January 2011 |
| Topics | Homework | |
| WEEK 1 W 1/19 |
Introduce "New Media Writing" (Writing, Narrative, and Database) | |
| F 1/12 | Ironic, Suggestive Word/Image Hybrids Writing: Story, Plot, Narrative "You Suck at Photoshop" |
Reread: "My Last Duchess." How does Browning suggest--without coming out and explaining--the character of the Duke and the nature of his relationship with the late duchess? How does Browning make the Duke's unconscious revelations seem credible and natural? Come in with three or four specific phrases and passages highlighted. |
| WEEK 2 M 1/24 |
Putting Our Hybrids Online "My Web" and Moodle Aggregate vs. Systematic Media |
Ironic, Suggestive Word/Image Hybrids due |
| W 1/26 | Introduce the First Assignment: The Visual Verbal Narrative | Read the beginning of McFarland's Chapter 1"Dreamweaver CS3 Guided Tour," pages 19-38. Mark passages and details you don't understand and would like to discuss. |
| F 1/28 | Dreamweaver Introduction Setting up and exporting/importing a "www" site, uploading files/folders using Dreamweaver, |
Complete McFarland's Chapter 1: Dreamweaver Test Drive tutorial, pages 38-63. |
| WEEK 3 M 1/31 |
Cascading Style Sheet Introduction CSS Zen Garden example |
Read Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of McFarland, and complete the tutorial in Chapter 4 "Introducing Cascading Style Sheets" |
February
| Topics | Homework | |
| W 2/2 | Links (Chapter 5) Help Session Your own pages from DW's "CSS Layouts" (see McFarland 324). Brainstorming through imitation: Pamela and Shamela. |
1. Read McFarland's Chapter 5 and complete the Links Tutorial at the end 2. Come in with the URL of an item from the web--a page, or part of a page--that provides an example of a word/image combination that provides opportunities for reading between the lines and making judgments beyond what is said or intended. |
| F 2/4 | Images (Chapter 6) Help Session
Brainstorming Through Character: Mr. Darcy's Blog Ironic Gap forum |
Read McFarland's Chapter 6, "Images," and complete the tutorial. Write a response to one of the ironic gap items submitted by your classmakes |
| WEEK 4 M 2/7 |
Photoshop Exercise: Banner Techniques |
Read McFarland, Chapter 9 "Page Layout." and complete the tutorial "CSS Page Design" |
| W 2/9 | Photoshop Turn in the prospectus via the online form Exercise: Complete "Intermediate Banner Technqiues" (URL to forum "Banners") |
Bring in a one-sentence prospectus of your Visual Verbal Narrative idea |
| F 2/11 |
Exercise:
"Mocked-Up Pages Using Photoshop Slices and Dreamweaver" (save in www/4250/exercises/mock, URL to forum "Mock Pages"). |
Work on your Visual Verbal Narrative, bring in all materials |
| WEEK 5 M 2/14 |
Studio Session | Bring in all materials to work on your Visual/Verbal Narrative in class. |
| T 2/15 | Visual/Verbal Narrative due | Before Tuesday at noon, post your Visual/Verbal Narrative project to the web at www/4250/visual and send the URL to the forum "Visual Verbal Narrative" |
| W 2/16 | Turn in Commentary Discuss Manovich "How Media Became New" |
We will meet in LSBE 233 for the next few weeks. Manovich "Prologue: Vertov's Dataset" (xv-xxxvi) and "How Media Became New" (pages 21-26). See and follow the procedures on the page "Active Reading." |
| F 2/18 | Manovich's Principles of New Media (Why "New Media's Always Very Tricky") | Manovich: Principles of New Media 27-48; "What New Media is Not" 49-61. Follow the procedures on "Active Reading." |
| WEEK 6 M 2/21 |
Selection and Compositing | Manovich: The Operations, pages 117-145 (Selection and Compositing). Follow the procedures on "Active Reading" using the reading questions from "Guided Reading: Manovich's Chapter 3, Part 1" |
| W 2/27 | Selection, Compositing, and Teleaction | Manovich: The Operations continued, pages 145-175 (Selection, Compositing, and Teleaction) Follow the procedures on "Active Reading." Before 8 a.m., post the following in a message to the forum,"Manovich C3.2": a quotation from the book highlighting an important idea concerning selection, compositing, and teleaction, and a visible image of a screen shot from an example of new media which serves as a visual illustration of that idea. Be prepared to explain your visual and its relevance to the quotation and the operation(s). Come in with a passage marked that seems important but that you don't understand or seems wrong or backward (or could to someone else). Alternatively, you could come in with a pair of passages marked that seem to contradict one another. |
| F 2/25 | Database and Narrative | 1. Read Manovich: "The Forms," pages 213-243. 2. Come in with three quotations marked that help answer the question: What is the relationship of narrative and database in new media? What are the problems in this relationship? 3. On a piece of paper, represent each quotation with a brief verbal tag and a page number, and try mapping or charting the relationships of the three quotations to each other in whatever terms or scales seem appropriate. (Examples of such terms or scales: from simple to complex, from optimistic to critical, from past to present/future, from computer to culture, etc.) |
| WEEK 7 M 2/28 |
Navigable Space: How does Navigable Space combine or reconcile the cultural logics of database and narrative? Myst Speed Run |
Read Manovich: "The Forms" continued, pages 244-285 On a separate piece of paper, map or chart six quotations each represented with a verbal tag and page number: the three you already chose for Friday, and then three more from our readings for today. As before, arrange them visually on the page to suggest their relationships according to terms or scales of your choosing. These do not need to be the same terms or scales you used for last Friday's assignment. |
| Topics | Homework | |
| W 3/2 | Tom Bissell's Extra Lives, pages xi-xiv, 1-65 Pay attention to two aspects and be prepared to discuss them with two specific quotations/page numbers: 1. While Manovich takes a distanced, scholarly persepctive on new media, Bissell reports from inside the individual experience of new media. What connections can we make between what Bissell describes and thinks about, and what Manovich analyzes? 2. Bissell is, by profession, a writer who is immersed in digital video games. What signs of tension, contradiction, or conflict do you see between Bissell's analogue, print self and his digital, "database" self? |
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| F 3/4 | NO CLASS MEETING | |
| WEEK 8 M 3/7 |
Extra Lives, page 66-127. Come in with two quotations identified that help to characterize Bissel's response to/definition of each of the following themes: innocence, game play, stupidity/intelligence, manipulation/surrender, framed narrative/ludonarrative. |
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| W 3/9 | Dynamical Meaning Ludonarratve Dissonance See the video review of Grand Theft Auto IV "Man with a Movie Camera"(excerpts), full-length version at Google Videos. |
Extra Lives, page 128-183 Reading Questions: Why do video games matter? Why is the book titled "Extra Lives"? |
| F 3/11 | Alan Liu's The Laws of Cool, disciplinarity | Download, printout, and read Alan Liu's The Laws of Cool (Intro and excerpt from Chapter 10), available as a PDF from the Moodle forums under "Readings." Reading preparation: come in with three quotations chosen from the reading that exemplify Liu's vision of literary studies or the study of the humanities in relation to new media (or "knowledge work"). |
M 3/14 |
SPRING BREAK | |
| W 3/16 | SPRING BREAK | |
| F 3/18 | SPRING BREAK | |
| WEEK 9 M 3/21 |
Augmented Reality: Causes, Characteristics, Consequences Times Square, Introducing Layar, Domestic Robocop, Discover Your City (Layar), Iowa 80 Walcott Tour, Kroll and John Mulaney - Walking Tour of NYC, Walk with Us (Cardiff/Burnes), Cardiff/Bures Miller Walks |
The Poetics of Augmented Space (Manovich). Pages 1-7. Download, print, read, and mark the PDF available from the course Moodle site under "Readings." |
| W 3/23 | Augmented Reality Prada Retail Experience, Iowa 80 Walcott Tour, Kroll and John Mulaney - Walking Tour of NYC, Cardiff/Burnes Miller Walks For next time, see the handout, "Midterm Exam Format" |
The Poetics of Augmented Space (Manovich). Pages 8-15 |
| F 3/25 | Review for exam (Meet in KPlz 395) We will 1. write sample questions, 2. talk about them in groups 3. revise them 4. I will have you copy and paste three questions into an email to me, and make the argumenht that they should be on the exam based on substance, unambiguousness, reasonableness, accountability. See the Sample Exam Format |
Bring all books and materials (except McFarland) |
| WEEK 10 M 3/28 |
Midterm Exam (Meet in LSBE 233) | |
| W 3/30 | (Meet in KPlz 395) Introduce next Project: Writing in Augmented Space Fortworthology (Epsiode 56: Google Street View Tour of Paris) Iowa 80 Walcott Tour, Kroll and John Mulaney - Walking Tour of NYC, Cardiff/Bures Miller Walks |
Bring Manovich's "Poetics of Augmented Space" |
April
| Topics | Homework | |
| F 4/1 | Here Now / Not Here Now Layar Promo (Impactful Augmented Reality) "Juggling" (handout), from Jerome Stern's Making Shapely Fiction Here Now/Not Here Now (montage) Talk about Cardiff audio-walk examples |
Write a review of one of Janet Cardif's audio walks in the forum "Cardiff Reviews." Choose one of the walks at Cardiff/Bures Miller Walks, read the text, look at the slideshow, and listen to the audio except. Inside a clickable link to the walk in your posting. Answer the following questions: 1. What is the location and concept of the walk (as best you can tell from the description, the audio excerpt, and dialogue included, etc.) 2. In what ways does the audio walk fulfill the terms of the assignment. 3. Are there aspects of it that don't? 4. What are some techniques that we might notice learn from this walk for creating effects in our own WAS Projects? 5. Include a clickable URL to the page of the walk. |
| WEEK 11 M 4/4 |
Juggling and Interactive Maps/Street Views Synthetic vs. Analytical Writing (following up Windover exercise) Juggling (Here, Now / Not Here, Now): a key skill for writing in augmented space; revising your "Windover" passages in a reply to your own message. Exercise: Interactive Google Maps/Street Views in your own web page. We will complete this exercise in a new folder, "www/4250/exercises/here_now" |
Read "Juggling" In a reply to the forum "Windover," post a screen shot from the "Windover" area (see the Street View and map on the WAS assignment page) and a piece of text (and perhaps other media suggested by the text) from the article "It's My Hometown." With this place/text combination, try to use some detail to "slide" or juggle to produce a montage-like effect in augmented space. See directions for making a "screen shot" and for inserting visible images in a Moodle forum |
| W 4/6 | Audacity Review WAS assignment page. Exercises: Mixing Voice, Sounds, Music using Audacity, and Embedding Sounds in a Web Page Resources: Crickets Audacity Manual and Tutorials |
For the view or map that you inserted into your exercise page from class, write a piece of audio script that juggles from some visible detail in the here and now to a topic or line of thought from the "not here and now" Post a clickable URL to the page in the forum "Here Now / Not Here Now" |
| F 4/8 | Writing in Augmented Space: Ideas and Techniques Send me your prospectus Personal and Public Writing Sample Format of Writing in Augmented Space Exercises: Complete Embedding Sounds in a Web Page, Image Maps, Child Windows Post a URL to your Child Window exercise to the Moodle forum, "Child Windows" |
Come in with a prospectus of your WAS project, including 1. a title 2. a place specified and a possible list of locations within that place 3. a list of "not here/now" topics, flashbacks, ideas, facts, images, etc. that might compose elements of the augmented-space layer 4. a old-media genre that you're emulating: poem, memoir, fiction, feature article, argumentative analysis (as in Kunstler's analytical argument for "New Urbanism" via a Paris Street View Tour). 5. a sentence speculating on the project's overall meaning or effect as best you understand it now |
| WEEK 12 M 4/11 |
Technique as Discovery ("quality of attention") "Writing is what happens to a reader" Send me an update on your prospectus: please include name, email, title, and then other items about which you've had breakthroughs, second thoughts, musings, doubts, etc. Please feel free to explain. Exercises (completed): Image Maps and Child Windows with Javascript. A clickable URL to this exercise should be sent to the forum "Child Windows." |
In his book Aspects of the Novel, E.M. Forster famously said, "How do I know what I think till I see what I say?" Write at least a third of your script, using the Juggling technique to juxtapose the "Here Now / Not Here Now" material. Remember that you are writing to someone walking or driving in the actual place, not someone looking at a computer screen. Revise your prospectus for Monday, especially items 3, 4, and 5. |
| W 4/13 | Final Touch on Child Windows: inserting a sound player Wizard of Oz handout: Dialogical Meaning, or Finding "X". We will collect examples of other movies, books, video games on the forum "Dialogical Meaning" After class today, send me your script excerpt and a speculation about the possible dialogical oppositions that might constitute its meaning. Resources There's No Place Like Home Somewhere Over the Rainbow |
Bring in a third of your script (at least 500 words, or 2 double-spaced pages), in a form ready to copy and paste to submit. In this passage, you should be demonstrating your attempts to use Juggling (juxtaposing the "Here, Now" and the "Not Here, Now") to discover your theme or purpose. |
| F 4/15 | Writing in Augmented Space: Questions and Problems (forum, Visiting Day exercise) |
Work on your WAS project and bring in three quesitons to ask or problems to solve. |
| WEEK 13 M 4/18 |
Writing in Augmented Space: Questions and Problems Continued Rubric for the WAS Project: 1. major components 2. criteria for components 3. descriptions of criteria See the set of forums under "Writing in Augmented Space Criteria" |
Come in with one problem or question to discuss as a central concern or opportunity with the WAS Project. |
| W 4/20 | More Audacity Practice: 1. Compressing, Extracting files. 2. Post .zip file to www/4250/exercises/compressing 3. In a reply to the first message in the forum "Sounds," list the sounds in your .zip file and then include a clickable URL to that file. 4. Tutorial: How to Mix Sounds with Audacity 5. Envelope Tool 6. Edit: Mix and Render 7. Export your Rubric Criteria (Do for homework if we don't get to this today) Vote for five postings (not your own) among the messages in the forums "WAS Criteria:..." In a reply to the five postings, label them either: 1. original and helpful ("OH") 2. clearly and completely described ("CCD") Resource Sample link directly to an non-compressed, web-compatible file |
You should download and install Audacity on your own computer so you can record and/or edit the files below. Bring in three sound files on your USB: a background sound, sound effect, voice, or a passage of music (not complete song). They can be sounds you recorded or found pre-recorded. See also the Audacity Manual and Tutorials |
| F 4/22 | Studio Session: Writing in Augmented Space Projects. The online aspects of the WAS Project will be due by Monday at 9:30 a.m. |
Turn in a printed copy of your script, double-spaced. Divide the script by location, view, or gaze, with each section clearly labeled to associate it with a particular online image, map, or view. The script should include explicit instructions for where to look and and how to move within the scene (street addresses, North/South, relative to landmarks, etc.) |
| WEEK 14 M 4/25 |
Introduce "Essay+" Assignment
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By 9:30 a.m., send a clickalbe URL to home page of WAS Project to the forum "WAS URLs" |
| W 4/27 | Exercise: iPhoto Slideshows with Audio I will give you a copy of the handout for this exercise. Download these images to a folder called "iphoto" in your "nmw" folder. Copy the final .mov file into a new folder "www/4250/exercises/slideshow". Post that folder to the web, and send a clickable URL to the forum "Slideshows" |
Commentary on the WAS project due at the beginning of class |
| F 4/29 | Exercise (Revisit): iPhoto 09 Slideshows with Audio to Web-Compatable Movie Please suggest corrections and changes in the forum "Slideshow Tutorial Corrections." Interviews: For homework, I will ask you to post a news-style report of an "interview" with a classmate about the three questions and the two possible topics-to-share. This interview should include the interviewee's name and a paragraph or two emphasizing what seems to you to be the most interesting, most useful, most "newsworthy" question or sample topic discussed. See samples of such "In an Interview With..." writing at "Sarah Palin Interview with The Brody File" "Janet Jackson opens up about about issues..." Beyond hearing your interviewee's list of questions and topics, try to have a conversation with him or her to draw out the very best of what your interviewee has to say. Try to make your interviewee look as smart, thoughtful as possible Promo as expression of purpose |
Come in with: 1. three questions about the "Essay+" Assignment:
2. three possible topics:
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| Topics | Homework | |
| WEEK 15 M 5/2 |
Essay+ assignment questions and ideas 1. "New Media's Always Very Tricky" 2. Analysis = breaking down. Example: a charater 3. You are not alone: see databases at the UMD Library, where you can find articles like "Solving the Crime of Modernity: Nancy Drew in 1930" 4. The structural logic of comparison 5. Slideshow promos for non-fiction works:
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Write and post the name of your interviewee and a news-article style paragraph highlighting what seems to you to be the most interesting, most useful, most "newsworthy" question or sample topic that you discussed in the interview. This posting should appear in the forum, "Essay+ Interview Articles" See samples of such writing about interviews at "Sarah Palin Interview with The Brody File" "Janet Jackson opens up about about issues..." |
| W 5/4 | Thesis (big tent) foils parts vs. whole Resources: |
Work on your Essay+, and bring related materials to class. |
| F 5/6 | Last Day of Class Course Evaluations WAS Presentations "Warroad from the Water" "Rental Property" Return of "WAS" Projects (at the end) |
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| FINALS WEEK Scheduled final time: F 5/13 at 8:00 a.m. |
"Essay+" Assignment due by Friday, May 13 at 8:00 a.m.: 1. hard copy turned in to my mailbox in Humanities 420 2. clickable URL to your promo (movie) file posted in a message to the forum "Essay+ Movies." (Be certain that the .mov or .mp4 file plays). |
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