• Contact Info
Publications in VIVO
 

Swanson, Joel Eric

Associate Professor

Positions

Research Areas research areas

Research

research overview

  • Words are power(ful); my artwork illuminates the subtle but potent ways that language influences the way we perceive the world. From alphabetization to text encodings, I explore the structures and technological protocols that shape us through norms and standards. My medium is language, but my artwork takes many forms from large neon installations to digital works that exist online. Through dimensionality, repetition, and decontextualization my work makes the familiar unfamiliar and the ordinary strange; I want my artwork to make people perceive language and its influence from new and unorthodox perspectives.

keywords

  • art, text art, language, conceptual art, digital art, technology, technology studies, typography, design, creative technology, creative coding

Publications

Teaching

courses taught

  • ATLS 1100 - Design Foundations
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2022 / Fall 2022
    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
    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 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
  • ATLS 3529 - Special Topics in Critical Perspectives in Technology
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2021
    Analyzes critical perspectives in technology, art, and media. Within these courses, students will develop vocabularies, theoretical perspectives and critical approaches relevant to technology and its effects on culture and society.
  • ATLS 4130 - Typography
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2018 / Fall 2019 / Fall 2020 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2023
    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 in Technology, Arts, and Media
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2018 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2024
    Analyzes special interest areas of multidisciplinary technology, arts and media research and practice. May be repeated up to 32 total credit hours.
  • ATLS 5130 - Typography
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2018 / Spring 2022
    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 - Advanced Special Topics in Technology, Arts, and Media
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2019 / Fall 2019 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2024
    Analyzes special interest areas of multidisciplinary technology, arts and media research and practice. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours for different topics.
  • COEN 1830 - Special Topics
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2023
    Explores topics of interest in transitioning to the College of Engineering and succeeding in STEM majors.
  • 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? Same as ENGL 5529.

Background

International Activities

Other Profiles