Thursday, February 22, 2007

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Web 2.0... The Machine is Us/ing Us

Neat YouTube video that is like a crib sheet for this course:

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Freewrite #2

Your next freewrite, due Wednesday, is to write about Wikipedia. I want you to go to Wikipedia and find an entry and look at its history page. Print out the history page to be handed in with your assignment.

Write a 3-4 page analysis of Wikipedia, using that entry as a focal point. I want you to relate your analysis on Wikipedia to the Stuart Moulthrop article "You Want a Revolution," especially as concerns "destabilizing social hierarchies" and the "four basic questions that could be asked about any invention" that he pulls from Marshall McLuhan.

This is not just a freewrite on your feelings about Wikipedia; you must use quotes (at least five) from the Moulthrop essay as well as the New Yorker article in your paper to back up your points. I realize the Moulthrop essay is a tough one but try your best. The general gist is answering the question: does Wikipedia support Moulthrop's contentions about hypertext?

I've put copies of the New Yorker article in my box in the ARHU office so pick it up there if you were not at last class.

Also, I will be downgrading these assignments from now on if they are handed in late, so please get them in on Wednesday.

Lastly, several of you have not handed me ideas for your final papers, nor have you put them on your blog. Do this asap. (Ben, your blog doesn't seem to be up anymore... please check the URL on the website).

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Internet Research Methods

I'd like to spend some time in class talking about internet research methods. I don't have any clear outline of how I do research on the internet, so we will have to put this one together ourselves. There isn't much writing available online, either, but I found a pretty good site that has exercises, and of course there's the ubiquitious Wikipedia:

Teaching Internet Research Skills
http://www.virtualchase.com/researchskills/methods.html

Internet Research Methods (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_research

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Next Class / Presentations

Just a recap: for our next class (Feb. 16) we will be discussing the Moulthrop essay, especially in relation to "social hierarchies," and will be discussing the New Yorker essay on Wikipedia and the short essays I handed out about Electronic Writing.

I'll leave copies of this in my box at the ARHU office for those of you not here today.

(Those of you who have not given me your first writing assignment have to give it to me by this Friday, otherwise I can't count it as having been handed in. In general, I won't be this lenient in terms of deadlines.)

On Wednesday, the 21st we will have the following presentations:

Kathryn: Stuart Moulthrop, "Pax: An Instrument"
http://iat.ubalt.edu/moulthrop/hypertexts/pax/

Annalysa: Daniel Howe, "Text Curtain"
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/textcurtain/ (description)
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/textcurtain/applet.html (applet)

Megan: Juliet Martin, "oooxxxooo"
http://www.julietmartin.com/

Jackie: Stephanie Strickland, "The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot"
http://wordcircuits.com/gallery/sandsoot/

Brian: Judd Morrissey, "The Jew's Daughter"
http://www.thejewsdaughter.com/

On Friday the 23rd I want to have individual discussions with each of your about your final projects. It's very important you come to this class (it's very important you come to all of the classes).

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Research Related Links

Slashdot
http://slashdot.org/

Wired
http://www.wired.com/

Rhizome
http://www.rhizome.org/

Electronic Literature Organization
http://eliterature.org/

Electronic Book Review
http://www.electronicbookreview.com/

Grand Text Auto
http://grandtextauto.gatech.edu/

Two Introductory Essays

Below are links to two short essays that I wrote for my class in Electronic Writing at Brown University. I'd like to include this in our syllabus, so please take a look. I'll be printing them out for you soon, so don't print it out yet. The online versions are better anyway as there are a lot of live links:

What is Electronic Writing?
http://www.arras.net/brown_ewriting/?page_id=54

Themes and Concepts
http://www.arras.net/brown_ewriting/?page_id=20

Freewrite Assignment #1

2-3 pages spaced at 1.5 in a normal font

Should cover two of the experimental interfaces from the class blog:
http://2007stocktonintronewmedia.blogspot.com/2007/01/experimental-websites.html

Should include the following issues:

  • general description of the piece as if you are writing about it for someone who has never seen it
  • description of analogies that are used in the piece (i.e. what did the designer use to make it more easy to understand, like in our discussion of the desktop). BE INVENTIVE. A lot more is happening that what seems apparent at first.
  • possible uses for such a device or interface
  • speculation as to "what is happening behind the interface." This seems the hardest to grasp for some of you, so don't sweat it. We'll go over what I mean by this in class.

Look at all of the interfaces before you decide which one you want to write about.

Game Writing

Just heard about this, the first entire book devoted to the subject of writing for video games (or at least that's what I was told, I seem to come up with a few more at Amazon).

Here's a review:
http://books.slashdot.org/books/07/01/31/1445235.shtml

Those of you interested in writing for video games should check out Grand Text Auto:
http://grandtextauto.gatech.edu/


Saturday, February 3, 2007

Ideas for Final Projects

Following is a list of general topics for your final papers. I'll add more as I think of them. Of course, if you have an idea for a project that is not included here, let me know!
  • video games and gaming culture; development of graphics and types of games over the past decades; the gaming industry (economics, culture of), etc.

  • the way digital computers have affected the arts such as music, film/video, performance, poetry; new forms of art that were not possible before computers, etc.

  • interface design; interfaces of commercial sites (such as Yahoo! and Google) and how they have changed and/or affected income; graphic design (comparison of print design and web design, for example), etc.

  • report on one of the writers we will be reading this semester, or another writer important to the world of digital culture that you have discovered yourself; a general "theory" paper that tries to discuss the future of digital culture, etc.

  • a detailed analysis of a website that you are particularly fond of, or critical of (Amazon, for example, or even the Richard Stockton website); general survey of blogging software; survey of media outlets on the web from the mainstream to the underground, etc.

  • the use of digital technology in education, including teaching students how to use digital technology to complete their own coursework; digital technology in therapy; alternative theories of education that rely on digital technology, etc.

  • the way that electronic networking systems and digital projection/sound systems have altered the way people either meet each other, socialize with each other (how these technologies operate in clubs, bars, the school, etc);

  • what role digital technology has played in the design of items we use every day (from sneakers and television to the architecture of buildings we enter), etc.

  • technology as it relates to issues of governance, surveillance, war, revolution, philanthropic issues, religious institutions, developing nations or nations with repressive regimes, activism, etc.

Friday, February 2, 2007

Example Blogs

Rachel Finley on Machinima
http://www.chupaproject.blogspot.com/

Nick Leonetti on B-Horror and the DVD Market
http://malevolentimages.blogspot.com/

Scott Stagliano on the Semiotic Development of the First Person Shooter
http://fpskillzone.blogspot.com/

Chris Teja on Viral Marketing (Snakes on a Plane, etc.)
http://newmediact.blogspot.com/

Emily Wray on Experimental Televisions Commercials
http://www.dvrready.blogspot.com/

John Carr on Memes
http://intersociety.blogspot.com/

Lindsey Costanza on Pro-Anorexic Websites
http://lalalalinzii.blogspot.com/

Brian Sherr on Internet Gambling
http://fantasyhotblogs.blogspot.com/

Kate Savacool on CGI in Films: Pro/Con
http://gifted-sandbox.blogspot.com/