IAT810:Current events
CALENDAR
READING LIST SUBJECT TO CHANGE
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.
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?
Week 2 : SEP14 HISTORY OF COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
Lecture: Prof. Chris Shaw, History of Computer Technology
Discussion of lecture and Bolter & Gromala reading.
Presentation: Plato & Co. (Black Box)
Assignment 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
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
Week 3 : SEP21
Lecture: Prof. John Bowes, History of Communications & Media Technology
Presentation:
Discussion
Assignment
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
Week 4 : SEP28 M E D I A, M E D I A T I O N, R E M E D I A T I O N
Presentation:
Discussion
For Week 5, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:
a) Forward to Media in Transition Book Series, 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
Week 5 : OCT05 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:
Discussion
Assignment
For Week 6, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:
a) Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 2001, pgs. 212-285, 314-333
b) Murray, Janet. "The Four Essential Properties of Digital Environments," pgs. 71-94, from Hamlet on the Holodeck, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1998.
c) Murray, Janet. "The Aesthetics of the Medium," pgs. 97 - 182, from Hamlet on the Holodeck, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1998.
Week 6 : OCT12 S T R U C T U R A L P R I N C I P L E S
Presentation:
Discussion
Assignment Which of the various definitions of aesthetics do Manovich and Murray refer?
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
Week 7 : OCT19 N A R R A T I V E
Presentation:
Discussion
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
Week 8 : OCT26
Presentation:
Discussion
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, 2004
'Week 9 : NOV02' INTERACTION
Presentation:
Discussion
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.
Week 10 : NOV09 AUTHORSHIP
Presentation:
Discussion
For Week 11, be sure you have read and are prepared to discuss:
a) Gunning, Tom. "The Cinema of Attractions", in Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative, ed. Thomas Elsaesser, BFI Publishing, London, 1990.
Optional readings: Society of the SPectacle, Guy deBord
Week 11 : NOV16
FINAL PAPERS DUE!
Presentation:
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.
Week 12 : NOV23
Presentation:
Discussion
Week 13 : NOV30
Presentation:
Discussion
Readings
Plato, “The Allegory of the Cave,” in the Republic, Book VII. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2000. 13-18.
Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,”
Bolter & Gromala. “Text Rain,” in Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art and the Myth of Transparency, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007.
Booth, Wayne C., Colomb, Gregory G. and Williams, Joseph M. The Craft of Research, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. 35-57.
Van Looy, Jan and Baetans, Jan. "Close Reading New Media: Analyzing Electronic Literature," (pgs. 8-13), Leuven University Press, Leuven, Belgium, 2003
Turkle, Sherry. Simulation and Its Discontents, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2009. 1-70.
