HOME • YOUR PAGES • SYLLABUS/SCHEDULE •   ASSIGNMENTS • COURSE RESOURCES • FEEDBACK

 

 

 

 

S  Y  L  L  A  B  U  S 

 

 4930_syllabus.doc 

 

OVERVIEW

 

This course is expansion of the principles of interactive multimedia presented in MMD 3711, Interactive Multimedia. Class projects explore the potential of interactive media to communicate, express, and challenge cultural ideas. The course seeks to consolidate critical, technical, and design skills. 

 

Advanced Interactive Multimedia is an extension of techniques and aesthetic foundations established in previous courses in the Interactive Multimedia sequence. We will review and expand our technical skills, and push our production into a variety of visual and sonic frameworks.

Technically, the course presupposes a high comfort level with production tools in all digital media: web (Dreamweaver), digital imagery (PhotoShop, Illustrator), digital video (Final Cut Pro, Quicktime Pro), audio (Audacity, GarageBand, SoundHack), and most critically, interactive programming (Actionscript, Flash). While we will review these applications as needed, you should not hesitate to revisit the basics through the tutorials available on the wiki for Interactive Multimedia (MMD 3711) (http://fau3711.pbwiki.com/course_resources).

If you have not taken MMD 3711, or if you have not had extensive experience with Flash (or other multimedia production environments like Processing, Java, or Max/Jitter), don’t freak out - - we will be starting Flash from the beginning, but taking a different approach than we did in 3711.

In the critical and aesthetic realm, you should have a good working understanding of major art and cultural movements of the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st centuries. We may need to go back further at times, all the way to the Western European Renaissance, and beyond that, to the Greeks (ca. 450 BC).  Again, additional resources are available online to help bring you up to speed in various topics, and unlike prevailing academic attitudes, this course encourages initial investigations of topics on Wikipedia and other online projects like Project Gutenberg and ubu.com.

Your assignments will include:

•    A set of three interactive media manifestations of this description, in the form of templates for generative graphics, 3D environment, and random media generation you will repopulate and expand with your own material.

•    A Recipebook/Sketchbook: This is a set of files (text, image, video, flash) that document your particular interests and goals, especially how you want to move your digital media production beyond simply the display of (predominantly visual) information on a screen or screens. It’s a database of materials for you to use in your interactive explorations.

•    A final performative project in which you will participate, and for which you will create your interactive media. It’s a chance to use what you’ve collected in your sketchbook, too.

 

ASSIGNMENTS, GRADING, EXPECTATIONS

	Assignment 1 – Generative Graphics	16%
	Assignment 2 – XML + 3D	16%
	Assignment 3 – Experimental Audio and Random Delivery	16%
	Final Project: Performative Event	26%
	Media Recipe book/ Sketchbook (media files)	16%
	Attendance	10%

Assignments grades are based on the quality of work and timeliness of assignment submission. All projects need to be finished before the start of the class in which they are due and any assignments turned in after the class is over are considered late (5% off the assignment grade)

Ten percent of your grade will be your class attendance. You are expected to attend all classes for the full duration of the class.

 

GRADE SCALE, EVALUATION CRITERIA

A Range (90-100)	Exceeds Expectations in ALL areas. Conceptual: Concepts engaging, thorough, related to class theme/topic, and coherent; Original thinking, moves beyond assignment bounds, experiments, takes work to a high level; Design: Well thought through design, innovative, inventive, consistent design elements; Presentation and Style: Careful attention to detail, 100% complete, technically superior, no errors in spelling, compression, graphics, presentation, stays within exercise limits, hands in assignment in the manner requested by professor (i.e. posts to web and turned in locally before class due), and exceeds goals of exercise.
B range (80-89)	Conceptual: Complete assignments with originality, related to class theme/topic; Design: Mostly clear design and interaction, some problems with design and interface; Presentation and Style: Shows technical knowledge, but may have one or two technical glitches, meets goals of exercise, stays within exercise limits, hands in assignment in the manner requested.
C range (70-79)	Conceptual: Unoriginal or common sense thinking, only somewhat related to class theme/topic; Design: Inconsistencies in design, lack of attention to detail; Presentation and Style: lack of thoroughness, does not meet goals of exercise, structural and technical problems, spelling errors, does not hand in assignment in manner requested.
D range (65-69)	Falls below expectations in most categories. Minimal effort expended on the work.
F (64 – less)	Fails to meet requirements of Assignment/Not turned in on time
*All work turned in for this class must be created for this class alone No assignments from previous courses can be accepted, and “joint” assignments completed for more than one class are not acceptable unless prior written arrangements are made between the student and both professors involved. Failure to comply with this expectation will result in a failing grade.
While we recognize digital appropriation, re-mediation, and re-imagination of existing work as acceptable and often politically or socially subversive art practices, blatant, intentional plagiarism will not be tolerated, and will be handled according to FAU Academic Guidelines

 

CLASS TIME

 

Class time will generally alternate between Lecture/Discussion and Production/Studio. During Lecture/Discussion portion, monitors and smartphones should be turned OFF.

 

 

COURSE SITE – http://fau4930.pbwiki.com

 

This is a wiki site  - you will be creating your own project page, and linking it “YOUR PAGES” on the wiki. In addition, you can comment on any other page of the wiki and add your own links to your comments.

You can build additional pages on your own, too, but please use the ‘basic template’ page as a template if you do, and please limit the amount of visual material you upload directly to the wiki site. Of course, you can always embed links to media you’ve uploaded to video (YouTube, Vimeo, Daily Motion), digital image (Flickr, photobucket, slide.com), and sound (anywhere.fm, archive.org) sites.

You can link to pages hosted under your own domain name, too. This is where I would like you to host your Flash material, and your .mp3 material for the random media generator projects. If you don’t have a domain and hosting, go to the tutorials on the 3711 wiki site. We’ve been using NearlyFreeSpeech.net for domain and hosting services, and awardspace.com for free hosting of media up to about 1MB (including Flash files, but not .mp3 or .mov files).

 

TEXTBOOKS - Suggested

The following texts are not required, but may be useful resources:

• VJ Art and Visual Culture by D-Fuse.
• Flash Math Creativity and Flash Video Creativity (various contributors), Friends of Ed Publishers (FMC is in its 2^nd edition; either edition will be fine).
• Flash 8 Advanced – Visual QuickPro Guide - $39.95. The introductory text in this series spends about 300 pages covering basic drawing and animation tools - - again, this will be covered in my tutorials and some additional material, so if you want to buy a Flash book, get the Advanced one; also the O’Reily Series book on Actionscript is a great resource (when you’re ready for it . . .)

An abundance of media resources – books, online materials, DVDs –can be found on the COURSE RESOURCES page of the wiki site.

 

A NEW APPROACH – IN PROGRESS

While we’re working with Flash in this course, start learning PROCESSING (free download at www.processing.org )- - this is the direction for advanced interactivity. Go to www.createdigitalmotion.com for more tutorials For Fall ’09 and beyond . . .

 

COURSE SCHEDULE OVERVIEW

WEEK 1	Jan6                      Jan 8	Performative Media: Beyond Screens/Screens Plus. Begin paper-based sketchbooks. Flash: Review of Actionscript (Properties, Variables, Functions; x, y, scale, alpha, rotation). Designing abstract graphics for generative work, research Flash Math Creativity site. Flash: Generative functions.
WEEK II	Jan 13                        Jan 15	Performative Media Ensembles: Histories and Design Suggestions. Repopulating FMC files. Review LoadMovie and LoadMovieNum; Calling and triggering functions (onKeyPress functions) * * * SKETCHBOOK(s) CHECKPOINT * * *
WEEK III	Jan 20      Jan 22	Studio Day Generative Graphics Due (Assignment 1). Performative Media Software Salad Bar. Begin video-based sketchbook.
WEEK IV	Jan 27                     Jan 29	XML and Dynamic Media basics. Preparing data for XML loading. Presenting the Flash 3D environment. * * * SKETCHBOOK(s) CHECKPOINT * * *
WEEK V	Feb 3 Feb 5	Work on 3D/XML assignment. Work on 3D/XML assignment.
WEEK VI	Feb 10 Feb 12	XML/3D project Due (Assignment 2). Share in class. Review sketchbooks SEA-kraft™: subversive experimental audio. Software options. Experimenting with Audio Software (in-class audio studio)
WEEK VII	Feb 17   Feb 19	Flash and Audio: timers and templates. .swf as audio file format. In-class audio studio. * * * SKETCHBOOK(s) CHECKPOINT * * *
WEEK VIII	Feb 24 Feb 26	The Random function. Arrays. Subversive Experimental Audio Due (Assignment 3). Share in class. Review sketchbooks
WEEK IX	Mar 3 - 5	SPRING BREAK
WEEK IX	Mar 10 Mar 12	Text: The Final Frontier. Integrating text and verbal forms into a performative media environment. Spoken word, poetry slam word jazz, sound poetry, voice-overs, sprechstimme, text-based improvisation. Performative Media Brain Dance: coming up with ideas for our collaborative final project. Think about your role(s) in the performance – real time or ‘reel’ time?
WEEK X	Mar 17 Mar 19	Audio / Visual Hardware and Possibilities: cameras, microphones, audio mixers, video mixers, loudspeakers, projectors, screens. In-class improv / rehearsal.
WEEK XI	Mar 24 Mar 26	Historical Context: Duchamp and Dada In-class improv / rehearsal. * * * FINAL SKETCHBOOK(s) CHECKPOINT * * *
WEEK XII	Mar 31 April 2	Historical Context: Cage and Fluxis In-class improv / rehearsal.
WEEK XIII	April 7 April 9	Historical Context: Brakhage, Warhol, Kubrick, etc. In-class rehearsal.
WEEK XIV	April 14 April 16	Historical Context: Cold Cut, Burning Man, and more contemporary notions. In-class rehearsal.
WEEK XV	April 21 April 23	In-class rehearsal. In-class rehearsal.
FINALS	April 28-30	PRESENT FINAL PROJECTS (Public Performance)

 

Suggested Tutorials for Performative Media

Actionscript Review (Properties, Variables, Functions; LoadMovie, LoadMovieNum; events and event handlers)

2D Sequenced Graphics (x, y, scale, alpha, rotation)

XML Basics

3D Template

Audio Design

Arrays

Random Functions

Timer Functions

Iterative/Generative Graphics

Video Manipulation (Hardware, Software)