FINAL PROJECT

DUE DATES:
  • ROUGH DRAFT: Bring to class on Friday, Nov. 22.
  • PRESENTATIONS (SHOW AND TELL): In class on Friday, Dec. 6 and Monday, Dec. 9
  • FINAL DRAFT: Due (via website/email) by 11:59 pm on Monday, Dec. 9


OPTION #1: Creative Project with Artist's Statement
  • Complete a creative project that involves digital media in some way. Aim to spend 3-5 hours on this project. If this is an extension of a previous creative project, it should be at least twice as extensive.
  • Write an "Artist's Statement" to accompany the project of at least 1200 words. You need to explicitly reference at least three of the required texts for this class.  Only one of these references can be the same quotation or reference previously used in an earlier assignment. (You can reference broad ideas with new quotations or paraphrases, but only one can be exactly the same.)
  • The "Artist's Statement" should cover: 1) How you completed the project, with technical details if relevant. 2) What your motivation was. What you were trying to communicate or comment upon. 3) How the project relates to topics covered in this class. Use the readings to analyze your own project and discuss its relevance in the history and theory of digital culture.


OPTION #2: Longer Digital Essay
  • Write an essay of at least 2000 words. If this is an extension of a previous essay, no more than approximately one paragraph should be taken verbatim from the earlier essay. (Previous ideas can be used, but should be rewritten and revised into this new essay.)
  • You need to explicitly reference at least three of the required texts for this class.  Only one of these references can be the same quotation or reference previously used in an earlier assignment. (You can reference broad ideas with new quotations or paraphrases, but only one can be exactly the same.)
  • Your essay needs at least four digital artifacts (links, pictures, etc.).
  • Your essay can take one of many different forms: 1) Research Paper (research a topic of relevance to this class; should include at least three reputable outside sources in addition to class texts). 2) Personal Essay (write in greater detail about a personal experience that relates to digital media). 3) Textual Analysis (analyze a particular digital object using analytical tools, such as description and interpretation of visual design, interactivity, and media experience; does not have to use outside sources).
  • Make sure your essay has a main idea and balances specific details with broader ideas.


OPTION #3: Website Revision with Designer's Statement
  • Complete a major revamping of your personal (Domain of One's Own) website. This will likely involve the creation of subdomains with different template styles, the addition of a series of pages, the redesign of existing pages, and the creation of additional online spaces for your personal work. Here's a link to the online instructions for doing some of these things from the Domain/Writing Program people.
  • Write an "Designer's Statement" to accompany the project of at least 1200 words. You need to explicitly reference at least three of the required texts for this class.  Only one of these references can be the same quotation or reference previously used in an earlier assignment. (You can reference broad ideas with new quotations or paraphrases, but only one can be exactly the same.)
  • The "Designer's Statement" should cover: 1) A description of the changes and additions to your website. 2) What your design goals were. What experience were you trying to create for the imagined user of your website? Who did you imagine as an ideal user of your site? 3) How the design of your website relates to topics covered in this class. Use the readings to analyze the structure/design of your own website and discuss how it relates to the history and theory of digital culture.

Digital Essay #3: Industry Analysis

DUE SUNDAY, NOV. 17 AT 5:00 PM

(Publish to your website and send me the link via email before the deadline)

Assignment: 
  • Write a 700-1000 word essay that discusses the impact of (a) digital technology on one of the media industries (film, television, video games, or music).
  • You must cite/reference/discuss two readings from our class; at least one must be one that you haven't referenced in previous assignments.
  • Must have at least 3 non-text digital artifacts, such as hyperlinks, images, or video.
  • Make sure you include both specific details and broader conclusions/argument. For the specific details, you might want to analyze a particular film, show, digital technique, online space, etc., rather than trying to talk about the whole industry. At the same time, you want to make sure your argument in the essay has implications that are broader than one particular text, even if they don't speak to the media or the digital as a whole.

Some Ideas
  • How a particular digital visual effect (motion capture, MASSIVE, CGI) changes the experience/production of movies. The uncanny valley? Film as a composited medium?
  • How social media is changing our experience with television.
  • How YouTube is the future of television.
  • How digital means allow films/shows/media to be distributed and shared in a new way.

Creative Project #2: Fan Creation

DUE SUNDAY, NOV. 3 AT 5:00 PM 

(Publish to your website and send me the link via email before the deadline)

Assignment: Complete a creative project that in some way comments upon, adds to, or repurposes something that has a fan following.  
Your project can be a tribute, a parody, a deconstruction, a documentation, or something else entirely.
The object of fandom could be media-related (a particular film, TV show, video game, musical group, etc.), but could be something else (a company, a sports team, a genre, a movement, a politician or political party).

Project consists of 2 parts: 

The Creative Part
  • No length/size requirement, should take 1-3 hours to complete
  • Should be posted on your website, either in its entirety (in the form of photos, screenshots, etc.) or as a link (to Twitter, YouTube, etc.). Some (or most) of the project can be experiential or not primarily web-based, but there should be some kind of documentation that you can include on your site (such as photos or illustrations).
The Analytical Part
  • 700-1000 words
  • Must have substantive references/discussions of at least 2 of our class readings; at least one must be one that you haven't referenced in previous assignments.
  • Should include: description/explanation of what your project was/what you did; explanation of the relationship between your project and the object of fandom and what you were trying to say in your project; explanation of how this project fits into our readings/what we have been discussing in class
Ideas
  • Cosplay--dress up (or have friends dress up) like favorite characters/reenact scenes for the camera
  • Song vid--create a video tribute (could use still or moving images)
  • Fan memes
  • Mashup/remix--imagine the combination of any two popular culture objects
  • Fan fiction
  • Imagined social media presence of character
  • What Would [Insert Object of Fandom Here] Do?

Digital Essay #2: Personal Essay

DUE SUNDAY, OCT. 20 AT 5:00 PM


(Publish to your website and send me the link via email before the deadline)

Assignment: 
  • Write a 700-1000 word essay that discusses your own personal experience with identity in the digital world.
  • You must cite/reference/discuss two readings from our class; at least one must be one that you haven't referenced in previous assignments.
  • Must have at least 3 non-text digital artifacts, such as hyperlinks, images, or video.


Possible Themes: (you can also design your own related topic)
  • Discuss a digital communication platform* that allows you to express something about yourself that would be hard to do in another medium.
  • … that allows you to experiment with different identities.
  • … that encourages you to act differently than you do in your nondigital life.
  • Discuss a form of digital media that reflects something of your life that traditional media neglects.
  • Do you feel that digital media increase the possibilities for interpersonal communication, or instead distances us and makes us less adept at personal communication?

* By "digital communication platform," I mean any digital means of communication or expression. This might include social media (Facebook, Twitter); communications technologies (Skype, FaceTime, email, texting, smart/mobile phones); particular websites or services (YouTube, Instagram, Netflix); particular media objects or forms (video games, web series, memes, etc.).

Creative Project #1: Playful Commentary on the Digital

DUE SUNDAY, OCT. 6 AT 5:00 PM 

(Publish to your website and send me the link via email before the deadline)

Assignment: Complete a creative project that makes a playful commentary on the digital medium.  
Follow the advice of Vejby and Wittkower in “Spectacle 2.0”: “Play! Repurpose! Subvert! Appropriate!"

Project consists of 2 parts: 

The Creative Part
  • No length/size requirement, should take 1-3 hours to complete
  • Should be posted on your website, either in its entirety (in the form of photos, screenshots, etc.) or as a link (to Twitter, YouTube, etc.)
The Analytical Part
  • 700-1000 words
  • Must have substantive references/discussions of at least 2 of our class readings that are non Murray’s “Affordances” chapter or Ch. 1 of Manovich (you can also reference these, but it will not count toward your 2 required)
  • Should include: description/explanation of what your project was/what you did; explanation of what commentary/criticism of the digital medium you were trying to make and how your project allowed you to make it; explanation of how this commentary fits into our readings/what we have been discussing in class
Ideas
  • Satirical Facebook profile
  • Satirical Twitter account
  • Video remix
  • Create a new series of memes

Digital Essay #1: "Digital Media Analysis"

DUE SUNDAY, SEPT. 22 AT 5:00 PM

  • Publish and email the link to me before due date/time

  • Write 700-1000 words analyzing a digital media object in relation to Murray and/or Manovich’s qualities of new media

  • “Object” can be a website, an application, software, a game, an interface, etc. Choose something narrow enough you can do justice to it in 1000 words.

  • Must make reference to at least two “qualities” of new media as described by Murray and/or Manovich

  • Must have at least 3 non-text digital artifacts, such as hyperlinks, images, or video

TIPS
  • It’s okay to argue with Murray and Manovich (aka, use the digital object to challenge their theory); more basic application is okay too, but you want to use their theory to help to further understand the object you choose

  • Some of the essay will be a close description of (the relevant aspects of) your object

  • Be specific about what your object is (i.e., which version?)

Personal "Domain of One's Own" Website

FIRST DEADLINE: Friday, Sept. 13 at 11:59 pm