Virtual Lyric Books

with Lee Blalock
ART & TECH 604 001 | 3 credits
Online | July 5 - 21, 2024 | 10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. CST

As humans, we perpetually process a great deal of information from every direction, in every form, and often it isn’t kind enough to come in linearly, for easy digestion. Processing this noise doesn’t always happen in a thorough and organized manner. Instead, we often sample bubbles of thought that float between fiction and perceived reality. This course invites artists to explore practices that allow for bursts of thought using software and text. On our way to skill-based workshops, we will discuss contemporary media artists working with text, computation, and technology including Mendi + Keith Obadike, Allison Parrish, Nick Montfort, and Judd Morrissey. The generative poetry of early computer artists, excerpts from The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, and the experimental text practices of different art movements will all supplement and inspire this class experience. We’ll look at art that marries text with technology and discuss how this affects how language is understood. Artists will create two works-in-progress that take cues from algorithmic techniques, song lyrics, combinatorial writing, and concrete poetry and receive hands-on experience placing these ideas in virtual environments using the game engine software Unity and code software p5.js. Students should provide their own computers and will be given access to the softwares.

Lee Blalock is a Chicago-based artist and educator presenting alternative and hyphenated states of being through technology-mediated processes. Interested in how technologies support the idea of impossible anatomies, behaviors, and performances, her work is an exercise in body modification by way of amplified behavior or "change-of-state". Lee’s interests include embodied cognition, anatomy and biomechanics, bionics, mechatronics, human/non-human entanglement, retro technology, and computational abstraction. She has presented work domestically, internationally, and virtually at many institutions including Feral File (online), Ars Electronica (online), the wrong biennale (online), NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, Experimental Sound Studio (Chicago), ICA (Philadelphia), 205 Hudson Gallery (New York), and the Art Institute of Chicago. Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Art and Technology Studies / Sound Practices Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and practices various forms of embodiment as an everyday athlete.

Dreaming Community: Immersive 3D World Building in New Art City

with Hiba Ali
ART & TECH 606 001 | 3 credits
Online | June 28 - July 11, 2024 | 1 - 3:30 p.m. CST

Dreams have the ability to activate our imagination. In this class we start with dreams as an inspiration point, and translate them via a collective 3D collage in New Art City, a 3D interactive platform. Demonstrations will prepare students to use 3D objects, images, and soundscapes to create a collective dreamland. We will use software including Blender, GIFs, and Bandlab to build an immersive collective collage on New Art City. Inspired by the work of Tabitha Rezaire, Ruha Benjamin, and Mariame Kaba, in dreaming with community, we will create a digital portal of inspiration and activate our collective imagination. We will screen Tabitha Rezaire, Neema Githere, Merriam Bennani, Amina Ross, and Hito Steyer's video work and discuss them. We will read chapters from We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice (2021) by Mariame Kaba, We "Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (2022) by Ruha Benjamin and I Will Survive (2021) by Hito Steyerl. Assignments will invite students to locate their sense of comfort online, and arrange images, 3D objects and text, and sounds to translate those feelings into a space of virtual relaxation. Students will present a final project to the group. Students should supply a laptop with Blender software installed and create an account in New Art City (links will be provided upon enrollment). This class is open to students of all levels.

hiba ali is a producer of moving images, sounds, garments and words. they use principles of game design, 3d animation and immersive installations to create liminal spaces where they engage in world building, storytelling and digital poesis. in their practice, this term means a way to call forth more loving and healing into our world. they use virtual reality, 3d animation and augmented reality to slow down time and create portals of solace and care. they are an assistant professor at the college of design in the art & technology program at the university of oregon in eugene and they teach on decolonial, feminist, anti-racist frameworks in digital art pedagogies. their work has been presented in chicago, stockholm, vienna, berlin, toronto, new york, istanbul, são paulo, detroit, windsor, dubai, austin, vancouver, and portland.