First Day of Class

Introductions and Roll

Syllabus

For Next Time:
1. Get:

* Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics, Harper Perennial, 1993.
* Edward Tuft, Visual Explanations, Graphics Press, 1997
* Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book, Adobe Press, 2007
* a USB drive (a.k.a., jump drive, pocket drive, thumb drive) for saving and transporting your work (if you don't have one with at least 100 Mg available)

2. Create a set of Folders on Your USB Drive:

>>vrc
>>>>ciab
>>>>>>c1
>>www
>>>>4260
>>>>>>exercises
>>>>>>data
>>>>>>confection
>>>>>>scene
>>>>>>narrative

3. Read Edward Tufte's Chapter 1, starting page 13

4. Read and complete the exercise in Chapter 1 of Classroom in a Book (Photoshop), pages 11-54.
You will need to complete this chapter sitting at a computer with Photoshop installed. See
>>Computer Labs ("Full Service" including Dreamweaver and Photoshop)
>>Computer Lab Schedules (UMD)
>>Abobe Photoshop Trial Version of CS5! (30 days only)
Save all files in the folder "vrc/ciab/c1" (see #2 above),

Visual Rhetoric and Analytical Design

Three Ways of Presenting the French Invasion of Russia (1812)

1. Verbal (Analytical)

>>>"...Sitting in the ashes of a ruined city without having received the Russian capitulation, and facing a Russian maneuver forcing him out of Moscow, Napoleon started his long retreat by the middle of October. At the Battle of Maloyaroslavets, Kutuzov was able to force the French army into using the very same Smolensk road on which they had earlier moved East and which had already been stripped of food supplies by both armies. This is often presented as yet another example of scorched-earth tactics. Continuing to block the southern flank to prevent the French from returning by a different route, Kutuzov again deployed partisan tactics to constantly strike at the French train where it was weakest. Light Russian cavalry, including mounted Cossacks, assaulted and broke up isolated French units.

>>>Supplying the army became an impossibility – the lack of grass weakened the army's remaining horses, almost all of which died or were killed for food by starving soldiers...."

--"French Invasion of Russia" (Wikipedia)

- a version of Charles Joseph Minard's 1870 flow-map from the site Re-Visions of Menard

Roll

Questions?

Clickable URLs in Moodle Forums

For Today You Were To

1. Review a "Data Set"

After we have discussed the first assignment today, visit one of these sites listed below and choose one report or set of data to discuss.

In a reply to the Moodle forum "Reviewing a Data Set," paste in the URL of the report you chose and write a paragraph explaining what the data is about: what it shows, what it suggests, who it's speaking to, what it intends, how many "data points" it includes.

Be prepared to share and talk about what you found and wrote on Friday.

• Swivel (YouTube for dataheads)
• Pew Research Center
• NationMaster
• StateMaster
• Google Trends
• Worldmapper
• FedStats (Gateway to US Government Federal Statistics)
• UMD Library's Databases by Subject

2. Complete Chapter 2, Classroom in a Book (Photo Corrections)
Bring all the final products from the chapter's exercises saved in a folder "vrc/ciab/c2" on your USB drive.

For Text Time:
Complete Chapter 3, Classroom in a Book (Retouching and Repairing)
Bring all the final products from the chapter's exercises saved in a folder "vrc/ciab/c3" on your USB drive.

1. Tufte's Chapter One (Completed)
Today, we'll discuss Edward Tufte's Chapter One: "Images and Quantities."

Key Terms

• direct labels / encodings / self-representing scales
• informationally flat graphics (Homelessness by Income - from The Onion)
• dequantification / quantification (The Accidental Tourist)
• the art and science of scaling
  
  

2. Troubleshooting Chapter 2, CIAB

3. Optimizing, Uploading and Turning in the Chapter 2 Exercise Files
1. See and follow directions for re-saving your .psd and .tif images files into fast-loading, web-browser-compatible file formats on page 403.

Save these new versions of your images from the CIAB exercises into a new folder on your USB: www/4260/exercises/c2.

2. Then copy the folder "4260" to your "My Web" folder on your Mac's desktop

3. With your web browser, try visiting your 4260 site and click down into your "c2" folder to open up the image files.

4. With each image file open in your browser, copy the URL from the Location Bar at the top and paste those URLs into a reply to the Moodle Forum, "CIAB C2."

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
Complete Chapter 3, Classroom in a Book (Retouching and Repairing)
Bring all the final products from the chapter's exercises saved in a folder "vrc/ciab/c3" on your USB drive.

For Text Time:
Using the online tutorial Excel 2008 for Mac: Charting, create an informational graphic in a style of your own choosing from data from Pew Research concerning cell phone app usage.

Accessing "My Web" Outside of a Computer Lab
In addition to using the "My Web" icon at the bottom of the screen in the full service labs, you can also access your web folder in other ways:

On campus, you can access your "My Web" space from any computer on a wired or wireless network:

On a Mac, choose Go > Connect to Server and, in the "Server Address" window, type "smb:\\samnba\myweb" and log in

On a PC, open "My Computer," and in the location bar at the top of the window, type in "\\samba\myweb" and log in

From off campus, you will need to use file-transfer software such as Fetch (Mac) or Win SCP (Windows) which you can download for free via ITSS's Software Page. Web-design software like Dreamweaver also come with "FTP" (File Transfer Protocol) capabilities for moving files between local computers and servers.

1. Troubleshooting Chapter 3, CIAB

2. Optimizing, Uploading and Turning in the Exercise Files for Chapters 2 and 3
1. See and follow directions for re-saving your .psd and .tif images files into fast-loading, web-browser-compatible file formats on page 403.

Save these new versions of your images from the CIAB exercises into a new folder on your USB: in a folder "www/4260/exercises/c2" for Chapter 2's images, "www/4260/exercises/c3" for Chapter 3's.

2. Then copy the folder "4260" to your "My Web" folder on your Mac's desktop

3. With your web browser, try visiting your 4260 site and click down into your "c2" folder to open up the image files.

4. With each image file open in your browser, copy the URL from the Location Bar at the top and paste those URLs into a reply to the Moodle Forum, "CIAB C2."

5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 for the Chapter 3 images, and paste the URLs into a reply to the Moodle Forum, "CIAB C3"

You visited one of these sites listed below and chose one report or set of data to discuss in a reply to the Moodle forum "Reviewing a Data Set,"

Today, you'll share some of what you discovered about the data set you chose: what it shows, what it suggests, who it's speaking to, what it intends, how many "data points" it includes.

We'll talk about what these examples may offer us in created our own data visualizations in the Visualized Data Project.

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
Using the online tutorial Excel 2008 for Mac: Charting, create an informational graphic in a style of your own choosing from data from Pew Research concerning cell phone app usage.

For Text Time:
Read and complete the tutorial from Chapter 4 (Selections) of Photoshop Classroom in a Book.

1. Troubleshooting the Excel Tutorial/Exercise

2. Capturing a Screen Shot of your Excel Exercise
See the directions for taking "screen shots" from my Techniques Site.

Save the screen shot as a Photoshop document called "excel_sept17.psd" in the "vrc" folder on your USB.

3. Optimizing, Uploading, and Turning in the Screen Shot
1. See and follow directions for re-saving your .psd and .tif images files into fast-loading, web-browser-compatible file formats on page 403 of the book Photoshop Classroom in a Book.

2. Save this .gif version of your excel chart to a new folder, "www/4260/exercises/excel1" on your USB. and open that folder on your desktop

3. Open "My Web" from the bottom of your desktop, click into the exercises folder, copy the folder "excel1" to your "My Web" folder on your Mac's screen

4. Drag (copy) the folder "excel1" from your "exercises" folder on your USB to the "exercises" folder on the web (in the "My Web" window).

5. With your web browser, visit your 4260 site and click down into your "excel1" folder to open up the image file.

6. With the image file open in your browser, copy the URL from the Location Bar at the top.

7. Visit the Moodle forum "Excel 1," and, in a reply to my message, choose the "Insert Picture" icon above the blank message window to enter the URL of your image after "Image URL." Click OK.

4. Comparing Screen Shots

You visited one of these sites listed below and chose one report or set of data to discuss in a reply to the Moodle forum "Reviewing a Data Set,"

Today, you'll share some of what you discovered about the data set you chose: what it shows, what it suggests, who it's speaking to, what it intends, how many "data points" it includes.

We'll talk about what these examples may offer us in created our own data visualizations in the Visualized Data Project.

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
Read and complete the tutorial from Chapter 4 (Selections) of Photoshop Classroom in a Book.

For Text Time
1. Read and complete the tutorial from Chapter 5 (Layers) of Photoshop Classroom in a Book. Be sure to save the final .psd file in your "vrc" folder.

2. Be sure that you don't have any .psd files (Photoshop documets) saved in anywhere in your "www" folder. If you do, move those .psd files to your "vrc" folder before our next class.

4. By tomorrow at noon, optimize, upload, and turn in your Chapter 4 image according to the directions below under "Readings."

5. Before the beginning of class on Wednesday, save optimized, jpg versions of all .psd files to a new folder "www/4260/exercises/c5" on your USB, and then copy that c5 folder into your "exercises" folder on the web (via the "My Web" icon in the lab or via alternatives we've discussed).

Create a clickable URL to the file(s) in a reply to the header in the forum "CIAB 5."

Don't worry if you still have problems to troubleshoot with your image in class on Wednesday. You can overwrite this file after you have made changes, if necessary.

You visited one of these sites listed below and chose one report or set of data to discuss in a reply to the Moodle forum "Reviewing a Data Set,"

Today, you'll share some of what you discovered about the data set you chose: what it shows, what it suggests, who it's speaking to, what it intends, how many "data points" it includes.

We'll talk about what these examples may offer us in created our own data visualizations in the Visualized Data Project.

1. Troubleshooting the Photoshop Exericse

2. Optimizing, Uploading, and Turning in the Exercise Files
1. See and follow directions for re-saving your .psd and .tif images files into fast-loading, web-browser-compatible file formats on page 403. You'll want to save "04Working.psd" as a .jpg file.

Save this new, .jpg version of your image from your "vcr" folder into a new folder on your USB: "www/4260/exercises/c4"

2. Then copy the folder "c4" to your exercises folder on the web (that is, "My Web/4260/exercises")

3. With your web browser, try visiting your 4260 site and click down into your "c4" folder to open up the image file.

4. With the image open in your browser, copy the URL from the Location Bar at the top and paste the URL into a reply to the Moodle Forum, "CIAB C4."

Roll

Questions?

Amnesty
Here in the middle of our third week, we are finally mastering the routine of completing and turning in work for this class. By the end of the day tomorrow (Thursday), I will expect you to be caught up with all the exercises and other work we've turned in so far.

Check the Moodle forums, eGradebook and, if necessary, the previous days' home-page items to make sure you've successfully turned in all required work (that I've graded so far).

If you complete anything by tomorrow night for which you received a zero in eGradebook, please email me with the URL(s) and be sure you've also posted the URL in the appropriate Moodle forum.

The amnesty period ends at midnight Thursday.

For Today You Were To
1. Read and complete the tutorial from Chapter 5 (Layers) of Photoshop Classroom in a Book. Be sure to save the final .psd file in your "vrc" folder.

2. Be sure that you don't have any .psd files (Photoshop documents) saved in anywhere in your "www" folder. If you do, move those .psd files to your "vrc" folder before our next class.

4. By tomorrow at noon, optimize, upload, and turn in your Chapter 4 image according to the directions below under "Readings."

5. Before the beginning of class on Wednesday, save optimized, jpg versions of all .psd files to a new folder "www/4260/exercises/c5" on your USB, and then copy that c5 folder into your "exercises" folder on the web (via the "My Web" icon in the lab or via alternatives we've discussed).

Create a clickable URL to the file(s) in a reply to the header in the forum "CIAB 5."

Don't worry if you still have problems to troubleshoot with your image in class on Wednesday. You can overwrite this file after you have made changes, if necessary.

For Text Time
Read Chapter 2 of Tufte and complete the Reading Guide.

At the beginning of class on Friday, I will ask you to copy and paste your responses to the reading guide to me by email.

We will also move to a different room without computers, so you will want to print your responses, place bookmarks in your book, or make a list of page numbers and key ideas for you to refer to.

Questions...
about the Visualized Data Project, due two weeks from yesterday?

1. Troubleshooting the Photoshop Exercise

2. Reading Guide for Tufte's Chapter 2
I will give you a paper copy in class. You will probably want to download the online, Word copy of the Reading Guide and type your answers directly into it. Save the Word file in your "vrc" folder and be prepared to copy and paste the questions and answers into an email to me at the beginning of class on Friday.

3. Definitions
How writing definitions can be intellectually challenging and even transformative.
For instance, what would be some options for the initial, "class" term in a definition of the word "problem"? or the word "love"?

4. Photoshop Maps
If you use Google to search for terms like maps, .psd, photoshop, etc., you can find pre-made photoshop documents for creating maps. See, for instance, these Photoshop documents from US government.

Roll

Questions?

Copy and Paste Your Guided Reading Responses
Copy and paste your responses to the Guided Reading for Tufte's Chapter 2 into an email to me with the subject line "Tufte 2 guided reading." Do not send attachments.

Be sure that all your responses are labeled with the appropriate section numbers and item letters, or include the questions themselves.

For Today You Were To
Read Chapter 2 of Tufte and complete the Reading Guide.

At the beginning of class on Friday, I will ask you to copy and paste your responses to the reading guide to me by email.

We will also move to a different room without computers, so you will want to print your responses, place bookmarks in your book, or make a list of page numbers and key ideas for you to refer to.

For Text Time
Complete Chapter 9 of Photoshop Classroom in a Book (Vector Drawing).

Questions...
about the Visualized Data Project, due one week from next Tuesday?

Tufte's Chapter 2
We'll move to MonH 206 to discuss this chapter. Be sure to bring along the printout of your Guided Reading, or any notes you saved to refer to in discussion.

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
Complete Chapter 9 of Photoshop Classroom in a Book (Vector Drawing).

Bring in your Tufte book to complete the discusson of Chapter 2 from Friday

For Text Time
Complete Chapter 6 of Photoshop Classroom in a Book (Masks and Channels).

Questions...
about the Visualized Data Project, due one week from next Tuesday?

CIAB C9 Help Session

Tufte's Chapter 2
For examples of politically motivated aggregation, see Gerrymandering from Wikipedia.

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
Complete Chapter 6 of Photoshop Classroom in a Book (Masks and Channels).

For Next Time
No class meeting on Friday.

For Monday, October 4: Bring in all materials to work on your Visualized Data Project in a Studio Session

Before Monday, please complete the brief online survey about the skills we will learn this semester. I will ask you the same questions at the end of the course to measure the degree to which these skills and principles were taught. This survey will be used to assess the course, not you. Completing the survey, however, is part of the requirements of the course, and will be worth 5 points of participation.

Due Date Delayed
Because we are not having class on Friday, we are delaying the due date for the Visualized Data Project from Tuesday, October 5 to Thursday, October 7 at noon. More on preparing this assignment later.

Questions...
about the Visualized Data Project, due one week from tomorrow?

Visualized Data Gets Applause
We'll watch part of Hans Rosling's talk on International Health at the 2006 TED Conference

Note that you can make an animated graphic for the Visualized Data Project similar to the one in the video. See Photoshop CIAB starting on page 393.

Rosling is using presentation software called Gapminder.

CIAB C6 Help Session
Before the end of the day tomorrow, save an optimized version of your Chapter 6 final product as a .jpg or .gif in a new folder, "www/4260/exercises/c6", move the c6 folder to the web (inside of "4260/exercises," visit the image with your browser, and send the URL to the forum, "CIAB C6"

Tufte's Chapter 2 (Completed)
We'll discuss the last two principles from the end of Chapter 2.

-- What are three techniques of "quantifying" graphics which Tufte discusses in Chapter 1?

A Sample Project
In a new tab or browser window, open this sample Visualized Data Project.

In this window, open up the Visualized Data Project assignment page.

-- How well does this sample project realize Tufte's six principles?
-- How well does it fulfull the criteria of the assignment?

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To

Bring in all materials to work on your Visualized Data Project in a Studio Session

Before today, complete the brief online survey about the skills we will learn this semester. I will ask you the same questions at the end of the course to measure the degree to which these skills and principles were taught. This survey will be used to assess the course, not you. Completing the survey, however, is part of the requirements of the course, and will be worth 5 points of participation.

For Next Time
Bring in your Visualized Data Project and all related materials for discussion of criteria, guidelines, and techniques. The project is due to be saved as a .gif or .jpg, posted to the web, and the URL sent to the forum Visualized Data by noon Thursday, October 7

Quick Tip
Here's a tutorial on creating quick grid lines for a table. The trick is creating a "custom pattern" composed of a 2-pixel pencil line (horizontal or vertical), which you can then use to fill a selection in any document.

This tutorial is about making decorative grids with both horizontal and vertical lines against a colored background, but you can use the same techniques to make simpler lines against a transparent background.

Questions...
about the Visualized Data Project, due this Thursday?

Studio Session
Though you are working individually, this is still a class meeting. Plan to work productively until 8:50. Feel free to talk and work with your neighbors if you have questions. I will also be available to help.

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To

Bring in your Visualized Data Project and all related materials for discussion of criteria, guidelines, and techniques.

By Thursday 10/7 at Noon

1. Save an optimized version (in .gif or .jpg format) of your Visualized Data Project to your USB's folder: "www/4260/data"

2. Using the "My Web" icon on your computer's desktop, copy (move) your entire "data" folder from your USB drive to the top level of your 4260 folder on the web.

3. Visit the image, images, or page(s) with your browser, and copy the URL(s) from the location bar (and for each document, if your project comprises multiple pages)

4. Create a clickable URL (or URLs) in the forum, Visualized Data URLs by noon Thursday

For Next Time
Write, print, and bring in your commentary on the Visualized Data Project. I am not making any other assignments for Friday because the commentary is an important aspect of the project. You should put some care into producing a thoughtful, well-written, and complete analysis of your own work. Be sure to see the assignment page's specific criteria relating to the commentary.

Questions...
about the Visualized Data Project, due this Thursday?

Project Criteria
Today, we'll discuss at length the project criteria by evaluating a sample project. I will give you a printout of the criteria checklist that I will use when I respond to your work. Once you have worked with a neighbor to fill the checklist out, we'll take the criteria one at a time, looking at particular words and details. I will also ask you to make connections between the sample project (what it does, how it does it) and some of the examples we've looked at from Tufte or the web: see, for instance, the forums Reviewing a Data Set and Excel 1.

Getting Started with the Confection Project

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
Write, print, and bring in your commentary on the Visualized Data Project. I am not making any other assignments for Friday because the commentary is an important aspect of the project. You should put some care into producing a thoughtful, well-written, and complete analysis of your own work. Be sure to see the assignment page's specific criteria relating to the commentary.

For Next Time
Read Tufte Chapter 9, starting on page 121, and complete the Reading Guide. At the beginning of class, I will ask you to copy and paste your answers into a web form on our home page.

If you will be working on the reading guide somewhere off-line, download the reading guide file to your USB or print it, as well as the pages you find on the web to answer question 4.

After submitting your answers from the reading guide, we will move down the hall for discussion.

Collect Visualized Data Commentaries

Introduction to the Next Assignment
Today, we will talk about the Confection Project, due by noon on October 21.

Getting Started
Key to getting a fast start on this assignment is deciding on a "an argument, a multifaceted definition, a set of detailed choices, the cause-and-effect relations in a process or story" to serve as your subject. We will collect some examples of concepts in the forum, "Confection Concepts"

In a reply to this forum, provide the name of two "conceptual" ideas or narratives and a clickable URL to a page on the web about each. The concept can be drawn from science, social science, popular motivational lit, business studies, economics, cultural theory, history, academic or popular criticism (books/articles/reviews about movies, books, art, or music), and so on. The concept might appear in a book, article, textbook, magazine, or online.

Understanding Tufte's "Visual Confections"

Roll

Questions?
...about the Confection Project, due by noon on October 21 (a week from this Thursday).

For Today You Were To
Read Tufte Chapter 7, starting on page 121, and complete the Reading Guide. At the beginning of class, I will ask you to copy and paste your answers into a web form on our home page.

If you will be working on the reading guide somewhere off-line, download the reading guide file to your USB or print it, as well as the pages you find on the web to answer question 4.

After submitting your answers from the reading guide, we will move down the hall for discussion.

For Next Time
Come in with a "prospectus" of your Confection Project idea. I will ask you to copy and paste the following

• a word or phrase standing for the idea you'll visualize
• the source of the idea (title of the book, article, review, URL of online resource)
• the name of the author or originator of the idea
• the component parts of the idea (how you might break it down)
• a word or phrase describing how the parts dynamically relate (e.g., "a process of development," "a set of branching choices over time," "a set of options for a single choice," "an 'anatomy' of types or features," "the mutual interdependence of two complex systems," "a set of positions in a debate or controversy," etc.).
• a short paragraph making an analogy that suggests that dynamic of parts: that is, describe the parts of the abstract idea as a road, a weather system, a mansion, a dramatic imaginative scene or tableau, etc.

You are, of course, able to change your mind about any aspect of your prospectus as you work on your project.

Tufte's Chapter 7

In MonH 209
In the form below, copy and paste your responses to the Reading Guide

In MonH 206
Bring a printout of your responses--or notes sufficient to help you to recall them--to MonH 206 where we will talk about Tufte's "Visual Confections" and the Confection Project.

Visual Analogies

Send Me Your Prospectus

Roll

Questions?
...about the Confection Project, due by noon on October 21 (a week from this Thursday).

For Today You Were To
Come in with a "prospectus" of your Confection Project idea. I will ask you to copy and paste the following

* a word or phrase standing for the idea you'll visualize

* the source of the idea (title of the book, article, review, URL of online resource)

* the name of the author or originator of the idea

* the component parts of the idea (how you might break it down)

* a word or phrase describing how the parts dynamically relate (e.g., "a process of development," "a set of branching choices over time," "a set of options for a single choice," "an 'anatomy' of types or features," "the mutual interdependence of two complex systems," "a set of positions in a debate or controversy," etc.).

* a short paragraph making an analogy that suggests that dynamic of parts: that is, describe the parts of the abstract idea as a road, a weather system, a mansion, a dramatic imaginative scene or tableau, etc.

You are, of course, able to change your mind about any aspect of your prospectus as you work on your project.

For Next Time
1. Complete the "Visual Analogies" activity from today by posting a reply to the forum "Visual Analogies as Confection Backgrounds." This message should include:

* a brief, verbal description of your visualized writing process

* the name of the visualization method you used from the Periodic Table of Visualization, including the color and category to help others find the method on the table.

* A substantive paragraph explaining how well you think this background/method served to organize and embody the dynamics of your writing process as you imagined it. Say why it did or didn't serve well for this purpose.

2. Come in with a sketch of your Confection Project, including

* a graphic background (imagined scene, compartments, or a combination of these)

* each part visualized with more than one graphic element (not just Mozart, but Mozart with a stop sign)

* a title

The Weakness of Compartments

Tufte's Chapter 7
Look over your collective answers to Questions 4 and 5 about Tansey's The Myth of Depth. Let's try to account for how Tansey has these figures (parts) represented in this imagine scene (background).

Organizing, Visual Analogies for your Confection Backgrounds
Thinking about the background required for your sketch due Friday, we will try out a method (background pattern) from the Periodic Table of Visualization site to breakdown the idea: your writing process.

Is your writing process like a waterfall? a telephone system? a road? the four seasons? a weather cold front?

• How would you visualize your process of completing a large writing project?
• What parts, elements, or stages make up your writing process?
• How would you arrange and connect the parts to suggest their dynamic--and hopefully productive--relationships? Choose one from the Periodic Table of Visualization.
• What analogy from the physical world might help realize this pattern or scheme (if the method doesn't suggest one

Parts in Confections

Roll

Questions?
...about the Confection Project, due by noon on October 21 (a week from yesterday).

For Today You Were To
1. Complete the "Visual Analogies" activity from today by posting a reply to the forum "Visual Analogies as Confection Backgrounds." This message should include:

* a brief, verbal description of your visualized writing process

* the name of the visualization method you used from the Periodic Table of Visualization, including the color and category to help others find the method on the table.

* A substantive paragraph explaining how well you think this background/method served to organize and embody the dynamics of your writing process as you imagined it. Say why it did or didn't serve well for this purpose.

2. Come in with a sketch of your Confection Project, including

* a graphic background (imagined scene, compartments, or a combination of these)

* each part visualized with more than one graphic element (not just Mozart, but Mozart with a stop sign)

* a title

For Next Time
Come in with all materials necessary to work on your Confection Project in a Studio Day.

Breaking into Parts is the Essence of Analysis

Unanalyzable Ideas that Can't be Broken into Parts?
Anger (or most emotions), "The Star Spangled Banner" (or most song lyrics), others?

Parts of Your Writing Process
1. We will talk more about your writing processes again as s sample confection idea: how you imagined the basic dynamics and the analogies/methods for tracing those dynamics from the Periodic Table of Visualization.

2. Then, we will talk about the components parts of your writing process. Compare, for example, the table of contents from Peter Elbow's Writing Without Teachers to Sanford Kaye's Writing Under Pressure or Alistair Fowler's How to Write.

3. I will ask you to come up with your own list of parts. Do your parts make you rethink your background analogy/metaphor?

Studio Day

Roll

Questions?
...about the Confection Project, due by noon on Thursday, October 21.

For Today You Were To
Come in with all materials necessary to work on your Confection Project in a Studio Day.

For Next Time
Come in your Confection Project files and materials, your Tufte book, and at least one question. We will be talking about the criteria of the assignment.

Breaking into Parts is the Essence of Analysis

Unanalyzable Ideas that Can't be Broken into Parts (Not)?
Greil Marcus's Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads.

Final Check of Your Confection

Roll

For Today You Were To
Come in your Confection Project files and materials, your Tufte book, and at least one question. We will be talking about the criteria of the assignment.

By Noon Tomorrow, October 21
Upload an optimized version of your Confection image file to the web, visit it with your web browser, and copy the URL as a clickable link into the forum, "Confection URLs."

For Next Time
Write, print, and bring in the commentary on your Confection Project. Be sure to check the criteria concerning the commentary from the Confection Checklist.

1. The Questions You Brought In

2. Understanding the Criteria
I will give you a copy of the Confection Criteria Checklist, and we will evaluate and discuss a sample confection: the cover of the Radiohead album Hail to the Thief.

For context, you might take a quick scan of the Wikipedia article about Hail to the Thief.

If there is time, we might also evaluate and discuss the sample confection, "The Useful Milkweed"

Introducing the Next Project:
The Narrative Title Sequence

Roll

For Today You Were To
Write, print, and bring in the commentary on your Confection Project. Be sure to check the criteria concerning the commentary from the Confection Checklist.

By Noon Yesterday, You Were To
Upload an optimized version of your Confection image file to the web, visit it with your web browser, and copy the URL as a clickable link into the forum, "Confection URLs."

For Next Time
1. Read Scott McCloud's Chapters Two and Three.

2. On YouTube or some other online source, find the URL of a opening title sequence from a television show or movie which is narrative. Post a clickalbe URL to that video in the forum, "Sample Narrative Title Sequences."

3. In that same forum message, write a paragraph that

a. explains the ways that the sequence does or does not fulfill the requirements of the assignment (especially the terms in bold)

b. applies one of the techniques or issues discussed by McCloud to the way the shots of the sequence are composed and/or sequenced. Be sure to include the page numbers from McCloud

Collect Confection Commentaries

Remind Me to Return Your Visualized Data Projects at the End

Narrative, Montage, Mise-en-Scene
Today, we will:

1. start by reading and discussing the assignment page for the Narrative Title Sequence.
2. watch the title sequence from the television show Mad Men, and discuss the two senses of narrative, montage, the job of the title sequence in relation to the show/film.
3. watch and discuss other title sequences, both positive and negative examples.

Resources

Mad Men Title Sequence (narrative and montage)
The Beverly Hillbillies Titile Sequence (backstory)
Sopranos Titile Sequence (narrative, mise-en-scene)

Return of Projects at the End of Class

Visual Styles and Montage

Roll

For Today You Were To
1. Read Scott McCloud's Chapters Two and Three.

2. On YouTube or some other online source, find the URL of a opening title sequence from a television show or movie which is narrative. Post a clickalbe URL to that video in the forum, "Sample Narrative Title Sequences."

3. In that same forum message, write a paragraph that

a. explains the ways that the sequence does or does not fulfill the requirements of the assignment (especially the terms in bold)

b. applies one of the techniques or issues discussed by McCloud to the way the shots of the sequence are composed and/or sequenced. Be sure to include the page numbers from McCloud

For Next Time
1. Bring in a list of three possible sources to adapt for your Narrative Title Sequence Project, including a title and a two- or three-sentence analysis of the essential conflicts, themes, and setting of each original. Example: Poe's "The Raven."

2. Read McCloud Chapter 4, "Time Frames," starting on page 94.

3. Before class on Wednesday, use the form at the bottom of this page to provide the following:

a. a short description and page number for a principle or technique from the chapter that would apply to our Narrative Title Sequence Assignment.

b. a short list of ways, with page numbers, that Chapter Four's principles and techniques of comics differs from those of editing video in general, and title sequences in particular. (Mention if you notice any ways that the slide-show format of this assignment may be more like comics than real-time-action video.)

Visual Styles and Transitions (Montage)

We will discuss two of McCloud's primary ideas from Chapters 2 and 3:

• Visual Styles (52-53)
• Transitions and Editing (70-74)
  
  

I will ask you to work in pairs to analyze of 3 to 4 screen shots from one of the title sequences you provided via the forum "Sample Narrative Title Sequences."

See my sample using four shots from the Mad Men Title Sequence at the bottom of the forum.

Take 3-4 screen shots from a title sequence, selected as examples of the sequence's visual style and of a variety of transitions, and insert the screen shots as visible images in a reply to the original message

To do this, you'll need to

1. save the screen shots as .jpg of .gif images in a folder "www/4260/exercises/mccloud2&3". Try using Photoshop's Help > Resize Image command. Choose to make the screen shots 400 pixels wide.

2. post the "mccloud2&3" folder to the web via the "My Web" icon,

3. visit the images with your browser

4. copy the first URL

5. paste the first URL via the Insert Image icon at the top of the Moodle message window.

6. space down in the message and then repeat for the next image.

With your partner, discuss these screen shots in relation to McCloud's principles/techniques of both visual styles and transitions/montage.

Be prepared to talk the class through your analysis of both visual style and montage, pointing to examples from McCloud with page numbers.

Resources

Mad Men Title Sequence (narrative and montage)
The Beverly Hillbillies Titile Sequence (backstory)
Sopranos Titile Sequence (narrative, mise-en-scene)
Art of the Title Sequence

Visual Styles and Montage

Roll

For Today You Were To
1. Bring in a list of three possible sources to adapt for your Narrative Title Sequence Project, including a title and a two- or three-sentence analysis of the essential conflicts, themes, and setting of each original. Example: Poe's "The Raven."

2. Read McCloud Chapter 4, "Time Frames," starting on page 94.

3. Before class on Wednesday, use the form at the bottom of this page to provide the following:

a. a short description and page number for a principle or technique from the chapter that would apply to our Narrative Title Sequence Assignment.

b. a short list of ways, with page numbers, that Chapter Four's principles and techniques of comics differs from those of editing video in general, and title sequences in particular. (Mention if you notice any ways that the slide-show format of this assignment may be more like comics than real-time-action video.)

For Next Time

Visual Styles, Montage, and Time/Space

We will discuss three of McCloud's primary ideas from Chapters 2 and 3:

• Visual Styles (52-53)
• Transitions and Editing (70-74)
• Time, Space, Motion
  
  

I will ask you to work in pairs to analyze of 3 to 4 screen shots from one of the title sequences you provided via the forum "Sample Narrative Title Sequences."

See my sample using four shots from the Mad Men Title Sequence in the forum.

Take 3-4 screen shots from a title sequence, selected as examples of the sequence's visual style and of a variety of transitions, and insert the screen shots as visible images in a reply to the original message

To do this, you'll need to

1. save the screen shots as .jpg of .gif images in a folder "www/4260/exercises/mccloud2&3". Try using Photoshop's Help > Resize Image command. Choose to make the screen shots 400 pixels wide.

2. post the "mccloud2&3" folder to the web via the "My Web" icon,

3. visit the images with your browser

4. copy the first URL

5. paste the first URL via the Insert Image icon at the top of the Moodle message window.

6. space down in the message and then repeat for the next image.

With your partner, discuss these screen shots in relation to McCloud's principles/techniques of both visual styles and transitions/montage.

Be prepared to talk the class through your analysis of both visual style and montage, pointing to examples from McCloud with page numbers.

Resources

Mad Men Title Sequence (narrative and montage)
The Beverly Hillbillies Title Sequence (backstory)
Sopranos Title Sequence (narrative, mise-en-scene)
Art of the Title Sequence

Three Sources and McCloud's Chapter 4

Visual Styles and Montage

Roll

For Today You Were To

For Next Time
Read McCloud Chapter 5, "Living in Line," and come in with three

Visual Styles, Montage, and Time/Space

We will discuss three of McCloud's primary ideas from Chapters 2 and 3:

• Visual Styles (52-53)
• Transitions and Editing (70-74)
• Time, Space, Motion
  
  

I will ask you to work in pairs to analyze of 3 to 4 screen shots from one of the title sequences you provided via the forum "Sample Narrative Title Sequences."

See my sample using four shots from the Mad Men Title Sequence in the forum.

Take 3-4 screen shots from a title sequence, selected as examples of the sequence's visual style and of a variety of transitions, and insert the screen shots as visible images in a reply to the original message

To do this, you'll need to

1. save the screen shots as .jpg of .gif images in a folder "www/4260/exercises/mccloud2&3". Try using Photoshop's Help > Resize Image command. Choose to make the screen shots 400 pixels wide.

2. post the "mccloud2&3" folder to the web via the "My Web" icon,

3. visit the images with your browser

4. copy the first URL

5. paste the first URL via the Insert Image icon at the top of the Moodle message window.

6. space down in the message and then repeat for the next image.

With your partner, discuss these screen shots in relation to McCloud's principles/techniques of both visual styles and transitions/montage.

Be prepared to talk the class through your analysis of both visual style and montage, pointing to examples from McCloud with page numbers.

Resources

Mad Men Title Sequence (narrative and montage)
The Beverly Hillbillies Title Sequence (backstory)
Sopranos Title Sequence (narrative, mise-en-scene)
Art of the Title Sequence

iPhoto Slideshows to Quicktime Movies

I will give you a copy of the handout to use in class. You will also need to download these three pictures into a folder called "slideshow" in the "vrc" folder on your USB.

I will ask you to

1. post the resulting Quicktime movie to the web via the My Web icon (in a folder 4260/exercises/slideshow)
2. visit the movie with your browser,
3. copy the URL
4. create a clickable URL to the movie in a reply to the forum "iPhoto Slideshows as Movies"

Visual Styles and Montage

Roll

For Today You Were To
Read McCloud Chapter 5, "Living in Line," and come in with three examples from the chapter (page numbers, specific panels) of principles, techniques, and insights that you can relate to specific shots and edits (cuts) from our Sample Title Sequences.

For Next Time
In a seven-row table in a Word file, chart McCloud's six kinds of montage (editiing) across an entire title sequence. Save the Word file and attach it to reply in the forum, "Shot Tracking."

Resource
For another sources of title sequences, see the site Art of the Title Sequence

Remind Me about Returning your Confection Projects at the End

Visual Styles, Montage, and Time/Space

X-Files
We will discuss four of McCloud's primary ideas from Chapters 2 - 4 in relation to the last of our samples sequences in the forum "Sample Narrative Title Sequences":

• Visual Styles (52-53)
• Transitions and Editing (70-74)
• Time, Space, Motion
• External visualizations of internal feelings and thoughts in graphic narratives
  
  

Sequences of Shots
Open up the Word file in my sample posting in the forum, "Shot Tracking."

Resources

Mad Men Title Sequence (narrative and montage)
The Beverly Hillbillies Title Sequence (backstory)
Sopranos Title Sequence (narrative, mise-en-scene)
Art of the Title Sequence

Human Figures in this Assignment
We will practice creating quick human figures for this kind of project from screen shots taken of screen images.

Return of Projects

Human Figures, Shot Tracking,

Roll

For Today You Were To
In a seven-row table in a Word file, chart McCloud's six kinds of montage (editiing) across an entire title sequence. Save the Word file and attach it to reply in the forum, "Shot Tracking."

For Next Time
1. Come in with a verbal plan for your title sequence written in a Word file:

1. A title

2. A central tension, contrast, conflict, or interesting connection that will unify the sequence, drawn from the themes, characters, and situations of the show itself.

3. Overall unifying shape or idea: A choice between:
A. an action-based sequence (examples: The Sopranos, The Simpsons, Dexter). In this case, explain what will constitute the beginning, middle, and end of the sequence's narrative.
B. a theme-based sequence (examples: The X-Files, or Twin Peaks). In this case, explain what unifying theme, mood, and/or idea that the montage of shots will add up to.

4. Visual Styles. List at least five words or phrases to describe the visual style you're planning (matters of light/dark, realistic/simplified, literal/abstract, fast/slow, close/far, quiet/loud, etc.--see McCloud's page 132 for inspiration).

5. A description of three shots and/or edits you're planning which will feature your sense of composition, camera work, and editing

6. The title of a song you have in mind for the background, whether you use it or not. (We will talk about how to edit songs with free software called Audacity next week.)

7. Other title sequences you're thinking about as models (give title, URL, and what techniques or styles you want to borrow from that sequence). It's okay, even good to have models. The Mad Men sequence, for instance, pays tribute to the title sequence of Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (created by animator Saul Bass, who was part of the cartoon company Rankin/Bass, creators of lots of holiday specials).

8. Any comments, questions, concerns, issues

2. We will talk about the three examples from the McCloud Chapter 5 (page numbers, specific panels) of principles, techniques, and insights that you can relate to specific shots and edits (cuts) from our Sample Title Sequences. Bring your McCloud book.

Camera Work 1

Human Figures in this Assignment
We will practice creating quick human figures for this kind of project from screen shots taken of screen images.

We will practice putting a figure into a landscape image files (save to your folder "vrc")

Shot Tracking

Posting Images of your Shot Tracking
Go to the "Shot Tracking" forum, and open up the Word file your attached to your message. First, we want to make all the shot-tracking charts visible at once. See the sample

1. With the document open on your desktop, be sure you have typed a title with the name of the show above your table.

2. Take a screen shot of the title and the table (but not the rest of the blank page) onto the computer's clipboard.

3. Open a new document in Photoshop, paste in the screen shot you just took, and resize the image to be 600 pixels wide.

4. Save the new document as "screenshot_[one_word_name_of_show]" in your "vrc" folder (Note: never leave blanks in the file name of any image or page that you might put in the web.)

5. In a reply to your own message in the "Shot Tracking" forum, insert the screen shot image using the "Insert Image" icon at the top of the message window.

Questions to Pose

What broad differences so you notice among the profiles of the shot-tracking charts?

How do these differences of profiles reflect differences in the sequences' subject matter, unifying purposes or "shapes," tone, pace, narratives, etc.? (We'll need to watch the sequences)

If we wanted to come up with names for the different patterns as potential models, what phrases would suit each?

Resources

Mad Men Title Sequence (narrative and montage)
The Beverly Hillbillies Title Sequence (backstory)
Sopranos Title Sequence (narrative, mise-en-scene)
Art of the Title Sequence

Camera Work, Shot Tracking

Roll

For Today You Were To
1. Come in with a verbal plan for your title sequence written in a Word file. I will have you submit your plan via the page Verbal Plan: Narrative Title Sequence

2. We will talk about the three examples from the McCloud Chapter 5 (page numbers, specific panels) of principles, techniques, and insights that you can relate to specific shots and edits (cuts) from our Sample Title Sequences. Bring your McCloud book.

For Next Time
Let 's expand on the homework assignment from this last Monday, when I asked you to come in with three specific pages and panel numbers specified from McCloud's Chapter 5. You were to relate each of those points from McCloud to particular shots or edits from our Sample Title Sequences.

In a reply in the forum "McCloud and Video Sequences," please

1. type in a phrase, page number, and panel number(s) specifying those (or any) three points from Chapter 5 (or any McCloud chapter, or any of the in-class examples of camera work from the last few days).

2. Under each of those items in your reply, insert a visible image of a screen shot from a title sequence (taken from our Sample Title Sequences forum, or any other source)

3. Under the image, create a clickable URL to that video sequence online.

We will discuss these on Monday.

Camera Work 2

One way to enhance the audience's emotional identification with a character is to show the action from his or her point of view. An over-the-shoulder viewpoint can also have this effect while keeping a slight sense of distance or perspective.


Shots dominated by diagonal lines imply motion or tension.

Diagonal lines forming the base of a figure or object (as with the shoulders of the figure above) can suggest instability or danger, especially when the figure is placed high in the shot.


Shots dominated by horizontal lines imply stability, calm, or rest.

Shot Tracking
Go to the "Shot Tracking" forum, and open up the Word file your attached to your message. First, we want to make all the shot-tracking charts visible at once. See the sample

Questions

What broad differences so you notice among the profiles of the shot-tracking charts?

How do these differences of profiles reflect differences in the sequences' subject matter, unifying purposes or "shapes," tone, pace, narratives, etc.? (We'll need to watch the sequences)

If we wanted to come up with names for the different patterns as potential models, what phrases would suit each?

Resources

Mad Men Title Sequence (narrative and montage)
The Beverly Hillbillies Title Sequence (backstory)
Sopranos Title Sequence (narrative, mise-en-scene)
Art of the Title Sequence
Twin Peaks Title Sequence
Compare title sequences for To Kill a Mockingbird and Almost Famous
See also the distiction between diachronic and synchronic structures

McCloud and Video Sequences

Roll

For Today You Were To
Let 's expand on the homework assignment from this last Monday, when I asked you to come in with three specific pages and panel numbers specified from McCloud's Chapter 5. You were to relate each of those points from McCloud to particular shots or edits from our Sample Title Sequences.

In a reply in the forum "McCloud and Video Sequences," please

1. type in a phrase, page number, and panel number(s) specifying those (or any) three points from Chapter 5 (or any McCloud chapter, or any of the in-class examples of camera work from the last few days).

2. Under each of those items in your reply, insert a visible image of a screen shot from a title sequence (taken from our Sample Title Sequences forum, or any other source)

3. Under the image, create a clickable URL to that video sequence online.

For Next Time
1. Come in with a rough storyboard of your title sequence. See some examples of storyboarding:

Taxi Driver

Sara Conner Chronicles

On a sheet of paper, draw a line to divide the page in half vertically, then draw horizontal lines to divide the page into screen-sized segments. (Alternatively, you could use a stack of index cards.). In each cell--or on each card--draw a rough sketch of each of your shots to help visualize their composition and sequencing.

2. Also come in with the sound file of a song you have rights to for use in an exercise.

McCloud and Video Sequences

Resources

Mad Men Title Sequence (narrative and montage)
The Beverly Hillbillies Title Sequence (backstory)
Sopranos Title Sequence (narrative, mise-en-scene)
Art of the Title Sequence
Twin Peaks Title Sequence
Compare title sequences for To Kill a Mockingbird and Almost Famous
See also the distiction between diachronic and synchronic structures

Background Music

Roll

For Today You Were To
1. Come in with a rough storyboard of your title sequence.

On a sheet of paper, draw a line to divide the page in half vertically, then draw horizontal lines to divide the page into screen-sized segments. (Alternatively, you could use a stack of index cards.). In each cell--or on each card--draw a rough sketch of each of your shots to help visualize their composition and sequencing.

2. Also come in with the sound file of a song you have rights to for use in an exercise.

For Next Time
1. Complete the Audacity Exercise from today if necessary. Post the URL of the Quicktime movie file (saved in a folder 4260/exercises/audacity) to the forum, "Audacity and iPhoto"

2. Work on your Narrative Title Sequence storyboards, which we will discuss further on Friday

Audacity Exercise

I will give you a copy of the exercise handout "Editing the Length of Audio with Audacity and Adding it to an iPhoto Slideshow."

We will add music to the same slideshow we created previously.

Save the finished Quicktime movie in a folder "4260/exercises/audacity" on your USB, and upload the "audacity" folder to your 4260/exercises folder on the web.

Create a clickable URL to the .mov file in a reply to the forum, "Audacity and iPhoto"

Techniques in your Storyboards
Looking back over your storyboard, what techniques from McCloud or from class examples do you see yourself attempting? Look for techniques of shot composition as well as montage (editing and sequencing among the shots).

Resource
Twin Peaks Title Sequence

Techniques in your Storyboards

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
1. Complete the Audacity Exercise from today if necessary. Post the URL of the Quicktime movie file (saved in a folder 4260/exercises/audacity) to the forum, "Audacity and iPhoto"

2. Work on your Narrative Title Sequence storyboards, which we will discuss further on Friday

For Next Time
Bring in all materials to work on your Title Sequence in a Studio Session.

The Audacity of Combination (Your Exercises)

Let's look at the different effects that arise from the combination of images, transitions, camera movement, montage, and music in your "Audacity and iPhoto" exercises.

Techniques in your Storyboards

Storyboard panel and shot from Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver

Today, you will share with the class a shot, edit, or sequence of shots from your storyboard, and explain some technique you were attempting to employ for effect, meaning, or implication.

The technique might be from McCloud, class dicussion, or your own observation of technique in a sample sequence we've seen.

The point is say what effect or meaning you were after, and then how that technique attempts to realize it, and where you've seen that technique before.

Alternatively, you could show an example of a shot, edit, or sequence which you plan to use to enhance what you have now.

First, get in pairs and take turns walking your neighbor through your storyboard, describing:

• the action,
• the mise-en-scene (pronounced "meez-on-sen")
• the camera work/shot composition (see class examples Camera Work 1 and Camera Work 2),
• the montage (parallel to McCloud's discussion of panels and gutters),
• the overall narrative shape of the sequence in the two senses of narrative described in the assignment.
  
  

Resource
Twin Peaks Title Sequence

Studio Session

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
Bring in all materials to work on your Title Sequence in a Studio Session.

For Next Time
Bring in all materials related to your Title Sequence Project

Narrative Title Sequence Due Dates
Wednesday, November 17 by noon: the project is due to be posted to the web as a .mov file and the URL sent to the forum "Narrative Title Sequence URLs"

Friday, November 19 at 8 a.m.: a printed hard copy of you commentary is due at the beginning of class (more about writing the commentary on Wednesday).

Studio Session Warm Up
Though you are working individually today, this is still a class meeting and so you should stay and be productive until 8:50.

To begin, take two minutes talking with a neighbor about how your project is going, and what you're going to try to accomplish today.

The Narrative Title Sequence: Checking Out

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
Bring in all materials related to your Narrative Title Sequence

For Next Time
Write and print out your commentary on the Narrative Title Sequence: 500 words (double-spaced, two pages), written in formal, thoughful prose, fulfilling the criteria listed on the evaluation rubric.

Narrative Title Sequence Due Dates
Wednesday, November 17 by noon: the project is due to be posted to the web as a .mov file and the URL sent to the forum "Narrative Title Sequence URLs"

Friday, November 19 at 8 a.m.: a printed hard copy of you commentary is due at the beginning of class (more about writing the commentary on Wednesday).

The Narrative Title Sequence: Checking Out

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
Turn in a printed hard copy of your commentary at the beginning of class. (Note: The URL of your Narrative Title Sequence was due to the forum "Narrative Title Sequence URLs" by noon Wednesday).

For Next Time
1. Come in with three possible images or screen shots for use in the Essay and Visual Project

2. In a reply to the forum, "Cultural Work," write a short paragraph about an example of cultural work from a present-day culture or from the past. This example need not be an image, and could be a movie, joke, book, rumor, etc.

Cultural Work

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
1. Come in with three possible images or screen shots for use in the Essay and Visual Project

2. In a reply to the forum, "Cultural Work," write a short paragraph about an example of cultural work from a present-day culture or from the past. This example need not be an image, and could be a movie, joke, book, rumor, etc.

For Next Time
1. Have a good Thanksgiving. No class meeting on Wednesday. Travel safely.

2. Come in with the image you have selected for your Essay and Visual Project.

Cultural Work: Culture, History, Audience
1. Today, we will talk about your examples of "Cultural Work." What is/was cultural about the work they enable(d) viewers to perform? What is historical about them (even the present-day examples)? How might we define the cultural audience? In what ways might the Freudian concept of displacement function in its cultural work?

2. We will also discuss the image The Accidental Tourist.

3. I will ask you to describe the context--or what more you would need to find out about the context--of one of the images you brought in as possible topic for the essay.

Context

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
1. Have a good Thanksgiving. No class meeting on Wednesday. Travel safely.

2. Come in with the image you have selected for your Essay & Visual Project.

For Next Time
1. Complete the form "Essay & Visual Project: Topic and Context"

2. Bring Tufte book and the handout "Three Paragraphs...."

The Context of Cultural Work
1. Today, we will continue to talk about your examples of "Cultural Work," and the contexts that suggest the specific cultural work they do for particular audiences.

We'll try to particularize the image's contemporary audience by breaking it down, considering:

• age/generation
• gender
• economic class/position (upper-middle-lower; rural-urban, student-employee-nonworker, worker-manager etc.)
• geographic identities (nation, region, state)
• political identities (national, party, movement)
• styles and subcultures
• creator of the image
• original context of the image (specific magazine, newspaper, art gallery, company, "market," web site, etc.).
  
  

2. We will also discuss the image The Accidental Tourist.

Information Design in a Cultural Image & Writing Critical Paragraphs

Roll

Questions?

Writing effective paragraphs about an image is thinking effectively about an image
That is, writing is "constitutive."

For Today You Were To
1. Complete the form "Essay & Visual Project: Topic and Context"

2. Bring Tufte book and the handout "Three Paragraphs...."

For Next Time
1. Bring your McCloud and Tufte books

2. Write two paragraphs:
A. Revise one of the paragraphs from the handout "Three Paragraphs from a Sample 'Cultural Work of an Image' Essay" so that the paragraph includes elements of both context and information design, or context and visual design. If possible, combine all three elements (context, information design, visual design) into a single, unified point made by the paragraph.

B. Try writing a similar (to the above) paragraph using a few details from the image you've chosen for your essay: that is, combining discussions of the context of your image (see the list from last class) with observations/analyses of information-design details and/or visual-design details.

Information Design
1. How We Know What We Know
In the days after the 9/11 attacks, why would viewers have believed the image The Accidental Tourist was taken from the Twin Towers seconds before the disaster? Use Tufte's three visual techniques of information design (13) to describe how this informational understanding is communicated by the image itself--or how, in Tufte's words, the image is made "quantitatively eloquent" (13)

Then, how were the same three techniques of information design used to debunk this hoax (according to the Snopes.com commentary)?

2. Cultural Encoding
How do we know that the figure in the picture is a tourist? That the skyline is New York? That the picture was taken in the last decade or so, rather than in the 1940s or '60s?

3. Information Design in Practice
Look at the handout "Three Paragraphs from a Sample 'Cultural Work of an Image' Essay." In what ways does the writer use Tufte's idea of "encoding" to support a reading of the information design of the shirt advertisement?

4. Look at the Image You've Chosen to Write On
On a sheet of paper, list Tufte's three techniques horizontally across the top. Then, try listing beneath each some visual and informational details from the image you've chosen to write on. Try to find details for each technique.

4. Critical Paragraphs
In an essay like this, avoid segregating the matters of context, of information design, and of visual design into separate paragraphs or sections. Instead, make your writing more critically powerful by coordinating two or three of these required ingredients in each paragraph.

For instance, try beginning a paragraph with an observation and analysis of an aspect of the visual design and then use it as a springboard into a discussion of a context.

Or, comment on an example of how the image employs one of Tufte's techniques of information design, and then "pivot" to show how that same graphic detail is included in the visual design of the image (more on visual design on Friday).

We will practice these techniques of writing effective paragraphs in the homework for Friday.

Visual Design in a Cultural Image
& Writing Critical Paragraphs

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
1. Bring your McCloud and Tufte books

2. Write two paragraphs:
A. Revise one of the paragraphs from the handout "Three Paragraphs from a Sample 'Cultural Work of an Image' Essay" so that the paragraph includes elements of both context and information design, or context and visual design. If possible, combine all three elements (context, information design, visual design) into a single, unified point made by the paragraph.

B. Try writing a similar (to the above) paragraph using a few details from the image you've chosen for your essay: that is, combining discussions of the context of your image (see the list from last class) with observations/analyses of information-design details and/or visual-design details.

For Next Time
We will not have class next Monday or Wednesday to allow time for mandatory individual conferences. All conferences will be held in our classroom, MonH 209, unless arranged otherwise.

1. Sign up for a conference for next week via our class Wiki "Conference Sign-Up." If you need to arrange a different time, please email Craig.

In the Wiki, click the "Edit" tab and type your name after one of the open times. Do not add times to the Wiki or (of course) change anyone else's appointment.

Note that only one person may edit a Wiki at a time. If two people attempt it, only one person's changes will appear.

2. After you edit the Wiki, be sure to click the "View" tab at the top to make sure the appointment you've made appears.

3. Prepare for the conference by completing and bringing the items in the checklist below.

Conference Preparation Checklist
Bring to the conference the following:

1. A copy of your image (on a USB is fine--we can use one of the computers in the classroom)

2. A printout of the information you sent me via the form "Essay & Visual Project: Topic and Context"

3. Books, printouts, PDF's, URLs to online sources, and other resources you've found concerning the context of the image

4. Your Tufte book with pages bookmarked to indicate passages, quotations, ideas, and comparative examples you might use to analyze the information design of your image.

5. Your McCloud book with pages bookmarked to indicate passages, quotations, ideas, and comparative examples you might use to analyze the visual design your image.

6. A provisional outline of your essay

7. A choice among the three options for creating a visual "paratext" of your essay:

a. an online visualized data page (at least two or three charts supported by all the additional elements required in the Visualized Data assignment), or

b. a confection, or

c. a narrative slide show like the Narrative Title Sequence.

8. a rough sketch or one-page storyboard of what this visual paratext will look like and do.

Critical Paragraphs
The word "critical" refers both to

• "a careful evaluation and judgment" (as in "a critical reading"), as well as
• "a turning point" in a process (as in "a critical moment," or "a critical point in the campaign").

Combining these senses of "critical" suggests that a critical paragraph enacts a turn in judgment or thought.

Working with Your Paragraphs
In a reply to the forum "Critical Paragraphs," paste in the paragraph you created by combining and coordinating content from two or three of the paragraphs on the handout "Three Paragraphs from a Sample "Cultural Work of an Image" Essay.

Show how you mingled the kinds of required content by making the wording about context in red, making the wording about Information Design green and making the wording about Visual Design blue.

Visual Design
One of the three major concerns in your essay will be the image's visual design. How does the composition of the image itself contribute to its power to suggest feelings and understandings that contribute to its cultural work--or, rather, the cultural work that an audience engages in through that image.

Let's look at our image The Accidental Tourist again, but this time from the viewpoint of visual design.

What ideas, terms, and/or examples does Scott McCloud provide us to talk about (and thus to see) the effect of this image's visual design?

What critical ideas and terminology does our earlier discussions about Camera Work (here and here) offer us to help explain the image's visual and cultural effects?

Conferences

Roll

Questions?

For Today You Were To
We will not have class next Monday or Wednesday to allow time for mandatory individual conferences. All conferences will be held in our classroom, MonH 209, unless arranged otherwise.

1. Sign up for a conference for next week via our class Wiki "Conference Sign-Up." If you need to arrange a different time, please email Craig.

In the Wiki, click the "Edit" tab and type your name after one of the open times. Do not add times to the Wiki or (of course) change anyone else's appointment.

Note that only one person may edit a Wiki at a time. If two people attempt it, only one person's changes will appear.

2. After you edit the Wiki, be sure to click the "View" tab at the top to make sure the appointment you've made appears.

3. Prepare for the conference by completing and bringing the items in the checklist below.

Conference Preparation Checklist
Bring to the conference the following:

1. A copy of your image (on a USB is fine--we can use one of the computers in the classroom)

2. A printout of the information you sent me via the form "Essay & Visual Project: Topic and Context"

3. Books, printouts, PDF's, URLs to online sources, and other resources you've found concerning the context of the image

4. Your Tufte book with pages bookmarked to indicate passages, quotations, ideas, and comparative examples you might use to analyze the information design of your image.

5. Your McCloud book with pages bookmarked to indicate passages, quotations, ideas, and comparative examples you might use to analyze the visual design your image.

6. A provisional outline of your essay

7. A choice among the three options for creating a visual "paratext" of your essay:

a. an online visualized data page (at least two or three charts supported by all the additional elements required in the Visualized Data assignment), or

b. a confection, or

c. a narrative slide show like the Narrative Title Sequence.

8. a rough sketch or one-page storyboard of what this visual paratext will look like and do.

For Next Time

Critical Paragraphs
The word "critical" refers both to

• "a careful evaluation and judgment" (as in "a critical reading"), as well as
• "a turning point" in a process (as in "a critical moment," or "a critical point in the campaign").

Combining these senses of "critical" suggests that a critical paragraph enacts a turn in judgment or thought.

Working with Your Paragraphs
In a reply to the forum "Critical Paragraphs," paste in the paragraph you created by combining and coordinating content from two or three of the paragraphs on the handout "Three Paragraphs from a Sample "Cultural Work of an Image" Essay.

Show how you mingled the kinds of required content by making the wording about context in red, making the wording about Information Design green and making the wording about Visual Design blue.

Visual Design
One of the three major concerns in your essay will be the image's visual design. How does the composition of the image itself contribute to its power to suggest feelings and understandings that contribute to its cultural work--or, rather, the cultural work that an audience engages in through that image.

Let's look at our image The Accidental Tourist again, but this time from the viewpoint of visual design.

What ideas, terms, and/or examples does Scott McCloud provide us to talk about (and thus to see) the effect of this image's visual design?

What critical ideas and terminology does our earlier discussions about Camera Work (here and here) offer us to help explain the image's visual and cultural effects?

Thesis Statements, Visualizing Arguments

Roll

Questions?

For Next Time
1. Write a thesis statement for your essay, and bring it in prepared to share it.

2. Capture one, two or three screen shots from one of our non-fiction trailers (below), and post them as visible images in a reply in the Moodle forum "Trailer Tropes." Make these screen shots 500 pixels wide.

Beneath the screen shots in your message, write an explanation of how the shots provide examples of visual and/or verbal "tropes" (moves, techniques) that might serve as models for visual presentations of an essay's thesis and argument.

Your Thesis
A thesis is a single (though perhaps complex) sentence that identifies the purpose of your essay. It will usually appear in your essay: conventionally in the first paragraph; very conventionally, at the end of your first paragraph.

Below are two sample thesis statement that might serve in the sample essay we've been discussing. Which is the better of the two?

1. This 1902 image from a Washington Shirt Company advertisement expresses what was then a new vision of a more independent and autonomous youth culture, which reinforced middle-class Americans' recognition of the emergent adolescent's role in the urban, industrial economy.
   
   
2. This 1902 image from a Washington Shirt Company advertisement performs cultural work through its information and visual design, reinforcing dominant structures of seeing, feeling, and acting.

Visualizing Your Argument
The assignment page gives you three options for the "Visual Paratext" you'll create to complement your essay:

• a presentation of at least two Visualized Data Sets on a single page (with the data repeated in tables, same as in the original assignment).
• a Confection
• a Visual "Trailer" Sequence
  
  

We will watch the following non-fiction, non-narrative film trailers, and discuss

1. What arguments, analyses, and evidence are the trailers summarizing and publicizing from the film?

2. What are the visual and narrative techniques by which these large, abstract, verbal ideas are presented in these sequences of images and words?

• The Fog of War
• Helvetica (and the non-verbal alternative version)
• The Corporation

Studio Session

Roll

Questions?

1. Write a thesis statement for your essay, and bring it in prepared to share it.

2. Capture one, two or three screen shots from one of our non-fiction trailers (below), and post them as visible images in a reply in the Moodle forum "Trailer Tropes." Make these screen shots 500 pixels wide.

Beneath the screen shots in your message, write an explanation of how the shots provide examples of visual and/or verbal "tropes" (moves, techniques) that might serve as models for visual presentations of an essay's thesis and argument.