Course Description

DIGITAL MEDIA: FOUNDATIONS, ART 23AC

Syllabus(opens in a new tab) Notify me when available

Data and logic form core interfaces for information technology. New media art requires understanding their key dynamics. Students gain experience with data generation, visualization, and their impact on real persons, environments and situations. Can we measure, count and weigh everything? Is data fair? What is the role of privacy? How do digital conditions affect human conditions? From memes to machine learning, students participate in emerging data cultures including sampling, visualization, animation, video, interactive design, and music. Assignments follow readings on media and design theory, abstraction, interactivity, archives, performance, identity, privacy, automation, aggregation, networking, diffusion, diffraction and subversion.

Key Information

Academic Calendar(opens in a new tab)

Credit: 6 quarter units / 4 semester units credit
UC Berkeley, Art Practice

Course Credit:

Upon successful completion, all online courses offered through cross-enrollment provide UC unit credit. Some courses are approved for GE, major preparation and/or, major credit or can be used as a substitute for a course at your campus.

If "unit credit" is listed by your campus, consult your department, academic adviser or Student Affairs division to inquire about the petition process for more than unit credit for the course.

UC Berkeley:
General Education: American Cultures (AC) credit for all majors
Major Requirement: lower division elective for Art Practice major, design minor

UC Davis:
Unit Credit

UC Irvine:
Unit Credit

UC Los Angeles:
Unit Credit

UC Merced:
Unit Credit (see your Academic Advisor)

UC Riverside:
General Education: Elective units

UC San Diego:
General Education: Revelle Fine Arts; Warren - May be counted depending on major/PofC/AS; ERC possible Fine Arts or lower division Americas Regional Specialization; TMC 1 course toward lower division disciplinary breadth if noncontiguous to major; Muir- May petition as a course in a computer science theme in GE area I.

UC San Francisco:
Unit Credit

UC Santa Barbara:
Unit Credit

UC Santa Cruz:
General Education: PE-T

More About The Course

From tax returns and health records to social media and traffic updates, many aspects of our lives depend on information stored in networked databases. Data Cultures is a new online course that teaches ways to research, question, and innovate such databases to better understand how they can affect our human experiences both positively and negatively.

Explore the origins of data, the invention of databases, and many of the liberating and oppressive effects of data on our daily lives. Most importantly, you will learn to be a thoughtful participant in data cultures by questioning data-driven media and by expressing your values, hopes and concerns through innovation and collaboration. Topics covered include: history of data culture, critical analysis of existing data-driven media, basic database queries, surveillance studies, celebrity, networking, digital divides, digital redlining, basic data analysis, interface design, information visualization and rapid prototyping.

The core activity in this art course is to engage with data culture issues through creative reflection. Rather than writing, you will draw, film, animate, photograph and program web content to advance your ideas about data culture, and your peers will have ample chances to view, dialogue and of course rate your creative efforts.

Course Creator

Greg Niemeyer
Greg Niemeyer is an Associate Professor for New Media at UC Berkeley's Department of Art Practice where he works with the Berkeley Center for New Media, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), and the Data and Democracy Initiative focusing on the critical analysis of the impact of new media on human experiences. Niemeyer's creative work focuses on the mediation between humans as individuals and humans as a collective through digital tools, and emphasizes playful responses to technology. Some of his most recognized art projects include Gravity (Cooper Union, NYC, 1997), PING (SFMOMA, 2001), Oxygen Flute, with Chris Chafe (SJMA, 2002), Organum (Pacific Film Archive, 2003), Ping 2.0 (Paris, La Villette Numerique, 2004), Organum Playtest (2005), and Good Morning Flowers (SFIFF 2006, Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt, 2006), and, with Joe McKay, the Balance Game (Cairo 2007, London, 2007). The Black Cloud (2008) was funded by the MacArthur Foundation to provide an alternate reality game and a social network for sensing air quality and taking actions to benefit indoor air quality. The project has evolved into a startup company, Aclima Inc., where Greg serves as the Senior Advisor for Social Engagement. Assistant Professor Niemeyer has also developed several mobile neurotherapeutic games in collaboration with the MIND Institute at UC Davis and with the Montreal Neurological Institute. Prior to his post at UC Berkeley, Niemeyer received his MFA from Stanford University in New Genres in 1997 where he founded and directed the Stanford University Digital Art Center (SUDAC). Greg Niemeyer is an Associate Professor for New Media at UC Berkeley's Department of Art Practice where he works with the Berkeley Center for New Media, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), and the Data and Democracy Initiative focusing on the critical analysis of the impact of new media on human experiences. Niemeyer's creative work ...

Greg Niemeyer is an Associate Professor for New Media at UC Berkeley's Department of Art Practice where he works with the Berkeley Center for New Media, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), and the Data and Democracy Initiative focusing on the critical analysis of the impact of new media on human experiences. Niemeyer's creative work focuses on the mediation between humans as individuals and humans as a collective through digital tools, and emphasizes playful responses to technology. Some of his most recognized art projects include Gravity (Cooper Union, NYC, 1997), PING (SFMOMA, 2001), Oxygen Flute, with Chris Chafe (SJMA, 2002), Organum (Pacific Film Archive, 2003), Ping 2.0 (Paris, La Villette Numerique, 2004), Organum Playtest (2005), and Good Morning Flowers (SFIFF 2006, Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt, 2006), and, with Joe McKay, the Balance Game (Cairo 2007, London, 2007). The Black Cloud (2008) was funded by the MacArthur Foundation to provide an alternate reality game and a social network for sensing air quality and taking actions to benefit indoor air quality. The project has evolved into a startup company, Aclima Inc., where Greg serves as the Senior Advisor for Social Engagement. Assistant Professor Niemeyer has also developed several mobile neurotherapeutic games in collaboration with the MIND Institute at UC Davis and with the Montreal Neurological Institute. Prior to his post at UC Berkeley, Niemeyer received his MFA from Stanford University in New Genres in 1997 where he founded and directed the Stanford University Digital Art Center (SUDAC).

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