Narrative Self: Weeks 1-3
This project will explore methods of observation as related to the self and the role of media in one’s life. We will begin by defining “media” and utilize observation followed by evaluation and a mapping exercise to better understand and visualize how media functions in each of our lives. Students will produce a media project by mining data from their personal phone including videos, photos, GPS positions, cookies, music lists, podcasts, and other mediated points of information and create a print based project with InDesign utilizing typography, infographics and imagery based on their media usage and findings.
Public Private: Weeks 4-8
For this project, students will produce a podcast or audio-scape piece that examines questions of “public” and “private” in today’s media landscape. Students will explore software including Audition and utilize the on-campus soundbooth to produce projects that examine the contexts of the global media community, privacy, surveillance and public spaces. For the project, students work with both sound and imagery investigating the nuances of public and private space personally, politically or globally.
Networks: 9-15
For this project students will examine the impact of authoring an online presence in the global community. Themes of personal identity and community will be explored and realized through a variety of web-based formats. Working in groups if desired, students will create a networked experience, which can be can be map-based, hyperlinked interactive story, a game, virtual reality, or an innovative social media initiative or works produced with new multimedia publishing platforms that we will cover in class. This session will introduce the depths of non-linear storytelling and allow students to create their own interactive experience relying on the theme of networks for the final project. A guest faculty workshop will explore VR coding using the software Unity. Students will visit the VR arcade to experience current trends in VR experiences.
Course Deliverables
- Students are required to participate (via reading, writing and commenting) on the class blog site, which will serve as the repository for critical insight and reflection on the themes in the course, the projects produced, and the readings assigned.
- Students are required to post process work and projects on the class blog site
- Students’ learning will be assessed through exercises and projects.
- Students are required to attend at least one of the extracurricular events suggested by their faculty throughout the semester and to reflect upon it in a critical manner via blog.
- It is highly recommended that students arrange a 20 min. individual meeting with the instructor during the course of the semester. Individual meetings are part of mid- semester evaluations, but those meetings are not necessarily that long.
Evaluation and Final Grade Calculation
Detail how the final grade will be calculated (in percentage or points). Assign percentages or points next to each Assessable Task, including active participation/attendance. Clear criteria should be used, specifying how you will know whether students achieved the learning outcomes. List key means of evaluation.
Active Participation / Attendance 40%
Narrative Self 10%
Private/Public Podcast 10%
Networks / Final Project 20%
Readings/ Assignments 20%
TOTAL 100%