52654 Experimental Media
Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a
particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.
Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
Requisite(s): (54030 Exploring Media Arts OR 52651 Exploring Media Arts) AND (54031 Composing the Real OR 52652 Drama Production)
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses.
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Anti-requisite(s): 54033 Aesthetics
Description
This subject explores alternative modes of media arts development and creation, focussing on the experimental. Students acquire a conceptual and practical experience of experimental forms, approaches and styles whilst developing their hands-on skills in various time-based media. Students explore ideas around temporality, structure, composition, movement, spatiality, interaction and poetics. They are encouraged to innovate in their production work as they combine their technical, critical and creative skills. Students explore these ideas by designing their own media experiments that reflect and respond to current media practice.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
| a. | Create short media works based on a specific theme. |
|---|---|
| b. | Integrate experimental methods into media practice. |
| c. | Analyse and reflect on innovative, experimental or emerging models of production processes. |
| d. | Develop and propose methods for making temporal media. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject engages with the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs), which are tailored to the Graduate Attributes set for all graduates of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences:
- Act in a professional manner appropriate to communication industries (1.1)
- Employ appropriate research and inquiry skills to independently gather, organise and analyse information across diverse platforms (2.1)
- Exemplify effective and appropriate communication in different communication industry contexts (6.1)
- Utilise digital literacy and production skills across a range of media (6.2)
Teaching and learning strategies
This subject is delivered through introductory and closing combined interactive classes, engagement with online content, on-campus studio sessions and workshops. The introductory class frames the session, introduces the studio delivery pattern to the students and includes in-class activities. In the closing combined interactive class students present the culmination of a series of short out-of-class exercises and receive peer and academic feedback. The online content program, delivered via curated short instructional videos, readings and other prompts, contextualises the key concepts investigated in each of the studios and their corresponding modules. Studios are the venue for interrogating the ideas presented online and for in-class experiments or 'calls to action' on a specific theme or technique. The first three studios occur before the census date, allowing for formative feedback. Presenting in-class tasks is an essential part of this subject's delivery and is designed to generate feedback from peers and teaching staff. Workshops in this subject are essential for access to facilities, and development of student technical skills and capabilities.
Content (topics)
This subject offers students the opportunity to experiment with their creative practice by exploring, analysing and reflecting on historical, contemporary, and emerging temporal media forms. Students work with materials, techniques and technologies used to produce non-traditional time-based media. Students develop and create new work that extends their creative practice based on a teaching session challenge or theme. Through in-class studio-based exercises, students develop technical skills and knowledge to create their own unique media experiments to apply these to their future media practice. These experiments may include techniques such as animation, time lapse, glitch and other forms of manipulation.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Proposal for experimentation
| Objective(s): | b, c and d | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 35% | ||||||||||||||||
| Length: | Part A: maximum 3 minutes of time based media or equivalent. Part B: 2 pages | ||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 2: Experimental approaches to media
| Objective(s): | a, b and c | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 65% | ||||||||||||||||
| Length: | Part A: Dependent on the experimental format and as agreed by the tutor. Part B: 3-6 pages of annotated images or multimedia equivalent, plus a 300 word reflection. | ||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Minimum requirements
Students are required to submit documentation to an online approvals system for Media Arts & Production student projects in which they confirm they have acquired the appropriate approvals (locations, crew and cast) necessary to undertake the work that they propose. In addition, students must identify any and all safety risks that the production of their student project reasonably presents and provide evidence of how they will mitigate those risks while adhering to industry-standard safe work practices. These tasks address the various legal, safety and ethical requirements of screen production. Failure to provide tutors with the required documentation before published deadlines will result in the student crew not being authorised to collect the equipment required from FASS MediaLab to complete their projects.
Attendance at classes is essential in this subject. Classes are based on a collaborative approach that involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas with other students and the tutor to build capacities towards meeting the subject learning objectives. A roll will be taken at each class (whether on campus or online). Students who have more than two absences from class will be refused marking of their final assessment (see Rule 3.8).
Required texts
Rosefeldt, J., 2016. Manifesto. Koenig Books, London.
References
Danchev, A. (Ed.). (2011). Modern Classics 100 Artists’ Manifestos: From The Futurists To The Stuckists. Penguin Classic.
Evans, D. (2009). Appropriation (1st edition). MIT Press.
Gallasch, K. (2003). In Repertoire: A Guide to Australian New Media Art. Australia Council for the Arts.
Hope, P. C., & Ryan, P. J. C. (2014). Digital Arts: An Introduction to New Media. Bloomsbury Academic.
Kholeif, O. (2015). Moving Image (1st edition). MIT Press.
Levin, T. Y., Madsen, V., Potts, J., Senft, T., Thomas, M., Morse, M., LaBelle, B., Stewart, A., Amerika, M., Arvers, I., Macallan, H., Plain, A., Ward, M., Stockburger, A., Taussig, M., Saybasili, N., Beiguelman, G., & Brophy, P. (2010). VOICE: Vocal Aesthetics in Digital Arts and Media (N. Neumark, R. Gibson, & T. van Leeuwen, Eds.; Illustrated edition). The MIT Press.
London, B. (2020). Video/Art: The First Fifty Years (1st edition). Phaidon Press.
Marclay, C. (2020). Christian Marclay: Sound Stories. Distributed Art Publishers.
McDonough, T. (2017). Boredom (1st edition). MIT Press.
Shaw, J. (2003). Future Cinema – The Cinematic Imaginary After Film. MIT Press.
Spieker, S. (2017). Destruction (1st edition). MIT Press.
The Cinematic. (2007). The MIT Press.
Video Art (Revised Edition edition). (2007). Thames & Hudson.