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Jan 21. The three tutorials for Vocabulary Expansion (image, text, and sound). 

Jan 17. Some interesting links:

•  GML- the Graffiti Markup Language.

•  An open-source DIY 3D Laserprinter, developed by a former student of mine! (also an article in Forbes).

•  Open call for video artists—ATN looking for videos like this—Feb. 9 performance (see me), and for artists of many stripes for Valentine's Day (application here).

Housekeeping:

•  Lab Hours

Jan 15:

I've cleaned up the Wiki a little more, so it should be easier to navigate around the material. Also, the tutorials are getting a make-over, so your patience please!

Jan 11:

For Wednesday: Read the Manovich article, and be prepared to discuss several examples (Whitney, Eminem, Hoggebrugge, etc., under 'DATABASE DESIGN')

• here's your nav bar 

• here's a zipped up version of the site_root you should have built in class: day1_site_root.zip .

• and here are some tutorials to help get you up to speed (some use an earlier version of Dreamweaver, so it might look slightly different): Your Site Root (previously, Building a site root), and Making Links with Image Maps (and don't freak out about the code, we will go over this in class).

• SOPA video 

Welcome to VIC4943 - Multimedia Practicum

The objective of this course is to make disciplined, imaginative and expressive connections between the historical, critical, and technical aspects of digital media and culture.

This is a capstone course. As the pinnacle or culminating course in your undergraduate career, I would like you to be able to articulate your view of digital culture through the role or roles in which you participate in this culture (creator/producer, audience/consumer, gamer, commenter, part of a smart mob or Mechanical Turk, hacker, etc.), or specific aspects of the culture which you are interested in critically investigating, and with which you find particularly resonance. This articulation will be expressed as:

• A web presence that contains all your work for the course. The web presence will include your own hosted home page with links to your blog, your essay (in its text form and as an embedded video of the part of the voice-over film you made). It may be further written in the voice of a persona you create exclusively for this course. (IDENTITY)

• A set of three (3) reviews of media objects, most of which can be found on www.ubu.com or will be shown in class. Many of these works are still challenging to contemporary perceptions and sensibilities (HISTORY).

• Three in-class exercises expanding your text, sound, and visual vocabularies using digital technologies (VOCABULARIES, PROCESSES)

 • A Final project made up of two parts: 1) A web-based PRESENTATION/essay that imagines a possible aspect of future digital culture (SPECULATION) plus, 2) a re-imagination (The MASH-UP)  of the essay in the form of a dialog or narrative that can be grafted, as voice-over or soundtrack, onto a 3-4 minute machinima from a number of online resources (SUBVERSION).

Applications: While we will integrate theory and practice in this course, we will be using Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Audacity and Final Cut Pro to do the work. 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.

Helpful Material For First Few Classes

The Lab - Not Used to a Mac - what do I do? and also these videos

Extremely Basic HTML Overview

Review: Making the Site Root

Tutorial for Background Images and Navigation Bar

A Background for Exploring Experimental Media in this Course

My Little Multimedia Chart (Flash-based, does not work on iPad, iPhone)

Projeck Iaght - What's the 'idea' behind this short film?

* * * * * *

TECHNICAL CHALLENGES (Technique and Design Self-Assessment—how you say it)

Which have you already mastered? Which open the door to further subversions/explorations?

• Create Your Blog 

• Design Your HTML Site and Host it

• Using Photoshop and Illustrator to Design Background and Navigation Elements

• Using Digital Tools to Explore Text and Sound Vocabularies

• Repurposing (populating/adapting) Dreamweaver widgets for presentations, slideshows, and navigation.

• Scripting and Creating the Media Mashup (Final Cut Pro, iMovie, etc.)