Technocultural Studies 191 — Writing Across Media
Winter 2015
Our Digital Reader is available via Canvas among the “Files” (with thanks to Tim Kerbavaz)
First Monday – Introduction
(Jan 5)
Introduce course documents and principles
Introduce instructor and participants
Review the relationship between “Writing” and “Technoculture”
Sign up for a position paper
First Wednesday – Outlaw Heroes and the Lyric Example
(Jan 7)
Corso and Ginsberg’s “Ten Outlaw Heroes”
Bring to class your list of ten creative / aesthetic heroes (and share on the relevant wiki page on Canvas)
Review a sample position paper
Discuss writing in your fields
Consider the Lyric Poem as metaphor for writing for TCS
Analogical thinking in TCS 191
Note Assignment due dates.
Second Monday – Considering Photography
(Jan 12)
Review genres of writing
“O!” by Jess
Finlay and Gillanders’ “Little Sparta” and “Afterward to ‘Little Sparta’”
Thoreau’s “The Railway Embankment in Spring”
Ray’s “Snapshots: The Beginnings of Photography”
See Pulitzer Photographs at Newseum (web)
12 Photography Websites
Ponder projects.
Second Wednesday – Conceiving the Arts
(Jan 14)
Review The Chicago School of Media Theory on Avant-Garde
“Schneeman’s “Up to and Including Her Limits”
Rivers and O’Hara’s “How to Proceed in the Arts”
Consider web excerpts from Ken Friedman’s Fluxus Performance Workbook (PDF)
Third Monday – Martin Luther King Holiday
(January 19)
Take extra time to complete the significant reading for Wednesday
Third Wednesday – Theories of Technoculture
(January 21)
Bridging “Art” and Technoculture
Theoretical Readings (e.g., Futurism)
Theories of Creativity
Davidson’s “The Material Page” (Leave extra time for this long essay)
Marinetti’s “Destruction of Syntax,” “The Futurist Cinema”
Fourth Monday – Language and the Book
(January 26)
Riddell’s “H”
Language and The “Book”
Everson’s “Poem as Icon”
McCaffery’s “Book as Machine”
Waldman’s “My Life as a Book”
Fourth Wednesday – Novels and Poems
(Jan 28)
Burroughs’ “The Future of the Novel”
McDaniel’s “Two Poems”
Excerpt from Vendler’s Poems, Poets, Poetry
Excerpt from Glazner’s How To Make A Living As A Poet, including “How to Wear a Beret”
Fifth Monday – Considering Film
(Feb 2)
Film and Film Criticism, Creating Movies
Imagining an experimental film
Skeptically review ten or more film trailers at Apple.com/trailers
“Film Theory and Approaches to Criticism” by Christopher Jacobs
Yoko Ono’s “Mini Film Scripts”
Greaves from “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm”
Consider the topic for your final project
Fifth Wednesday – Considering Film II
(Feb 4)
Guest lecture by storyboarding expert Steve Oerding from Academic Technology Services
Read about the film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Research storyboarding resources, practices, and examples.
Swift’s “Project for Improving Speculation Knowledge”
Robert Ray’s “Introduction: Reinventing Film Studies”
Su Friedrich – Two Scripts
Ray’s “Invention Finds a Model: Surrealist Research and Games”
Write your list of 20 “best” films
Sixth Monday – Considering Film III
(Feb 9)
Catch up on position papers and film readings.
Discuss great films and “great” films.
Sixth Wednesday – Performance
(Feb 11)
Electronic Spoken Word Performance
Favorite Performance Poet story?
View web readings from The Favorite Poem Project
Kaprow’s “Untitled Guidelines for Happenings”
Kaufman on “Slammers”
Review Web 2.0 apps
Seventh Monday
(Feb 16 — Presidents’ Day Holiday)
Seventh Wednesday – Language, Race, and Cab Calloway
(Feb 18)
Hurston’s “Characteristics of Negro Expression”
“Harlem Jive”
“A Few Jive Expressions from Cab Calloway’s Hepster’s Dictionary”
Consider video examples of the genius of Cab Calloway
Eighth Monday – Sound Art
(Feb 23)
Carroll’s “Stanzas of Anglo-Saxon Poetry”
TTBOOK on “Remix Culture” (audio link)
Hear the voices of Kerouac, Kenneth Patchen, others. (in class)
“Poetry & Radio” (Glazner)
Eighth Wednesday – Interactivity I
(Feb 25)
Blogs, Wikis, Interactivity, and Multiple Media
A discussion of the Wikipedia phenomenon
Read “Know It All: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?” by Stacy Schiff
Catch up with past readings
Ninth Monday – Interactivity II
(March 2)
Share something created with http://weavesilk.com
What other options for interactivity should we consider?
Ninth Wednesday – Interactivity I
(March 4)
Meet with Dr. Andy to discuss your final project
Catch up with position papers
Tenth Monday – Interactivity I
(March 9)
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Tenth Wednesday – Interactivity I
(March 11)
John Cage’s “Diary: Audience 1966”
William Carlos Williams’ “Letter to Harold Norse”
“Thinking Like a Genius”
Eleventh Monday – Interactivity I
(March 16)
Potpourris and catching up with past readings
Final Projects Due
Course Evaluations
Writing about the future of Technoculture, of writing
