Media Release

New Course Combines Creativity and Technology

January 19, 2006
Ithaca, NY

Contact:
Laura Cima
607.254.8757

Cornell's course roster for the Spring 2006 will include "Special Topics in Art Studio: Playing with Space and Time," a new course that will give students the chance to try their hands with a variety of digital media as tools for exploring and expressing their ideas about space and time.

Students in the studio course will use computer-based media and unique presentation formats to create their art projects. The course will cover the perception of time and space, the history of time-based arts, and formal systems that are used to represent time and space. Students will complete multiple individual digital sketches throughout the semester, concluding the course with a final team project. Exercises and project assignments are designed to lead students through the use of different technologies, media, and representational systems-and projects may be presented in a variety of venues, including CTC's CAVE stereo immersive environment and multi-user virtual worlds. Students will be encouraged to combine high- and low-tech media in their creations.

Cornell's universe of multi-user virtual worlds, CTCUni, will serve as the gallery space for the course, and will be open to the Cornell community through a free download of the browser after Spring Break. Guest lectures will take place on campus and within the virtual world. Students will also contribute to a course Wiki.

Students in all areas of study (including but not restricted to fine arts, architecture, computer science, creative writing, theater, communication, and the sciences) are encouraged to enroll. The course will be taught by Barry Perlus, associate professor of art, and Margaret Corbit, research outreach manager at the Cornell Theory Center. The course Web site in Blackboard is open for guest viewing at http://www.blackboard.cornell.edu.

"We expect the students to come up with artworks that offer fresh perspectives on dimensionality," said Perlus. "The entire Cornell Community will be invited to view the works-in-progress and to join in at the public opening for the final projects, in CTCUni."

Permission of one of the instructors is required. ART 171 or the equivalent (i.e., some experience with computers and software for imaging, sound, and/or animation) is a prerequisite. This course is funded through and supported Cornell's Faculty Innovation in Teaching Program, part of the Distributed Learning Initiative supported by the Offices of the President and the Provost.

For more information, contact Perlus (bap8@cornell.edu) or Corbit (corbitm@tc.cornell.edu).