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Contemporary Art & Technology
ACG 298

Transfer: CSU
This is a contemporary art making course with a special emphasis on new genres and technologically-based media. The course will include lectures, discussions, field trips, and projects that address contemporary art and technology topics.

$15.00 Material Fee - PAYABLE AT REGISTRATION May be taken for credit 4 times.
• Plus three hours arranged per week in Computer Graphics Studio
• $15.00 Material Fee — PAYABLE AT REGISTRATION
9:00-10:50A F Giardina, Edward FA-221
Offered Fall Terms Only

Fall 2007 Final Project

Students worked as a team to build Prana the Dinosaur.  She is a “smart” inflatable sculpture. The design enables the sculpture to monitor and visualize the current air quality data of  Cypress, CA. Prana has been programmed to emit colored light in accordance to the current air quality data extracted from airnow.gov, a cross-agency government website. Airnow.gov is dedicated to transmitting U.S. air quality conditions and forecasts.

Prana ("breathing", the breath of life) is described on Wikipedia as a Sanskrit word that refers to a vital, life-sustaining force of living beings and vital energy in natural processes of the universe. Prana is a central concept in Ayurveda and Yoga where it is believed to flow through a network of fine subtle channels called nadis.

The hope for this project is to inform our school community with specific air quality data and to spark critical dialogue on campus. This sculpture was inspired by the many other air quality related projects studied in the course. 

View the project at www.air-dino.info

Weekly Outline

1 - F 8/22 Introduction to Course, Syllabus, Materials
2 - F 8/29 Lecture/Demo/Lab, Project 1
3 - F 9/5 Lecture/Demo/Lab, Project 1
4 - F 9/12 Critique Project 1
5 - F 9/19 Lecture/Demo/Lab, Project 2
6 - F 9/26 Lecture/Demo/Lab, Project 2
7 - F 10/3 Critique Project 2
8 - F 10/10 Lecture/Demo/Lab, Project 3
9 - F 10/17 Lecture/Demo/Lab, Project 3
10 - F 10/24 Critique, Project 3
11 - F 10/31 Lecture/Demo/Lab, Project 4
12 - F 11/7 Lecture/Demo/Lab, Project 4
13 - F 11/14 Critique, Project 4
14 - F 11/21 Thanksgiving – No School
15 - F 11/28 Lecture/Demo/Lab, Project 5
16 - F 12/5 Lecture/Demo/Lab, Project 5
17 - F 12/12 Final Critique / Term Paper Due

Field trips will be arranged at a later date.