Digital arts / Coding

Bachelor 1

Professors : Yves Bernard, Marc Wathieu

Practices in the current field of digital arts are manifold. Immersive installation, Internet art, 3D printers: practices, questions and technologies are diverse in terms of approach production, circulation strategy and audience. Many artists use digital art in a critical perspective because of the profound mutations caused by information technologies in our social relationships and in our everyday habits. They question these mutations from their own medium (painting, sculpture, writing, etc.), or direct the attention onto the specificity of digital technologies. One of the first goals of the course is to identify this large spectrum of artistic practices using digital tools. Another aim is to teach software structures through mainstream or alternative intentions and statements. Finally, students will be immersed in the practice of computer programming.

Bachelor 2

Professor : Marc Wathieu

In the second Bachelor year, the course confronts students to the artistic (history, current events), technological (materials, tools, technological watch) and conceptual (processes, methods) challenges of digital arts. A skills base built around three axes:  an introduction to programming with open source software PROCESSING.  an introduction to the concept of interactivity with open source software ARDUINO.  an introduction to online publishing (HTML, CSS, FTP). The learning process is based on building general skills. They will be increasingly explored throughout the course, according to the personal project of the students:  tools: software, hypermedia, code, bookshops, protocols.  processes: algorithms, generative and/or interactive strategies, non-linearity.  material: objects, data, parameters, flows.  interactivity: interfaces, action-feedback, devices, peripheral devices.  spaces: networks, servers, on-site installations, immersive installations.  knowledge sharing: open source, collaborative platforms, communities.  references: art history, digital arts and new media, current events. In fields such as: coding art, generative processes, geo-localisation, interactive video, network narrative, interactive installations, artistic web projects, interactive visual performances.

Bachelor 3

Professors : Yves Bernard, Marc Wathieu

The workshop supports students in the form of tutorial classes in order to subsequently follow up on their personal projects. Each step of the process is tracked and leads to the creation of digital documents published on line. The principle is to re-contextualize the students’ suggestions within digital and contemporary current practices by providing them references to the most significant, revealing and relevant works in relation to their projects. The aim for the students is to develop their ability to express an intention, to create a project, to prototype it and to present according to a documented process.

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Masters

Professor : Yves Bernard

In Master 1, the workshop helps students in building their personal projects and composing their dissertation. Each step of the process is tracked and leads to the creation of digital documents published on line: statement of intent, conception file, design file, positioning in relation to the current art practices, studies/prototypes/models, documentation of the production and iteration process, documentation of the work’s exhibition and its relation with the public. In order to avoid misleading approaches and shifting toward secondary issue, an insistence will be put on the necessity of a global approach (in terms of design) for the creation of the project and its interactions with the audience and the exhibition space. We will help students to re-contextualize their suggestions within current practices providing them references to the most significant, revealing and relevant works in relation to their projects. Finally, students are accompanied in the experimentations and technical solutions related to their projects by helping them in their research, by directing them toward various useful resources (documentation, code, software tools, persons of reference, etc.). At the end of the project, we will assess, together with the students, the potential for diffusion of their works and advise them on festivals, artistic organizations, art centers or galleries.