John Slepian

Five College Associate Professor of Art and Technology

Interdisciplinary Arts

jsIA@hampshire.edu

Personal Website

Mail Code AC

John Slepian

Lemelson Building AC

413.549.4600

John Slepian, Five College associate professor of art and technology, received a B.F.A. in film and television from New York University and an M.F.A. in new genres from the San Francisco Art Institute.

His interactive installations, which feature projected and screen-based 3D computer animation, investigate what makes us feel engaged with other living beings. Slepian's artwork has been shown at the Exploratorium and Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, the Art Gallery at Siggraph06 in Boston, and P.S.1/MoMA and Hunter College Art Galleries in New York. In 2002, he received the New Langton Arts Bay Area Award. He has been a resident in the P.S.1 National Studio Program, and in 2005 was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts grant in computer arts.

Recent and Upcoming Courses

Concept, Process, and Practice: Non-Disciplinary Art Foundations
The contemporary practice of art is less and less dependent on any particular disciplinary skill. Nonetheless, making art is very much still a rigorous process. It depends on highly developed critical, sensory and communicative skills. This studio art course is an introduction to some of the basic questions a contemporary artist must answer: What rules will guide the making of my work? What forms and materials will be best for what I wish to express? How can my work metaphorically embody my ideas? We will answer these questions and more through a series of collaborative and individual projects, readings and viewings, and frequent group critiques--the process of critique itself being one of the foundations of a successful art practice. Some familiarity with an art medium could be helpful, but is not necessary. (keywords: art, ideas, sculpture, installation, performance)
Coding for Artists: Interactive and Generative Art in the 21st Century
In this course, students will create a series of interactive projects, starting with screen-based works, progressing to connecting simple electronic sensors and actuators to multimedia programs, and culminating in a fully realized interactive work, which may be web-based, a sculpture, installation or performance. Students will work with a variety of multimedia technologies (including animation, video, and sound), various types of sensors (tracking motion with video cameras, sensing movement and touch, sensing environmental conditions, etc.). They will also work with a range of actuator technologies (DC motors, servo motors, solenoids, etc.). Our engagement with these technologies will be supported and contextualized by looking at the work of prominent interactive artists and by a series of theoretical readings drawn from fine art, new media, philosophy, and other disciplines. (keywords: computer programming, art, installation, interactive art, performance art)