lauren Alleman
• May Asai
• Ainsley Bird
• Alyssa Brown
• Claire Corey
• Allison Durfee
• Talavou Fitesemanu
• Avlynn Hammond
• Emma Hunter
• Kaden Kirk
• Maddie Orme
• Abbie Platt
• Aubrie Yingling

Grading

Assignment grades will be based on the following:

Conceptual Concerns (40%)

Student demonstrates evidence that they understand and inventively integrate conceptual concerns and implications of print and web design.

• Excellent: Student demonstrates conversational familiarity with the material—making interesting connections between ideas, readings, and presentations.
• Average: Student is able to recall and recite material, but not do anything interesting with it.
• Below Average: Student struggles to demonstrate a grasp of the material and shows no facility in connecting ideas or new thinking.

Execution (40%)

When executing a project, the student demonstrates a firm grasp of the materials, techniques, hardware, and software. The student’s skills and approach are appropriate to their concept. In written/oral assignments, this includes proper spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, grammar and formatting for written assignments; and annunciation, confidence and focused arguments for oral assignments.

• Excellent: Student displays skills and sensitivity when creating projects. The level of craft and approach to making is appropriate to the concept. In written/oral assignments, student understands writing and presentation modes including style guides and oral confidence and is able to nimbly employ these tools in their art projects, writing, and speaking.
• Average: Student work shows some flaws in their understanding of materials and skills. Stylistic and formatting mistakes are present.
• Below Average: The execution is unconsidered and hasty. Student repeatedly makes the same mistakes and ignores instructor input and suggestions.

Assessment/Critique (10%)

The student will produce a self-evaluation for each art project including the strengths and weaknesses of a given work and plans for future improvement. This will also include an accounting of time taken. The student will also be present for and participate in group critiques of projects.

• Excellent: The student thoughtfully and honestly engages in the self-reflective process of critiquing their own work and efforts. The student enthusiastically engages with group critiques, seeking ways to offer constructive feedback to other students.
• Average: The student performs a cursory and surface-level assessment of their work and efforts. They make neutral comments during the group critiques and do not fully engage.
• Below Average: The student demonstrates an inability to honestly engage with their work as it exists in the world, and does not adequately participate in group critiques, or is absent/tardy.

Following Instructions (10%)

The student adheres to the guidelines provided for the course and the assignment. If the paper has a particular framework, the student adheres to that framework. If an assignment is to be submitted as a Word doc on Learning Suite, the student does not email the instructor a PDF.

• Excellent: A detail-oriented student who takes instruction and fastidiously executes it within their work.
• Average: A student who misses some details because they didn’t read instructions thoroughly or take proper notes when instructions were given.
• Below Average: Student ignores basic instructions and guidance given for assignments.

On-time Submission

Projects lose 5 points (our of 100) per 24-hour period they are late. If an assignment is submitted 5 minutes late, that is within the first 24-hour period, so it loses 5 points. If it is 27 hours late, that puts it in the second 24-hour perdiod, so it loses 10 points.

Learning Outcomes Addressed

Design Fundamentals and Processes

Students will be able to implement the steps that guide a designer to effective solutions, apply compositional skills to design problems, and employ fundamentals of 2D design such as grid systems and the basics of typography.

Technical Proficiency

Students will be able to employ the technical fundamentals of print and web design and production.

Professional Practices

Students will be able to employ professional practices in supporting their art through a portfolio website and awareness of professional opportunities for studio artstis to deploy their art skills in commercial contexts.