Special Subject: Neighborhood Narratives Summer 2011, Drexel University COM 380 Mondays 6:00 – 9:00 PSA Building Instructor: Hana Iverson Email: hanaiver@gmail.com Phone: 646-207-0759 Office Hours: On day of class, by appointment. Skype available appointments on other days. | ||
Overview | Neighborhood Narratives uses alternative technologies, basic mobile recording devices, on-line open-source tools such as blogging, folksonomies and Google Maps along with analog resources such as sketch maps to produce context rich stories that portray the neighborhood. It explores the real and metaphorical potentialities of mapping, walking, and wayfinding as methods of developing attachments, connecting, and constructing narratives in a virtual and spatial locality. Neighborhood Narratives offers a specific and unique situation from which to critically consider the locative arts and locative media in relation to the context of the city and to explore new and old models of communication, community and exchange. The project invites public participation, engages interactively, and encourages participants to consider their vocabulary of movement in space. Neighborhood Narratives does not obligate sophisticated technology or design skills into its methodology. Instead it asks students to conceptually understand some of the processes of the mediated city such as negotiating geographic, political, ideological spaces and reconsidering the issues that they deal with in everyday life – the things they carry with them, the cell phones they use, the soft city they walk in, etc. To reconstruct their everyday assumptions in order to use them as a vocabulary and set of tools for looking at themselves and the world creatively and to articulate a personal vision in that form as a final project. Students in this class will participate as a team in the creation and production of a Powelton/Mantua/Belmont Neighborhood Narrative project. By participating in all aspects of this project, they will get a hands-on approach to addressing and solving the design and content questions of a transmedia art project. No prior technological expertise is required. | |
Bibliography | ||
Format | The class is 3 hours long once a week. The class will introduce methods of collecting data and artifacts, internet and field observation, mapping and scoring, "show and tell" and the examination of project presentations with rigorous discussion. Mobile city-wide exploration (public transportation, on foot) will include the presentation of the final project on location in the city. The class will also engage in peer dialogue and interdisciplinary teamwork, to extend the breadth of a project through collaboration. Students will keep semester long blogs including observations, photos, video and audio recordings (where equipment and resources allow) - a personal diary of the Neighborhood Narrative experience. | |
Internet Access | All students are expected to have frequent, dependable access to the internet. It is essential that you have an active email account that you ACCESS FREQUENTLY, for email with faculty and with each other. IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU CREATE AND ACTIVELY MAINTAIN A BLOG. If you have any difficulties with either Internet access, your email account or your blog, please see the instructor after the first class. | |
Technology requirements | You will need some form of memory stick to save and transport your work. Access to a mobile phone and digital camera is recommended. | |
Readings | Readings will be PDF’s or web sites, available on line as listed. | |
Course costs | As expected with production courses, you may need to purchase supplies to produce your final project. Also, while it is not required, I would like to encourage you to use the communications features of your mobile phone: costs for voice calls and text messaging will depend on your phone plan. | |
Instructor Contact | The best way to reach me is by email. I am on campus once a week and am available to set up individual appointments, if requested. | |
Attendance and Lateness Policy | Attending the sessions outlined in the schedule is a requirement of this course. More than two unexcused absences will decrease the overall grade by one unit for each additional missed class. Five absences will result in a failing grade for the course. If you are going to be absent, please inform me by email at least 24 hours in advance. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to make up any work in a timely fashion. Three times arriving late will be considered as one unexcused absence. Being more than 10 minutes late will be counted as an absence. | |
Schedule of Classes and Assignments | |
SOME OF THE CLASSES MAY MEET ON-SITE - TBD | |
June. 20 | Introduction: What is Neighborhood Narratives? The history of the class, case studies. Outline of special project: Powelton/Mantua/Belmont neighborhood portrait. Laying out a wireframe design. Review of Cross/Walks: Weaving Fabric Row http://www.cross-walks.org/ Assigned Reading: The Neighborhood Narratives Project from http://hanaiverson.com/publications.html The Pathways of Locative Media: http://mobileinterfacetheory.com/introduction/ Assignment: Photo assignment: UrbanPoem/Invisible City http://hanaiverson.com/dvl.html: Powelton/Mantua/Belmont |
June. 27 | Introduction to Locative Media and Locative projects Psychogeography: One Block Radius (GlowLab) Case studies of Urban Research Projects: Proboscis Review of assignments. Further elaborate design ideas for overall project based on results of assignment. Assigned reading: http://mobileinterfacetheory.com/ch-2/ Locative-Media Artists in the Contested Aware City; Views from Above: Locative Narrative and the Landscape PDF Assignment: Capturing Sound. How-to, team sound projects. |
July 4 | No class |
July 11 | The Sonic Environment Presentation of sound projects, sound maps. Hipcast and other mobile sound authoring systems. Janet Cardiff, [murmur]Toronto + others The Physical Environment Review of sound projects Richard Long. Sculpture in the landscape, tagging. Sculpture, space and site specific Form made tangible. Introduction to line, shape, volume and texture. Religious, mythical and historical references, Image Making. Clarity and ambiguity, Abstraction Suggested Reading: Miwon Kwon, One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity; Introduction: Site-Specifics, Assigned Reading: Sarah Pink, Doing Sensory Ethnography Chapter 3: Perception, Place, Knowing, Memory, Imagination; Chapter 5 Articulating Emplaced Knowledge PDFs Assignment: Create psycho-geographic sound walks |
July 18 | Design Design, politics and economics. Why Design Now: http://exhibitions.cooperhewitt.org/Why-Design-Now/ Reviewing the projects from the Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial and assessing ideas that might be relevant to the Powelton Neighborhod project Review: Sound walks Brainstorm: Full design layout of final project, based on the results of the first assignments and best-case scenarios. Information Architecture; Interaction Design; User Experience Assigning roles/teams for final product. sound/image/web/map/psychogeography/ethnography/documentary Assigned Reading: Background on Powelton/Mantua/Belmont neighborhood; In-depth look at Why Design Now web-site Assignment: Team design layouts |
July 25 | Workshop Class presents key issues raised in neighborhood; evaluation of projects. Design scheme determined: Assignment: Working in the Powelton/Mantua/Belmont neighborhood Assigned Reading: Critical Vehicles, Krzystof Wodizcko |
Aug. 1 | Public Art. Kystof Wodizcko and “Public Address”. Public memorials, counter-memorials. Workshop: Assess the results of the week and continue to refine project Assigned Reading: TBD |
Aug. 8 | Workshop/Production Assess the results of the week and continue to refine project |
Aug. 15 | Workshop/Production Assess the results of the week and continue to refine project |
Aug. 22 | Testing Project on-site/Trouble-shooting Assignment: Fixing trouble/Re-test |
Aug. 29 | Final Evaluation/Critique Roundtable: invited guests Final Exam will be a Final-exam-manifesto. |
Evaluation and Assessment | |
Grading | Research, attendance and participation 35% In class assignments 30% Final project 35% |
Deadlines | Late assignments and exercises will not be tolerated. Failure to hand in an assignment by the due date and time will result in a zero grade for that assignment. |
Research, attendance and participation | Group work, communicating and sharing knowledge through discussions, posting to the class blog, in-class presentations, and overall student participation are an essential part of the process of understanding course material. Readings and blog postings are mandatory. Readings Prior to each class you will be required to complete a short reading and make notes of relevant points to bring up in class discussion. Blog postings Each week you will be required to a) make one post to your NEIGHBORHOOD NARRATIVES blog and b) to comment on at least one other student’s blog. Your post can be on: 1) a locative media project and your reaction to it or 2) a new media technology and how it relates to former ideas about photography (e.g. Spellbinder) or 3) if applicable, one of the required assignments. Solving frustrations is integral to the creative process! |
Assignments and Final project | The remit for the final project is to create an urban, on-site, locative (cell phone, GPS, mapping, sensory altering) media art project that engages visual as well as embodied (spatial + body) ideas. The assignments will provide you with the skills and knowledge required to realize your final project. |
Academic Integrity, Plagarism and Cheating | |
Students with Diasbilities | http://www.drexel.edu/oed/disabilityResources/disabilityResources/student_reg.html |
Course Drop Policy | http://www.drexel.edu/provost/policies/course_drop.asp |
Course Change Policy | PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGES AND ADDITIONS! |
No comments:
Post a Comment