Schedule | Spring 2018

WEEK 1
W 1/10

Welome to WRIT 4250 / 5250

This course examines the emerging practices of writing in digital environments such as social media, video games, web sites, mobile apps, and augmented reality.

Students learn both theory and practice through readings, discussion, an exam, critical writing, and software tutorials, as well as by producing a series of creative online projects.

The course requires no prior knowledge of web design or specialized software.

For more, see the syllabus.

Day 1: New Media/Writing

How do writing and new media represent different senses of self and social values?

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

First Project

See the assignment for the Social Creativity Project

Resources

• Active Reading
• 50 Sad Chairs
• McGurl's Writing (handout)

MLK Holiday: No Class Meeting

Homework Due

Print and Read 1

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, political, and philosophical values and ways of living?

3. According to Birkerts, why and how does electronic 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' text an example of the kind of writing (and set of values) that he is defining and describing? Can you point to particular sentences and passages as illustrations?

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 hand-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. (2A)

Print and Read 2

Printout, read, mark, and bring in Lev Manovich's "What is New Media?" (Chapter One from this book The Language of New Media, pages 19-61).

This chapter is available as a PDF 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").

Syllabus

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

Day 2:Writing and New Media (Birkerts and Manovich)

How do written culture and digital culture differ in values, techniques, and structure? 

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

Resources

• People of Walmart
• Make Your Franklin
• Sad Chairs (sample Social Creativity Project)
• Social Creativity Project assignment
• Sample Steps, Rules, and Guidelines for a Social Creativity Project

Homework Due

Bring Printouts

Bring your printouts of Birkerts' chapters from The Gutenberg Elegies and Manovich's "What is New Media"

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 Monday 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). 3A

Bring Your USB Drive

Day 3: Dreamweaver, Photoshop

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 1: Setting Up a Site in Dreamweaver

I will you a copy of the handout, "Setting Up a Site in Dreamweaver"

Exercise 2: 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.
  
  
• 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

Exercise 3: Photoshop Beginning Banner Techniques

I will give you a copy of the handout "Beginning Banner Techniques."

To start this exercise, you'll also need to download an image fron the page "Banner Techniques."

If You Don't Have a USB Drive Today

1. On your work station's desktop, look for an icon called "My Files.
   If you see the icon, open "My Files" and then drag the folder containing your work to it from where it's saved on the computer's desktop.
2. If you don't see the "My Files" icon, click on the Finder icon on the bottom left of the screen.
3. Then from the top menu choose Go > Network > Samba
4. Log in if necessary

Resources

• Social Creativity Project

Homework Due

Complete Tutorials Begun Last Time

Please try to complete the tutorial "Web Page From Prototype" using Dreamweaver.

You can get access to Dreaweaver on campus

• in our classroom/lab in 209 Montegue (when a class is not scheduled there),
• in the Media Hub (2nd floor of library rotunda), and
• by using the Macs in the KPlz 143 lab.

Getting Birkerts and Manovich to Talk

Post a reply to the first message in the Moodle forum "Birkerts and Manovich."

In that reply, type out

• a short quotation from the Birkerts reading (1-3 sentences) and
• a short quotation from Manovich's "What is New Media?"

Beneath the two quotations, write a paragraph that attempts to relate the two quotations. In your paragraph, you might consider questions such as the following:

• How does your interpretation of something specific in one passage change in light of something said in the other passage?
• How do the two passages side by side help us understand something about the relationship of writing/reading and New Media?
• How do your chosen passages from Birkerts and Manovich help you think about a particular concern, issue, or question raised by the idea of "New Media Writing"?
• Rather than Birkerts and Manovich talking about two completely separate subjects, how can you make the two passages address each other on some common ground relevant to the Social Creativity Project.

(3B)

Bring

Bring to class

1. your USB drive, and
2. your printouts of Birkerts' chapters from The Gutenberg Elegies and
3. printout of Manovich's "What is New Media"

Day 4: Photoshop

Resources

• Social Creativity Project
• From Fredric Jameson's Postmodernism:

"...[O]ur daily life, our psychic experience, our cultural languages, are today dominated by categories of space rather than by categories of time, as in the preceding period of high modernism" (16).

Exercise: Photoshop Beginning Banner Techniques

I will give you a copy of the handout "Beginning Banner Techniques."

To start this exercise, you'll also need to download an image fron the page "Banner Techniques."

Upload Page from Prototype Exercise

1. Be sure the 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 "Page to Prototype," click "Reply" in the top message, and paste your URL into the reply message box as a clickable link. Post your reply.

Homework Due

Upload Page from Prototype Exercise (if not done in class)

1. Be sure the 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 "Page to Prototype," click "Reply" in the top message, and paste your URL into the reply message box as a clickable link. Post your reply.

(4A)

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

Before Monday morning at 9:00, complete the form "Prospectus: Social Creativity Project"

Bring

Bring to class

1. your USB drive
2. all materials necessary to work on your Social Creativity Project

Studio Session

Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock in his studio, 1949 (Life Magazine)

Social Creativity Due Tuesday

Online Aspects Due by 4:00

The online aspects of the Social Creativity Projectare 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 "Reply" in the top message, and paste your URL into the reply message box as a clickable link. Post your reply.

No Commentary Due

Homework Due

Read

• Introduction to Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command, pages 1-51

10 Quotations to Answer 3 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 10.

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?

Make a Cluster

On another sheet of paper, make a cluster of words and ideas from the 10 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.

(4B)

Note: No Commentary Due for Social Creativity

Software Takes Command, Introduction
Dramatic Modularity Project

Cover art from Zos Kia Cultus (Here and Beyond) by the Polish Extreme Metal band Behmonth

What effects has software had on media, according to Manovich?

Next Project

• Dramatic Modularity Project
• New York Times
• Sample of Screencastomatic video
• My Last Duchess audio

Homework Due

Read

Read the last section, "Metamedium" from Chapter 1 of Software Takes Command, pages 101-106.

Read Online and Make Notes

Read the poets.org explanation of the dramatic monologue, which is a conventional literary form we are remediating in the Dramatic Modularity Project.

In what sense is You Suck at Photoshop, Episode 1 an example of a dramatic monologue? Make a few notes for class about how you would answer that question using ideas and examples from the poets.org page.

Print and Read

Print and read "Facade" from Jerome Stern's book on narrative technique, Making Shapely Fiction.

Mark the printout using the principles of active reading.

What verbal techniques and principles from this "shape" might translate to the writing of the Dramatic Modularity Project script?

How might the visual and new-media techniques of character and irony in You Suck at Photoshop, Episode 1 parallel the verbal techniques described by Stern?

Software Takes Command C1 (Selection)

What is a Dramatic Modularity Story?

Resources

• My Last Duchess audio
• My Last Duchess (text)
• Dramatic Monologue
• Facade (Stern)
• Modularity: Layers, Windows, Software Interfaces,
• You Suck at Photoshop, Episode 1: Distort, Warp, and Layer Effects
• You Suck at Photoshop, Episode 2: Covering Your Mistakes

Homework Due

1. Dramatic Modularity Premise

Fill out a copy of the handout "Dramatic Modularity Premise" to brainstorm one possible idea for your Dramatic Modularity Project. This is not necessarily your ultimate idea, but simply an idea.

Try to fill out each of the seven item on the premise handout as completely as you can, and make notes in the margins of quesitons or alternatives.

Bring the handout on paper to class. (5A)

2. 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.

3. Read

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

4. Annotate the "Metamedium" Diagrapm

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

A. 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.

B. 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?

C. 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 explain the development and character of a "metamedium" is and how it's different from previous media.

(5B)

Software Takes Command C2

How do we understand the techniques of the software metamedium?

Resources

• To the handout "Dramatic Modularity Premise," add to the beginning of item #6 three words so it reads,
  
  "Tension created by implied meaning and effects beyond those intended by character."
• Behemoth
• You Suck at Photoshop, Episode 4: Paths and Masks
• Kandinski, Sketch for Composition 1913
• Handout: "Lev Manovich's 'Metamedium.'"
• Moviola (film editing machine)

Homework Due

1. Try Out Screencasting

For today, I will ask you to come to class with a brief screencast video recorded and saved on your USB drive. I class we will upload it to the web.

If you don't already have screencasting software on your laptop or home computer,

1. go to the Screencast-o-matic
2. look over the home page
3. click the large "Record" button on the page, which will open the "Screen Recorder" page
4. on that page, click the "Launch Recorder" button, which will then prompt you to download the "Launcher"
5. Visit the Tutorials page, and watch the 2-minute videos "Recorder Intros" and "Recorder Uploading and Saving" and any other tutorials that look interesting.
6. Try to record a brief screencast of yourself doing non-private activities on your computer. Don't worry about audio at this point.
7. Save the video as an .mp4 file, and copy the file to your USB drive to bring to class
   
   

In class, you will upload the video and post the URL to Moodle. (6A)

2. Read

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

3. Cluster of 12 Quotation Tags

A. 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 that help you remember the line or passage.

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

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

D. 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?  

E. 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. (6B)

4. 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, February 28.

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

Software Takes Command C3

If we are trying to understand "media after software,"  how is the concept "hybrid media" more powerful than the usual term "multimedia"? 

What do the differences between these categorical terms help us realize about our "softwarized" media environment? 

Resources

• Capacities for the Exam (handout)
• Exam Format (handout)
• Dolorus Umbridge from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Facade character)
  
  
• Moviola (film editing machine)
• UMD home page (additive compositing v gestalt compositing)
• Juno Title Sequence (Art of the Title)
  
  
• Jacquard's Loom (1801)
• Babbage's Difference Engine (begun 1833)
• To the handout "Dramatic Modularity Premise," add to the beginning of item #6 three words so it reads,
  "Tension created by implied meaning and effects beyond those intended by character."
• Behemoth
• You Suck at Photoshop, Episode 4: Paths and Masks
• Kandinski, Sketch for Composition 1913
• Handout: "Lev Manovich's 'Metamedium.'"

Homework Due

1. Look and Imagine a Dramatic Mod

Look again at the seven elements of a "Dramatic Modularity Premise" and think about how you might flesh them out with a particular character and situation.

(Note that you can use a character from a book, movie, TV series, etc., as long as your script's situation, monologue, and presentation are original)

Don't write anything down yet, though.

As homework for next Monday, I'll ask you to send to me a premise for your Dramatic Modularity Project by answering these seven points.

For now, though, imagine how would you answer them today.

2. Write a Facade Piece to Brainstorm

Get to know a possible character by writing a conventional "Facade" piece as Jermoe Stern describes it.

In at least 2 double-spaced pages (or 500 words), write a monologue in which you get a character--a possible character for your project--talking and undercutting his or her own purposes and ideas.

Use Stern's techniques of creating an "unreliable narrator" who allows the reader in infer the deeper truth, rather than explicitly stating it.

You can figure out later how to get this character and these effects working in the "hybrid medium" of software and other computer interfaces. If you have ideas about that, make notes to yourself in [bracketed comments] intersperced in your piece.

3. Print

Print your 500-word Facade piece and bring it to class. (6C)

4. Please Bring Your Copy of Software Takes Command to Class

5. If Convenient, Bring Your Laptop with Audacity Downloaded

If you have a laptop, please bring it to class today (if it's convenient to do so).

We will be working with working with some sound-editing software called Audacity, which is free and open source.  It makes sense to have and to learn this software on your own computer.

If at all possible, please download and install the software before coming to class to save time.

(Note that this site and software has been vetted for security and safety.)

Audacity, Facade Pieces

How do we create character and story with an unreliable narrator's own voice?

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
• Sample Dramatic Modularity Script Format: You Suck at Photoshop: Episode 1

Homework Due

Read

Read the Chapter 4 of Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command: "Soft Evolution," pages 199-239, using the techniques of Active Reading.

Write a Summary of the Chapter's Analytical Plot

What to Write

Write up to a page (2 or 3 substantial paragraphs) that summarizes the "analytical plot" of Chapter 4. Talk about the chapter's sections as chapters or episodes in that plot.

What is an Analytical Plot?

In your sentences, make Manovich the subject. Your verbs should characterize what he's doing, step by step, through the chapter. Sharper, more descriptive verbs like "distinguishes," or "questions," or "argues against," are better than generic ones like "says," or "gives."

Using this perspective when analyzing a text is called writing with "critical focus."

Try to show in your sentences what Manovich does in each section, how he makes one section lead to the next, and how the sections work together to form an arc of meaning.

See the Sample

See this sample of a plot summary of Chapter Five from Manovich's The Language of New Media.

Quotations

Be sure to quote key words and phrases (including page numbers cited parenthetically) to make it possible for you to find what you think are significant or memorable quotaitons from the sections.

Documentation

Document the Manovich book in a "Work Cited" entry at the bottom in MLA citation and documentation format.

Print and bring your paragraph(s). (7A)

Suggestion: Try a Cluster First

To help you get a handle of content and flow of chapter, try taking 10 minutes after you read the chapter to make a "chain cluster" on the section titles.

Rather than starting a cluster with a single word or phrase at the center (as we've done before), start with a chain of items from left to right that represent the sections. For instance, here are abbreviated versios of the section headings:

1. Algorithms and Data Structures
2. What is a Medium?
3. File Formats
4. Parameters
5. Meta or monomedium?
6. Soft Evolution
   
   

Then scan through the chapter, looking for what you marked and noted, fleshing out the cluster with phrases and passages from the reading that suggest the flow and development of Manovich's chapter.

Audacity Exercise

Since we could not use Audacity in the lab, try it on your own before class today.

1. I gave you a copy of the tutorial, "Editing Voice, Sound Effects, and Music with Audacity"
2. Download and install Audacity on your computer.
3. Download the sound files for the tutorial (zip folder) and save the sound files in your "New Media Writing" folder on your USB.
4. Complete the Audacity Exercise on the handout.
5. Save the final .wav file on your USB in a new folder called "audacity" in your "exercises" folder (inside of "4250" in your "www" folder)
6. Bring your USB to class where we will take a few minutes uploading the "audacity" folder to your web space. (7B)

Software Takes Command C4

What is a "medium" after softwarization?

Resources

• Interview with Troy Hitch and Matt Bledsoe, Creators of You Suck at Photoshop
• "Mockutorial Edutainment"
• Diachronic and Synchronic logics
• Postmodern Last Supper
• Breaking Bad: A Man Provides
• Breaking Bad: I Did It for Me
• Rob Barnett of My Damn Channel
• "Ring of Infinite Sorrows"
• Harry Shearer as Nigel Tufel in This is Spinal Tap
• Big Fat Brain
• Dramatic Modularity Project
• GIF v JPG (data structures)

Outline of Manovich's Chapter

1. Algorithms and Data Structures
2. What is a Medium?
3. File Formats
4. Parameters
5. Meta or monomedium?
6. Soft Evolution

Homework Due

Bring to Class

On your USB drive, bring

• a copy of the video file (.mp4) that you recorded with Screencast-o-matic (or equivalent).
• a copy of the audio file (.mp3) that you recorded with Audacity.

Character and Story Prospectus

Write a 100-word or more speculation on the character and story behind your Dramatic Modularity Project , and how the Facade effect is a clue or key to that larger story and character.

Additionally, write a sentence or two about your inspiration for the character, story and/or facade.

Before class, please send me the above via the web form "Dramatic Modularity Prospectus."

Bring Your Software Takes Command Book

iMovie

iMovie Exercise in Class

I will give you a copy of the iMovie exercise handout, and well as a handout "Saving an Unfinished iMovie Project for Completion Later".

Please download the compressed folder of files for this exercise and save them in your "New Media Writing" folder (not your "www" folder) on your USB drive.

You will save the finished product in a folder "www/4250/exercises/imovie," upload the folder to the web, and then send a clickable URL in a reply to the Moodle forum, "iMovie."

I will also ask you to save a copy of your iMovie library to your USB drive in your "New Media Writing" folder.

Getting Credit for the iMovie and Audacity Exercises

I will ask you to use Dreamweaver to upload your iMovie exercise folder and your previous Audacity exercise folder to the web:

• www/4250/execises/imovie
• www/4250/exercises/audacity

Visit each exercise file online with a browser and copy the URL into a reply to the appproriate Moodle forum ("iMovie" or "Audacity")

Homework Due

Write Your Dramatic Modularity Script

Please use the Sample Script Format as a model. The basic elements (with their formatting) are:

• Direction and descriptions of visuals (unindented)
• Monologue or dialogue (indented 1")
• Names of characters speaking (indented 2")

Before You Read Manovich

In Chapter 5, Manovich briefly considers the title sequence from the AMC series Mad Men as an example of "motion graphics," the subject of this chapter.

Watch this video before you read. Imagine that you are going to write a 20-page essay analyzing this title sequence as an example of what Manovich calls a "new hybrid visual aesthetics" (244) which is characteristic of "'media' after software" (Manovich 4).

Read

Actively read the Chapter 5 of Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command, pages 243-296, 307-327.

Read both for

1. how this chapter brings together everything Manovich has argued in Software Takes Command, and
2. specific quotations that would help you in writing about the Mad Men title sequence as an example not just of animation or television title sequences, but of the new "metalanguage" created by the softwarization of culture (Manoivch 244).

Watch the Title Sequence Again

After you have read and taken notes on the chapter, watch the Mad Men title sequence again.

Five Revealing Quotations and Time Stamps

On paper, copy over at least five quotations from Chapter 5 in their entirety (with page and tenths numbers) that describe and illuminate details of the title sequence.

For each quotation, note down the minute and second mark (time stamps) of shots in the video where you would be able to show us the details that illustrate Manovich's point in the quotation.

Try to make your quotation/shot pairings as revealing and "transformative" as possible

• in understanding Manovich's argument, and
• in seeing the title sequence as a genuinely new "species" of media (Manovich 235).

(8A)~

Day 13: Software Takes Command C5

How does the genre of the "motion graphic" epitomize hybrid media produced by softwarizaiton?

Resources

• Mad Men Title Sequence
• Saul Bass's title sequence for Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959)
• True Detective Title Sequence
• Fan-Produced Walking Dead Title Sequence
• Juno Title Sequence
• the visual style of Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
• Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (Caspar David Friedrich 1818)
• Jermone Stern's concept of Position

Homework Due

Bring all materials to work on your Dramatic Modularity Project.

Dayb 14: Studio Session: Dramatic Modularity

Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock in his studio, 1949 (Life Magazine)

Homework Due

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"

Days 21 & 22: Individual Conferences: No Class Meeting

Homework Due

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.

13A~

Day 23: Writing in Augmented Space Script

Resources

WAS Map and Script due

Please submit a printed copy of your script and map by 4:00 p.m. to my mailbox in Humanities 420. Electronic versions are not accepted.

Tuesday (Not a Meeting Day)

Homework Due

Read

William Knoblauch "Game Over? A Cold War Kid Reflects on Apocalyptic Video Games" page 183. The State of Play

Write and Print

Write a paragraph that

1. describes Knoblauch's style/approach in regard to the three dimensions we've discussed before:

• objective v subjective viewpoint(s)
• essay v argument as structural purpose
• diachronic v synchronic choice of detail.

2. speculatively compares/contrasts Knoblauch's style/approach (in these three respects) to your own possible approach in "Post-Escapist New Media Essay."

Quote the essay at least twice in your paragraph (with page numbers).

Print the paragraph and bring it to class.

13B~

Writing in Augmented Space Project

Work on the audio recordings and web page for your WAS Project (see deadline below)

Note that UMD has free stock sound effects for downloading. You may need to be on campus (or connecting via UMD's VPN) to download.

Day 24: Knoblauch/WAS

Detail from the opening, cinametic sequence of Fallout 3

Resources:

• Fallout 3 (promotional trailer)
• Fallout 3 (opening cut scene)

WEEK 14
M 4/16

Homework Due

Read

Merrittr Kopas. "Ludus Interruptus: Video Games and Sexuality" page 211. The State of Play

Ola Wikander. "The God in the Machine: Occultism,, Demiurgic Theology, and Gnostic Self-Knowledge in Japanese Video Games." page 235. The State of Play

Write and Print

Write a paragraph that

1. compares Kopas' and Wikander's styles/approaches in regard to the three dimensions we've discussed before:

• objective v subjective viewpoint(s)
• essay v argument as structural purpose
• diachronic v synchronic choice of detail.

2. speculatively compares/contrasts these two writers' styles/approaches (in these three respects) to your own possible approach in "Post-Escapist New Media Essay"

Quote either of the essays at least 3 times in your paragraph (with page numbers).

Print the paragraph and bring it to class.

14A~

Writing in Augmented Space

Work on the audio recordings and web page for your WAS Project (see deadline below).

Note that UMD has free stock sound effects for downloading. You may need to be on campus (or connecting via UMD's VPN) to download.

Bring to Class

Bring all digital and physical materials needed for working on your Writing in Augmentd Space Project

Day 25: Kopas and Wikander/WAS

Screenshot from game trailer for Fallout 3 produced in 2008

Speed Presentation and Live Demo

• Bob Dylan Days Schedule 2017
• Karpeles Museum stage

Kopas and Wikander Chapters

Resources

• Post-Escapist New Media Essay
• WAS Project
• UMD free stock sound effects

WAS Audio and Web Page due

By 4:00 p.m. today, please post to the web a single web page describing your WAS walk and providing links to the map, audio files, and script.

This web page should be based on the model of The Public Art Fund's page for Cardiff's and Miller's
"Her Long Black Hair."

By 4:00, post a reply to the Moodle forum "WAS URLs" containing a clickable link to your page.

Tuesday (Not a Meeting Day)

W 4/18

WEEK 15
M 4/23

W 4/25

Homework Due

Sign Up for a Speed Presentation and Live Demo Time

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

Prepare Your Presentation and Demo

Sign up for a day and time to present.

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

Post Links to Your Resources

In a reply to the Moodle forum "Presentation and 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.

Bring Your The State of Play books

WAS Speed Presentations and Live Demos in Class

Resources

• Student evaluations of presentations