CONCEPTS IN TIME BASED MEDIA

COURSE NUMBER: ART 340

INSTRUCTOR: Lee Walton

CATALOG DESCRIPTION:

Intermediate level study of design fundamentals in time based applications, with emphasis on video, sound and performance.  

About Time-based Media:

Traditional artworks are often defined and measured by dimensions, such as height by length by depth. With many contemporary artworks, these physical dimensions expand to include duration.  Time-based media is a term used to summarize artistic forms, which use the passage of and the manipulation of time as an essential element.  Time-based experiences of art and design unfold as the clock ticks forward. These art works can take various familiar forms, such a the pages of a book, interactive websites, social media, video, object worn by others, sound, a garden, a walk, a meal, getting lost, an event, a process, an experience.

This course will explore the use of time as a medium to shape viewer/participants aesthetic experiences in time.

TEACHING METHODS:

Students will explore concepts of time in relation to aesthetic experience through a balance of technical applications and conceptual development.  Each student’s ideas and formal execution will be guided by experiential research, discussions, screenings, collaborative workshops, and creative actions.

Concepts Include:

• duration

• endurance

• process

• editing

• image sequence

• language

• sound

• structure

• sequence

• simultaneity

• narrative

• interactive

• experience

• system

• event

• audience

• play

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Upon successful completion of this course a student will be able to:

• Use time as a medium to shape viewer-participants’ aesthetic experiences.

• Critically analyze their own time-based work, as well as examples from the larger media culture.

• Ability to utilize video production (Adobe Premier +  After Effects) to share and create time-based activities and art works.

• Understand the formal and conceptual elements of time in relation to the production of art.

• Problem solve collaboratively and independently.

Closely related to my teaching in concepts in time-based media at the undergraduate level are numerous graduate student projects.  This recent example was created by Charles Williams (MFA, 2016). 

Students explore durational performances. This project challenges students to increase some aspect of their “wellbeing” over the course of 7-days. Students documented and shared their process over the 7-days through video, time-based media and the web.

To provide a foundation for my students, I invited a Professor of Movement and Sensory Awareness to conduct a workshop.  I also invited a group of artists to lead us through an group experience involving the slow, mindful process of slicing onions.

View Project Assignment

View Sample Project One

Concepts In Time-Based Media, 2014

The following project is one example of my teaching methods. I have shared the following three parts to show how I introduce new concepts to my students through a combination of practical exercises, experience and creative problem solving.

Part One: Students were challenged to observe and make highly accurate timings of everyday occurrences. We then made a digital book.

View Timings

Part Two: Students collaborated in groups to choreograph and perform a highly structured 5-minute sound event in real-time.

View Project Sheet

Part Three: students created a video-based version of their 5-minute sound event that was exactly 1/5 in scale and followed that same exact structure.