Schedule | Spring 2017

WEEK 1
W 1/11

Day 1: New Media/Writing

Screenshot from Janet Cardiff's and George Bures Miller's "Alter Bahnhoff"

Roll and Introductions

Assignment for Next Time

See the assignment below, left column

New Media / Writing

Not a discipline, but a war

First Project

See the assignment for the Social Creativity Project

Resources

• Active Reading
• 50 Sad Chairs

MLK Holiday: No Class Meeting

Homework: Birkerts

Readings

Printout, read, mark, and bring in Sven Birkerts'

• Introduction, and
• Chapter 1: "MahVuhHuhPuh"

from his book The Gutenberg Elegies, both available as PDFs via the course Moodle site.

Follow the "Moodle" link in the menu above, and then open the PDF files under the section heading "Readings").

Practice Active Reading

As you read these assignments, try practicing the techniques of Active Reading as you look for responses to the following questions. Be sure to mark your printouts to show where and how Birkerts speaks to these issues:

Thought Questions

1. In what particular ways does Birkerts define writing and reading?

2. How do these styles of writing and reading represent not just literary practices but social, personal, and political values and ways of living?

3. How does "New Media" or networked life threaten these ways of writing, reading, and living?  What values, experiences, or abilities does New Media make obsolete?

4. In what ways is Birkerts' writing an example of the kind of writing (and set of values) that he is defining and describing?

Do not come to class without these printouts! You can printout a PDF with two pages per sheet if you wish.

Advice

Note that the first paragraph of Chapter 1 is something of a false start: dense and vague.

Start with the second paragraph. Come back and read the first paragraph after you've finished the chapter.

Photocopy One Page to Turn In

After you have read and marked the two chapters, choose one page to photocopy or scan/print and bring to class to turn in to show an example of your reading actively. Be sure to write your name in the upper right corner of the page.

Syllabus

Read over the syllabus carefully and come in with any questions.

Day 2: Birkerts' Reading and Writing

Detail from cover art to an edition of Birkerts' Gutenberg Elegies.

Before Class Starts

Log into your lab computer and open up Word.

Also open a browser and view this page.

Birkerts

Choose one of the homework questions and answer it in a paragraph.

Sandwich a quotation from Birkerts in the middle of your paragraph (including a page number indicated in parentheses after the quotation).

Be sure the focus of your paragraph is on what Birkerts says or thinks, rather than generically on writing or reading.

Resources

• Social Creativity Project
• 50 Sad Chairs
• Make Your Franklin (visual design)
• In Search of Oldton

Homework

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Read

Printout, read, mark, and bring in Lev Manovich's "What is New Media?" (Chapter One from this book The Language of New Media).

This chapter is available as PDFs via the course Moodle site.

Follow the "Moodle" link in the menu above, and then open the PDF file under the section heading "Readings To Print").

Practice Active Reading

As you read, try practicing the techniques of Active Reading as you look for passages and statememts relevant to the following questions.

• What are some ways that Manovich "complicates" the definition of New Media (that is, makes the definition more subtle and challenging than is typical)?
• For you, what are some suprising or useful (or even tranformative) things that Manovich says in response to the question, "What is New Media?"
• Manovich gives five characteristics of New Media, and observes that the last two characteristics are results or effects of the first three. Why would this be so?
• Choose one passage that, for you, is most important in the chapter. In the margin, draw a star and write a few words (what we'll call a verbal tag) that suggest your reasons for choosing that passage.

Come in Ready

Come in ready to offer and discuss what you marked, experienced, and thought about while reading this chapter.

Day 3: Manovich: What is New Media?

Detail from the cover of Lev Manovich's The Language of New Media

Manovich's Five Characteristics

"New Media's Always Very Tricky"

Review from Last Time

• Experience
• Choreography
• Motion
• Process
• Participation

Resources

• Sample Social Creativity Steps, Rules, and Guidelines (handout)
• Social Creativity Project
• 50 Sad Chairs
• Make Your Franklin (visual design)
• In Search of Oldton
• Sample Social Creative Page

Homework

A Close Reading of Social Creativity (Moodle Post)

The Set Up

In class, we spent some time doing a close reading of this instance from the "Sad Chair" project. (Visit this page for much more on close reading.)

A close reading like this helps us to understand how a creative vision can be defined in a set of Steps, Rules, and Guidelines like those on the handout you received last time.

The Task

From one of the sample social-creativity projects on the assignment page (or a another example that you've found on the web), choose one example (that is, one "instance") to do a close reading of.

For example, if you chose the "Make Your Franklin" project, you could do a close reading of the McDonald's-themed "I'm Loving It!" instance.

Post to Moodle

By Wednesday at noon, post a reply to the Moodle Forum "A Close Reading of a Social Creativity Instance."

In this reply, include a link to the instance of social creativity that you've chosen to talk about, and write a paragraph analyzing this example of the project.

This analysis should explain how the various creative choices made in the composition function together to produce a particular effect and meaning. Your paragraph should also evaluate the creative potential of the project's format, and the extent to which the particular instance realizes that potential (or not).

Day 4: Dreamweaver Prototype

Review Manovich's 5 Characteristics

Create on your USB Drive

On your USB drive, create the following set of nested folders:

new media writing

www

4250

exercises

social

was

assets

If you don't have a USB drive available today in class, log into the lab's "My Files" space in your lab computer and save all of the above there. ("My Files" is a storage space on the network where you can store files and access them from any lab.)

When you have your USB with you, you will be able to copy all of the folders and files you've created for this class in "My Files" and paste them into your USB drive.

Exercise: Page from Prototype (Your Social Creativity Page)

Today we will work on the exercise "Web Page From Prototype." I will give you a copy of the handout.

• To start this exercise, download the compressed .zip file "social_prototype"
  
  
• Following the directions in your tutorial, copy the uncompressed files from the "social_prototype" folder into the folder "social" (inside of the "4250" which is inside of "www')
  
  
• For Step 3, follow this link to an image, which you should then Control+click on and save into the "assets" folder inside of the "social" folder.
  
  
• For Step 4 in the tutorial, do the following:
  1. From the top menu, choose Site > Manage Sites
  
  2. In the "Mangae Sites" window, click the "New Site" button
  
  3. In the "Site Set-Up..." window, type "www" in the "Site Name" box
  
  4. To the right of the "Local Site Folder" box, click the small folder icon, and then navigate to where you have your "www" folder created. With the "www" folder displayed in the banner window at the top of the window, click Choose.
  
  5. In the Site Set-Up window, click the "Save" button.
  
  6. In the "Manage Sites" window, click the "Done" button.
  
  
• We will leave Step 19 for next time.
  
  
• The finished page for this exercise--and for your Social Creativity Project--will look something like this.

Using the "Page from Prototype" for Your Project

You will use this exercise page as the platform for presenting all the elements of the Social Creativity Project (except for the Commentary, which you will turn at the beginning of the class meeting after the project is due

Homework

Write, Revise, and Bring

On your USB drive, write, revise, and bring in drafts of these three elements of your Social Creativity Project:

1. Two sample contributions to your project, of the kind that you are asking others to create and submit to you.
   
   For now, you can create these contributions as pencil-drawn sketches or diagrams to simulate the composition, design, and writing or these instances.
   
   It is important to work on these first so you will have an opportunity to explore the creative possibilities and challenges of the form that you're asking others to produce. As you work on these, take note of both the practical steps your following, and the cereative considerations you're thinking about.
   
   
2. Having tried the format yourself, write a set of steps, rules, and guidelines, which provides how-to instructions, techniques, and guidelines, as well as insight into the creative possibilities of the form. These rules should inspire as well as instruct.
   
   See the handout "Sample of Social Creativity Steps, Rules, and Guidelines" (5) as an example.
   
   
3. The rationale or "set up" paragraph.
   Address this paragraph to your audience of potential collaborators. Here, you're attempting not just to explain the project to the audience, but to engage, inspire, and intrigue them.
   
   See the opening paragraph at the top of the sample Sad Chairs project page for an example. Also, see the set ups (both good and not so good) on the other sample projects from the Social Creativity Project assignment page.

Day 5: Dreamweaver Sites and Photoshop

To Get Ready for Class Today

1. Plug your USB Drive into your desktop
2. Open Dreamweaver
3. Open Photoshop

Exercise: Setting Up a "www" Site in Dreamweaver

I will give you a copy of the handout "Setting Up a "www" Site in Dreamweaver and Using It to Upload Files and Folders."

Turning in Page to Prototype

1. Using the "www" site set up in Dreamweaver, upload the HTML page from the Web Page From Prototype exercise (in the folder "www/4250/social").
2. Visit the page with a browser at a URL like this, but with your own user id entered in place of "youruserid".
3. With the image visible in your browser, copy the URL from the location bar into a reply to the Moodle foum "

Exercise: Banners

We will do together in class the exercises Beginning and Intermediate Banner Techniques (Photoshop).

1. We will create a banner that goes on a page like this, which has a banner that is 760 pixels by 120 pixels
2. Save the working .psd file to your "new media writing" folder
3. Save the finished product (.jpg file) to a folder called "www/4250/exercises/banner"
4. Upload the banner and visit the image with a web browser at a URL like this, but with your own user id entered in place of "youruserid".
5. With the image visible in your browser, copy the URL from the location bar into a reply to the Moodle foum "Banners"

Homework

Send Me a Prospectus for your Social Creativity Project (by Tuesday at 11 p.m.)

By Tuesday night, complete the form "Prospectus: Social Creativity Project"

Studio Day: Bring What You Need to Work

Bring in all materials necessary to work on your Social Creativity Project in class.

Though you will be working individually on this Studio Day, this is still a class meeting, and you will be expected to be on time and to stay till the end working productively and helping others.

Day 6: Studio Session: Social Creativity

Social Creativity Project Due by 4:00

Online Aspects Due by Noon

The online aspects of the project are due by 4:00 today. To turn in the project:

1. Be sure the project's web page (a file called "index.html") is saved in the "social" folder which is inside of "4250"
2. Upload the "social" folder to the server with Dreamweaver using the techniques we learned in class. (See the handout "Setting Up a "www" Site in Dreamweaver and Using It to Upload Files and Folders.")
3. Visit the page with a browser, and copy the URL from the browser's location bar at the top. To find the page with your browser, try this URL, but with your own user id entered in place of "youruserid".
4. Open the Moodle forum "Social Creativity Project URLs," click "Replly" to the top message, and paste your URL into the reply message box as a clickable link. Post your reply.

Friday: No Class Meeting

Homework

Printed Commentary on the Social Creativity Project

I will pick up the printed copy of your commentary at the beginning of class. See the commentary requirements on the assignment page (8-12 under "Criteria")

Read

Read the following from Tom Bissell's Extra Lives using the techniques of Active Reading:

• Author's Note xi-xiv
• Chapter 1 "Fallout" 3-14

Three Quotations: Tensions

Bissell is, by profession, a fiction writer and critic--though a writer/critic who also loves video games. In essence, Bissell is half Birkerts, half Manovich.

• What signs of tension, contradiction, or conflict do you see between Bissell's writerly, narrative self and his digital, "New Media" self?
• In what ways does Bissell attempt to solve or understand these cultural, aesthetic, or political tensions?

Come in with three quotations identified--with page numbers--that provide clues that might help answer the questions above.

Be prepared to discuss your choices and explain their implications.

Resource

A Play-Through of Fallout 3, Part 1 from YouTube

Day 7: Bissell's Extra Lives: Tensions and Contradictions

[ Meet in ENGR 177]

Detail Detail from the opening, cinametic sequence of Fallout 3

Resources:

• Fallout 3 (game play)
• Fallout 3 (Trailer)

Homework

Read Bissell

Read Tom Bissell's Extra Lives, pages 17-65 (Chapters 2-4) using the techniques of Active Reading.

Five Transformative Terms, Phrases, or Examples

In addition to the ideas presented, the value of a book like Bissell's comes from the

• transformative words or phrases
• revealing distinctions (that is, oppositions or binaries),
• creative connections, and
• telling examples

that author provides us, which we can use as critical tools for thinking not only about video games, but about lots of other issues of media and culture.

Bring to Class on Paper

From the chapters read for today, write down five such terms, phrases, or examples that seem potentially useful as critical terms we could borrow for our own thinking and writing.

Beside each, make a sentence or two of notes about how Bissell is using that term, phrase, or example to understand and say something in Chapters 2-4.

Be ready to discuss how and why you see each of these terms/phrases/examples as offering a useful or powerful critical tool for your own writing (whether about video games or about some topic in media, culture, or writing).

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Day 8: Bissell's Extra Lives 2

[ Meet in ENGR 177]

Narrative, Intelligence, Art

Resources

• Active Reading
• Fallout 3 (game play)
• Fallout 3 (Trailer)

Homework

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Read Bissell

Extra Lives, page 66-183 (the end) using the techniques of Active Reading.

Two Threads in Eight Passages

Below are some of the terms and phrases you identified as transformative or revealing from the opening chapters of Extra Lives.

Ideally, these topics represent not just isolated, incidental notions, but the beginnings of threads that Bissell will continue to develop through the rest of the book.

Choose Two Threads to Follow

Choose two of the ideas below (under "Possible Threads") to track as you read the remainder of Extra Lives.

(If you feel irresistibly compelled, you may choose one thread of your own that does not appear below.)

What to Write Down for Class

Come to class with eight passages identified on paper with page numbers from today's assigned reading. These eight passages should point to particular instances where you see Bissell addressing and further developing one of the two threads you've chosen to follow.

You don't need to write down the entire quotation, just a "word tag" (that is a few key words) and the page number with tenths (".3" for example) to indicate how far down the page the passage appears.

For each word tag, make some notes on how that passage adds to Bissell's development of that idea. Some questions you might consider:

-- Does Bissell solve any of the problems he identifies in opening chapters?

-- Does he further problematize, contextualize, or deepen a question or dilemma that he's raised without resolving it?

Possible Threads (Passages from Your "Five Transformative Terms" Homework):

• art (creative intelligence) (35)
• frame narrative vs. ludonarrative (37)
• "shock of the new" (Robert Hughes) (26)
• "narrative minimalism" (42)
• "Most gamers do not care [about matters of narrative, dialogue, dramatic motivation, and characterization] because they have trained by game designers not to care" (30-31)
• "the remindful crack of the narrative whip--to seek entertainment is to seek that whip" (40)
• "The more explanation there is, the [misguided] thought appears to go, the more story has been generated. This would be a profound misunderstanding of story for any form of narrative art..." (40)
• "presiding intelligence" (42)
• "vaguely loathsome form of innocence" (34)
• "You get control and you are controlled" (39)
• "Are games the problem or am I?" (36)
• "When I am being entertained, I am also being manipulated" (38)

Note that your eight chosen passages might be relevant to a thread without explicitly using the same wording or referring to the same examples. As long as you see relevance (and can explain it), you can claim that passage for your chosen thread.

Day 9: Bissell: Criticism

[ Meet in ENGR 177]

Question

How does that theme exemplify and contribute to Bissell's critical vision of video games as an art form? 

Resources

• Phillip Seymore Hoffman as rock critic Lester Bangs in the Cameron Crowe film Almost Famous (2000).
• Bang's Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung

Homework

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Write, Print, and Bring In

A. Choose a passage from today's reading in Bissell which sums up a critical idea that could be used in an analysis of a piece of New Media or a video game.

B. Find two other quotations that connect and add to that essential idea in the first quotation:

1. Under a heading "Quotations," transcribe the three quotations from Bissell's book with page numbers (including 10ths)
   
   
2. Under a heading "Theory," write a paragraph that explains how a student or scholar could use the idea developed in these three quotations to analyze a particular example of New Media/video games. Essentially, how do these three quotations constitute a "critical vision" of New Media/video games. What are the key words or distictions?
   
   
3. Under a heading "Example," use the idea developed from your theory paragraph to analyze (pick apart, interpret, read closely, critique) a particular scene, view, page, or aspect of a work of new Media or a video game. Paste a screen shot into your document if that helps.
   
   

C. Print the document and bring to class.

Day 10: Bissell: Narrative and Database

Exams Handout

I will give you a copy of the handout "What to Remember, Understand, and Be Able to Discuss for the Exams." Please change the page number in the upper right from 5 to 21

Narrative and Database Handout

I will give you a copy of the handout "Narrative and Database" (from Lev Manovich's The Language of New Media). This is page 22 in our sequential list of semester handouts.

Resources

• Michael Nitsche's "Five Analytical Planes of Video Game Space" from Video Game Spaces.

Homework

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Read

• Introduction to Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command, pages 1-51
• Chapter 1 of Software Takes Command, "Alan Key's Universal Media Machine," pages 55-106.

15 Quotations to Answer 5 Questions

As you read, note down the page numbers (including tenths) of passages that help to answer the questions below. On average your will need three quotations per question to get 15.

In addition to the page number, also write down 1-5 key words from eacg quotation to serve as a "tag" to help you recall what that quotation said.

On paper, bring your list of quotation tags and page numbers.

The Questions

1. Software
In what particular ways does Manovich define "software," and what role does software play in the history of media?

2. Software Studies
According to Manovich, what is "software studies" and why is it necessary to understanding New Media?

3. History, the Present, the Future
Manovich claims that his book is concerned "with the present and the future." How does he justify, then, his focus in this chapter on the past? What does knowing the history of New Media offer us today, according to Manovich?

4. Alan Kay
Why does Manovich make Alan Kay the "key protagonist" of this history (43)?

5. Extendibility
What does Manovich mean by the "extendability" of New Media? Why does it matter?

Make a Cluster

On another sheet of paper, make a cluster of words and ideas from the 15 quotations to attempt to map relationships among them.

As an example of clustering, remember the exercise we did on the board last class meeting. Also see my web page on clustering for details of this brainstorming technique).

For each node or item in this cluster, write down the page number where that word or phrase is found in Manovich.

Indicate relationships, patterns, sequences, and oppositions that you see among the nodes with lines and various arrows, and notes of your own in squares (to contrast with the circled items from the reading).

Keep clustering and drawing lines until you have at least twelve nodes in your cluster (try for more if you can).

Write a Summing-Up Sentence

Immediately when you're done clustering, write down at the bottom, or the back, a sentence summing up something you see in the relationships of two or more items on the cluster. Try to write something that you hadn't thought of before making the cluster.

This statement might be about a very specific thought or a broad idea, but it should relate to a topic or example raised explicitly by Manovich.

Day 11: Manovich, Software 1

[ Meet in ENGR 177]

Resources

• Alter Bahnhof Video Walk (Cardiff/Bures Miller)
• You Suck at Photoshop, Episode 1: Distort, Warp, and Layer Effects
• You Suck at Photoshop, Episode 2: Covering Your Mistakes
• Handout: "Lev Manovich's 'Metamedium.'"

Homework

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Read

Read Chapter 2 of Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command, pages 107-157

Annotate the "Metamedium" Diagrapm

In class, I gave you a copy of the handout, "Lev Manovich's 'Metamedium.'"

What This Is

This handout gives you a "semiotic square" composed of two opposing terms (dichotomies, binaries) that are at the core of Manovich's Chapter Two:

• Simulation of Old Media vs. Development of New Properties in Media
• Media-Specific Media Techniques vs. Media-Indepedent Techniques
  
  

A semiotic square is a format that enables you to take two sets of opposing terms like these and lay them across one another, creating a two-dimensional field of possibilities for analysis.

What To Do

As you read Chapter 2, note down page numbers (with tenths) and key words that help you understand each of the four terms around the outside (in black: New Properties, etc) and the oppositions among them.

Also note down pages number and key words for the hybrid terms inside the lines (in gray: for example "New Media Specific")

What You're Reading For

Manovich argues that software is a "metamedium" composed of these four characteristics (that is, these two pairs of opposing terms).

These sets of distinctions on this chart are the beginning of his thinking, rather than his end or conclusion.

He spends the chapter stress-testing, questioning, and problematizing the truth and usefulness of these oppositions and the meaning of their relationships:

Is there a problem, for instance, in distinguging just what is "old" and "new"? Does what is new come from the old? Does old become new through some kind of process? Or does the new come from new conditions that make the old obsolete?

• Why does it matter, according to Manovich, whether or not these oppositions hold up as a definiton of the "metamedium" of software?
  
  
• What does Manovich suggest is at stake in any of these questions?

Write a Pragraph

On another sheet of paper, write a substantive paragraph about some issue or question Manovich raises, or some example that he uses to understand what a "metamedium" is.

Day 12: Manovich, Software C2

[ Meet in ENGR 177]

Kandinsky, Sketch for Composition VII, 1913

Consider an Optional Revision

Consider an option revision of your Social-Creativity Project for a new grade on the project (based on figuring 1/3 of the original grade and 2/3 of a new grade).

This revision would not be a simple fixing up of the project, but a substantial revision that we would work on collaboratively.

The revision option is open only to those whose project was submitted on time and complete by the original deadline.

See the page "Collaborative Revision Process," for more details, and the Revision Contract that governs the process.

Deadline for meeting with me about a revision of the Social Creativity Project is Wednesday, March 8.

The final revision itself would be due several weeks after our first meeting about it, on a date we would agree to.

Resources

• Handout: "Lev Manovich's 'Metamedium.'"
• Moviola (film editing machine)

Homework

Log Your Classroom Contributions 

In replies to the the Moodle forum "Classroom Contributions," please make note of any quotations from the readings which you orally raised and commented on in class last time.

See the full directions on the syllabus.

Read

Read the Chapter 3 of Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command, pages 161-198

Cluster of 12 Quotation Tags

1. Before you start reading, get a blank sheet of paper to make a cluster out of 12 "quotation tags" that you will choose from the chapter.

Remember a quotation tag is a page number (with tenths) and 1-5 key words from the quotation which help you remember it.

2. Open and read through again this page of steps for productive clustering techniques.

3. At the center of the page, write "Hybrid Media is Not Multimedia"

4. With your choice of tags, try to show why Manovich believes the statement is true. You might also explore:

• How does Manovich recommend we tell the difference between hybridity and multimedia?
• What difference does it make to Manovich if we use one term or the other when we’re talking about what computers do, and what “media after software” looks and feels like?  
• For Manovich, what is at stake in the distinction between “hybrid media” and “multimedia”?  
• How does this distinction (and Manovich’s argument for “hybridity") build on anything you remember from the Introduction or Chapter One?  

5. When you finish, remember to write at the bottom or on the back of the page a phrase or sentence that captures some idea in your head about what you've been clustering on.

Consider an Optional Revision

Consider an option revision of your Social-Creativity Project for a new grade on the project (based on figuring 1/3 of the original grade and 2/3 of a new grade).

This revision would not be a simple fixing up of the project, but a substantial revision that we would work on collaboratively.

The revision option is open only to those whose project was submitted on time and complete by the original deadline.

See the page "Collaborative Revision Process," for more details, and the Revision Contract that governs the process.

Deadline for meeting with me about a revision of the Social Creativity Project is Wednesday, March 8.

The final revision itself would be due several weeks after our first meeting about it, on a date we would agree to.

Day 13: Manovich, Software C3

[ Meet in ENGR 177]

Resources

• Jacquard's Loom (1801)
• Babbage's Difference Engine (begun 1833)
• You Suck at Photoshop, Episode 1: Distort, Warp, and Layer Effects

Homework

Preparing for Required Conference

Prepare for your conference either today (Monday), or Wednesday

See the Moodle Wiki for one of these days to sign up.

Bring to your conference:

1. An expanded revision of your exploratory/focusing paragraph
2. A map of your place with locations and a route marked.
3. A list of the locations with notes on each concerning details of the location and what topics, themes, memories, sources you want to attach to those details.
   
   

For an example of what you should prepare and bring to the conference, see the sample project description "Borne Ceaselessly"

Day 22 and 23: Individual Conferences: No Class Meeting (WAS 4&5)

[Conferences in 437 Humanities, which is inside the 420 Humanitites Suite]

Homework

Seek Inspiration

Before attempting to write your the portion of draft script (see below), seek inspiration by

1. Reading about your place, its history, or topics that you are planning to use to augmented your place.

2. Reading, listening to, or watching models of the genre of writing you are translating to augmented space (for example, a model poem, memoir, short story, critical essay, or historical anaysis, etc.)

3. Experiencing more models and examples of writing in augmented space. Consider the following:

Student Examples

• Warroad from the Water
• Rental Property
• The Valley of Vision
• Drive to Work
• Denfield

Professional Examples:

• Passing Stranger: The East Village Poetry Walk (discussed in the NY Times article "Chasing the Ghosts of Poet's Past")
• Cardiff/Burnes Miller Walks (sample "audio walks")
• Her Long Black Hair (archived Public Art Fund)
• Power of Sounds (NYT Cardiff Miller)

Write a Portion of Your Script for at Least Two Locations

Try writing a draft of your script for two locations in your place.

In this draft, follow precisely the script format presented on the handout that I gave you in conference: "Script Except for Her Long Black Hair"

• Unspoken stage direction, editorial comments, physical descriptions appear italicized, in brackets, not indented.
• Names of speakers and characters all caps, indented 2 inches from the left margin
• Monologue and dialogue indented 1 inch from the left margin, just under the speaker's name
• Sound effects labeled "SFX" and not indented.

Print out the script and bring it to class.

Day 24: Writing in Augmented Space 6 (Script Workshop)

Resources

• Interview with Brian Reed, Maker of S-Town (from The Guardian 4/9/17)

Augmented Space Script and Map Due

Script and Map

Compose and print your script and map for the Writing in Augmented Space Project.

Treat this script as if you were turning it over to a crew of actors and technicians to be produced.

Be sure your script closely follows the format modeled in the handout: "Script Excerpt for Her Long Black Hair"

Day 25: Writing in Augmented Space 7, Audacity

Before Class

1. Be sure you have your script and map ready to turn in
2. Log into your computer
3. Insert your USB drive in your computer
4. Open Dreamweaver and import your site information ("www.ste" file) from where you previously saved it on your USB drive (Site > Manage Sites > Import)
5. Open the software "Audacity" on your computer.
   (Open the Spotlight app on the computer (click the magnifying-glass icon in the extreme upper right of your computer's desktop) and type in "Audacity" in the search box that appears.
6. Download the sound files for the tutorial (zip folder), open the downloaded .zip file, copy the two sound files inside the "unzipped" folder, and paste them into your "New Media Writing" folder on your USB drive.

At the Beginning of Class

Before turning in your Writing in Augmented Space script and map, send me an email that identifies and briefly explains the following:

1. The place where your WAS walk is installed (for example, The Rose Garden at Leif Erikson Park)
2. The subject matter of your walk (e.g., American identity and self mythologizing as illustrated by former Duuth residents Bob Dylan and Jay Gatsby)
3. The traditional genre of writing from which you tried to draw inspiration, a "vibe," and a sense of purpose and voice (e.g., critical/historical essay)

Audacity Exercise

1. I will give you a copy of the tutorial, "Editing Voice, Sound Effects, and Music with Audacity"
2. Download the sound files for the tutorial (zip folder) and save the sound files in your "New Media Writing" folder on your USB.
3. We will complete the Audacity Exercise in class.
4. Save the final .wav file into the "assets" folder in your "was" folder (inside of "4250")
5. Create a link from the "index.html" page in your "was" folder to the .wav file inside of "assets".
6. Upload the "was" folder to the web using Dreamweaver.
7. In a browser, visit the page, test the link, copy the URL of the page and paste it into a reply to the Moodle forum "Audacity"

Resources

• Audacity software download
• Web app AudioFormat to convert your .wav file to .mp3
• Audacity Manual and Tutorials
• Supplemental Tutorial: Recording audio from YouTube or other streaming site
• Supplemental Tutorial: Recording Audio Playing on your Mac
• archive web page for Passing Stranger: The East Village Poetry Walk
• archive web page for Cardiff's and Miller's Her Long Black Hair
• "Web Page From Prototype" (handout used previously in class, pages 6-10)
• Compressed .zip file "social_prototype" (if needed)

Homework

Bring all materials needed to work on your Writing in Augmented Space project in class: for example, your script; map; USB drive with web page, Audacity files, sound effects files, etc.

Day 26: Studio Session

Augmented Space Audio and Web Page Due by Midnight

Audio Files

Using Audacity or software of your choice,

1. complete the recording of the audio files for your Writing in Augmented Space,
2. convert them to .wav or .mp3 format, and
3. save them in your folder "www/4250/was/assets".

Web Page

Using Dreamweaver:

1. If you haven't done so already, copy the entire contents of your folder "www/4250/social" on your USB into the folder "www/4250/was" to give you a page to edit
2. Modify that "index.html" page in "www/4250/was" with a new banner and other content appropriate to your Writing in Augmented Space project. (A sample pages can be found here).
3. Put links on the project web page to the sound files, map(s), images (if used in your project), and a text file of yøur script (saved in the "assets" folder)
4. Using Dreamweaver to upload the "www/4250/was" folder to your web space
5. Visit the page with a web broswser, check the links and sound files, and copy the main web page's URL.
6. Paste the URL as a clickable link in a reply to the Moodle forum "Writing in Augmented Space URLs."

Sign Up for a "Live Demo" Time

See the time slots available in the Moodle Wiki "Live Demo Sign-Up."

W 4/19

WEEK 15
M 4/24

W 4/26

Homework

Sign Up for a "Live Demo" Time

See the time slots available in the Moodle Wiki "Live Demo Sign-Up."

Prepare Your Live Demo

Sign up for a day and time to present.

Prepare for your talk following the rhetorical scenario, guidelines, and requirements for the WAS Live Demo.

Post Links to Your Live Demo Resources

In a reply to the Moodle forum "Live Demo Resources," post clickable links to any images, maps, videos, slideshows, etc. that you plan to use in your Live Demo.

Doing this will allow us to move quickly from presenter to presenter using the instructor's station in the classroom.

Attendance Required for Full Project Credit

Note that you will need to attend all three "Live Demo" class meetings to receive full credit for this aspect of the project.

Day 27, 28, 29: Live Demos, Writing in Augmented Space

Resources

• Bob Dylan Days Schedule 2017
• Karpeles Museum stage