100 McCaul St.
Toronto, Ontario
M5T 1W1
Faculty of Art
|
100 McCaul St. Toronto, Ontario M5T 1W1 |
Faculty of Art Office: Room 401
Telephone: 416.977.6000 ext 306
Course
Outline
Course Title: Virtual
Communities
Course Number: INTM 3B01
Room Number: 654, 665 Semester Offered: Fall
Course Meeting Time:
Tuesdays
Professor: Judith Doyle and Martha Ladly
Contact Information: judithdoyle@rogers.com mladly@faculty.ocad.ca
Meeting Time
Tuesdays,
Required Readings
Access to a Personal Computer is required for at least three hours per week for the adequate performance of assignments. The following software tools must be installed: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Web Browser, Web Authoring (Dream Weaver, Flash), PowerPoint and Word Processing. All of these software tools are installed in the classroom lab. In addition, access to digital image capture devices will be of benefit in this course. Digital video and still cameras can be borrowed from the AV Loans Dept. Students will be expected to regularly check their student e-mail accounts and the class blog as this will be a contact methods for the course.
Learning Outcomes and Objectives
Students will:
1 Develop analytical skills by critically assessing interactive media.
2 Gain insight into interactive storytelling and
community-building, in a context of
technological and social change.
3 Acquire skills in interaction design and non-linear
narrative structure through creative
project development.
4 Develop research skills, prototyping skills, and skills in
working collaboratively, by
carrying a project through development stages on a timeline.
5 Learn to present research in groups, through presentation of in-class seminars.
6 Refine their perceptual abilities by analyzing and creating wireless
technology-based
projects that engage the body of the user
Key Topics
Key topics include:
• The internet blogging phenomena.
• audio and podcasting
online
•
• Online communities. Narratives of collective memory online.
• Interactive storytelling and installation/site specific work.
• Locative, mobile and GPS (Global Positioning System) gaming.
•Artists’ teleculture and networks, from early
proto-networks of the mid-1970’s, analyzing
the context of mail art, artist-run centres and
publications.
• Point of view of the on-line improviser and collaborator.
• Newsgroups and the changing shape of news research and production, analyzing
the
online point of view of the correspondent.
• Impacts of globalization and the reshaping of activism, international aid
& charitable
donations.
• Analyzing the tensions of embodiment and disembodiment revealed in virtual
gaming community narratives and
stories about virtual conditions. point of view:
Role-Playing Gamer.
• User-driven design of assistive technologies :
questions of technology and embodiment.
In this course, students will learn about key aspects of virtual communities,
while examining virtual narratives and developing hands-on skills with
storytelling for the Internet and wireless technologies. The course is intended
as a cross-disciplinary opportunity for art and design students to learn and
collaborate together. Through lectures and case studies, class discussion,
research, field trips and both individual and collaborative group project work,
students will learn about both historical and emerging models of virtual
community. We will review the history and practices of an array of virtual
communities and subcultures: from teleculture,
bulletin boards, newsgroups and multi-user domains, to gaming, new media art
and design and activist networks. We will examine how stories about virtual
communities exist in a context of technological and social change. Are virtual
cultures an escape from the social world? How do virtual communities impact on
our local ones? Who accesses virtual technology and how does it affect the
quality of life in different localities? How can artists, designers and users
collaborate to create virtual communities that intervene and assist in the real
world? New media artists and designers are responding to these questions.
Students will creatively explore the topic of virtual communities, carrying
projects from research through to the creation of prototypes for interactive
projects. Students will also present small-group seminars on different examples
of virtual communities and focus on debates arising from the lectures and case
studies.
Teaching Methods and Delivery
The course will combine viewing and analysis of new media art and design projects, lectures, class discussion, research, field study and individual and group project work. Students will explore the narratives of virtual communities, while creating their own stories and prototypes for interactive narratives and publications. Our toolkit will draw from Internet and wireless authoring languages, video and photography, audio, creative writing, digital mapping and other innovative approaches.
Course Load
Class time: 3 hours per week. This class meets once a week for one 3 hour session.
Prep Time
On average, students should expect a minimum of 3 hours per week spent on research and individual and group assignments.
Course Grading Scheme
No individual assignment or phase of an assignment will count for more than 40% of the final grade. Peer and self-evaluation, although an important part of the course, cannot determine the grade.
Evaluation Criteria
Participation will account for no more than
10% of the final mark. Participation may include some or all of the following:
arriving on time; listening to lectures and instruction; being prepared and
working in class time; sharing ideas, concepts and creative exploration and
conceptual development with other students; cooperating in group projects;
analyzing and offering opinions about work in progress; listening to and being
an active participant in critique and discussions. A variety of methods will be
used to evaluate student progress, such as individual and group research
projects, presentations, quizzes, tests, field trips, assigned readings and
writings, and participation in class project work and discussions.
Evaluation criteria will depend on the method in question, but will always
include the following elements; an analysis and understanding of the project or
research brief, the pursuit of original thinking and research from a variety of
different resources, an appropriate level of questioning and enquiry into the
issue under scrutiny, a well organized in-class presentation, timely completion
of work and presentation and/or hand-in of the project, interest and attention
to the presentations of others, and participation in discussion of the issues
in class.
Grades at the level of Good to Satisfactory (B = 70-79%, C = 65-69%) are
anticipated to be the average for this interdisciplinary studio/seminar course.
To obtain pass standing in a course, a student must complete required and
assigned course work, as described in the course outline, to the satisfaction
of the teaching faculty. Evaluation of student performance is based upon a
reasonable diversity of methods. Students are evaluated on their work according
to the breakdown in the Grading Scheme and criteria listed below. Numerical
grades may be translated into letter grades based upon the following scale. For
averaging purposes in determining a student’s overall standing, fail grades are
calculated as 45%.
90-100% A+ The student exceeded expectations in demonstrating knowledge of
Exceptional concepts and/or techniques, and exceptional skill in their
application in
satisfying the requirements of the course.
80-89% A The student demonstrated a thorough knowledge
of concepts and/or
Excellent techniques, and with a very high degree of skill in their application
in satisfying the requirements of the course.
70-79% B The student demonstrated a good
knowledge of concepts and/or
Good techniques and considerable skill in their application in satisfying the
requirements of the course.
65-69% C The student demonstrated a
satisfactory level of knowledge of concepts
Satisfactory and/or techniques and competence in their application in
satisfying the
requirements of the course.
65-69% C- The student demonstrated a
satisfactory level of knowledge of concepts Low and/or techniques and their
application to the requirements of the course Satisfactory that was minimally
satisfactory in an elective or non-major subject, but unsatisfactory in a core
course of the student’s major subject.
50-59% D The student demonstrated minimal
knowledge and ability to apply
concepts and/or techniques in satisfying the requirements of the course.
0-49% F Failure to meet
minimum course requirements.
Fail
Late Work: Late work will be accepted at the discretion of the faculty member, with
a minimum penalty of 20% per week for unexcused work. Students may not
re-submit previously graded work or work produced for other courses for
evaluation.
Mid-term Standing: Teaching faculty will provide an evaluation of the student’s
work to date at least one week prior to the final deadline to withdraw from a
course without academic penalty.
Incomplete Grades: An incomplete grade is considered when students with
justification, encounter difficulty completing course work. Incomplete grades
are filed at the discretion of the teaching faculty in consultation with the
program Chair. Students with incomplete grades must complete all course work by
the deadline listed in the Calendar. See the Calendar for details.
Academic Integrity
Plagiarism, misrepresenting personal performance or status and any conduct that damages the integrity of scholarly and artistic activity is unacceptable. Academic penalties will result. See the Calendar for details.
Attendance Policy
Since students benefit from an active involvement with faculty and with their fellow students, the College requires that they attend and participate fully in classes on a regular basis. Marks are not assigned for attendance. However, a student with three or more unexcused absences may be assigned a failing grade for that course. Students who are more than 30 minutes late for a class may, at the discretion of the faculty member, be marked absent.
Required Texts and Materials
Access to a Personal Computer is required for at least three hours per week for the adequate performance of assignments. The following software tools must be installed: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Web Browser, Web Authoring (Dream Weaver, Flash), PowerPoint and Word Processing. All of these software tools are installed in the classroom lab. In addition, access to digital image capture devices will be of benefit in this course. Digital video and still cameras can be borrowed from the AV Loans Dept. Students will be expected to regularly check their student e-mail accounts and the class blog as this will be a contact methods for the course.
Supplies
See course outline with regard to supplies required for specific projects.
Bibliography
Apple Computer. Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines. Addison-Wesley,
David Bell, “Community and Cyberculture”, An Introduction to Cybercultures, Routledge, 2001.
Berners-Lee, Tim, with Mark Fischetti.
Weaving the Web : The Original Design and Ultimate
Destiny of the World Wide Web by its Inventor. Harper
Buzan,
Tony and Barry. Chapter 10, The Guiding
Principals, in The Mind Map Book. BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2000
Dourish, Paul. Where the Action Is: The
Foundations of Embodied Interaction. The MIT Press, 2001.
Mike Frumin, Hacking Maps: Who Are the Neighbors
Voting For?,
http://www.eyebeam.org/reblog/journal/archives/2005/08/hacking_maps_who_are_the_neighbo.html
Ron Geyshick, “Just A Walk”, Te Bwe
Win (Truth): Stories by an Ojibway Healer, Summerhill Press, 1989.
Johnson, Steven. Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We
Create and Communicate. HarperCollins Publishers, 1997.
Katzenbach, Jon R. Douglas K. Smith. The Wisdom of Teams. Harper Business,
1999.
Kline, Dyer-Witheford, de Peuter;
“Sim Capital”, Digital Play : The Interaction of
Technology, Culture, and Marketing, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003
Lidwell, W., Holden, K., Butler, J. Universal
Principles of Design. Rockport, 2003.
Meadows, Mark. Pause and Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative. New Riders, 2002.
Lisa Nakamura, “Cybertyping and the Work of Race in
the Age of Digital Reproduction”, Cybertypes: Race,
Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet, Routledge,
2002.
“Where do you want to go today? Cybernetic tourism, the Internet and Transnationality”, (Ibid)
Raskin, J. The Humane Interface.
Addison-Wesley, 2000.
Shedroff, Nathan. Experience Design. New Riders 2001.
Mike Wu, Ron Baecker, Brian
Richards, Participatory Design of an Orientation Aid for Amnesics,
University of
Disclaimer Statement
This course outline may be amended as the course proceeds. The class will be notified and consulted about all changes. See Calendar for details.