Intro

The agility of media technologies to explode the Time / Space / Distance equation established by Newtonian physics three centuries ago, has enabled a host of disciplines to reconsider the way that they work with space. �Invisible Architecture� explores the diversity of models of ‘space’ and ‘place’ (real and virtual) that emerge through our understanding of and interaction with Digital Media. The practical development of the evolution of these new and old spaces is placed within a critical and theoretical context, through the exploration of historical and contemporary concepts of ‘space’ and the impact of VR on notions of ‘real space’ ‘Cyberspace’, ‘Mediaspace’, and ‘Dataspace’, etc.

Traditionally the distinction between the public and the private was located at and limited to the front door or the facade. Today, a third condition proliferates; electronic space has introduced another public domain, de-localized in the infinite thickness of the screen. Neither here nor there, neither then nor now: no-one, no-where, no-when, this computer screen, more than the television, has intensively and extensively transformed the meaning of the facade as barrier.�
Winka Dubbeldam, (In-)crease: Integral Architectures.

Space, is not a Cartesian given, but a negotiable and explorative concept. Spaces are produced in many different forms, and the context for the module is the broad range of frameworks through which it is possible to interpret them. Writers such as Iain Borden use Skateboarding as a theoretical and cultural device to untangle how the body and architecture relate. Peter Anders uses the term �Cybrid� to describe the union of physical and electronic spaces and objects. Adopting different perspectives from which to observe how space is produced, architects, artists, writers and scientists have illustrated the complexity that arises from using one word to identify a common aspect of experience.


Intro

Histories & Futures explores contemporary forms of cultural and technological production – using ‘software art’ as a case study.

This evokes a previous discussion around the impact of new technology on the conventions of art:
‘Earlier much futile thought had been devoted to the question of whether photography is an art. The primary question – whether the very invention of photography had not transformed the nature of art – was not raised. Soon the film theoreticians asked the same ill-considered question with regard to film’ (Benjamin 1999: 220).

The module focuses on ‘software art’ as an emergent practice that appears to exemplify both a technical and cultural processes. It emphasises that software is not merely functional but can have poetic qualities, and political significance. Whether software art is art or not is simply the wrong question to ask (as Benjamin suggests in the above quote).

This recent attention to software art is partly due to a range of cultural events that grant critical attention to the materiality of code, and drawing attention to the structures of programming that lie behind the work. This is part of a historical lacunae that has tended to overlook the material and aesthetic aspects of software, and recognise that programming code is inevitably a significant part of all art that is digitally produced.


Intro

The Negotiated Practice module is the equivalent of a themed/taught 20 credit module and offers students the opportunity to propose a programme of personal practice which enables the development of their chosen m-DAT Pathway/s. The modules also enables m-DAT to embrace innovative digital collaborations. In ‘Negotiated Practice A’ emphasis is placed on collaboration and the ‘public’ presentation of project outcomes.

The module is run in collaboration with Paula Orrell, Curator at the Plymouth Arts Centre.

This module introduces the theme of Curating.

The module focuses on the practice of curating in the context of Internet. It explores the relationship between the traditional models of curating and emerging online practices that take into account the networked, shared and immaterial nature of contemporary art production. The module considers new models of curating that facilitate production, distribution, consumption and preservation of immaterial art outside the traditional institutional context of the gallery or museum. It also emphasises the correlation between curating as critical discourse and as contemporary practice.