IAT810:Current events

CALENDAR

READING LIST SUBJECT TO CHANGE BASED ON NEEDS OF THE CLASS

ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSIONS: PLEASE BE SURE TO PUT YOUR DATE | NAME | STUDENT # | COURSE # ON THE TOP RIGHT OF ALL YOUR ASSIGNMENTS!!!

IN CLASS RULES

• NO LATE ASSIGNMENTS, ASSIGNMENTS TO BE HANDED IN AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS

• NO CELL PHONE, NO LAPTOPS, NO iPADS, NOTHING!

Week 1 : SEP07 . HISTORY OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

Be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss: (refer to bottom of page for .pdf of the readings)

a) Plato, “The Allegory of the Cave,” in the Republic, Book VII. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2000. 13-18.

b) Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,”

c) Bolter & Gromala. “Text Rain,” in Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art and the Myth of Transparency, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007.

d) Booth, Wayne C., Colomb, Gregory G. and Williams, Joseph M. The Craft of Research, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. 35-57.

Assignment DUE WEEK 2 Bring to class and turn in, 2 copies of one page that contains:

1. A reading that you consider to be essential for a course like this, properly cited (any academic bibliographic citation style is acceptable).

2. Your research question (this week’s version). By the way you structure this, you must demonstrate that you have a clear understanding of the reading from The Craft of Research.

3. Your definition of (what constitutes) New Media, with examples. You need to write this in the form of an argument, not opinion or anecdote. State your position and provide examples. Include counter-positions and tell us why you don't think they are as valid as your definition. What are the boundaries of what counts as New Media? What is included? What is excluded? Why?

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Week 2 : SEP14 . HISTORY OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

Lecture: Prof. Chris Shaw, History of Computer Technology Media:IAT810-HCIHistory.pdf

Discussion of lecture and Bolter & Gromala reading.

Presentation: Plato & Co. (Black Box)

Assignment DUE WEEK 3 One page, 9pt., 1.5 line spacing, printed both sides, to be handed in after grammar & spelling are checked

1. write about one aspect of Benjamin's reading (1 page)

2. define the difference between media and technology. Use examples to support your views. (half page, other side of same piece of paper)

Include at least 3 references, from class readings or other readings.

For Week 3, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:

a) Innis, H. The Bias of Communication, 1951, Toronto, ON, University of Toronto Press, pgs. 33-60.

b) Standage, Tom. The Victorian Internet, NY, Penguin Putnam, 1998 (pgs. 57-65, 100-104, 145-163, 204-213)

Optional readings: available in The New Media Reader, Wardrip-Fruin & Montfort, eds.

As We May Think, Vannevar Bush, 1945

Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Alan Turing, 1950

Man-Computer Symbiosis, J. C. R. Licklider, 1960

From Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework, Douglas Engelbart, 1962

Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System, Ivan Sutherland, 1963

The Ultimate Display, Ivan Sutherland, 1965

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Week 3 : SEP21 HISTORY OF COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Lecture: Prof. John Bowes, History of Communications & Media Technology (2 hours) Media:CMNSHISTORY.pdf

Presentation

Discussion Lead class discussion: Innis: Tyler Fox (~30 min.)

Assignment DUE WEEK 4 Print out one on piece of paper, both sides:

side 1: List New Media (half page), list Traditional Media (half page)

side 2: What criteria did you use to distinguish between New and Traditional Media? How, when or why will so-called New Media become old? (one page)

For Week 4, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:

a) Bolter, J. David & Grusin, Richard. "Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation", pgs. 20 - 50, from Remediation, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1999

b) Lavin, Maud. “The Berlin Dada Photomontages”. (pgs. 13- 46) from Cut with the Kitchen Knife: the Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hoch.

Optional readings:

When Old Technologies Were New: Thinking About Electric Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century, Carolyn Marvin

The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, Elizabeth L. Eisenstein

Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences, Edward Tenner

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Week 4 : SEP28 . MEDIA, MEDIATION, REMEDIATION, IMMEDIACY

Discussion Remediation, relationships among old and new media

Assignments:

One page, printed both sides.

side a)

1. Examine the table of contents (TOC) of The New Media Reader.

The editors organized the readings according to particular themes or ideas.

Create a rough taxonomy that differs from theirs; that is, develop a different kind of method for determining different headings for all of the readings.

Part of the assignment is for you to figure out what each article is about. It might help to pretend you are an anthropolgist or alien.

side b)

Be sure to:

a) Articulate what the author's criteria were for their organizational headings

b) Articulate what your criteria are, and why yours is different from theirs.

If space is an issue, you may use the author's first and last names. If an author has written more than one article, be sure to indicate this.

You may cut and paste from this site:

http://www.newmediareader.com/book_contents.html

(still side b)

2. Choose three works of new media that in some way are closely related to your research area. Each needs to be created any time at or after the year 2000. List the following information for each of the three works:

Title

Creator(s)

URL (if applicable)

Short description in YOUR words

Short articulation of how each work relates to your research area.

Articulate why you are interested in each work.

Also articulate what you think may be problematic with each work. Remember, we don't worship in this class.

READING ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE IN YOUR LETTER SLOTS BY MONDAY (04OCT2010).

For Week 5, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:

a) Forward to Media in Transition, David Throburn, editor, Edward Barrett, Henry Jenkins, associate editors, MIT Press, Cambridge MA.

b) McLuhan, Marshall. The Playboy Interview (pgs. 233-269) in The Essential McLuhan, ed. Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone, NY, Harper Collins, 1998.

Optional readings:

S.M. Eisenstein. Selected Works Vol. 2: Towards a Theory of Montage, 1937-40 (v. 2).

Dziga Vertov. Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov. Esp. "On the Significance of Nonacted Cinema," "The Essence of Kino-Eye," "The Man with the Movie Camera"

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Week 5 : OCT05 . R E M I X, M A S H U P S, C O N V E R G E N C E, M A C H I N I M A

Presentation: Gromala: Ideology Media:IAT810f10ideo.pdf, (Lavin):Erin (McLuhan):Jay. (Forward to Media in Transition): Derek.

Assignment Be sure you have an understanding of the main ideas of each author of assigned class readings we have covered.

For Week 6, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:

a) Manovich, Lev. "Introduction" to The New Media Reader. Wardrip-Fruin & Montfort, eds. Cambridge: MIT Press, (on reserve)

Augmentation: Erin (From Manovich's position in the Language of New Media to a later article.)

b) Murray, Janet. "The Four Essential Properties of Digital Environments," pgs. 71-94, from Hamlet on the Holodeck, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1998.

Augmentation: (volunteers?) from Lister et al., New Media: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, 2003.

c) Murray, Janet. "The Aesthetics of the Medium," pgs. 97 - 182, from Hamlet on the Holodeck, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1998.

Optional reading:

Bush, Vannevar (1945). "As We May Think," in The New Media Reader. Wardrip-Fruin & Montfort, eds. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp.35-48.

Nelson, Theodore (1965). "A File Structure for the Complex,the Changing and the Indeterminate." in The New Media Reader. Wardrip-Fruin & Montfort, eds. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp.133-146.

Leyton, Michael. "The Foundations of Aesthetics," in Computational Aesthetics. Fishwick, Paul, ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp.289-314.

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Week 6 : OCT12 . S T R U C T U R A L P R I N C I P L E S

Presentations (Eisenstein: Montage): Sharifi. (Vertov's Kino Eye): Fox. (Tenner): Vidyarthi.

Discussion: Manovich & Murray

In-class Assignment Which of the various definitions of aesthetics do Manovich and Murray refer?

Assignment for next week Write a short (1 page, both sides) essay defining what a story is and how storytelling has been affected by interactive media. Be sure to state your position in an introductory paragraph, argue your point by using examples and counter-arguments, and cite references appropriately.

For Week 7, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:

a) Introduction to Narrative Concepts Jim Bizzocchi author & editor [includes excerpts from David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson, Gary Larson, and others]

b) Bizzocchi, Jim. Games and Narrative: an Analytical Framework Loading, Online Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association, Vol 1, No 1 (2007), <http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/>

c) Ryan, Marie-Laure. Avatars of Story (pgs. 6 - 16), Minneapolis MN, University of Minnesota Press, 2006

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Week 7 : OCT19. NARRATIVE, NARRATOLOGY

Presentation & Discussion Citational practices; How to Read on Fire; Narrative, Narratology Media:IAT810f10narrative.pdf

(Ryan: Avatars): Saberi, (Bizzocchi): Gromala; (Abstraction): Gromala; (Computational Aesthetics): Gromala

In-class: discuss final project

For Week 8, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:

a) Ryan, Marie-Laure, "Will New Media produce New Narratives", pgs. 337-359 in Narratives across Media: the Languages of Storytelling, ed. Marie-Laure Ryan, Lincoln Nebraska, University of Nebraska Press, 2004

b) Aarseth, Espen. "Chapter One: Ergodic Literature," in Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. http://www.hf.uib.no/cybertext/Ergodic.html

c) Gunning, Tom. "The Cinema of Attractions", in Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative, ed. Thomas Elsaesser, BFI Publishing, London, 1990. (pgs. 56-67)

d) Aarseth, Espen. "Genre trouble: Narrativism and the art of simulation response; New media as story, performance, and game". In N. Wardrip-Fruin & P. Harrigan (Eds.), First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game (pp. 45–55). Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 2004. http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/vigilant

HOMEWORK: Turn in your proposal for your final paper (or project if you can convince me). One page, one side. Be sure to include: TITLE, BRIEF DESCRIPTION/ABSTRACT, GOALS, SCOPE & (at least 2) MILESTONES. Note: this is an INITIAL version. You'll get feedback in class so you will have time to revise or refine it for next week.

Optional reading:

Borges, Jorge. "The Garden of Forking Paths," in The New Media Reader, Wardrip-Fruin & Montfort, eds. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.

Lescure, Jean. "A Brief History of the Oulipo," in The New Media Reader, Wardrip-Fruin & Montfort, eds. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.

Calvino, Italo. "Prose and Anticombinatorics," in The New Media Reader, Wardrip-Fruin & Montfort, eds. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.

Fleishmann, Monika & Strauss, Wolfgang. "Public Space of Knowledge: Artistic Practice in Aesthetic Computing," in Aesthetic Computing. Fishwick, ed. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2006.

Ryan, Marie-Laure. Narrativity and Its Modes as Culture-Transcending Analytical Categories, Japan Forum, Volume 21, Issue 3 November 2009 , pgs. 307 - 323.

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Week 8 : OCT26 . N A R R A T I V E + I N T E R A C T I V I T Y

Presentation: (Aarseth/b): Babak Farzadkish, (Fleishmann & Strauss): Sharifi, (Gunning): Mozhgan Akhgari; (Aarseth/d): Derek

Discussion Narrative forms: stories or fields of perception? Stories and space (Fleishmann & Strauss).

For Week 9, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:

a) Crawford, Chris. The Art of Interactive Design, pgs. 77-90, No Starch Press, San Francisco, 2003

b) Eskelinen, Markku. "Towards Computer Game Studies," pgs. 36-44 in First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, Wardrip-Fruin, Noah and Harrigan, Pat. Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 2004

c) Juul, Jesper. "Introduction to Game Time", pgs. 131-142 in First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, Wardrip-Fruin, Noah and Harrigan, Pat, Cambridge MA, MIT Press.

d) Hoffman, H. G., Doctor, J. N., Patterson, D. R., Carrougher, G. J., & Furness, T. A. r. (2000). Virtual reality as an adjunctive pain control during burn wound care in adolescent patients. Pain, Mar; 85(1-2), 305-309.

Optional Reading:

Lowgren, Jonas. "Articulating the Use Quality of Digital Designs," in Computational Aesthetics. Fishwick, Paul, ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

TURN IN . R E V I S E D . ONE PAGE PROPOSAL FOR YOUR FINAL PROJECT/PAPER: one page, one side. Include:

TITLE

BRIEF DESCRIPTION/ABSTRACT (2-4 sentences).

Example: Historically, humans -- not animals or machines -- purportedly are the only creatures that have emotions. Yet recent research in Animal Studies and Artificial Intelligence suggest that emotions are not limited to humans. I will write a paper comparing the ideas that emotions are felt by entities other than humans, by comparing Animal Studies author Robin Tweet's idea of 'Bird Brains & Bee Waggles' to AI/artist Beau Bo's ideas of 'Motion/Emotion.' In the first half of my paper, I will argue that emotions may be experienced by non-human entities, drawing on the work of both authors. In the second half of my paper, I will explore possible ways to design alternative interfaces for my monstrous thesis project, provisionally titled, "Do Amebas Tell Stories Among Themselves During Silicon-mediated Co-Flaggellation?")

GOAL: (2-3 sentences) Example: My first goal is to explore how the design of interfaces for animals may require different strategies, if non-humans can experience emotion. Specifically, I will focus on the movement of Amebas and possible Ameba-silicon chip interaction. In this thought experiment, I will outline my approaches to interface design, along with sketches, diagrams or photographs if they serve to more clearly communicate my design ideas. My second goal is to explore this issue in preparation for my thesis. My third goal is to force myself to learn how to write research papers. If this paper is successful, I plan to submit it to the journal Leonardo.

SCOPE: This paper will be approximately x,xxx (number of) words, examples of bio-artists whose works relate to the notion of emotion in non-humans (specific artworks and publications by the artists and/or critics).

MILESTONES: By November X, I will have read the author's submission for Leonardo, have Dr. Gromala and Meehae Song read my preliminary argument in schematic form, along with two paragraphs that describe the idea put forth by each author, and bullet points of my (critical) analysis. By November XX, I will show the class artworks I have found to support my idea, and ask Dr. Gromala and Meehae Song if they think my design approach makes sense, and if my citations of artworks are appropriate.

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Week 9 : NOV02. INTERACTION, VIDEOGAMES, PLAY

Presentation: (Crawford): Alfatoony, (Eskelinen): Milloy,

Discussion abstraction to code: what is gained & lost? narrative vs. story

For Week 10, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:

a) Barthes, Roland. "Death of the Author", pgs. 142 - 148 in Image-Music-Text, Roland Barthes, [transl. Stephen Heath], NY, Hill and Wang, 1997.

b) Eco, Umberto. The Open Work, Translated by Anna Cancogni, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1989.

c) Courtwright, David T. "Forces of Habit", pgs. 1-5, 69-111, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2001.

d) Green, Mitchell S. "Self Expression", pgs. 171-211, Oxford University Press, USA; First Edition edition (January 10, 2008).

HOMEWORK

1. Review Eisenstein's "map" [1]

2. Create a way of mapping whichever medium you were assigned in class. We aren't expecting you to map out the entire film, website, etc.

3. But choose enough of the "story" to make your map sensible. So, for example, you'd probably want to choose a couple of scenes or paths.

Suggestion: find the industry standard, or a historical example and expand on that. What are they missing? How can your map account for what's missing? Is it an expanded version of Eisenstein's, or could it also include another, related kind of map, akin to an inset on geographical maps? (Eisenstein had ways to account for what we'd call "drill downs" or more specific information per scene.

Film: Bladerunner (industry standard: storyboards)

Novel: Stranger: Albert Camus

Website: IMDB

Videogame: Prince of Persia

Radio Story: This American Life http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/374/somewhere-out-there

Music: Requium for a Friend

Database: IMdB

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Week 10 : NOV09. AUTHORSHIP, CO-AUTHORSHIP+ INTERACTION

Presentation (Hoffman): Wang, (Barthes + Eco): Ashenhurst, (Courtwright): O'Connor, (Green): Vidyarthi

Discussion

For Week 11, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:

a) Mori, Masahiro. "The Uncanny Valley.," in Energy, Energy, 7(4), pp. 33-35, 1970. Translated by Karl F. MacDorman and Takashi Minato

b) Ross, Christine. "New Media Arts Hybridity: The Vases (Dis)communicants Between Art, Affective Science and AR Technology", in Convergence, Vol. 11[4]:32-42, Sage Publications

c) Wolfe, Cary. What is Posthumanism?, pgs. 3-30 (Ch.1), 283-300 (Ch. 11), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

Optional readings:

deBord, Guy. Society of the Spectacle,

NOTE: CONFERENCE HOSTED BY SIAT: CINESONIKA NOVEMBER 12-14(21), cinesonika.com

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Week 11 : NOV16 REAL, MODEL, SIMULATION

Presentation (Wolfe: Ch. 1): Ashenhurst, (Wolfe: Ch. 11): D'Arcy O'Connor, (Mori): Akhgari, (Ross): Maryam Saberi

Discussion

For Week 12, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:

a) Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 2001, pgs. 176-212.

b) Wolfe, Cary. What is Posthumanism?, pgs. 127-144 (Ch. 5: "Learning from Temple Grandin"), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

c) Massumi, Brian. Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. (Chapter 2: The Bleed: Where the Body Meets Image) Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. 46-67.

d) Anonymous, "Mimicking Human-Human Interaction: A Framework for Perceiving the User’s Self-Expression in HCI" submitted to CHI 2011, May 7–12, 2011, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

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Week 12 : NOV23 EMBODIMENT PART ONE NOTES ON WOLFE

Presentation (Massumi): Sharifi, (Wolf: Ch.5 "Learning from Temple Grandin"): Fox, (Anoymous): Saberi

Discussion Embodiment: Is there a virtual? Whose bodies? Where are our bodies?

For Week 14, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:

a) Wolfe, Cary. What is Posthumanism?, pgs. 145-168 (Ch. 6), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

b) Turkle, Sherry. "Inner History", in The Inner History of Devices, ed. Sherry Turkle, pgs. 2-29, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008.

c) Verlager, Alicia Kestrell. "The Prosthetic Eye", in The Inner History of Devices, ed. Sherry Turkle, pgs. 32-40, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008.

d) Veenema, Shirley & Gardner, Howard. "Multimedia and Multiple Intelligences,"69-75.

Optional reading:

a) Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. Noosphere,

b) Castells, Manuel. Readings from: The Power of Identity, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Vol. II.

c) Ihde, Don. "Bodies in Technology", pgs. xi-xx, 50-87, University of Minnesota Press, 2002.

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Week 14 : DEC07 EMBODIMENT PART TWO: Who's Body? >> MOVED FROM NOV30

FINAL PAPERS DUE!

Presentation: (Wolfe: Chapter 6): Coles, (Turkle+Verlager: Intro + The Prosthetic Eye): Wang; (Veenema & Gardner): Milloy

Discussion Humans and/are Animals

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