Course Information   

Term: Fall 2009   

Credits: 3   

Meeting Time: TR 11:00-12:20   

Classroom:  213 NORTON   

Office Hrs: TR 12:30-2:00

Course Catalog Description

Study of post-cinematic media and the questions these media raise regarding memory and media storage; the relations of language and literature to technology; documentation and referentiality.

Required Readings

Halavais, A. (2008). Search Engine Society. Polity.

Lessig, L. (2008). Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. Penguin Press

Miller, P. (2004). Rhythm Science. The MIT Press.

Wardrip-Fruin, N., & Montfort, N. (2003). The New Media Reader. The MIT Press.

Grading

Wiki Project    25%

White Paper/Manifesto    40%

Slideware-Remix    20%

Class Participation    15%

Assignment Descriptions

Wiki Project

You will receive an invitation to join our course wiki. You will work in groups to create wiki pages about course readings, class discussion, and other subjects relevant to the course. You should expect to spend 1-2 hours a week writing, editing, and adding media to your groups wiki pages. You will receive a group grade at the end of the project. The project will run for most of the semester.

White Paper/Manifesto

You will write either a “white paper” or a manifesto on a social issue related to new media. As you may know, a manifesto is a declaration of artistic and/or political principals. It is often strongly-worded and radical in its perspective. A white paper is a position or policy paper that might be written and published by a government office, a corporation, or a non-profit agency. So, in a sense, these documents are similar but serve different authors and audiences. Depending on your own temperament and purposes, you will choose to write one of these. Your text will be a minimum of 2000 words.

Slideware/Remix

For this project you will compose an original media piece combining existing image, text, audio, and/or video. You will take up some of the principles and practices of remixing described by various authors we will read this semester. The topic of your remix will be of our own choosing in consultation with me. More details will follow.

Class Participation

This course is small enough to permit regular class discussion. I expect that you come to class having read the assigned material and prepared to engage in classwide conversation, group projects, or whatever else we may do that day.

Course Policies

Working in Public Online Spaces

Several of the spaces in which you will work will be public spaces. That means that what you contribute in such spaces will be viewable by anyone with an Internet connection. In addition, these contributions will be searchable by Google and other search engines. We will discuss the reasons for this during the course. However, you have the option of employing a pseudonym (i.e., a false name) as long as I know who you are and you remain consistent with your choice.

Student Disability Services

Government regulations require that university policies, practices, and procedures not discriminate on the basis of disability. Disability Services coordinates reasonable modifications so that individuals with disabilities can access and benefit from all programs, services, and activities of the university. Please visit the Disability Services website for further information: http://www.ub-disability.buffalo.edu/.

Academic Dishonesty

Please familiarize yourself with the University’s Academic Integrity policy, which can be found at http://undergrad-catalog.buffalo.edu/policies/course/integrity.shtml. In a writing course, we are particularly concerned with plagiarism, which the catalog describes as “Copying or receiving material from any source and submitting that material as one’s own, without acknowledging and citing the particular debts to the source (quotations, paraphrases, basic ideas), or in any other manner representing the work of another as one’s own.”

Late Assignment Policy

On occasion, students are unable to meet assigned due dates. If you believe you will be unable to meet a due date, you must email me prior to the day an assignment is due. In your email you should explain your situation and identify when you will complete the assignment. Typically I will grant students a week extension on one assignment during the semester.

Assignments turned in late without prior arrangment will be reduced one full letter grade. Assignments later than one week may not be accepted.

Attendance Policy

As University policy states, “Since the university desires to promote student responsibility, there is no general rule concerning student class attendance; however, every class instructor shall provide to students a course syllabus during the first week of class that specifies attendance policies and dates and times for classes, exams and all other required activities.”

There is no explicit attendance policy for this course. However, class participation is 15% of your final grade. Obviously you cannot participate when you are absent.

If you know you will be absent on a particular day, please let me know via email as soon as possible.

Course Schedule

Note: Course schedule is subject to change. Notifications of changes will be made in class.

Meeting Day    Assignments

Sep 1, 2009    First day of class

Sep 3, 2009    Read Lessig, Part I; Wiki Project Begins

Sep 8, 2009    Read Lessig, Part II

Sep 10, 2009    Read Lessig, Part III

Sep 15, 2009    Read NMR, Murray & Manovich

Sep 17, 2009    Read NMR, Borges & Bush

Sep 22, 2009    Read NMR, Turning & Weiner

Sep 24, 2009    Read NMR, Kaprow, Burroughs, & Engelbart

Sep 29, 2009    Read NMR, McLuhan

Oct 1, 2009    Read NMR, Nelson p 247 & 301

Oct 6, 2009    Read NMR, Baudrillard & Williams

Oct 8, 2009    Read NMR, Negroponte & Krueger

Oct 13, 2009    Read NMR, Kay/Goldberg

Oct 15, 2009    Read NMR, Deleuze/Guattari; Attend &Now Conference (more details to follow)

Oct 20, 2009    Read Miller

Oct 22, 2009    Read Miller

Oct 27, 2009    Read NMR, Papert; Manifesto/White Paper Due

Oct 29, 2009    Read NMR, Viola

Nov 3, 2009    Read NMR, Turkle

Nov 5, 2009    Read NMR, Haraway

Nov 10, 2009    Read NMR, Stallman

Nov 12, 2009    Read Halavais, Chapters 1-4

Nov 17, 2009    Read Halavais, Chapters 5-8

Nov 19, 2009    Read NMR, Joyce

Nov 24, 2009    Read NMR, Bolter; Wiki Project Ends

Nov 26, 2009    Thanksgiving Break

Dec 1, 2009    Read NMR, Moulthrop & Coover

Dec 3, 2009    Read NMR, McCloud

Dec 8, 2009    Read NMR, Critical Arts Ensemble

Dec 10, 2009    Slideware/Remix Due