Catalyst

Web Basics II

Administrator — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:47:32 +0000

Time: September 1, 2010 | 4:00 PM
Location: AITR 190

Here are some simple steps to getting your online portfolio off the ground. For more in-depth information, check out Jason’s workshop notes: http://www.catalystgallery.org/2010/05/web-basics/

Domain Name

Imagine you’re a mover, new to the job and you have your first assignment. The first thing your given is the first house’s address. A website’s domain name is like an address, it tells your web browser where the website is. It’s what you put into your web browser’s address bar, like www.google.com, or www.catalystgallery.com

If you’re interested in buying your own domain name, here are a few places to check out:

GoDaddy
Yahoo
Network Solutions
Register.com
Domains

Getting a domain name is the first step to setting up your website. After you buy a domain name, it’s time to get…

Hosting

You’ve driven to the address and now you’re at the empty house that you’re about to move a bunch of stuff into. A website’s hosting is like the actual house at an address. Hosting is where your website is actually stored. While you can do this on your own computer (this gets into server management), it’s usually easier (and faster for your viewers) to get hosting at an external company. That company will tie your hosting space (maybe 10 GB at a server out in Denver) to your domain name so that when someone enters that web address into their browser, it’ll contact the server in Denver and retrieve the information there.

We’ve already set up hosting for anaan.org because it typically takes 24-48 hours for hosting to activate, but after you purchase hosting, you generally set-up a username, password, and enter your domain name. Make sure you remember the username and password, these are going to be what we use to upload your website!

Some good hosting services can be found at:

GoDaddy
HostGator
BlueHost
Host Monster
JustHost.com
Web Hosting Pad

After your hosting is set up, we get into…

Designing

There are a huge number of ways to design a website ranging from getting into the nitty-gritty of coding to using more complex software like dreamweaver. Here, we’re going to use a very simple but highly-customizable HTML template to introduce you to the basics of coding and file structures in websites.

HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language, is a language that browsers read to translate how a webpage is supposed to look. HTML is made up of tags, that are entered in < > carrots and come with a starting and ending pair, for example, if you wanted to make a word bold, you would surround that word with a starting and ending tag, such as this text is going to appear bold

Every HTML website’s code begins with and ends with . This is like telling someone, I am going to speak in Russian now, and then they begin speaking in Russian. This tells your browser what language the website is coded in.

Here are some other basic tags:

the heading
the visible content on the page
text in between is displayed as a paragraph
LinkText is used for putting links in your website
is used for inserting images in your website
puts a horizontal line in your website
is a line break (new line) that you can put in without starting a new paragraph
This text is bold makes text bold
This text is italicized makes text italicized
This text is underlined makes text underlined

Some applications for editing code are:

Notepad++ (Win)
The HTML Editor (Win)
PSPad (Win)
Coda (Mac)
WebDesign (Mac)
Espresso (Mac
TextWrangler (Mac)
Komodo Edit (Mac & Win)

Next, to get our website online…

Uploading your Website

Now that we have the website done on our computers, we need to upload it to the web. We do this using FTP programs that allow us to upload our files to our hosting provider.

Some good FTP software:

FileZilla (Mac & Win)
Cyberduck (Mac)
SmartFTP (Win)
WinSCP (Win)
Transmit (Mac)
Fire FTP (Firefox add-on)
net2ftp (Browser based client)

More Notes

The page titled “index.html” is going to be the webpage that gets automatically loaded when people type in “http://www.yourdomain.com”

The titles of your HTML files appear in the address bar.

There are plenty of great resources on the internet for coding, website construction tutorials, and templates. Looking at how people code their webpages (by going to View-> View Source in your web browser) is a great way of learning what you can do with web design.

Web Editors & Website Builders

Dreamweaver (Mac & Win)
RapidWeaver
Sandvox (Mac)
Freeway
NetObjects Fusion Essentials
KompoZer
Amaya
SeaMonkey Composer

Website Templates & Content Management Systems

WordPress
Joomla

Links

w3schools.com: free resource for learning about HTML as well as other languages such as CSS, Java, PHP, SQL

envato.com: a great source for digital media, graphics, codes, etc. for sell.

Senior Year Prep/Post Graduation Guide: Tips and Resources

Administrator — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:42:54 +0000

Mindset

Make, Read, and Look at Art. Repeat.

Summer

Make Online Portfolio!

READ
Watch FILMS
Go to as many shows as possible (always carry notebook)
Take summer technical class (photo, woodshop, electronics)
Figure out what faculty you want to work with (studio art website)
Introspection: why make art?

Books

3 main categories: MEDIUM STUDIES-PHILOSOPHY-HISTORY

Seven Days in the Art World (Sarah Thornton)
Between The Eyes (David Levi Strauss)
Society of the Spectacle (Guy Debord)
On Photography (Susan Sontag)
Illuminations (Walter Benjamin)
Mythologies (Roland Barthes)
The Logic of Sensation (Deluze)
The Future of the Image (Ranciere)
How we Became Posthuman (KN Hayles)
Teaching to Transgress (Bell Hooks)
Peddagogy of the Oppressed ( Paulo Freire)
The Body in Contemporary Art (Sally O’Reilly)
Performance Art (Roselee Goldberg)
Art And Electronic Media (Edward Shanken)
Introducing Semiotics (Paul Cobley, Litza Jansz)

Movies

Watch to understand

Ways of seeing (John Berger: youtube)
2001 space odyssey
Vertigo
Psycho
Soylent Green
8 ½
Naked Lunch
Aliens
Seven Samarai
Apocalypse now

Resources

Art Journals and Magazines

Artforum http://artforum.com/
Frieze http://www.frieze.com/
Art in America http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/
Flash Art http://www.flashartonline.com/
Art Asia Pacific http://www.aapmag.com/
Bidoun http://bidoun.com/bdn/
Art Papers http://artpapers.org/
CAA Art Journal http://www.collegeart.org/artjournal/
October http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/octo?cookieSet=1
Grey Room http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/grey
New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/
Cabinet http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/

LA/SoCal Based Journals

Coagula http://www.coagula.net/
X-TRA http://www.x-traonline.org/

Online Resources

Major Photographers http://www.zeroland.co.nz/photographers.html
LA Gallery & Museum Guide http://artscenecal.com/
Theartnewspaper.com
e-flux.com
apexart.org

Patina

Administrator — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:00:05 +0000

An exhibition showcasing the works of Iris Hu, Mitchell Klein, Melissa Lee, Tessa Kurszewski, and Maivy Nguyen.

Time: June 3 – 8, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 3, 2010 | 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Location: Catalyst Gallery

"Untitled" by Melissa "Melly" Lee, inkjet print

"Self Portrait: Prurient Asana - Dandayamana Bibhaktapada Paschimottanasana" by Mitchell Klein, acrylic on denim

"I am a girl/not a boy" by Iris Hu, "touched" photo paper

"AltoArizona.com" by Tessa Kurszewski, acrylic on illustration board

Tissue

Administrator — Fri, 28 May 2010 01:00:20 +0000

Time: May 27 – June 1, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 27, 2010 | 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Location: Catalyst Gallery

An exhibition featuring works by Natalie Bojórquez, Noe Gaytan, Tessa Kurszewski, Kelly Mayfield, and Gabriel Tellez.

"El Dorado" by Kelly Mayfield, video, sound, latex

"Binge/Purge" by Natalie Bojórquez, acrylic on canvas

"Mictlantecuhtli and Quetzalcoatl" by Gabriel Tellez, oil on canvas

"Untitled" by Tessa Kurszewski, charcoal on paper

"Hold the Heartbreak" by Noe Gaytan, inkjet print on paper, public installation

Chimera

Administrator — Fri, 21 May 2010 01:00:35 +0000

Time: May 20 – 25, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 20, 2010 | 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Location: Catalyst Gallery

An exhibition featuring JoAnn Hockersmith, Iris Hu, Daniel McMullin, and Paolo Rondina.

"People" by Paolo Rondina, series of digital prints

"Botanicals" by Iris Hu, watercolor and ink on paper

"Untitled" by JoAnn Hockersmith, video installation

"Lolonga" by Daniel McMullin, steel and wood

Untitled

Administrator — Wed, 19 May 2010 02:30:36 +0000

Time: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 | 7:30 PM
Location: Outside the Honor Studios on the 3rd Floor of the ACT bldg.

"Untitled" by Katy Wang, acrylic and oil on canvas

“Kids”

Administrator — Sat, 15 May 2010 01:30:13 +0000

Time: May 14, 2010 | 6:30 PM
Location: ART 165

A disturbing portrayal of teenage life, AIDS, and the Kids of New York City. Controversial in its content, the film exposes the grim reality of a group of skate-boarders in the space of 24 hours. Primarily the story consists of Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick) a 17 year old slacker whose mission is to de-flower as many young girls as possible, whilst unprotected. Things turn bad when an old flame finds out she has tested positive for HIV and the only person she has had sex with is Telly. She chases through New York to find him but is too late as he has already de-flowered yet another innocent pre-teen. Written by Dan Adamson

Web Basics

Jayson Ward — Wed, 12 May 2010 02:30:19 +0000

Time: May 11, 2010 | 7:30 PM
Location: ART 165

1. Domain Name

A domain name is the thing you enter into the browser’s address bar, such as www.yahoo.com.

You can register a domain name with most website hosting companies. The typical price is around $11.00 to $35.00 per year
Some companies:
- Startlogic
- GoDaddy
- Yahoo
- Network Solutions – most expensive
- Register.com
- JustHost – domain name included with hosting
More Info > Wikipedia Article

2. Hosting Package

You will need a place to host your website, meaning a company’s server space where your website files will sit and be accessed from.

There are two typical types of web hosting packages
- A UNIX or LINUX based package
  - PHP / mySQL / Apache
  - Also known as a LAMP development environment.
  - These packages tend to come with alot of built in tools and content management systems.
    - WordPress
    - Joomla Templates
  - This is the best type of package to buy unless you have a specific need to work in a Windows based environment, which most people will not.
- A Windows Server based pacakge
  - ASP.Net / SQLServer / IIS
- Either of these packages will serve straight HTML scripts if you don’t want to utilize server-side scripting –> PHP or ASP.Net
Some companies:
- Startlogic – average cost
- GoDaddy – cheaper cost
- Network Solutions – more expensive
- Yahoo – average cost
- JustHost – inexpensive hosting – unsure about quality of service

3. Design Tools or Content Management Systems

You will need design tools if you want to build your own site from scratch; even if you want to hack into some content management templates, having Dreamweaver helps.

DESIGN TOOLS – These are the most common, industry standards
- Adobe Dreamweaver
  - The standard for website construction and management
- Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Fireworks
  - Image editing, as well as ‘Save for Web’ tools that allow for excellent compression without loss of quality.
- Adobe Flash
  - Flash is used to create rich interactive content, games as well as animations.
  - Flash’s future is in flux.
- Adobe Illustrator
  - Awesome vector based design application. Useful when creating more ‘graphic’ imagery, etc. for a website.
- Best Bet –> Buy the student version of Creative Suiite at the UCI Computer store before you graduate!!!!!!! The website lists the price as $599, but it is cheaper for UCI students. Don’t miss this opportunity to get awesome software for a great price.
CONTENT MANAGEMENT TOOLS
- Use a CMT if you do not want to design and build your own site from scratch. Typically, they can be customized.
- indexhibit
  - It’s a free content management system that you ‘install’ on your LAMP based hosting package.
  - Many artists use it. I use it for my personal art portfolio site [though I hacked the templates to suit my needs]
  - Requires some basic database setup on your hosting server
- WordPress
  - A very popular content management/blog type tool that can meet alot of demands.
  - The Catalyst website is now built using WordPress as the base.
- Joomla
  - I’m not familiar with all of the Joomla templates, but there are many.
- The only drawback to using these types of tools and templates is that if you don’t know how to hack them and customize them, they will look unoriginal.

4. Other Notes

Don’t pollute the web with bad design or bad coding practices.
- The web is full of badly designed sites with extremely bad back end coding.
- If you produce such work, you pollute the web and diminish the practice of web design
- If you don’t know how to design a great site, use a content management system until you do acquire the graphic and technical skills
Educate yourself
- Web design and development, just like graphic design and studio art, is a profession. Good web design and development professionals seek to maintain the highest quality of design and coding practices, while also staying on the cutting edge of technological practices.
- Take design classes
  - They are very different than studio art classes and teach you to create pragmatic visual designs.
- Take web design and programming classes
  - It is important to understand the coding behind a website otherwise you are never going to be able to make website do what you want.
  - The basic things to learn (you can teach yourself these things on your own computer without a web server)
    - HTML
      - About HTML
      - HTML Tutorials
    - CSS – Cascading Style Sheets
      - About CSS
      - CSS Tutorials
    - JavaScript
      - About JavaScript
      - JavaScript Tutorials
    - A quick tutorial about how to set a simple site up and test on your personal computer is coming soon.
  - Advanced topics (you will need a web server and database to experiment with these)
    - PHP – Used for dynamic server side webpages
      - About PHP
      - PHP Tutorials – from W3 Schools
      - PHP Documentation – from PHP website
    - SQL – Used to query and write to databases
      - About SQL
      - SQL Tutorials – From W3 Schools
      - MySQL – Comes with LAMP web hosting
      - SQL Server – Windows
    - ASP.NET with C# or VB.Net – Used with Windows Server sites
      - ASP.Net Tutorials – From W3 Schools
- Community Colleges are great and in-expensive places to gain technical knowledge
- Art Center at Night also offers classes in design, however the tuition is much higher than at a community college.

Original Source: http://www.defiantgoat.com/workshop/web_workshop.html

In Light of Recent Events

Administrator — Fri, 07 May 2010 01:00:39 +0000

Time: May 6 – 18, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 6, 2010 | 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Location: Catalyst Gallery

A solo show exhibiting new works by James E. Anderson.

"The End Is" by James E. Anderson, acrylic and neon, 84" x 44", 2008-09

"This Is Made Better Than I Could Make It ( Before )" by James E. Anderson, acrylic and neon, 30” x 30” x 30” + dimensions variable, 2010

"Game Over" by James E. Anderson, acrylic and neon, 42" x 24", 2009

"I Need You To Complete Me" by James E. Anderson, 16" x 74" x 4", 2009

Primed

Administrator — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 01:00:27 +0000

Time: April 29 – May 4, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 29, 2010 | 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Location: Catalyst Gallery

A solo, participatory installation by Maivy Nguyen.

Crit Circle

May 5th, 2010 → 6:00 pm