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. See "Project #1" menu tab.

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, 25 August > 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.

Thursday, 27 August > 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.

Resources > Week #1

LEARN more at 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. Tuesday, beginning of class.
◊ Start Project #2. See "Project #2" menu tab.

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, 1 September > 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.

Thursday, 3 September > 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.

Resources > Week #2

LEARN more at 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. Tuesday, beginning of class.
◊ Start Project #3. See "Project #3" menu tab.

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, 8 September > 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.

Thursday, 10 September > 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.

Resources > Week #3

LEARN more at 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. Tuesday, beginning of class.
◊ Start Project #4. See "Project #4" menu tab.

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, 15 September > 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.

Thursday, 17 September > 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.

Resources > Week #4

LEARN more at 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. Tuesday, beginning of class.
◊ Start Project #5. See "Project #5" menu tab.

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, 22 September > 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.

Thursday, 24 September > 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?

Resources > Week #5

LEARN more at 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. Tuesday, beginning of class.
◊ Start Project #6. See "Project #6" menu tab.

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, 29 September > 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.

Thursday, 1 October > 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.

Resources > Week #6

LEARN more about 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. Tuesday, beginning of class.
◊ Start Project #7. See "Project #7" menu tab.

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, 6 October > 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.

Thursday, 8 October > 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.

Resources > Week #7

Learn more at 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. Tuesday, beginning of class.
◊ Start Project #8. See "Project #8" menu tab.

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, 13 October > 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.

Thursday, 15 October > 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.

Resources > Week #8

See course Basecamp for more information.

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. Tuesday, beginning of class.
◊ Start Project #9. See "Project #9" menu tab.

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, 20 October > 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.

Thursday, 22 October > 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.

Resources > Week #9

LEARN more at 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. Tuesday, beginning of class.
◊ Start Project #10. See "Project #10" menu tab.

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, 27 October > 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.

Thursday, 29 October > 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.

Resources > Week #10

LEARN more at 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, 3 November > 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.

Thursday, 5 November > 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.

Resources > Week #11

LEARN more at 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. Tuesday, beginning of class.
◊ Start Project #12. See "Project #12" menu tab.

Overview

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

Tuesday, 10 November > Remediation Space

SUBMIT

Project #11 > New Media Space > Conceptual Framework due at the beginning of class.

CONSIDER

REMEDIATION is the appropriation of CONTENT from one MEDIUM to another. Remediation is a defining characteristic of new DIGITAL MEDIA because digital media is constantly remediating its predecessors (television, RADIO, PRINT journalism and other forms of old MEDIA. —Bolter and Grusin

The CONTENT of any MEDIUM is always another medium. —Marshall McLuhan

The medium is the massage (MESSAGE). —Marshall McLuhan

When you cut into the present, the future leaks out. —William S. Burroughs

PREPARE

Complex Net Art Diagram by Rick Silva (Web article)
A diagramtic representation of the complex and abstract thought processes involved in creating a sample, mashup, and/or REMIX. Try this at home, without adult supervision.

Media Theory for the Average Penguin by Caitlin Elizabeth Mullen (Web article)
A comic and concise examination of media theory.

"Remediation" by David Bolter and Richard Grusin (PDF)
Pages 44-50 of Chapter 1, "Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation" in Remediation.

Star ASCIImation Wars (Web video, captions provided)
An ASCII animation of the Star Wars episode IV "A New Hope" movie. ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) art is a practice of graphic DESIGN using 128 encoded CHARACTERS common to most computer keyboards LETTERS, numbers, punctuation, and some special characters) to create IMAGES. The practice dates to 1967 when typewriters were used to create visual art. ASCII art was born because early printers often lacked graphics abilities and so characters were used instead of graphic marks. Today there are several varieties of ASCII art, and methods for producing them.

Silent Star Wars by Geir Bjerke (YouTube video, 1:15, music, no captions)
Star Wars sampler remediated as a silent movie.

Module 12.1 Remediation (PDF; Available course Basecamp)

Module 12.2 Appropriation (PDF; Available course Basecamp)

Thursday, 12 November > Remix, Sampling, and/or Appropriation Space

CONSIDER

REMIX: When consumers become producers, the creative process is more important than the product. We're remixing culture. —Brett Gaylor

PREPAE

Theft! A History of Music (PDF; Available course Basecamp)
A graphic novel laying out a 2000-year long history of musical borrowing from Plato to rap. Available as a handsome paperback, or a free download. Either way, enjoy and learn. Listen to the "Audio Companion." NOTE: Textual information is available for this resource. Follow the URL above.

Girl Talk Creates a Mashup by Brett Gaylor (YouTube video, 3:27, captions available)
A SAMPLE from Gaylor's film, RIP! A Remix Manifesto (2009). See "Week 12: Resources" menu tab.

Girl Talk on the Process of Remixing Culture by Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen, Henrik Moltke (YouTube video, 8:18, captions available)
Girl Talk (aka Gregg Michael Gillis), a musician who uses his COMPUTER as an instrument, talks about the problems associated with REMIXING culture. YouTube video.

Walt Disney's Taxi Driver (Vimeo video, 4:31, no captions)
or,
Walt Disney's Taxi Driver by Bryan Boyce
(Amara video, 4:31, captioned)
This reimagining of Martin Scorsese's classic film Taxi Driver follows Mickey Mouse-obsessed Travis Bickle as he looks for love in a rapidly transforming New York City. A FAIR USE parody by Boyce.

Creativity Endures: The "Amen Break" and Copyright Law by Kristen Bialik (Web article)
A 6-second drum solo with its own Wikipedia page? Yes, and here is the story.

Six seconds that shaped 1,500 songsby Ellen Otzin (Web article)
Barely noticed at the time, this drum solo has been hugely influential, appearing in different forms in more than 1,500 other songs, but the band behind it never made any money from it.

Copyright, Creative Commons, and Fair Use
See the separate resource for Copyright, and Left (Webpage).

Amen Break
Amen Break (Podcast, 25:25)
The history of what might be the most sampled piece of music ever. An episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz, a podcast about the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds. NOTE: Textual information is available for this episode. Follow the URL above.

Sampling
Raiding the 20th Century by DJ Food (aka Paul Morley) (Sound file, 59:00)
An incredible attempt to catalog the history of CUT-UP music and popular culture using avant garde tape manipulation, turntable megamixes, and pop MASH UPS. Five parts, each about time. Put your headphones on and listen. No doubt you will recognize many samples. NOTE: Textual information is available for this episode. Follow the URL above.

Module 12.3 DJ Culture and Remix (PDF; Available course Basecamp)

Module 12.4 Copyright/Fair Use (PDF; Available course Basecamp)

Resources > Week #12

WATCH

RiP! A Remix Manifesto by Brett Gaylor (Vimeo video, 1:27:20, no captions)
Filmmaker Gaylor and musician Girl Talk (aka Greg Gillis) explore the struggle between COPYRIGHT and COPYLEFT to control the future. Culture builds upon culture. Historically, the past has sought to control the future through copyright. In the information age of the future, copyleft seeks to control the past by mashing up the present media landscape and shattering the wall between users and producers. The spot light of this struggle shines on music. This documentary film repositions popular music as an edgy dialogue between artists from all genres and eras. The REMIX manifesto seeks to lay out the canvas for future work in spite of CONTENT providers (copyright holders) seeking to position their creative practices as illegal. Also available at YouTube (no captions)

Laws that Choke Creativity by Lawrence Lessig (TED video, 18:56, captions and transcript available)
A TED talk to make you think.

A Fair(y) Use Tale (NOT a Disney Movie) by Eric Faden (YouTube video, 10:13, captions available)
Bucknell professor Faden cuts together words and scenes from various Disney animated films to present a funny and articulate lesson on COPYRIGHT: what it is and how it works. In the process, he demonstrates FAIR USE, using content from one of the strongest corporate voices for even more restrictive copyright laws.

Cut-Ups William Burroughs (YouTube video, 3:30, captions available)
or,
Cut-Ups William Burroughs by Quedear
(Amara video, 3:30, captioned)
William S. Burroughs credits artist Brion Gysin with creating and first using the "CUT UP TECHNIQUE" for PRINT text. Later, Gysin moved to audio tape. Burroughs followed and used Gysin's technique in his own work. This video illustrates, Burroughs' explanation of the origin and use and theory of cut-ups. The recording of Burroughs was sampled from a 1.5 hour lecture he delivered at Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado, in which he touched on paranormal phenomena, magic, synchronicity, precognition, dreams, and the CUT-UP method of WRITING.
Try it for yourself using the Cut Up Machine. Enter some text. Click the "cut it up" button. Be amazed.

William Burroughs — The Cut-Ups/Nova Express by Roddy Melville (YouTube video, 3:14, captions available)
William Burroughs and Brion Gysin talk about the CUT-UP method. Burroughs reads from his cut-up novel, Nova Express. This is a segment from the 1983 BBC Arena documentary about William Burroughs.

The Cut-Ups by BootsyGetLive (YouTube video, 1:58, non-English captions available)
An excerpt from a longer work by Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs demonstrating the CUT-UP technique pioneered by Gysin.

Cut Up Cut-Ups of Gysin and Burroughs (YouTube video, 8:02, captions availble)
or,
Cut Up Cut-Ups of Gysin and Burroughs by Steve Myers (Amara video, 8:02, captioned)
Brion Gysin is credited with first developing and using the CUT UP technique for the creative presentation of text and/or images.

READ

"The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagerism" by James Lethem (PDF)
From the February 2007 issue of Harper's Magazine.

CREATE

In B flat
Make your own music MASHUP with these provided sound and video files.

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. Tuesday, beginning of class.
◊ Start Project #13. See "Project #13" menu tab.

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, 17 November > Future Spaces

Transmedia

SUBMIT

Project #12 > So What about Remediation? due at beginning of (Thursday) class.

CONSIDER

Music has always been a media where language, text, and technology converge, or combine to create something new. Surely you have a favorite example, but consider Astral Weeks, by Van Morrison. Neither the music nor the singing are about language. Any literal meanings of words begins to be irrelevant as Morrison's singing crosses the boundary an becomes more like verbal saxophone solos, or living organisms of expression. Record critics agree, voting this one of the Top 25 record albums of all time. Learn more.

Multiple media forms, products of converging TECHNOLOGIES and cultures, give rise to a NEW MEDIA landscape where media consumers become producers and challenge dominant media images that have been constructed for their lives, all recombined to create something new = CONVERGENT, or TRANSMEDIA.

PREPARE

Convergence? I Diverge by Henry Jenkins (PDF)
Jenkins argues that rather than converging into one black box, MEDIA will continue to proliferate through multiple channels and ubiquitous connection. As a result, "We will develop new skills for managing information, new structures for transmitting information across channels, and new creative genres that exploit the potentials of those emerging information structures."

Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek by John Branch (Web article)
This article for the New York Times utilizes MULTIMEDIA in such a way to set the standard for all future reporting and/or expository WRITING.

Transmedia Messionaris: Henry Jenkins (YouTube video, 5:55, captions available)
Transmedia Messionaris: Henry Jenkins by Henry Jenkins (Amara video, 5:55, captions available)
Jenkins describes TRANSMEDIA storytelling as "a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each MEDIUM makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story."

"Convergence Culture Slideshow" by Henry Jenkins (video, no captions)
Jenkins describes convergence culture as the merging of traditional and new media. He describes five processes that comprise convergence culture. Read the discussion under the slide show for even more insight into this new and exciting opportunity for creativity across MULTIPLE MEDIA.

Module 13.1 Convergence and Transmedia (PDF; Available course Basecamp)

Thursday, 19 November > Augmented Reality Space

PREPARE

Street Museum (YouTube video, 2:09, captions available)
A BBC London television report on the Streetmuseum iPhone app, with demonstrations.

Streetmuseum by Jack Kerruish (YouTube video, 1:50, annotated)
Demonstration of the London Museum Streetmuseum iPhone app.

Live AUGMENTED REALITY—National Geographic (YouTube video, 3:00, captions available)
Demonstration of augmented reality in a shopping mall!

Augmented Reality Storytelling: How It Will Change the Way We Play Forever (YouTube video, 13:28, captions available)
or,
Augmented Reality Storytelling: How It Will Change the Way We Play Forever by Devon Lyon (Amara video, 13:28, captioned)
A TED Talk. Storytelling combined with interactive media can be the beginning of a revolution in creative CONTENT creation as well as consumption according to filmmaker Devon Lyon.

The Best Augmented Reality Campaigns by catchoom (YouTube video, 2:00, annotated)
This is the future. Advertising campaigns that use augmented reality to create engaging marketing experiences.

Resources > Week #13

Transmedia

This is transmedia (Website)
Website maintained by film maker and author Mike Vogel.

Transmedia Resources (Website)
A collection of multiple resources associated with transmedia. Worth the time spent browsing.

Computers, Computing

A History of Modern Computing by Paul Cerruzi (PDF)

True Names by Vernor Vinge (PDF)
More than forty years before William Gibson coined the term "cyberspace" in his story "Burning Chrome," Vinge developed the idea, and filled it with LANGUAGE, TEXTS, and TECHNOLOGY.

The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster (PDF)
Available in Basecamp course project.

Program or Be Programmed by Douglas Rushkoff (PDF)
A small book (ten short chapters) with a big message: Do we direct TECHNOLOGY, or do we let ourselves be directed by it and those who have mastered it? "Choose the former," writes Rushkoff, "and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make." Rushkoff picks up where Marshall McLuhan left off, helping readers come to recognize PROGRAMMING as the new LITERACY of the digital age-and as a template through which to see beyond social conventions and power structures that have vexed us for centuries.
Alternate sources
Program or Be Programmed (PDF)
Scribd website. Read online or download with an account registration.
Program or Be Programmed (Website)
"Borrow" this book from Internet Archive.

The Hacker Ethic by Grzegorz Adam Hankiewicz (Web article)
A personal statement about the value of "hacking" and how learning to program computers can change your life for the better.

Project #13 > Multimodality Space

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

◊ Submit Project #13. Tuesday, beginning of class. ◊ *** Fall Break. No classes this week! ***

Overview

Fall Break. No classes this week!

Tuesday, 24 November > Thanksgiving Break

*** Fall Break. No classes this week! ***

Thursday, 26 November > Thanksgiving Break

*** Fall Break. No classes this week! ***

Resources > Week #14

Resources to jumpstart your thinking.

To Do This Week

◊ Attend classes.
◊ Prepare for final presentations.

Overview > Effective Presentations

WHAT?

Effective presentations provide interfaces to your thinking, problem solving, and creative practices. Being at least comfortable, and at best, skilled, in preparing and delivering presentations will be valuable in your future. This module focuses on writing and speaking as the basis for presentations. Learning goals include
◊ Understanding effective writing as the basis for presentations.
◊ Understanding effective speaking as the primary vehicle for presentations.
◊ Understanding the use of audio-visual materials to augment effective presentations.

SO WHAT?

Effective presentations can provide you with leverage to move ahead. Effective presentations begin with effective writing, and realize your goals through effective speaking. Developing skills and comfort with writing and public speaking will be valuable, in class and beyond.

Tuesday, 1 December > Presentations > Writing

SUBMIT

Project #13 > Multimodality Space due at beginning of class.

CONSIDER

Effective writing is precise. The meaning and intent are clear. The main idea is well-developed. It shows readers how you think and what you understand. Effective writing helps you synthesize ideas. It is a way of communicating an idea or position. Effective writing is a source of knowledge, opportunity, and power. Effective writing is the basis for every effective presentation. Lecture, workshop, and resources aim to increase your skill and confidence with presentations.

PREPARE

Hamlet on the Holodeck and Narrative in Gaming by Eric Chirnside (PDF)
Chirnside's final presentation in the Media Arts program at Santa Barbara Community College.

Module 15.1 Effective Presentations (PDF; Available course Basecamp)

Thursday, 3 December > Presentations > Speaking

CONSIDER

Speaking publically, in front of other people, is a skill that you will often be called to utilize. But, many people cite public speaking as their top fear, way above getting struck by lightening or bitten by a snake. The way past this fear is increased knowledge of public speaking, how to prepare, and present and effective oral presentation. Lecture, workshop, and resources aim to increase your skill and confidence with presentations.

PREPARE

Module 15.2a Effective Oral Delivery in Ten Steps (PDF; Available course Basecamp)

Module 15.2b Oral Presentation Tips (PDF; Available course Basecamp)

Resources > Week #15

Public Speaking by John Barber (Webpage)
One of the legendary Dr. John's Eazy Peazy Guides. Speaking publically, in front of other people, is a skill that you will often be called to utilize. But, many people cite public speaking as their top fear, way above getting struck by lightening or bitten by a snake. The way past this fear is increased knowledge of public speaking, how to prepare, and present and effective oral presentation. This resource outlines helpful skills. LEARN more.

Effective Writing by John Barber (Webpage)
One of the legendary Dr. John's Eazy Peazy Guides. Effective writing is precise. The meaning and intent are clear. The main idea is well-developed. It shows readers how you think and what you understand. Effective writing helps you synthesize ideas. It is a way of communicating an idea or position. Effective writing is a source of knowledge, opportunity, and power. Effective writing is the basis for every effective presentation. LEARN more.

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.
◊ Deliver Capstone Project presentations.

Overview

Final presentations.

Tuesday, 8 December > Capstone Project Presentations

Be prepared to deliver your presentation.

Thursday, 10 December > Capstone Project Presentations

Final presentations.

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

VMMC 111, *** 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)