Syllabus for Information Aesthetics at UIC School of Art and Design
"This studio course investigates the database as cultural form (Manovich, 2001), in the context of data visualization, digital fabrication, and computational aesthetics. Traditionally viewed as a tool for scientific reasoning and data exploration, information visualization has emerged as an artistic practice, propelled by the democratization of data sources and the advancement of computer graphics. The massive amount of data collected and disseminated online constitutes the basis for this course. Participants will be introduced to the basic skills for developing creative projects in two-, three-, and four dimensions, such as indexes, graphs, prints, digitally fabricated objects and maps. Students will also become familiar with the a basic vocabulary to co-create and collaborate with professionals in future contexts.
The course focuses on current standards for web development and mobile applications, including HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, PHP, MySQL, and Processing(.js). Fundamentals in XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets, and programming are beneficial, but not required. Throughout the course, students are asked to utilize the class blog to collect and share resources, collaboratively collecting interesting data sources towards a final project. A series of presentations, screenings, readings, and discussions will expose students to creative projects and artworks in the context of information visualization. Each student selects a research topic followed by an in-class research presentation (see schedule). Participants will also present their work during class critiques and interdisciplinary workshops to receive qualitative feedback from the instructor(s) and the class."
(Daniel Sauter, University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Art and Design, Fall 2011)
Fig.1 Matt Wizinsky (2011). "Chicago unDensity", University of Illinois at Chicago.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Flash web application prototypes
I created a series of Flash web application prototypes between 2002 and 2003. I did so as part of my design experimentation and growing interest in software design. As a result the prototypes were very limited in their scope as they tended to focus on particular concepts or techniques. For example I created my Kiwifruit prototype to explore an approach to updating database records which removed the need for users to make explicit update/submit decisions; I created my Rhizome prototype to explore approaches to contextual grouping and association; and I created my in-flight meal booking prototype to test some ideas I had about interactive information design. I developed the applications using a combination of Macromedia (Adobe) Flash, PHP, XML and MySQL. The prototypes now stand as a useful reminder of the promise that Flash offered in the early part of this century - before HTML5, the iPad and responsive layout etc.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Moodle: a social constructionist course management system
"Moodle is a software package for producing Internet-based courses and web sites. It is a global development project designed to support a social constructionist framework of education."
(Martin Dougiamas)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
OpenSourceCMS: Sandpit For Open Source Software Applications
Miro International Pty Ltd
This site was created with one goal in mind. To give you the opportunity to "try out" some of the best php/mysql based free and open source software systems in the world. You are welcome to be the administrator of any site here, allowing you to decide which system best suits your needs.The administrator username and password is given for every system and each system is deleted and re-installed every two hours. This allows you to to add and delete content, change the way things look, basically be the admin of any system here without fear of breaking anything.
OpenSourceCMS provides a "sandpit" for testing and reviewing open-source content management systems.
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The Constellations ProjectSHARE
