FRONT PAGE • SYLLABUS / SCHEDULE • ASSIGNMENTS • COURSE RESOURCES • YOUR PAGES • FEEDBACK
S Y L L A B U SVIC4943_syllabus_S16_Bargsten.pdf
OVERVIEW
CATALOG DESCRIPTION:
VIC 4943: This interactive multimedia practicum brings video, audio, text, animation and new media to a multifunction, Department-hosted website. As part of this capstone experience, students will create cross-media content, producing works engaged with art, culture and cross-disciplinary critical inquiry. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
• Integrate the theories, histories, and practices of New Media/Multimedia
• Create cross-disciplinary media content on multiple delivery platforms
• Explore new and emerging technologies, aesthetics, and cultural practices, and
• Develop specific technical and design skills.
Assignments in this course will all support these learning objectives (see end of this document for detail on each assignment).
As the capstone or culminating course of your undergraduate career, the primary learning objective of VIC 4943–003 MULTIMEDIA PRACTICUM (4 Cr. hrs.) is to make disciplined, imaginative and expressive connections between the historical, critical, and technical aspects of digital media and culture, through the production of digital media.As we critically investigate aspects of digital culture, you will learn to articulate your viewpoint from the the role(s) in which you participate in digital culture: creator/producer, audience/ consumer, gamer, blogger, commenter, mobile device user, etc.
Applications: While we will integrate theory and practice in this course, we still need to use a number of apps to get our work done. We will be using Photoshop, Illustrator, Audacity, SoundHack, Quicktime, and Final Cut ProX/ Premiere Pro /AfterEffects in this course. There will be review lectures on each of these application, but we will also explore more advanced features, and by the end of the course you should have an understanding of how these apps can be used to create an integrated digital media experience.
Material Viewed in Class: Some material we’ll investigate may be challenging, disturbing or offensive to some viewers or some points of view.
ASSIGNMENTS, GRADING, EXPECTATIONS
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Assignment 1 – Web Reviews/Posts (4)
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20%
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Assignment 2 – Vocabulary Expansion Exercises (3)
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35%
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1. Displacement Map (2) / Image Glitch (2)
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2. Destabilized Text
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3. Sound Design: Making a Structured SoundSalad Essay
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Final Project — Speculative Tech/Future Culture
(presentation/slideshow + video machinima)
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35%
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Attendance
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10%
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Assignments grades are based on the quality of work and timeliness of assignment submission. All projects need to be finished before the start of the class in which they are due and any assignments turned in after the class is over are considered late (5% off the assignment grade). More information on individual assignments can be found on the course wiki site.
If you miss the classes when we have scheduled the in-class Vocabulary Exercises, you must complete the project within one week, and you will most likely need to complete it on your own time, since studio time in class will be devoted to the next activity.
You are expected to attend all classes for the full duration of the class.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
You are expected to attend all classes for the full duration of the class, because the classroom experience is compressed to a single weekly time. If you miss a class, you are expected to get notes on what we covered and the homework for the next week from a buddy.
Attendance counts for 10% of your grade, and often determines the difference in your final score of up to a letter grade. Excused absences include health emergency (with appropriate doctor’s note), family emergency, religious holidays, athletic participation, and jury duty.*
Beyond three (3) unexcused absences, each absence will reduce your overall grade by 3%.
Tardiness (arriving after 20 minutes) will give you partial attendance credit (50%) for that day. TriRail Riders: If you ride the TriRail (which has a history of tardiness), your train is late, and you’re able to show me your ticket for that day, your tardiness is excused.
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* except as provided for in university policy, as stated in relevant Provost’s memoranda: http://www.fau.edu/provost/files/religious2011.pdf and http://www.fau.edu/provost/files/studentabsences.pdf .
GRADE SCALE, EVALUATION CRITERIA
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A Range
(90-100)
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Exceeds Expectations in ALL areas. Conceptual: Concepts engaging, thorough, related to class theme/topic, and coherent; Original thinking, moves beyond assignment bounds, experiments, takes work to a high level; Design: Well thought through design, innovative, inventive, consistent design elements; Presentation and Style: Careful attention to detail, 100% complete, technically superior, no errors in spelling, compression, graphics, presentation, stays within exercise limits, hands in assignment in the manner requested by professor (i.e. posts to web and turned in locally before class due), and exceeds goals of exercise.
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B range
(80-89)
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Conceptual: Complete assignments with originality, related to class theme/topic; Design: Mostly clear design and interaction, some problems with design and interface; Presentation and Style: Shows technical knowledge, but may have one or two technical glitches, meets goals of exercise, stays within exercise limits, hands in assignment in the manner requested.
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C range
(70-79)
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Conceptual: Unoriginal or common sense thinking, only somewhat related to class theme/topic; Design: Inconsistencies in design, lack of attention to detail; Presentation and Style: lack of thoroughness, does not meet goals of exercise, structural and technical problems, spelling errors, does not hand in assignment in manner requested.
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D range
(65-69)
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Falls below expectations in most categories. Minimal effort expended on the work.
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F (64 – less)
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Fails to meet requirements of Assignment/Not turned in on time
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*All work turned in for this class must be created for this class alone (unless you are also my other classes, in which case you can use the same domain name and hosting for the ‘Web Presence’ assignment. No assignments from previous courses accepted, and “joint” assignments completed for more than one class are not acceptable unless prior written arrangements are made between the student and both professors involved. Failure to comply with this expectation will result in a failing grade.
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Code of Academic Integrity Policy Statement
Students at Florida Atlantic University are expected to maintain the highest ethical standards. Academic dishonesty is considered a serious breach of these ethical standards, because it interferes with the university mission to provide a high quality education in which no student enjoys an unfair advantage over any other. Academic dishonesty is also destructive of the university community, which is grounded in a system of mutual trust and places high value on personal integrity and individual responsibility. Harsh penalties are associated with academic dishonesty. For more information, see http://wise.fau.edu/regulations/chapter4/Reg_4.001_5-26-10_FINAL.pdf
Disability Policy Statement
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), students who require reasonable accommodations due to a disability to properly execute coursework must register with Student Accessibility Services (SAS)—in Boca Raton, SU 133 (561-297-3880); in Davie, LA 203 (954-236-1222); or in Jupiter, SR 110 (561-799-8585) —and follow all SAS procedures. http://www.fau.edu/sas
CLASS TIME
Class time will generally alternate between Lecture/Discussion and Production/Studio. During Lecture/Discussion portion, monitors and smartphones should be turned OFF.
SUCCESS IN THIS CLASS
How does one achieve success in this course? PRACTICE. Once you’ve been introduced to the applications, USE THEM EVERY DAY. Get familiar with the software, get comfortable with their interfaces, workspaces, and features. VIEW something from the list of online resources EVERY DAY, and POST something to your site as soon as you get an idea, or tweak a previous post (such as, add more links or tags, or embed a video).
For optimal performance in this course, you will probably need to spend 3-5 additional hours per week minimum to produce your assignments in other labs or at home. And please try to get notes from other students if you miss a class—it’s easy to get behind especially when we’re dealing with production techniques.
The lab is Mac-based, and I recommend you become ‘bi-lingual’ if you haven’t worked on a Mac before. Tutorials for adjusting to a Mac environment are listed in the Course Wiki.
COURSE SITE - http://fau4943.pbworks.com
This is a wiki site - Syllabus, schedule, course resources, and a link to your course feedback are all on this wiki. Your hosted site will be linked to “YOUR PAGES” on the wiki.
BACKING UP YOUR WORK
You are REQUIRED to create a Dropbox or Google Drive account (free) for this course. You should have no excuse for always having backup copies of your work, WITH YOU, IN THE LAB! (Other cloud-based backup services are also acceptable, as long as they're compatible with lab computers.)
If your computer or drives get lost or stolen, or your computer crashes and can’t be recovered, you DO NOT get any extension of your due dates. Thumbdrives and smartphones are not recommended for backups (although they can be useful for hauling around big files). Drives crash and data does get lost—don’t risk it by having just one copy of your work!
Register online at either www.dropbox.com or drive.google.com to do this and you’ll get an adequate amount of free space (2 GB to 5 GB). If you use an FAU Google drive, you may use that as well. You may need to devote the last 5 minutes of class (10 minutes for bigger files) for waiting for the online update to take place.
Highly Recommended: If you want to industrial-strength redundancy, back up your entire home computer to an external hard drive. I recommend you use Time Machine if you’re Mac-based and any of a number of similar applications if you’re PC-based (see http://superuser.com/questions/7423/does-an-equivalent-of-time-machine-exist-for-windows).
TEXTBOOKS - Suggested
Links to critical readings and examples of new media art and culture, as well as an abundance of media resources—books, online tutorials, online videos—can be found on the COURSE RESOURCES page of the wiki site.
The following critical/aesthetic text should be downloaded for reference, since it contains key ideas used throughout the course. You can print out your own copy, photocopy the one made available to the class, or read it on any mobile device that allows .pdf :
COURSE SCHEDULE OVERVIEW
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WEEK I
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Jan 12
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INTRODUCTION – Course Overview. Exploring the Process of Creativity and Expanding Vocabularies
Studio: Setting up for the class. Responsive Design templates in Wordpress. Design Software Review, Optimizing images for Web
(Homework: READ MANOVICH: DATABASE LOGIC; VIEW EXAMPLES)
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Jan 15
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Last day to drop/add courses without consequences
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WEEK II
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Jan 19
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What is a Multimedia Object? A Selective Tour of Databases/Interfaces. (My Body, Eminem, Hoggebrugge Modern Living, Greenaway, others). Studio:. The visual language of your site. Resource files and ‘Save For Web’ . Preparing for your Glitch experience. (Homework: View Visual Culture Review on web)
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WEEK III
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Jan 26
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VOCABULARY EXERCISE 1 (Studio) : Working with Visual Glitch and Displacement Distortion
(Homework: VIEW/READ PROLOGUE-TEXT TYPES on web)
* Web Post/Review #1 Due *
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WEEK IV
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Feb 2
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Text: Prologue to Instability I: Text Hybrids with Media
(Homework: VIEW/READ TRECARTIN, FLARF, ETC. on web)
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WEEK V
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Feb 9
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Text: Modernity to Instability 2: Unstable Subjects (Trecartin, Flarf, etc.)
Studio:VOCABULARY EXERCISE 2: Flarfing a Text, and Integrating It Into Your Site.
(Homework: VIEW EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC SAMPLERS on web)
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WEEK VI
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Feb 16
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Trans-Modernist Approaches to Sound/Music/Noise/Silence :Experimental Traditions, and Impact of Technology
VOCABULARY EXERCISE 3: Structured Audio Workshop, Part 1- Sonic Structure (Audacity, Sound Hack)
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Feb 22-26
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MidTerm Grading Available
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WEEK VII
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Feb 23
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STUDIO: VOCABULARY EXERCISE 3: Structured Audio Workshop, Part 2 – Your Time-Based Sound Collection
* Web Post/Review #2 Due *
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WEEK VIII
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Mar 1
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Studio: Creating an Effective Collaborative Team;
Creating the Final Project: Speculative Tech/Future Culture..
(Homework: Develop Final Project Ideas and Storyboards)
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Mar 8
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SPRING BREAK – No Classes
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WEEK IX
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Mar 15
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Discussion of Ideas, Storyboards, and Possible Directions.
Studio: Video Hunting and Gathering.
(Homework: VIEW AUDIOVISUAL HYBRIDS on web; read material, be prepared to discuss one artist or artistic movement in collection)
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WEEK X
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Mar 22
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Experimental Traditions of Audio/Visual Hybrids 1 + 2 (From Dada, Situationists, Fluxus and other experimentalists to contemporary tech hybrids)
Studio: Non-Linear Video Editing—success strategies.
(Homework: VIEW ILLEGAL ART + DIGITAL COMMONS on web)
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WEEK XI
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Mar 29
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Repurposing Urban and Intellectual Property Environments: Illegal Art and Digital Commons Movements. View: Exit Through the Gift Shop.
Production Day – Catching up, Consolidating.
Studio: Returning to the Web—Presentation/Slideshow Possibilities
(Homework: Getting ready to present your Illegal Art topic)
* Web Post/Review #3 Due
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WEEK XII
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April 5
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Present Illegal Art topics.
Speculative Technologies/Future Cultures. View Transcendent Man.
Studio: Optimizing for Mobile Platforms. More video editing.
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WEEK XIII
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April 12
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Speculative Technologies/Future Cultures: Debrief on Transcendent Man
Studio: Producing Your Final Project. Course Evaluations
Web and Video Production, SpecTech/FutureCulture
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WEEK XIV
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April 19
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Studio: Producing Your Final Project.
* Web Post/Review #4 Due
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READING DAY
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April 26
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Reading Day — no class, but Lab will be available
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FINAL
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May 3
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Present Final Projects.
ALL WORK (Web and Video Production Final) DUE
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ASSIGNMENTS
Ongoing Project: Your Web Presence. You’ll create a website that contains all your work for the course. The web presence will be a complete site in itself, and it will include links to all the projects you create for the class, plus a portfolio for future use. It may also be (optionally) written in the voice of a persona you create exclusively for this course.
Set up a Wordpress account, become familiar with the site templates, and change design elements (background, images, layout, and obviously, the verbal, visual, and embedded content) to make the site ‘your own’. You’ll need to be familiar with menus, inserting media, and the difference between posts and pages. You can use a site of your own design as long as it is ‘branded’ for this course, and has clear navigation (responsive design suggested).
You’ll need to also create ancillary sites using the page feature in FaceBook, and a shareable resource folder on Google Drives. For the sound portion of the course, you’ll create a SoundCloud account, and for your final video Machinima, you’ll need a Vimeo or YouTube account. All online accounts need only be the free version, and you may incorporate accounts you already use, ‘re-branded’ as pages for this course.
Your site is the only way I can tell if you’re doing the work for the course, so I need to see your site up and running by Jan 26. All your assignments should be linked, embedded, or posted on your site by May 3.
Assignment 1 – Web Reviews/Posts (4; worth 5% each, total 20%).
You will include on your site four posts that are essentially your responses (in the form of an essay with embedded media and hyperlinks) to the major key topics of the course.
Choose from these topics:
1) Multimedia Object as Database/Interface;
2) Experimental Text Traditions,
3) Experimental Visual/Image Traditions,
4) Experimental Sound Traditions;
5) Aesthetic Foundations of Digital Culture (Mo/PoMo/PoPoMo);
6) Illegal Arts;
7) Digital Commons/Open Source Initiatives;
8) Hybrid Aesthetics (Glitch, Remix, LoFi Art, etc.).
It’s suggested you wait until we’ve covered a particular topic in class before your create your response. You’ll benefit from additional discussion in class.
In these posts:
• Include one or more embedded videos from OffBook, Idea Channel, BigThink, TED Talks, UBU.com. These videos should be relevant to the topic and help address major components of the topic (see online web resources for links).
• Summarize what the topic is examining, and provide a context for it.
• Summarize your reaction or connection to the material—why you were moved or affected by it, why it meant something to you, or not.
• Include at least 3 additional live links that would help us further understand the topic. Try to find links that are very relevant to the topic, but try to discover new material that’s not already linked in the Course Resources. Material produced by PBS, NPR, or the BBC are usually good places to start.
• Include 15-20 really focused SEO (search-engine optimization) tags for the page (and tags need to be rather specific, for example “Lego Art” or “Call of Duty”, not “choice”, “influence”, “newer”, “interesting”, etc.). Remember, tags in Wordpress do not need the hash tag/ pound sign (#) before them. Also, in Wordpress, you can create functional tags only on posts, not pages.
• Your review/post should be between 400 – 500 words. Spelling, grammar, and effective writing are taken into account in your grading. It’s suggested you read your article out loud to a friend or roommate—this is probably the best way of catching errors!
Assignment 2 - Vocabulary/Process Exercises. These three in-class exercises are designed to help you expand your approach to visual imagery, text and sound (35% total grade for all three).
In the first exercise (Jan 26), you’ll create two stylized versions of an image based on displacement distortion, and learn how to create glitched visuals. These images can be used as a background images for your website.
In the second exercise (Feb 9), you'll be asked to generate a destabilized ("flarfed") text, which will be posted on your website, along with your thoughts on the process.
In the third exercise (Feb 16, 23), you'll create a soundsalad audio exploration, and learn how to manipulate it through audio editing. Then, you’ll create a time structure and cut the audio to that structure.
If you are absent for any of the in-class vocabulary exercise, YOU MUST get notes from your class buddy, and check in with your Professor during office hours within a week.
The Final Project: SpecTech/Future Culture comprises two interrelated parts: one is a web-based presentation documenting or providing some overview of your project, and presented to class, and the other is video media (machinima). Both of them require you to imagine a technology, or an aesthetic or societal tech-driven phenomenon that does not yet exist, but is conceivable given current developments and trajectories of technology, art, and culture. The project is fictive, speculative, and possibly subversive. Due May 3 (in-class presentation).
Part 1: Speculative Presentation (17.5%). In this first part of the Final Project, you will present your speculative idea as a multiple page, descriptive, informational presentation or proof-of-concept. You choose the persona who's presenting this—for instance, you might be the president of a company that invented this technology presenting to shareholders, or you're a salesperson pitching to a potential client, or maybe you're someone who's been profoundly affected by the technology (either good or bad), and you're telling your story to the world.
Part 2: Machinima Media Mashup (17.5 %). In the second part of the Final, you show us the impact of your technology on people (individually or collectively) through a 2 – 4 minute video machinima. You'll create dialogue, commentary and narrative with voice over, as 3D characters you find online will create the action. You don't need to literally show your technology (and DO NOT just duplicate the content of your presentation), just show how your tech or invention has impacted your characters. Upload to Vimeo, embed in your site.
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