Joel Swanson is a contemporary American artist and academic who explores the boundaries between language, technology, and visual art. At the University of Colorado Boulder's ATLAS Institute, he serves as both Associate Professor and director of the TYPO Lab, where he leads experimental investigations into text-based technologies and their cultural implications. Swanson’s artistic practice manifests in multiple forms–from large-scale public installations and dynamic digital projections to interactive sculptures that challenge viewers' relationship with text. His work often plays with linguistic paradoxes and the materiality of language itself, inviting audiences to reconsider their assumptions about written communication. Through his research and creative work, Swanson examines how digital technologies are reshaping our understanding of language and meaning. His pieces frequently highlight the tension between analog and digital modes of communication, inviting viewers to question their assumptions about how we read, write, and interpret text in contemporary society.
keywords
art, text art, language, conceptual art, digital art, technology, technology studies, typography, design, creative technology, creative coding
ATLS 1100 - Design Foundations
Primary Instructor
-
Spring 2022 / Fall 2022 / Summer 2024 / Fall 2024
Introduces foundational principles, practices and methods of design. Emphasizes design as an expressive and creative problem solving tool. This course engages with design from a broad perspective including visual, computational, physical and auditory design practices. Through lectures, discussions and creative projects, students will gain a familiarity with the diverse applications of creative technology through design.
ATLS 1300 - Computational Foundations 1
Primary Instructor
-
Spring 2019
Explores computation as a powerful tool for creative design and expression in a project-based studio environment. Students learn the fundamentals of creative coding, computational thinking, and object-oriented programming. Hands-on topics include generative art and design, interactivity, animation, and visualization.
ATLS 2200 - Web
Primary Instructor
-
Summer 2022
Introduces techniques, technologies and concepts of web design and development through lectures, projects and critiques. Focuses technically on HTML, CSS and JavaScript as the primary web technologies. Contextualizes the technical and societal implications of the Internet through historical and critical perspectives.
ATLS 2300 - Text
Primary Instructor
-
Spring 2024
Introduces technologies, terminology and histories related to the design of text within digital and analogue media. Students will learn the fundamentals of design, typography and layout through lectures, projects and critiques. The curriculum surveys significant theoretical perspectives, historical periods and significant practitioners that influence the practice of typographic design.
ATLS 3000 - Code
Primary Instructor
-
Spring 2018
Instructs non-computer science students in analyzing problems and synthesizing programs for the solution,emphasizing good engineering practices for program construction, documentation, testing, and debugging. Uses Java for programming projects. Formerly ATLS 2010.
ATLS 3529 - Special Topics in Critical Perspectives in Technology
Primary Instructor
-
Fall 2021
Analyzes critical perspectives in creative technology and design. Within these courses, students will develop vocabularies, theoretical perspectives and critical approaches relevant to technology and its effects on culture and society.
ATLS 4130 - Experimental Typography
Primary Instructor
-
Fall 2018 / Fall 2019 / Fall 2020 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2023 / Fall 2024
This course is an advanced investigation of typography for visual communication and expression. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of meaning as conveyed through materials, technology, and design. Projects are experimental and are designed to challenge you to expand your understanding of the function of typography in communication, design, art, and culture. Same as ATLS 5130.
ATLS 4519 - Advanced Special Topics
Primary Instructor
-
Fall 2018 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2024
Analyzes special interest areas of multidisciplinary creative technology and design research and practice. May be repeated up to 32 total credit hours.
ATLS 5130 - Experimental Typography
Primary Instructor
-
Fall 2018 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2024
This course is an advanced investigation of typography for visual communication and expression. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of meaning as conveyed through materials, technology, and design. Projects are experimental and are designed to challenge you to expand your understanding of the function of typography in communication, design, art, and culture. Same as ATLS 4130.
ATLS 5410 - Creative Technologies
Primary Instructor
-
Spring 2021
This course gives students hands-on exposure to a wide range of technologies, including 3D printing, laser cutting, microcontrollers, sensors and programming. Through rapid prototyping and problem solving, students gain technical fluency and competence while identifying technology skills they wish to develop further.
ATLS 5430 - Design Methods
Primary Instructor
-
Fall 2020 / Fall 2021 / Fall 2022
In this course, students will learn to develop sense-making techniques as designers. This includes framing and structuring design research, making representations to generate insights, as well as documenting and communicating processes and outcomes. The class is structured around weekly discussions and activities anchored in real-world design challenges; and it will also offer tutorials on key design skills such as rapid prototyping and visual communication.
ATLS 5519 - Adv Topics
Primary Instructor
-
Spring 2019 / Fall 2019 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2024
Analyzes special interest areas of multidisciplinary creative technologies and design research and practice. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours for different topics.
COEN 1830 - Special Topics
Primary Instructor
-
Fall 2023 / Fall 2024
Explores topics of interest in engineering. Content varies by instructor and semester. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours.
IAWP 6100 - Theory and Practice of Doing
Primary Instructor
-
Fall 2021
Introduces students to the theory of doing and making. Guiding questions include: what does it mean to place "doing" at the center of one's research agenda? What does it mean to do hands-on work in an art/design studio, a digital humanities lab, a media lab, a media archaeology lab, a makerspace or a hackerspace?
