Mapping Intermedia 1 - What is Intermedia?
What is Intermedia?
For the first mapping assignment, we will ask "what is media?". We will learn to distinguish "inter-," "multi-," and "new" media from each other and explore different frameworks for thinking critically about media technologies (ie. systems thinking, ecological models, and geological/material approaches) alongside the Intermedia and Fluxus art movements of the 1960s. Divided into groups, you will each explore a different critical lens and bring that perspective to the Map of Intermedia. There are supplementary readings if you want to go deeper into history of intermedia practice, media archaeology, and foundational media theory, which are useful contexts from which to question "media" and its materiality in the physical world.
| Activities (2) | Description | Due Dates | (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group Activity | Come to class having read the required readings and be ready to participate in a group activity at the start of class. | Sep 21 (in-class) | 4 |
| Map of Intermedia Contribution | Following the group activity, you will have the remainder of the week to research a keyword from your reading and make a contribution to the map. | Sep 25 (wiki) | 6 |
| TOTAL (%) | 10.0 |
Readings
1 foundation reading:
+1 additional reading per group:
- Group 1 - Burnham, Systems Esthetics (1968)
- Group 2 - Parikka, Materiality Grounds of Media Culture (2015)
- Group 3 - Youngblood, The Artist as Ecologist (1970)
- Group 4 - Leroi-Gourhan, Technics and Language (1993)
Supplementary:
- Higgins, Intermedia (1966)
- Maciunas, Fluxus Manifesto (1963)
- Zielinski, A Deep Time of Media (2006)
- Kaprow, Happenings in the New York Scene (1961)
- McLuhan, The Medium is the Message (1964)