art.hack

art.hack : spring 2006

instructor: ben chang

email: b chang at artic dot edu website: www.bcchang.com

wednesday, 1:00 Ð 4:00

MI 426

This seminar explores the intersections of art, hacking, technology, ethics, and culture, in theory and in practice. Topics include intellectual property, online communities, privacy and anonymity, and parallel outlaw roles of hackers and artists. WeÕll experiment with circuit bending, software modding, cryptography, and digital wiretaps as aesthetic and critical devices.

the work you produce in this class can take many forms Ð artwork, digital or otherwise; writing; sound compositions; videos; comics; websites; research projects; software development; performances; political actions; or other types of production.

completing readings and participating in class discussions is required; however, mastering specific technical skills is not. the workshops are meant to provide a range of hands-on examples of different types of hacking practice as a way of stimulating ideas. the goal of the course is to use this material is some way to inform your own practice and research Ð so you will not, for instance, be graded on whether you can write a complete functioning Carnivore wiretap client.

each student will be responsible for 2 short presentations and a final project.

example things you can do for a presentation:

• show work, or work in progress
• research an aspect of one of the class topics; tell the class about a
• particular artist or author, a court case in depth, etc.
• share a technique
• share a hack

  for the final project, either:

  • completed artwork (again, any medium!)
  • research paper

  One of the core goals of the course is to foster discussion of the complex arena of digital ethics. As always, do not do anything (1) illegal, (2) against School policy as spelled out in the Student Handbook, and also, (3), UnEthical. Of course, part of the course will involve debating what (3) means, exactly Ð but in short, do not do anything that will get you arrested, expelled, prosecuted by the NSA, Secret Service, or Homeland Security, that endangers yourself or others, or that interferes with the learning environment.

  SCHEDULE

  This is a tentative schedule, and is subject to change.
  1. (2/1) Introduction
  2. (2/8) Circuit Bending
  3. (2/15) Glitching, Modding and Software Art
  4. (2/22) Visiting Artist: France Cadet
     cyberdoll.free.fr
  5. (3/1) Intellectual Property - Copyright
  6. (3/8) Intellectual Property Ð Patents
  7. (3/15) Privacy, Anonymity, Censorship, Freedom of Speech
  8. (3/22) Cryptography, Theory and Practice
  9. (3/29) Pirate Utopia Mythology
  10. (4/5) Hacktivism and Culture Jamming
  11. (4/12) Carnivore
  12. (4/19) Mashups 2.0 - infoplunder
  13. (4/26) CyberCulture Ð Community, Network, Society, Identity
  14. (4/3) - No Class, Graduate Critique Week
  15. (5/10) Final Presentations