Project:
Digital Decay

Fundamentals of Digital Media, UC Irvine
Fall 2015 and Spring 2016

Assignment: Find a a photograph from before 1970. Use combinations of destructive editing tools to transform the image by intentionally degrading the information. Examples: oversharpening, pixilation, over blurring, colorizing, and so on. Make 4 distinct variations
Objective: To draw comparisons between the loss of digital information with the passing of time; to teach students about image resolution and how to create custom “filters” in Photoshop.

Project: Symbols and Signs

Fundamentals of Digital Media, UC Irvine
Spring 2016 and Fall 2016

Assignment: Make a set of 4-6 vector shapes. Combine them into a cohesive set of characters; a kind of “alphabet.”
Objective: To learn vector tools; to begin to think about symbolic meaning in design; to make many iterations before the final set.

Project:
Desktop as Landscape

Fundamentals of Digital Media, UC Irvine
Fall 2016

Assignment: Translate a screenshot of your desktop into a version of a found artwork of your choice. Use only pixels and materials from the screenshot to fully re-create the artwork.
Objective: To understand digital spaces and the specificities of the medium: copy, paste, and undo. Introduction to basic Photoshop tools and concepts, image size and resolution.
From left to right: desktop image, art image, end product.

Project: Corporate Combinations

Fundamentals of Digital Media, UC Irvine
Fall 2016
Assignment: Choose 2 major brands and combine their language and iconography. Work in both digital and analog spaces to design a poster tryptych. Emphasis on experiments in scanography/xerigraphy.
Objective: To introduce a sense of play and experimentation in design; to get students accustomed to move out of the computer, work in analog, and then process the analog work back into a digital space.

Project: Deck of Cards

Fundamentals of Digital Media, UC Irvine
Fall 2016
Assignment: Design a suite from a deck of cards, inspired by an art/design subject of your choice, with a restricted color palette
Objective: To facilitate self-direction; to use all the accumulated skills from the quarter.

Project:
Infographic Books

Fundamentals of Digital Media, UC Irvine
Spring 2016
Assignment: Design a folding or loose-leaf book of infographics around a subject of your choosing, with an emphasis on collecting data based around your personal interests and experiences.
Objective: To help students to work in a self-directed way, letting them set their own parameters for the project; to use all the accumulated skills from the quarter.

Project:
Digital Vanitas

Introduction to Digital Art, Scripps College
Spring 2018
Assignment:
Create a still-life composite image loosely based on Vanitas paintings, 1970’s Photorealism, or contemporary photomontage. Artifiicial shadows, reflections, and some painted content required.
Objective:
To understand symbolic content, forms that repeat throughout time, and the nonsensicality of digital space in representing dimensional objects.

Project: Futurological Products

Introduction to Digital Art, Scripps College
Fall 2018
Assignment: Invent a new word or concept for a product or thing that does not yet exist. Illustrate this concept in an image, copying vernacular advertising styles if they apply.
Objective: A generative experiment

Project:
Subtractive Process

Introduction to Digital Art, Scripps College
Fall 2108
Assignment: Remove something seamlessly from a series of images to create new tone and meaning
Objective: To finesse retouching skills; learn to look deeply and “read” an image

Project:
Animated Gifs

Introduction to Digital Art, Scripps College
Spring 2018
Assignment:
Create a set of animated gifs, using as many different methods (photo, video, animation) as possible.
Objective: explore movement without storytelling