Language, Text, Technology

Background

In today's rapid proliferation and diversification of information, it is important to explore the dynamic and porous relationship between language, text, and technology so to be better prepared to conceptualize, create, consume, and critique the remediated, remixed digital space of NOW, a space where language, text, and technology constantly morph and meld one into the other, figure and ground, human communication. Understanding these dynamics can help us analyze and interpret cultures, history, societies.

Course Structure

Course activities include lectures, discussions, collaborative workshops, individual and collaborative course projects, and presentations. We will read and discuss theoretical approaches and apply them to practice. The goal is to provide you a born digital sensibility and a keen focus on interdisciplinarity. We can articulate this philosophy through these Ten Guiding Principles.

Conceptual Framework

DTC 375 Language, Text, Technology explores language and text (aural, written, and visual) as prescribed pattern/symbol making systems for extending, sharing, and preserving human social, cultural, and historical information. Digital technologies can introduce new systems and patterns that modify the affordances of language and text. Language, texts, and technology are, therefore, systems of extension. They extend our abilities to conceptualize, create, communicate, and consume information in different forms over time and distance.

The overlay and interweaving of Language, Text, and Technology in mediated digital contexts offers a number of profound cultural and creative implications, especially in light of open access and social knowledge. It is important to understand the implications. Otherwise, we are at a disadvantage as creators and consumers of information. The following approach can help.

LEARN

How does technology destabilize our concepts of literary textuality, authorship, narrative, authenticity, and knowledge, among other aspects of literacy?

THINK

Does technology change the way we think of language use for reading and writing—"creating" and/or "consuming"—a text, even what constitutes a "text"?

BUILD

How does this knowledge influence how we create mediated artifacts that carry aesthetic, economic, literary, and social meanings?

Learning Goals

This course is aligned with my Personal Teaching Goals, several CMDC Program Learning Goals (NOTE: There will be a test in your Senior Seminar course about how you connected to each of these ten goals.), the CMDC Program Five Standards of Excellence, and several WSU Learning Goals.

Evaluations

Student Evaluations > Spring 2018

OVERALL

• John is a fantastic instructor.
• He is passionate about the program and is always interested in student discussion.
• This is a great course.

INSTRUCTOR STRENGTHS

John is excellent at making his students think differently, is passionate about this course, always open to questions and concerns, friendly, clear about deadline and objectives, enthusiastic about materials covered in course. I enjoy being in his class, a great professor.

INSTRUCTOR IMPROVEMENTS

• Make lectures more interactive between students.
• Fewer written assignments. More mini-projects tied into our Capstone Projects.
• Have quizzes over the readings.
• I can't think of one.

COURSE DID/DID NOT HELP YOU LEARN

• I felt that I could have learned course concepts better if more of the weekly assignments were project based, not just written.

STUDENT IMPROVEMENTS

• Studying the course readings more. I fell behind at times because they were not required.
• Spent more time with readings.
• Student study groups.

HALL OF FAME

John Barber is an amazing instructor. He has passion, compassion, and a radio voice.
— Spring 2018

Projects > Production and Submission Guidelines

WHAT?

Several projects are required for this course. These guidelines apply to all projects. Additional guidelines and requirements may apply, and will be noted with the assignment details.

SO WHAT?

• Effective use of language, text, and technology contributes significantly to your success. Computer literacy is not enough. You also need to speak and write well.
• These projects demonstrate your developing knowledge, and your ability to produce effective communication. Impress me with your thinking.
• Projects may be useful for your writing portfolio, and/or Senior Seminar portfolio. Save them.

GUIDELINES

• Follow the directions for each project. Not following directions = point loss.
• Submit projects as and when required. Emailed or late projects not accepted.
• DO NOT attempt to print your project using the classroom printer. It may jam, preventing you from achieving success. Print before you come to class.
• Use standard/default margins. This is layout.
• Use 11 point font, sans-serif preferred, and 1.5 line spacing. This is typography.
• Use correct MLA citations for all works cited. Citation Machine may be helpful.
• Use a dictionary and spellchecker. Points deducted for wrong, incorrect, and misspelled words. This is professionalism.
• Use a conceptual framework to organize and best present your thoughts and ideas. This is effective writing. LEARN more.
• Use the Writing Center for resources and refining your writing. This is smart.
• Edit your writing. Strive for concise, accurate, compelling communication. This is hard work, but worth the effort.
• Submit only your best work. Exemplary students will do more. Be exemplary.
• Include your name and Project # on papers you submit. Many people forget.

Challenge

Conceive, create, and communicate a substantial multimedia artifact that demonstrates the depth of your learning about the interplay between language, text, technology and how they extend our abilities to conceptualize, create, communicate, and consume information in different forms, through different media, over time and distance.

Time Remaining

See course Basecamp for more information.

Background

Throughout the semester, we will explore a number of topics associated with LANGUAGE+TEXT+TECHNOLOGY. One of these topics may spark your interest. This topic may connect with others. These connections provide opportunities for learning. The purpose of the Capstone Project is to demonstrate your learning in this course. See course Basecamp for more information.

Example Capstone Projects

See course Basecamp workspace for examples from Spring 2019, Fall 2018, and Spring 2018 classes.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes.
◊ Get information about grades, texts, etc.
◊ Start Project #1.

Overview

The course begins. Introductions. Interface. Foundations. This week's focus on Medium and Message anticipates patron saint Marshall McLuhan. This week's project is "Medium and Message of a Book."

Tuesday, 19 January > Introduction and Overview

Dr. John Barber introduces his section of DTC 356 Information Structures, discusses course considerations, provides a course structure, and explains his efforts to promote transparency around grading and grades. Module and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Thursday, 21 January > Medium Is the Massage (and message)

Dr. John and The Answer Man defines terms used in this course. Dr. John reviews Marshall McLuhan's book, The Medium Is the Massage: The extensions of Man. Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Resources > Week #1

See course Basecamp.

Project #1 > Medium and Message of a Book

CHALLENGE

Respond to several questions about the nature of "books." Answer these questions as informed by your understanding of The Medium Is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore. Use quotes and citations from the book to support your answers. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes
◊ Submit Project #1.
◊ Start Project #2.

Overview

This week's focus is Language, Text, Technology Spaces. The Medium Is the Massage. Real, or a typographical mistake? McLuhan says media, with their different interfaces, create spaces as contexts for language, text, and technology. This week's project is "Considering Spaces."

Tuesday, 26 January > Medium(s) + Me(a)ssage = Interplay

Following a review of The Medium Is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan, Dr. John asks participants to discuss features and affordances and potentialities of traditional digital books. Modues and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Thursday, 28 January > Language, Text, Technology Spaces

Dr. John discusses Marshall McLuhan's concept of media spaces as places for interplay between language, texts, and technology. He discusses McLuhan's Understanding Media. Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Resources > Week #2

See course Basecamp.

Project #2 > Considering Spaces

CHALLENGE

Respond to several questions about Marshall McLuhan's notions of space. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes.
◊ Submit Project #2.
◊ Start Project #3.

Overview

This week's focus is Acoustic (sound) Space. Watch and Listen. This week's project is "Lost Sounds of a Day in Your Life."

Tuesday, 2 February > Acoustic Space

Dr. John shares a video and a module. Both consider how technology has changed, and continues to change, the way we communicate. He asks us to consider that acoustic space (sound space) surrounded pre-literate humans, who had only abstract thought to make sense of what they heard. We can never know acoustic space, as it predates SPEECH, LANGUAGE, WRITING, etc., and we are too deeply connected to each, but we can imagine it through soundscapes, and transects. Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Thursday, 4 February > Sound Space and Place

Dr. John introduces Berlin—Symphony of a Great City and encourages you to consider how this pioneering silent movie promotes the idea and experience of sound narrative(s). LEARN more at course Basecamp. Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Resources > Week #3

See course Basecamp.

Project #3 > Lost Sounds of a Day in Your Life

CHALLENGE

Identify the sounds you hear throughout a day in your life. Unless recorded, or remembered in some way, they are lost. What to think about these sounds? LEARN more at course Basecamp.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes.
◊ Submit Project #3.
◊ Start Project #4.

Overview

This week's focus is Speech Space. Orality, primary orality, before the advent of writing. Speech as a technology. But, orality requires the technology of writing, a structured approach to vocalizing abstract thought. This week's project is "The Power of Speech."

Tuesday, 9 February > Orality and Speech Space

Dr. John welcomes Walter Ong, American Jesuit priest, professor of English literature, cultural and religious historian and philosopher, who talks about oral languages and cultures from his book Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. Prompts are provided from which to prepare responses for the next class. The first of multiple episodes with Ong. Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Thursday, 11 February > Designed Language

Dr. John welcomes Roman Mars, producer of the popular podcast 99% Invisible. Mars talks about "Designed Language" as a way to foster international understanding and peace." Also, fun module and in class activity. Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Resources > Week #4

See course Basecamp.

Project #4 > The Power of Speech

CHALLENGE

Respond to language as used by others to convey a message. This project offers two options. Choose one. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes
◊ Submit Project #4.
◊ Start Project #5.

Overview

This week's focus is Revolution #1: Writing Space. Writing portrays the sound of speech, graphically. Does writing restructure consciousness? This week's project is "Writing for the Future."

Tuesday, 16 February > Writing Preserves Speech. Reading Returns Speech

Dr. John welcomes Walter Ong who talks about how writing restructures consciousness and promotes disembodiment where the voice travels separately from the body of the speaker. McLuhan's ideas about Writing Space are reviewed, along with speech and writing. "Writing is graphical, says Barber, not aural. Writing portrays the sound of speech." Writing is explored as preserving speech. This week's project is "Writing for the Future." Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Thursday, 18 February > Writing Changes Us

Dr. John reviews connections between writing and reading, introduces an easily remembered approach to effective writing, and leads a class discussion of Ong's contention that writing restructures consciousness. Plan to participate with responses to these questions . . .

• What are your reactions to Ong's notion that WRITING restructures CONSCIOUSNESS?
• Does writing make us different from those who do not write?
• Why is writing so important?
• Why is writing a requirement of our time and CULTURE?

LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Resources > Week #5

See course Basecamp. Close

Project #5 > Writing for the Future

CHALLENGE

What message would you leave for the future, and what medium would you use for your message to assure its survival into the future? LEARN more at course Basecamp.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes
◊ Submit Project #5.
◊ Start Project #6.

Overview

This week's focus is Speech vs. Writing Space. Writing overshadows orality. An uneasy coexistence is established, but centuries later, the struggle between print and digital, new media, evokes similar societal and cultural impacts. This week's project is "Into the Electronic Millennium."

Tuesday, 23 February > Speaking-Writing (then)

Dr. John welcomes special guest Plato, author of Phaedrus, which is perhaps the earliest criticism of writing. Phaedrus details a debate between Socrates, ancient Greek philosoper-teacher and student Phaedrus in which Socrates argues that writing is inferior to memory because it cannot be questioned or probed, as can be a speaker, and so offers "the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom." Socrates taught Plato, 360 BCE, and Plato perhaps draws on that experience to write this dialogue/debate. What is interesting, if Plato is indeed against the technology of writing, is that he uses it to make his arguement. What is going on? Two contemporary scholars debate the real meaning of Phaedrus. Wow! Lots to think about in this episode. Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Thursday, 25 February > UNIVERSITY HOLIDAY. NO CLASS!

Speaking-Writing (now) . . . Explore the basis of the split between print and electronic writing as Dr. John welcomes international media artist Mark Amerika who says, "Writing is still the ultimate information behavior, we're just recontextualizing it for the mobile media culture." Next, Sven Birkerts, author of The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age criticizes these changes. Birkerts, a bookworm, says just as writing replaced orality, and printing type revolutionized writing, the societal effects of our transition to ELECTRONIC MEDIA will be disruptive. Watch out for, he says, language erosion, a flattening of historial perspectives, and the waning of the private self. Birkerts says that in our haste to embrace electronic/digital culture, we are sacrificing our LITERARY CULTURE and setting up a negative impact on society and reading. Andrew Rhode mirrors Birkerts' concerns when he writes, "Although many SOURCES ONLINE are factual statements, there are also many cites [sic] that can be mistaken for the truth." Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Resources > Week #6

See course Basecamp.

Project #6 > Into the Electronic Millennium

CHALLENGE

Defend AND refute Sven Birkerts' contention that our embrace of electronic media will bring about three changes: language erosion, a flattening of historical perspective, and the waning of the private self. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes
◊ Submit Project #6.
◊ Start Project #7.

Overview

This week's focus is Revolution #2 and #3: Moveable Type and Printing Space. The technology of printing mass duplicates writing, and preserves speech beyond the range of spoken voice. But "preserving" signifies unchanging, static. Could this be a problem? This week's project is "Typography: Making Printed Text Look Good."

Tuesday, 2 March > Electronic Millennium and Millennials: What do you think?

After describing McLuhan's "print space" and its evolution into computer-based writing and publishing of books, Dr. John welcomes again Sven Birkets, author of The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age (Winchester, MA, 1995), who talks about his essay "Into the Electroni Millenium." A discussion of your responses to Birkerts should be lively. Modules and more available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Thursday, 4 March > Printing Space

Dr. John introduces printing as a technology for preserving and/or mass duplicating writing, as well as preserving and communicating speech beyond the range of the spoken voice. He explores the history of the printing press and the evolution of printing, including the practice of printing images of trophy fish. Lots of resources about typography are provided. Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Resources > Week #7

See course Basecamp.

Project #7 > Typography: Making Printed Text Look Good

CHALLENGE

Explore the interplay between speech and writing by showcasing the final paragraph of the "I Have A Dream" speech by Dr. Martin Luther King using typography. Demonstrate your understanding of how typography can reinforce written communication. Demonstrate your understanding of "the medium is the message." LEARN more at course Basecamp.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes
◊ Submit Project #7.
◊ Start Project #8.

Overview

This week's focus is Visual Space, Culture, Language, Text. Visual space is contested space. It is what you see, as well as what you want others to see. It is what others want you to see. How to understand and navigate this space? This week's project is "Creating Comics-Juxtaposing Text and Images."

Tuesday, 9 March > Visual Space

Dr. John introduces visual space as contested space. Not only is it what you see, but what others want you to see. What does that mean? Daniel Chandler introduces "Signs" as a way of visualy signalling information. John Berger situates seeing and images, and our relation with both. Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Thursday, 11 March > Comics and Graphic Novels as Visual Culture

Dr. John welcomes Scott McCloud who introduces comics using comics to explain the inner workings of this medium closely associated with visual communication and visual culture. Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Resources > Week #8

See course Basecamp.

Project #8 > Creating Comics-Juxtaposing Text and Images

CHALLENGE

Consider how the arrangement and display of text and images influences viewers' interactions and responses. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes
◊ Submit Project #8.
◊ Start Project #9.

Overview

Electronic Space > Radio, Television, Music Video. Radio. A return of speech, orality. Radio drama and its constituent parts: text, speech, and sound (+music+silence+imagination). The content of any new medium is always another medium.

Tuesday, 16 March > Radio

Dr. John introduces radio as a unique overlay and/or interplay of language, text, and technology. Radio can transport us to separate realities, include us in the action, and return us safely. All this, and more, through acousmatic listening, or listening to sounds the sources of which are unseen. Explore these sonic adventures of a golden yesteryear and learn how they relate to your high school math class friend, Pythagoras, in this episode of Language, Texts, and Technology: Systems for information extension. Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Thursday, 18 March > Television > Music Videos

Dr. John introduces music videos as a medium that counts radio and television as its content. He says music videos are unique, and powerful, in their ability to visualize things we normally do not (can not) see, like music and song. Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Resources > Week #9

See course Basecamp.

Project #9 > Your Week As a Music Video

CHALLENGE

Create a storyboard that, when produced as a music video, will portray a day in your life. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes
◊ Submit Project #9.
◊ Start Project #10.

Overview

Western culture has experienced four information revolutions. The first was the invention of writing (4000 BC). The second was the invention of moveable type (10th century China; 15th century Europe). The third was the invention of mass printing (18th century). The fourth was the introduction of the Mosaic web browser (April 1993). Each of these revolutions was a moment of change. Its arrival was untimely, unsettling. Each prompted examination of many aspects of culture.

This week we will consider the history of computer technology. This history seems to have always been present, but is actually rather recent and seems to indicate many changes for writing, language, and the message/massage. For example, the digital space created by digital technologies makes it easier for human languages to circulate, coexist, interact, and mix in a fluid and flexible fashion. Linguistic borders are not removed, but they have shifted and become more porous.

As result, language is never alone. Of necessity, digital texts are composed in at least two "languages" and exist by means of perpetual back-and-forth processes of translation between them: a "so-called natural language, which is addressed to humans [ . . .]; and computer codes, which (although readable by some humans) can be executed only by intelligent machines" (N. Catherine Hayles 2006). Hayles goes on to argue that "in our computationally intensive culture, code is the unconscious of language."

How can we be with languages in their plurality, rather than just in-between them, lost in translation? Digital arts and literature have explored the potential of programmable media to play with and perform linguistic complexity and fluidity both across human languages and between human and machine languages. Everyday users are no less inventive and adventurous in their practices, as they acquire linguistic fragments from the flux, integrate them into their interactions, and create their own hybrid modes of expression.

Tuesday, 23 March > Computer Space

Dr. John introduces some early examples of technology that could be seen as having influenced the rise of computers. Examples include the Jacquard programmable weaving loom and Charles Babbage's Difference Engine #2. Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Thursday, 25 March > Digital Space

Dr. John introduces computer technology as providing new ways to make, access, and manipulate information. Computer technology, as it becomes digital, increasing provides a framework for the development of what Lev Manovich calls "new media." Modules and more are available. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Resources > Week #10

See course Basecamp.

Project #10 > Framing New Media

CHALLENGE

Discuss TECHNOLOGY, and its interface with LANGUAGE and TEXT, as ART. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

To Do This Week

Overview

The unease reflected throughout culture as we move from reading printed texts to reading pixels illuminated on screens.

Tuesday, 30 March > New Media > Framework

Dr. John introduces Man with a Movie Camera, a 1929 experimental SILENT movie by Russian director Dziga Vertov. Lev Manovich refers to Vertov in the prologue of this book The Language of New Media and then goes on to develop his ideas about New Media in Chapter 1. These ideas introduce Digital Media Space. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Thursday, 1 April > New Media > Print-Pixels

Dr. John talks about the shift from print to pixel driven by emerging forms of new media. He introduces two examples of electronic literature, works created and meant to be consumed using computer technologies. Robert Coover asks if this is "the end of books." Theodor H. Nelson introduces his seminal text Literary Machines, which follows directly from "As We May Think," and essay by Vannever Bush. And, the disappearing poem Agrippa is emulated for all to see. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Resources > Week #11

See course Basecamp.

Project #11 > New Media Space > Conceptual Framework

CHALLENGE

Connect The Medium Is the Massage, Man with a Movie Camera, and Lev Manovich's discussion of NEW MEDIA in Language of New Media to develop a conceptual framework of your capstone project. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes
◊ Submit Project #11.
◊ Start Project #12.

Overview

Remediation appropriates content from one medium to another. Remix turns consumers to producers.

Tuesday, 6 April > Remediation Space

Dr. John talks about REMEDIATION, using Star Wars as an example. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Thursday, 8 April > Remix, Sampling, and/or Appropriation Space

Dr. John talks about remix, sampling, and appropriation. Lots of examples, with a heavy emphasis on copyright, and left. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Resources > Week #12

See course Basecamp.

Project #12 > So What about Remediation?

CHALLENGE

Create and document a multimedia artifact that demonstrates your thinking and practice associated with remediation AS IT APPLIES TO YOUR CAPSTONE PROJECT. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes.
◊ Submit Project #12.
◊ Start Project #13.

Overview

In the future, transmedia (convergent media), augmented reality, and virtual reality will converge, combine, and create something new with language, text, and technology.

Tuesday, 13 April > Future Spaces

Dr. John introduces a new media space, TRANSMEDIA, composed of multiple media forms, products of converging TECHNOLOGIES and cultures, all recombined to create something new = CONVERGENT, or TRANSMEDIA. This gives rise to a NEW MEDIA landscape where media consumers become producers and challenge dominant media images that have been constructed for their lives.

Thursday, 15 April > Augmented Reality Space

Dr. John shares several examples of augmented reality and how it might be used for education, entertainment, and various campaigns.

Resources > Week #13

See course Basecamp.

Project #13 > Capstone Project

CHALLENGE

Expand and develop your thinking about your capstone project by incorporating multimodality. Discuss your efforts. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Course Evaluation

CHALLENGE

Say something about your course experience. If you have not done so already, please complete the online evaluation for this course. You should have received information about this some time ago, and I have reminded you several times. Please do this. The future of the known universe depends on your evaluation.

To Do This Week

◊ *** Reading Week. No classes this week! ***

Overview

Reading Week. No classes this week!

Tuesday, 20 April > Reading Week

*** Reading Week. No classes this week! ***

Thursday, 22 April > Reading Week

*** Reading Week. No classes this week! ***

Resources > Week #14

See course Basecamp

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes.
◊ Submit Project #13. ◊ Prepare Capstone Project.

Overview > Effective Presentations

Tuesday, 27 April > Finishing the Course

Dr. John offers opportunities to talk about your course standing and preparations for your capstone projects. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Thursday, 29 April > Finishing the Course

Dr. John offers opportunities to talk about your course standing and preparations for your capstone projects. LEARN more at course Basecamp.

Resources > Week #15

See course Basecamp.

Course Evaluation

CHALLENGE

Say something about your course experience. If you have not done so already, please complete the online evaluation for this course. You should have received information about this some time ago, and I have reminded you several times. Please do this. The future of the known universe depends on your evaluation.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes.
◊ Show and Tell Capstone Projects.

Overview

Show and Tell Capstone Projects.

Tuesday, 4 May > Capstone Project Presentations

Be prepared to discuss your Capstone Project.

Thursday, 6 May > Capstone Project Presentations

Be prepared to discuss your Capstone Project.

Course Evaluation

CHALLENGE

Say something about your course experience. If you have not done so already, please complete the online evaluation for this course. You should have received information about this some time ago, and I have reminded you several times. Please do this. The future of the known universe depends on your evaluation.

To Do This Week

◊ No class.
◊ Comurse completed.

Overview

*** time to be added when known ***
This date and time reserved in case needed for presentations. But, there is no final exam planned for this course.

Resources > Week #17

WATCH

Strong Bad. Exempt those exams! (Web article)