Terms and Concepts

Here's a short list of terms and concepts that we covered in class and which you should think about when writing your papers. I'll add more as I think of them:

• artificial intelligence
• avatar
• broadcasting
• "cognitive style" (i.e. in Tufte)
• collaborative writing
• collage
• combinatory literature (i.e. the Oulipo, choose your own adventure, etc.)
• "computer holding power" (i.e. in Turkle)
• concrete / visual poetry
• constraint
• cut-up
• dematerialization of communication
• "discrete state machines" (i.e. in Turing)
• duration
• genre
• GUI (graphical user interface)
• HTML (hypertext markup language)
• hybrid forms
• hypertext
• indeterminacy
• information flows
• installation art
• interactivity
• juxtaposition
• mash-ups
• materiality (of text)
• meme
• parsing
• programming language (BASIC, C++, Java, etc.)
• Renaissance / Cartesian space
• technological determinism

Final Presentations

Just as a reminder, what I am looking for is:

• How clearly you present your "thesis" and set up the project for the rest of the class to follow. You should be careful to define new terminology you will be using, even if it seems like simple concepts like "cool," if you are using the word to mean a specific thing.
• How you are using the facts and data that you have collected to back up your argument. Also, how you are using concepts from our reading in your paper.
• How you are incorporating your blog into your project. (Some of you are using PowerPoint, but you really don't have to -- I really wanted you to use your blog, even if it seems a bit less effecient.) If you are showing videos, make sure that you don't take up too much time with them and that you make it clear why this is serving your thesis.
• How much you are "telling your story" to the class. Please don't just read off your notes -- it's ok to have notes, of course, but direct your statements to the class. I know that you might be nervous about this, but just try as hard as you can. I don't expect everyone to be America's Next Idol up there.
• There will be a question and answer section. Everyone in the class must try to ask a few questions. And you all must PAY ATTENTION to the speaker, it is rude not to.

If you are bringing in your own computer to do your presentation, please make sure that everything is running fine on it. You might want to hook it up to the podium before class to see that it projects correctly.

DON'T BE ABSENT ON THE DAY OF YOUR PRESENTATION. Let me know now if you think you won't be able to present on your day so I can put someone else there.

Here are the things presentation dates.

Tuesday, Dec. 5
Jordan Silver
Christopher Teja
Dan Longstreth
Danielle Henry
Darlene Dobkowski
Drew Synosky
Edward Hendler
Emily Wray
Erika Watson

Thursday, Dec. 7
Jessica Muenker
Jessica Pikolycky
Bryan Sharp
Kate Savacool
Katie Flannelly
Kendra Biehler
Kristin Braun
LaSharon Henderson
Laura Law

Tuesday, Dec. 12
Michelle Casey
Nicholas Leonetti
Nicholas Nademus
Rachael Finley
Rachel Guevara
Scott Stagliano
Stephen DeCicco
Tammar West
Tara Brochon
Whitney Artis

Freewrite #6

Here are the pieces I'd like you to look at in relation to the articles you were supposed to have read for last class. Watch the videos, read the descriptions, etc. to get a full understanding of the pieces.

The freewrite is due Thursday, November 30th.

Basically, the freewrite is either one of two things:
1) describe your own "interactive installation" using the terminology (pick out phrases, etc., like we do in our class assignments) of the two articles assigned, but including details on how you think it could be done technologically and what you think your piece means, etc. (you can also draw pictures to help describe it), or
2) pick two of the pieces below and describe them using the terminology (words, phrases, etc.) of the two assigned articles; also, give a response to how you feel they work as art, etc and compare it to things you have seen in real life (like that television show we watched bits of)

Remember that you HAVE TO SHOW ME YOU READ THE ARTICLES to make this a good freewrite.

Here are the pieces. I might send out more as I come across them, but these are the first ones that came to mind.

The Legible City and other works
Jeffrey Shaw
link

Other works by Camille Utterback (and "Text Rain" if you didn't see it in class)
Camille Utterback
link

Stream of Consciousness: An Interactive Garden
link

Videoplace
Myron W. Krueger
link

Scott Snibbe
Interactive Video Wall
link

Homographies
link

Insecurity Camera
link

Here are the articles:

• Alan Kaprow, “Happenings in the New York Scene”
• Myron W. Krueger, “Responsive Environments”

For our last two classes, we will continue with the in-class presentations. But the first half hour of the class will be spent reviewing the final two reading assignments, which are the following:

• Marshall McLuhan, “The Medium is the Message”
• J. David Boulter, “Seeing and Writing”

Adding RSS Feed to Blogger Blog

I've figured this out, and it's quite easy.

1. Find the RSS feed for the website that you want to add to your blog. Usually, all non-commercial websites that have frequently appearing new stories (like Slashdot) have RSS feeds. In the case of Slashdot, it's a little hard to find, but if you do a text search for "rss" on the page, you'll see that the link for the RSS feed as at the very bottom, on the right.

For Blogger blogs, the RSS feed is the URL of the blog that you want to get the feed from, followed by "/feeds/posts/default/". So, for instance, if the blog you want to get a feed from is called http://ww.thisismyblog.blogspot.com, then the RSS feed will be http://ww.thisismyblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/

2. Go to the Template tab to the first section, "Add and Arrange Page Elements." Click on "Add a Page Element" in the area where you want to add the feed.

3. The fourth down in the first column is "Feed." Click "Add to Blog."

4. On the next window, paste in the RSS feed to the box provided and click "Continue." In a few seconds, you should have the first five stories from the blog you chose appear. Click "Save Changes."

Open Source Music

When one speaks of 'open source culture,' they are typically referring to the social conditions created in an atmosphere of sharing. Open source software is not only freely available, its source code is also revealed to encourage collective authorship, improvement, and personalization. The increasing popularity of such publishing contexts has led to a broader movement of activists, coders, lawyers, artists, and others questioning contemporary copyright law, and challenging the 'code' that prohibits collaboration. American sound artist Demon Doctor carries these concerns over into his work, equating music with language and sounds with letters, ultimately asking 'who owns the alphabet.' For his new album, 'Onliness v1.0.1,' the artist sampled public archives of ethnographic recordings, found phonography, and film scores, and reprocessed them using analog and digital synthesizers to create twenty-one new brick-hop and trancehall tracks. 'Onliness' premieres at Boston's Sam! son Projects on Saturday, November 11th, where Demon Doctor will collaborate with DJ Spase1, in a series of live interpretive mashups, carrying the open source ideal into a performative realm. Needless to say, the entire album is freely downloadable, so readers can remix the tracks for themselves. - Marisa Olson

http://www.onliness.org

Blog Review and In-Class Presentations Notes

This is a reminder that I'm going to be reviewing your blogs on Monday to see whether you have been collecting information on your final papers and presentations. We're getting close to the due dates of both of these, so you have to get hopping on it now. I will be grading the blogs, not simply evaluating them.

Your final papers will have to reflect that you have read the material we have been covering. If I find that you write a paper on a topic that relates to, for example, video games or electronically created music, but don't reflect a grasp of the material we have covered, then I will be disappointed. You have to ask questions if you don't understand something.

Also, I'm making a new rule regarding attendance. If you leave before the end of class, it will be counted as a late. If you don't return after the break, it will be counted as an absent. I've been pretty generous so far about attendance and latenesses, so please don't take advantage of that. (Remember that there is a classroom participation part of the grade; if I feel that you are not paying attention, then your grade will be hurt).

Regarding in-class presentations: these are not things to blow off. Three of you didn't show up for your presentations last class which made for difficulties. If I don't find that you are more responsible concerning the reading and the presentations, I'll be forced to having quizzes and all kinds of stuff toward the end of the semester, since I don't get the sense that many of you are taking the class -- the terminology I put on the board, the issues we cover in the reading, etc. -- all that seriously.

Your in-class presentations must have the following:
a general explanation of who created the piece, what the piece does, and the technology used

• if it involves text, then you should isolate a passage that you plan to read as an example of the writing
• if it is a conceptual piece, then you have to come up with a way to explain the concept (for instance, if the piece seems to be some form of experimental poetry, explain its relationship to normal poetry; if the piece seems to be making fun of something else, like a satire, then explain what the target of the satire is)
• you should be prepared to answer some questions from me and the audience

This is the reading for the next class:

• Tues 14: NMR, Alan Kaprow, “Happenings in the New York Scene” Myron W. Krueger, “Responsive Environments” “Text Rain” by Camille Utterbeck: http://www.camilleutterback.com/
• Thur 16: NMR, Augusto Boal, “Theater of the Oppresssed”

In-Class Presentations

Thur 9: Electronic Literature Disk

Whitney Artis
Cruising, Ingrid Ankerson and Megan Sapnar
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Alison Berger
Urbanalities, babel and escha
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Kendra Biehler
open.ended, Daniel C. Howe and Aya Karpinska
Strings, Dan Waber
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Kristin Braun
my body — a Wunderkammer, Shelley Jackson
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Tues 14: Electronic Literature Disk

Tara Brochon
Faith, Robert Kendall
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Stephen DeCicco Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw, Donna Leishman http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Darlene Dobkowski
RedRidinghood, Donna Leishman
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Rachael Finley
Self Portrait(s) [as Other(s)], Talan Memmott
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Katie Flannelly
Stud Poetry, Marko Niemi
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Thur 16: Electronic Literature Disk

Tammar West
Project for Tachistoscope [Bottomless Pit], William Poundstone
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

LaSharon Henderson
Inanimate Alice, Episode 1: China, Kate Pullinger and babel
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Danielle Henry
myBALL, Shawn Rider
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Laura Law
Galatea, Emily Short
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Christopher Teja
Regime Change, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, David Durand, Brion Moss, and Elaine Froehlich
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/

Tues 21: Weird Interfaces

Jessica Muenker
The Blonk Organ
http://www.jaapblonk.com/Organ/blonk/organpre.html

The Narrative You Anticipate You May Produce, Thom Swiss
http://bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/swiss/narrative/

Nicholas Nademus
The Inkblot Record, Dan Farrell and Brian Kim Stefans
http://www.arras.net/RNG/director/inkblot/index.htm

Jessica Pikolycky
What We Will, John Cayley, Giles Perring, Douglas Cape
http://www.z360.com/what/

Tues 28: Weird Art/Literature

Bryan Sharp
Dagmar Chili Pitas
http://dagmar_chili.pitas.com/

Jordan Silver
Get a Google Poem
http://www.leevilehto.net/google/patterns.asp

Edward Hendler
The Dullest Blog in the World
http://www.wibsite.com/wiblog/dull/

Drew Synosky
The World's Smallest Blog
http://www.guimp.com/blog.html

Thur 30: Art/Resource Sites

Dan Longstreth
Born Magazine
http://www.bornmag.org/

Erika Watson
Poems That Go
http://www.poemsthatgo.com/

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

Emily Wray
Turbulence
http://www.turbulence.org/

Research and Other 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/

Dark Basic Programming Language
http://darkbasic.thegamecreators.com/

Blitz Basic Programming Language
http://www.blitzbasic.com/

Second Life
http://secondlife.com/

Virtual Worlds with Free Access
http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/info/freeaccess.shtml

Commodore 64 Emulation Webite
http://www.the-commodore-zone.com/java64/java64.htm