Long Beach State University
College of the Arts
School of Art
Art 490: Special Topics in Studio Art: Artist’s Websites
Fall Semester 2018
Instructor: Glenn Zucman

Syllabus

Artist’s Websites

Art 490 sections 1 & 2 – Artist’s Websites – Fall 2018

Course in designing, critiquing, and maintaining an Artist’s ePortfolio (website). Students will explore a range of platform, aesthetic, and content options. Students will learn online & documentation tools, develop & refine their websites, and interact with classmate websites.

• Semester: Fall 2018
• Hybrid Course: Section 1: Mondays 12:00 – 12:50 + Online
• Hybrid Course: Section 2: Wednesdays 12:00 – 12:50 + Online
• Room: FA4-108A
• Prerequisite: None
• Units: 1
• Work Estimate: 3 hours / week (1 F2F + 2 OL)
• 1st Day of Class: Monday, 27 August ’18
• Last Day of Class: Wednesday, 12 December ’18
• Instructor: Glenn Zucman
• Office: FO5-234
• email: glenn.zucman@csulb.edu
• Office Hours: MW 1:30-2:30 pm @USU Tables just outside Coffee Bean / Robeks, or by appointment

Special Days

• Week 3 – Monday, 3 September – No Class
• Week 12 – Monday, 12 November – Today’s class is held tomorrow, Tuesday 13 November!
• 19-25 November – Fall Break/Thanksgiving

Final

Because of our unique 12 pm start time, the Wednesday section has conflicts with some of your other class’ finals! The Monday final time has no conflicts for either the Monday section or the Wednesday section. Therefore, we will have a joint final in the Monday time slot:

• Final: Section 1 (and 2!): Friday 14 December from 12:30 – 2:30 – Room: TBA!
• CSULB Finals Schedule

Schedule

• See the schedule on Trello

Prerequisites

• None

Objectives

The purpose of this course is to design & implement your own ePortfolio. To learn skills and methods that will allow the artist to maintain a current, and contemporary presence online.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Create their own ePortfolio
• Easily & Quickly Update the content of their ePortfolio
• Change the aesthetics of their ePortfolio presentation
• Discuss the aesthetics of many different Artist’s ePortfolios
• Prepare Images & Videos for their ePortfolio
• Create an online CV (curriculum vitae) or Resume
• Create an online Artist’s Statement
• Exchange links with other artists

Format of the Course

• Hybrid course: F2F + Online.

On Monday (section 1) or Wednesday (section 2) of each week students will meet F2F to critique each other’s work, discuss new activities, and to learn new techniques. Most of the artist’s website production will be done online outside of our 1 weekly F2F hour. The class Slack team will be a central discussion space between students and with the instructor. The class website will provide information on many ePortfolio parameters.

Materials

Textbook

• None

Required Materials

1. Laptop or Desktop. Can use computers in the Horn Center or Spidel Center
2. Camera: Phone, DSLR, Mirrorless, or Film
3. Cloud Storage (free version)
4. Web Platform: Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, HTML, or anything else you prefer

Online Resources

In addition to whatever Hosting and Cloud Storage platforms you choose, this class will use these online resources:

1. This website: glenn.zucman.com/websites
2. Our Slack discussion team: art490.slack.com
3. The Internet itself: we will view each other’s websites, many other artists websites, and various other resources online.

Technology

Technical Competence Required

You should have the ability to use a phone and a laptop. The ability to view websites, to navigate to different locations online, to download and install software on your devices.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Any smartphone and laptop made in the last few years should be sufficient. You can also use the computers in the Spidell Center or the Horn Center.

Minimum Software Requirements

1. A modern web browser like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etcetera
2. Support software, like Photoshop or Adobe Creative Cloud, and perhaps a text editor like Brackets, Notepad++, or Sublime Text.

Safety

I hope you become obsessed with building a great ePrtfolio. But don’t forget the other people in your life, the need for fresh air and exercise, etcetera. If you’ve been staring at a screen for 20 minutes, it’s a good idea to look at something further away for a minute.

Grading & Attendance

Points

• Attendance: 15 weeks x 10 points = 150
• Online Critiques: 14 weeks x 10 points = 140
• Projects on Medium: 7 projects x 20 points = 140
• Website 1st Draft – Wk 9 – 50
• Website Presentation – Wk 9-15 – 50
• Website Final Draft – Final – 50
• Participate in Final – 20

Total points possible = 600

Grades

• 540 points = A
• 480 points = B
• 420 points = C
• 360 points = D
• 359 & below = F

Attendance

• Attendance at the F2F Monday or Wednesday meeting is required.
• “Attendance” (participation) online is also required.

Cheating & Plagiarism

I don’t know how you can “cheat” in designing your own web portfolio! But it’d be really dumb. This class is all about helping you present your work to your audience(s). The more time & effort you put in, the better your work will be presented. And, hopefully, you’ll have a better life!

General Policies & Regulations

• CSULB Catalog: General Policies & Regulations

Other Details

Your Preferred Name

The University now allows you to set your “preferred” name. So if the name on your birth certificate is “Andrew,” but you go by “Drew”, now the university can refer to you as Drew. This makes it easier for me to find you on the roster, and better for your classmates who can refer to you by the name you choose.

• Please set your University “Preferred Name” to be the same name that you’d like to use on our Roster, Email, Your Website, etc.
• You can set your name on MyCSULB. Here’s How!

The right to be forgotten

Many weeks I will feature your website or your work in my weekly blog post. I will never show your work and say this is what not to do. I will only show your work and say Look at what a beautiful job Maddy did last week. I hope you feel good about this. But even if you do, it’s possible that you don’t want your photo or name on this website. If I ever post a photo of you, or your work, or list your name, or a link to your website, and you’d rather not have that here, just LMK. You can ask me to take something down today, tomorrow, next week, next year, or next decade. You never have to give me a reason. You only have to give me the URL where the item you’d like taken down is. It’s always up to you.

Be Kind

Remember that you are posting to the live web. You’ve surfed the web, right? So you know that every day you’ll find the most sublime acts of kindness and generosity right next to crazy, unwarranted rage. The good news about your website is that it’s yours. You always have the ability to modify or delete content as you see fit. But remember also that when you write about other artists you are publicly posting about a real person. You can be honest. But you can also be kind. If the golden rule is do unto others as you would have them do unto you, then perhaps the golden rule of blogging should be blog about others as you would have them blog about you.

Incompletes

The School of Art grants “incompletes” rarely and only for the most extreme conditions.

Withdrawal Deadlines

• CSULB Enrollment Services: Key Dates & Deadlines
• Deadline to drop without “W” grade, MyCSULB Student Center by 10:00pm: 10 September 2018
• Withdraw from all classes w signature, Director, School of Art: 16 November 2018
• Catastrophic Withdrawal Request: 11 December 2018
• CSULB Dropping & Withdrawing Policies

Accommodation

CSULB will make reasonable accommodations for any student who has different needs. It is the student’s responsibility to notify me in advance of the need for special accommodations.

Basic Needs

Any student who is facing academic or personal challenges due to difficulty in affording groceries/food and/or lacking a safe and stable living environment is urged to contact the CSULB Student Emergency Intervention & Wellness Program. The website outlining the resources available is csulb.edu/basicneeds. Students can also e-mail supportingstudents@csulb.edu or call 562/985.2038. You can also reach out to me if I can help identify additional resources.

Have a great class!

Let’s have fun this semester!

• Set a clear focus for your website
• Create persuasive writing
• Produce exciting images
• Assemble it all in a compelling website
• Critique, Revise, Improve, Repeat!

Reference: CSULB Curriculum Handbook, Section 4: Courses & Curricula > Course Syllabi & Standard Course Outlines