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Media Installation
Course MD615 | Prof. Fetzner, Julien Schmid
FINAL PRESENTATION: June 23, 2011
A social organism is like an individual organism in these essential traits: that it grows; that while growing it becomes more complex; that while becoming more complex, its parts acquire increasing mutual dependence; that its life is immense in length compared with the lives of its component units; that in both cases there is increasing integration accompanied by increasing heterogeneity.
Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology (1876)
Media installations are no longer experimental set ups in artistic contexts but important factors in commercial contexts like trade fairs, show rooms etc. Concepts of tangible interfaces and ubiquitous computing are getting crucial channels in corporate communications.
Keywords: mediatecture, interactive media, exhibition design
TOPIC SPRING 2011
One could ask why the use of media is so attractive to people. Why do we spend hours in front of computers and its so called "apps". Why can people get addicted by media?
One answer could be that media can be understood as a mediator between people and things that work through the physical experience of reality. Therefore intercorporal experiences* can become effective in medial processes, a feeling of closeness and physical relatedness through our whole body in which not just virtual places but real entities, places and objects get to play a supporting role.
Experienced places, formed social relations and the experience of one's own physicality are increasingly being witnessed through electronic interfaces. Thus the question of the construction of space and the nature of the body arises over and over again. In the courses Media Installation and Interactive Design the physical experience and its produced knowledge of experience in relation to the use of electronic media shall be to the fore, which were formed throughout the events at Tahrir Square since the 25th of January 2011 in the center of Cairo. The location of Midan al Tahrir shall be discussed regarding its far-reaching symbolism, its history as a place of liberation, its medial appearance as a place of revolt and also its real physical state.
The construction of Tahrir Square as a key visual of the political upheaval began on the 25th of January 2011 through mass demonstrations and sieges. Simultaneously a new form of hyper-locality is built through the international television coverage and the intensive use of media applications such as Facebook, Twitter and mobile networks. Due to the five-day blockade of these channels people might have started looking for Tahrir Square, in order to realize the action for themselves and also to participate individually in the political process of liberation. In addition to the ubiquitous electronic media, the place itself, the objects like flags, tanks, the mobile phones, the barricades etc. act back to the people and have continued as an image in the consciousness. Thus it functions as a catalyst, the place is already symbolically charged in advance through its history as a place of change and its name. Medial phenomena of the above mentioned hyper-locality of the round square shall be described in various forms within the courses.
Therefore we will collect and work on the moods, vibrations and adaptions that take place around Tahrir Square. In the theoretical part of the seminars texts about the actor network theory by Bruno Latour will be read whereas in the practical part, students should describe how Tahrir Square oscillates as an inner-city intersection and roundabout between normality and the state of emergency and affects people's consciousness in the form of media installations. The best results will be presented at the symposium "Cairo Traces" in June 2011 in the form of interviews, photographs and media installations and discussed with expert speakers.
[1] the term "intercorporality" was introduced by the French philosopher and phenomenologist Merleau Ponty.
Course Outline Spring 2011
| DATE | TOPIC | DESCRIPTION | ASSIGNEMENTS | |
| 1 | March 10 | Introduction | Media Installations and Sites | * Discuss? around Marshall McLuhan "Media is an extension of our body" * "Artists presentation" in groups of 2 (see names below) |
| 2 | March 24 | Artists presentation | Villa Invisible Presentation - Sara Sallam | * Read about the Actor Network Theory and discuss? implications on the current Situation at Tahrir Square * Study the project Ville Invisible |
| 3 | March 31 | |||
| 4 | April 7 | Artists presentation | Harrald Kimmig, guest lecturer | "composition, performance with space and sound" |
| 5 | April 14 | Installations' concept presentation | Harrald Kimmig, guest lecturer | http://haraldkimmig.de/
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| 6 | April 21 ! course taking place on the Wednesday 20th! | Installations' concept presentation | Harrald Kimmig, guest lecturer |
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| 7 | April 28 | Artist presentations
(3 max, 2nd slot) | Group meetings (groups 1,3,6 - 30' meetings - 3rd+4th ) | Please update the WIKI with group project ASAP!!!
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| 8 | May 5 | Artist pres. 2 or 3 artist left
let yr colleagues know this is last day for these assignments!!! | Group meetings ... gr.05 : 12h30 gr.10 : 13h00 gr.08 : 13h30 gr.02 : 14h00 gr.09 : 14h30 ... | Yalla people time is running!
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| 9 | May 12 | Activity week... but... | Group meetings ... gr.04 : 10h15 gr.07 : 10h45 gr.06 : 11h15 gr.?? : 11h45 gr.08 : 12h15 |
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| 10 | May 19 | Group meetings with Prof. Fetzner. Please arrange appointments via eMAIL | Project outline and documentation on the wiki |
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| 11 | May 26 | Group meetings with Prof. Fetzner. Please arrange appointments via eMAIL |
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| 12 | June 02 | Last day of course before the final presentation. | Group meetings with Julien Schmid. Please arrange appointments via eMAIL |
Learning Outcome, Competences
The class will work on installation projects in order to get an understanding about the complexity and challenges of this field. The interplay of media, space, time and user will be examined. Tools will be introduced to develop concepts and solutions for setting up site specific and appropriate media implementations with photography, video, sound and interactive tools.
Course weights
Report (Theoretical) 30%
Final Exam (Practical) 70%
Groups
Mahitab Ayoub & Farah Fayez
Mariam El Tonsy, Mariam Tawfik, Nadine Amr
Frederic Fendrich, Yacoub Yassin & Sara Sallam
Dina Kamal, Doha Salah, Salma El Mahdy
Mennat Kheireldin, Hend Bahey, Shahd Galal & Esmeralda Mahmoud
Hazem Mahmoud, Nadia Wernli & Shady Magdy
Ranin Ahmed, Reem Sami, Amira Khaled & Maidaa Ismail
Heba Sherif & Salma El Mahdy & Noha Ayoub
Mohamed Sherif Aggag, Hesham Ashour & Mohamed Alaa
Mennah El-Atroush, Lana Mohamed Ali & Farida Hassan Bassiouni
Christopher Mankarious
Example Projects
- Wooden Mirror by Daniel Rozin
- Waterfalls by Olafur Eliasson
Literature
- David Rockeby, Transforming Mirrors, 1996
- Marshall McLuhan: The gadget lover, the telephone, Automation, in Understanding Media, MIT Press, 1994 (1964)
- Bruno Latour, http://www.bruno-latour.fr/articles/index.html
- Jay Rosen, The “Twitter Can’t Topple Dictators” Article
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->Tahrir Comparison Videos?
List of artists for short presentations
Vito Acconci, Doug Aitken, Marcel Duchamp, Dan Graham, Mona Hattoum, Gary Hill, Myron Krueger, Anthony McCall, Bruce Nauman, Tony Oursler, Nam June Paik, Pipilotti Rist, David Rockabye, Martha Rosler, Marie Sester, Kurt Schwitters, Steina and Woody Vasulka, Bill Viola
Short Presentations Table
| Date | Artist | Student | Info |
| 24.03. | Anthony McCall | Mennah El-Atroush-Lana Mohamed Ali | PDF1 |
| 24.03. | Bill Viola | Noha Ayoub-Heba Mohsen-Sara Sallam | PDF2 |
| 24.03. | Pipilotti Rist | Doha Salah-Dina Kamal | PDF3 |
| 24.03. | Kurt Schwitters | Farida Bassiouni-Mariam El Tonsy | PDF4 |
| 24.03. | Steina & Woody Vasulka | Ranin Ahmed-Amira Khaled-Reem Sami | |
| 24.03. | Myron Krueger | Mennah Kheireldin-Esmeralda Mahmoud-Hend Bahey | PDF6 |
| 24.03. | Doug Aitken | Nadia Wernli | PDF7 |
| 24.03. | Tony Oursler | Mohamed Aggag , Mohamed Alaa , Hesham Ashour , Maidaa Ismail , Reem Sami | PDF8 |