Junior Seminar: Digital Storytelling


Professor Jamie Skye Bianco

Spring 2013, University of Pittsburgh

Mondays, 6-8:30PM, G26 CL

ENGLIT 1900-1180 (#23968)

Office Hours: here

Office Location: 501m CL (enter through 501)



Course Description
Course Schedule
Course Blog: Post-Print Fictions
Course Expectations
Student Websites
Students Home
Spikenlilli Home



Schedule (subject to Change)

January 7:


Introduction
How stories are "told"


Seminar:

Telling stories: platforms, milieu, constraints, materiality

Getting started with course materials: twitter, blog

Designing the syllabus collaboratively; crowdsourcing our stories

January 14:


Raw Shark Texts: the materiality of print play


Static Web Design & Working with Images
:
HTML5, CSS, DreamWeaver, Photoshop

 

DIY vs. The Schoolmaster

Homework:

Read:

Raw Shark Texts (ch. 1-23 (through pp 235)).

Complete HTML/XHTML tutorials for W3Schools.

Recommended: Complete Adobe Photoshop Tutorial

Do:

Set up your UNIX account for your website

Blog post #1 due by Sunday, January 13 at 5p

Submit your idea for the syllabus on the blog by Saturday, January 12 at 12p.

Comment on at least three of your peers' fabulous textideas by Sunday January 13 at midnight.

January 21:

Holiday: no class


see below for homework

 

January 28:

DigiStory: Post Print Fictions (after the internet books....)
Static Web Design II, Style: Dreamweaver, HTML, HTML5, CSS, Photoshop

Seminar:

Discuss Sharks: questions of print literature influenced by the internet

Your class websites are up!!

Do:

Finish in-class Shark photoshop assignment

Finish Raw Shark Texts

Complete HTML5/XHTML tutorials at Channel 9 Intro & Channel 9 HTML5 (Channel 9 is especially helpful for PC users)

Complete W3Schools Tutorials for CSS

Complete tutorials for Dreamweaver

Author your fully functional homepage (HTML & content) for your static website -- uploaded & live (Dreamweaver FTP help) (HTML tags)

Set up your Pitt Unix account

Tweet your website URL to Prof. Bianco

Post your website with all assignments using Pitt server (see "Technology" doc in dropbox but do not remove it!)

Import CC license and educational "fair use" clause to website

Blog post #2 due by Sunday at 5pm on January 27 on course blog.

February 4:

Hypertextualizing: Queering the corpus of print(ed) fictions; ink stains and the corporeal "media" of print

Seminar:

Discuss TEXT (Raw Shark & Jackson's), HYPERTEXTINGS, INK: questions of the 'body' of print fiction shaped by the internet & other millenial things

Your class websites are updated and you are (technologically) ready to compose a hypertextual response to our readings!!

Do:

Shelley Jackson: "My Body & a Wunderkammer", Skin [Ineradicable Stain](look through entire project and watch the video)

Deleuze & Guattari: Intro, Foreward & "Rhizome" from Mille Plateaux

Review W3Schools Tutorials for HTML/HTML5 & W3Schools Tutorials for CSS

Review tutorials for Dreamweaver & Photoshop

Photo assignment: Corporealize the Word (10 cultivated & uploaded pics)

Blog post #3 due by Sunday at 5pm on February 3 on course blog.

February 11:

Hypertext II: Hypertextuality, CyberText, 2nd gen Elit, 2nd gen post-print

Seminar:

Discuss Digital TEXT (Jackson, Joyce & Morrisey/Talley's), Hypertext/Cybertext: questions of temporality, presence, affect and materiality in early digital storytelling

Your class websites are updated and you are (technologically) ready to compose a hypertextual response to our readings!!

Do:

Michael Joyce: "Twelve Blue"

Judd Morrissey and Lori Talley: "The Jew's Daughter"

Espen Aarseth: "Ergodic Literature" from Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature

Jay David Bolter: "Hypertext and the Remediation of Print" from Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print

Photo assignment #2: Temporalize the Word (5 cultivated & uploaded pics)

Blog post #4 due by Sunday at 5pm on February 10 on course blog.

February 18:

Workshop I/Hypertext III: Get those assignments revised with in class hands-on revision

Seminar:

work through a full revision of all assignments and updating/improving your websites

 

February 25:

Hypertext IV: Hypertextuality, 2nd gen Elit, 2nd gen post-print, Reading Code + Text

Network Fiction & the end of Hypertext: Hypertextuality, Network Fiction, 2nd gen Elit, 2nd gen post-print, Reading Code + Text


Seminar:

Discuss Readings: questions of second generation hypertext, and reception/reading strategies for ELiterature & print literature influenced by the internet. Movement of digital texts. Begin network fiction/gamification of narrative. Continue discussing close reading of code+text.

Homework Due Today:

Oni Buchanan: "The Mandrake Vehicles"

William Gillespie, Scott Rettberg and Dirk Stratton, The Unknown Hypertext (read and listen--this is a big work so give it time)

Blog post #5 due by Sunday at 5pm on February 24 on course blog.

March 4:

Networked Fiction II: young adult and global narrative told in multimodal forms


Seminar:

Animated network fiction and the global narrative

Present your Midterm Composition

Resources: DMCA, Sound Formats (mp3), Image formats

Homework Due Today:

Kate Pullinger, Inanimate Alice

Kate Pullinger, et al, Flight Paths: a networked novel

Midterm Composition v.1.0 uploaded to your website by the start of class

Blog post #6 due by Sunday at 5pm on March 3 on course blog.

March 11:

Spring Break!

 

Work on revising your Midterm Composition

Find a provocative sound piece, soundscape, or podcast & post the link to this piece on twitter by Monday, March 11 at midnight

Get a head start on the digital works for class due next week

Make sure you have completed all assignments to date (remember that you must complete all assignments to pass the course!)

 

March 18:

Sound Works

Interactive Documentary

Seminar:

Non-fiction, Creative Non-fiction & Digital Media. Sound work and live action, interactive documentary (what do we hear when we listen to digital works)

Present your Midterm Composition 2.0

Resources: Brian Massumi, The Autonomy of Affect (from Parables of the Virtual)

Select a text for presentations

Homework Due Today:

Listen to: "The House on Loon Lake" and This American Life: 20 Acts in 60 Minutes (2003, NPR) [mp3 pay download or free ... if you find it :)]& "Apron Strings of Savannah" from The Moth

Listen to soundscapes: Soundwalk (pay attention to use of text + image + sound), London Sound Survey, the Smalls Street Sounds

Listen to all posted (twitter) sound pieces posted by peers

Bear 71 (watch, listen, interact with entire site/project)

Midterm Composition v.2.0 uploaded to your website by the start of class

Blog post #7 due by Sunday at 5pm on March 17 on course blog.

March 25:

Serious Games & Machinimma: what can you do when you play with videogames rather than play videogames?

Seminar:

Machinimma: making movies with game engines...

Serious games: cause geeks making us play to think!

Present your Midterm Composition 3.0 (If required)

Homework Due Today:

Watch Red v. Blue, Seasons 1 & 2.

Play (at Games for Change): Phone Story, dys4ia, Inside the Haiti Earthquake + 1 more game of your choice

Initial Proposal for Final Project

Blog post #8 due by Sunday at 5pm on March 24 on course blog.

 

April 1:

Deformation and cut-outs: post-print fiction II

Seminar:

What is post-print, print fiction? Deformation and the material text... revisitation

Today's April Fool's Day Bonus

Homework Due Today:

Read: Tree of Codes (Jonathan Safran Foer) (available at bookstore)

Revised Proposal for Final Project/First drafts

Blog post #9 due by Sunday at 5pm on March 31 on course blog.

April 8:

Platforms: what we read, & watch ... how we communicate

Seminar:

The open platform... the medium is the message?

Homework Due Today:

Reddit, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter

Complete first draft for Final Project

Blog post #10 due by Sunday at 5pm on April 7 on course blog.

April 15:

Showcase: Present your Final Project

You MUST BE PRESENT ON THIS DAY

 

Final Project Presentations

Final Project Complete and uploaded

 

April 22:

NO CLASS: FINAL DEADLINE FOR ALL COURSEWORK

Final Projects Due

 

Final Project Due