Course Outline : Media Cultures 2007

The course will explore the interrelation of art and technology by illustrating the evolution of digital media. Historical and theoretical perspectives of digital and time-based media will be explored including present and future concepts.

As a means of applying these theoretical and historical perspectives, this course will also explore the theory and practice of writing and conceptual development techniques to suit a range of media.

Throughout the course, students will develop methodologies of storytelling and narrative structures for media. The students will build a solid foundation of ideas, methods and techniques as well as professional formats for presentation, which will have a deep and broad impact on the way they approach, work on and develop future multimedia projects.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:

Develop original content through heightened conceptual and idea generation processes suitable for multimedia productions.
Refine their critical and analytical capacity to evaluate content and structure in linear narrative, interactive and networked publications.
Develop narrative storytelling techniques within interactive, animation and video works.
Develop a writing routine by maintaining writing journals.
Develop skills to confidently interact with peers in group presentations and critiques.
Demonstrate critical and analytical abilities.
Understand the relationship and influences between art and technology.
Analyse the technological developments of the modern world and understand how they are linked to earlier media forms.
Acquire knowledge and critically evaluate major economic, aesthetic, technological, cultural and theoretical developments in world cinema.
Analyse different ways in which cinema has responded to moments in history of crisis and transformation as well as technological developments.
Understand the complex ways in which cinema is an industry, an entertainment, a technology, an art form and an object of study and be able to apply this knowledge to the historical study of cinema.

Overview of Assessment

Assessment is based on progressive assessment briefs, and class exercises. A full detailed breakdown of weekly class exercises and objectives will be supplied in the first week of class. Students may be required to keep a journal which will include class exercises, reflections on topics/ concepts and evidencing students' rigour and engagement. Assessment is ongoing and part of students' participation in group and individual class exercises and class critique (formal and informal) sessions. Assignments may include script writing, storyboarding, visual/ textual narration, writing short and succinct film synopsis, analysis of plot and character development.

ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Assignment/ presentation 1: Research presentation for one of weeks in block 2, 25%

2. Assignment/ presentation 2: Location-based game, week 14 25%

3. Assignments: Journal due week 14 - 30%

4. Class participation - 20% Overall

Week#/Date	Lecture Content
	BLOCK 1: MEDIA CULTURES: analogue to digital
#1 01/03/07 9am/3pm	Introduction to the course. Outline of the course's aims, objectives, assessment requirements and breakdown of weekly concepts. URL: Memory Palace URL: Museum of Dust URL: World Tales URL: Strange Attractors Casestudy: Towards a theory of media specificity URL : Flow
#2 07/03/07 9am in 14-11-37 08/03/07 9am/3pm	I Got My Gmail (machinima) Old Media: Dinosaurs or Directives? URL :Technologies of Time and Space: A prehistory of multimedia Case study: The News tonight - from bio-networks to digging the zeitgeist URL: poemeDada RSS poetry URL: Newsgaming.com URL: Avatar activists see red URL : Rocketboom URL : ten by ten by Jonathan Harris URL: Phylotaxis / for Seed by Jonathan Harris URL: Carlo Zanni's Average Shoveler URL: We Feel Fine / by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar General Resources : http://del.icio.us/shiralee/news Reading POF: Multimedia Innovators from Understanding Hypermedia, Cotton and Oliver PDF : Media Timeline from Understanding Hypermedia, Cotton and Oliver Bolter, Jay and Richard Grusin (1999), Extract Remediation: Understanding New Media , Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, pp.65-9
#3 14/03/07 9am in 14-11-37 15/03/07 9am/3pm	The Strangerhood by RoostersTeeth (machinima) Male Restroom Etiquette by Zarathustra Studios (machinima) Turing Test: From the Difference Engine to wearable computing. URL: Computers and the development of Interactivity Delicious Links -- computer lecture Case study: Automatic friend/robot writers; Eliza, Racter and Chatbots. URL: ELIZA URL :Jabberwacky URL :George URL : A.L.I.C.E (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity) URL :Wikipedia -- chatterbots
#4 21/03/07 9am in 14-11-37 22/03/07 9am/3pm	The Internet is for Porn real Vs The Internet -- RoostersTeeth How Milnet became our Net REF :: The Internet and How it Grew... REF :: de.licio.us links : Internet Case study: Hypertext URL : Victory Gardens URL : Flash version of the Colossal Cave Adventure UIRL : My Body a Wunderkammer by Shelly Jackson URL : Testimony : a Story machine by Simon Norton URL: Meanwhile (interactive cartoon) URL : Facade a 1 act drama URL : Camille Utterback -- Text Rain URL : Arteroids 3.1
#5 23/03/07 10pm/1am Meet 1st floor off Flinders St	The Fine Art of Video Gallery visit ACMI Centre Pompidou Video Art 1965-2005 Traces the evolution of the video image in contemporary art and explores the aesthetic possibilities of video as a creative medium. Hits of the 80s: aussie games that rocked the world Discover the games of the pioneering Beam Software (Melbourne House) in this secret history of Australia's place in the rise and rise of the videogame
	BLOCK 2: WEB 2.0 AND NETWORKED ART In this block, students are required to give presentations on one of the week's topics in that allocated week. Students should tailor their research into a case study on a particular artist, movement or phenomenon fitting that week's topic. For example in week 6, the theme is virtual communities so a student may wish to do a case study on Gaia online or an online massively multiplayer game such as WOW. Students are expected to conduct research that might include both theoretical and empirical analysis. Students must confirm their topic and presentation date by week #3. No double-ups on topics. Assignment #1 Brief
#6 28/03/07 9am in 14-11-37 19/04/07 9am/3pm	Fan Machinima The Ballad of the Noob http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM2rFZGujhk The 1k Project II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBPdubBAy_c Dance, Voldo, Dance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t2_WZ2znC8 Wathof Jump http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVKfKU8D8cY Half Life 2 - I'm Still Seeing Breen V1.2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23Gc0pcQWvw Flash Dance Ogre - EQ2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5uCTggUBFI WoW music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nvu1KK1DPQ Gaybar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8imx9j5X7Ic Internet is for Porn - Google Video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5430343841227974645&hl=en- Presentations The Social Web and Virtual Communities
#7 20/04/07 9am/1pm in 14-11-37	Video killed the family guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDYotxkxvgk&mode=related&search= The Broad Band - Internet Killed The Video Star http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiB0VgOKojg MashUp / David Brent's Microsoft training video Archives http://blogs.smh.com.au/mashup/archives//005589.html Lonelygirl 15 http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=lonelygirl15 Hope is Emo http://hopeisemo.com/ Ask a Ninja http://askaninja.com/ Nobody's Watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEYCN3hVTYI Presentations The smaller screen: MTV to YouTube
#8 27/04/07 9am in Alice studio 26/04/07 9am/3pm	"Weird Al" Yankovic - Bob http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nej4xJe4Tdg massive attack _ unfinished sympathy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1svI-owtWA Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaiw3Qqx1Rk Cibo Matto - Sugar Water http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPJ9TS_5tAo The Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUPcIIX6108 Beck - Cellphone's Dead http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waX80Nt1-cY RESOURCES del.icio.us/shiralee/lecture_netart Presentations Networked and Net art
#9 02/05/07 9am 03/05/07 9am/3pm	Presentations Game Art : Art is DOOMed: The spawning of game art
#10 09/05/07 9am in 14-11-37 10/05/07 9am/3pm	Location-based Games Brief 2: Making Games -- Collaborative project Resources -- del.icio.us/shiralees/lecture_makeGame
#11 16/05/07 9am in 14-11-37 17/05/07 9am/3pm	Game Elements
#12 23/05/07 9am in 14-11-37 24/05/07 9am/3pm	Game Documentation
#13 04/06/07 9am in 14-11-37	Game Testing

BACKGROUND: Jared Tarbell www.levitated.net/

Lecturer: shiraleesaul[at]westnet[dot]com[dot]au

Course Identification Program: Games Programs School: Creative Media Course Code: COMM2193B Course title: Media Cultures 2

Course Description:

Learning Objectives

Overview of Assessment

ASSIGNMENTS:

Week#/Date

Lecture Content

Course Identification
Program: Games Programs
School: Creative Media
Course Code: COMM2193B
Course title: Media Cultures 2