MMEDIA 3E03: interactive digital culture

course description and objectives:

This course presents a schematic analysis of various paradigms at play within the new and emerging media. Course readings will help critically define and contextualize new media, recognize the connection between modes of production and aesthetics and explore emerging social connectivity and the promise of pervasive computing. This body of research and theory will be complemented by a diverse range of new media precedents including hypertext fiction, digital aesthetics in music and cinema, locative media, as well as a more dedicated analysis of video games and social media. The database and network will both be examined as theoretical paradigms that organize information and culture in the contemporary era. The notion of interactivity will be explored on several fronts with the following questions in mind:

  • How has interactivity differentiated emerging media from traditional media?
  • How are definitions of reading, viewing and playing changing through new media?
  • What happens to notions of authority and authorship in light of participatory culture?
  • How do pervasive computing and social media expand upon and enrich interactions?

    • Documents:
    3E03 syllabus
    3E03 calendar
    Assignment 1
    Assignment 2
    Assignment 3

    schedule

    tracing new media [click for reading/link list]

    new media? / sept. 10-14
    sept. 10: defining new media
    sept. 12: media genealogy
    sept. 14: [lab]

    hypertext & the structure of narrative / sept. 17-21
    sept. 17: writing space
    sept. 19: hypertext / narrative
    sept. 21: [lab]

    database logic / sept. 24-28
    sept. 24: database as paradigm
    sept. 26: stories vs. nodes
    sept. 28: [lab]

    digital aesthetics [click for reading/link list]

    digital aesthetics / oct. 1-5
    oct. 1: information aesthetics
    oct. 3: curation & collection in the digital era
    oct. 5: [lab]

    the music of sound / oct. 8-12
    oct. 8: long weekend - no lecture
    oct. 10: remix, mashups & sample culture
    oct. 12: worship the glitch!

    cinema / oct. 15-19
    oct. 15: digital imaging
    oct. 17: new perspectives in narrative & distribution
    oct. 19: [lab]

    game culture 1 / oct. 22-26
    oct. 22: the games we play
    oct. 24: towards a simulation of everything
    oct. 26: [lab]

    game culture 2 / oct. 29 - nov. 2
    oct. 29: space & perspective in first person shooters
    oct. 31: MMORPGs as virtual economies
    nov. 2: [lab]

    social media [click for reading/link list]

    network fever / nov. 5-9
    nov. 5: the concept of network culture
    nov. 7: emergence and complexity in digital media
    nov. 9: [lab]

    social media 1 / nov. 12-16
    nov. 12: thanks for the add:a social application for all seasons
    nov. 14: content management systems, online communities and democracy.
    nov. 16: [lab]

    social media 2 / nov. 19-23
    nov. 19: personal space: privacy & folksonomy
    nov. 21: microblogging & lifestreaming
    nov. 23: [lab]

    locative media & pervasive computing / nov. 26-30
    nov. 26: mobile technology 101
    nov. 28: metacity datatown
    nov. 30: [lab]

    Required Texts:

  • Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong and Thomas Keenan. (eds) New Media Old Media: A History and Theory Reader. New York: Routledge, 2006.
  • Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2001.
  • Wardrip-Fruin, Noah and Pat Harrigan. (eds) First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004.

    • Supplementary Texts:

  • Galloway, Alexander. Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006
  • McKenzie, Wark. Gamer Theory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.
  • Seijdel, Jorinde. (ed) Hybrid Space: How Wireless Media Mobilize Public Space". OPEN. Volume 5 (2006) no. 11.

    • Additional Reference

  • 10 Key Texts on New Media Art, 1970-2000 / Lev Manovich