DTC 354 Digital Storytelling – Fall 2022
Course description:
Digital Storytelling is a collaborative, experimental and critical-driven course that explores the intertwined relation between technology, narrative and audience as well as the multiples ramifications in the aesthetics/poetics of experimental and expanded cinema, hypermedia and electronic writing, interactive and participatory media, game design, relational art and tactical media.
Course work:
The course consists of four modules, each of which includes required readings, in-class exercises and one module project..
Module 1: Experimental cinema and expanded media art
Module 2: Interactive media and electronic writing
Module 3: Playable media art and video games
Module 4: Tactical media and hacktivism
Class logistics:
In addition to class discussions and occasional lectures, this course is centered around two main things: 1) In-class exercises, and 2) Module projects. Both will be developed collectively––in groups of five.
Evaluation criteria:
Grading of In-class exercises and module projects will be based on your ability to collectively develop projects that reflect an understanding of the concepts discussed in class, the ideas presented in the readings and the extent to which digital technology can be used to narrate creatively and artistically. Participation will be assessed based on your contributions to class discussions.
Assignments:
Module 1
Module project 1: Experimental moving image and/or expanded cinema
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Module 2
Module project 2: Hypermedia project / electronic writing
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5
Module 3
Module project 3: Participatory and interactive media project
Exercise 6
Exercise 7
Exercise 8
Module 4
Module project 4: Located and tactical media
Course bibliography:
Sontag, Susan. Where the Stress Falls
Mekas, Jonas. The Diary Film
Stan Brakhage. Metaphors on Vision – Camera Eye
Wodiczko, Krzysztof. Critical Vehicles
Flanagan, Mary. Critical Play: Radical Game Design
Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media
Haynes, N. Katherine. Writing Machines
Kenneth Goldsmith. Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age
Sicart, Miguel. Play Matters
Anthropy, Anna. Rise of the Videogame Zinesters
Milburn, Colin. Respawn, games, hackers
Raley, Rita. Tactical Media
Ardizzoni, Michela. Matrix Activism: Global Practices of Resistance
Steyerl, Hito. The Wretched of the Screen
Class schedule:
Module 1 Experimental cinema and expanded media art
Montage and juxtaposition techniques, towards a new cinema
Reading:
Sontag, Susan. A Century of Cinema from Where the Stress Falls
(Access online: https://southerncrossreview.org/43/sontag-cinema.htm)
Media:
Sergei Eisenstein (media excerpt) – Edwin S. Porter (media excerpt) – George Mélies (media excerpt)
1.1 (8/22)
Introduction to the syllabus, class introductions
Objectives and goals of class
1.2 (8/24)
Principles of montage in Russian Cinema (Eisenstein)
American and French contributions (Porter, Mélies)
1.3 (8/26)
What is the future of cinema? What is important about it today?
What has changed in the last century? And where are we heading to in the future?
Lyrical and experimental cinema Reading: Mekas, Jonas. The Diary Film. From The Avant-Garde Film: A Reader of Theory and Criticism. pp. 190 – 198 and Stan Brakhage. Metaphors on Vision – Camera Eye. pp. 1 – 5 Media: Jonas Mekas – Lost, Lost, Lost Cheryl Dunye – Criterion Channel interview and Janine Maya Deren – Meshes of the Afternoon Stan Brakhage – Mothlight Naomi Uman – Removed 2.1 (8/29) Defamiliarizing the camera apparatus and relearning how to see First person perspective. Diary filmmaking. Filming as writing 2.2 (8/31) In-class exercise 1: Working in teams. De-familiarizing technology – Choose a technical aspect of filmmaking and look at it differently. Orientation of the camera, focus, movement. Make a 1-minute video following this premise. 2.3 (9/2) Presentations of in-class exercise 1
Expanded cinema Reading: Wodiczko, Krzysztof. Critical Vehicles. Ch. 2 Projections pp. 44 – 72 Media: Examples of Monument removals Rafael Lozano-Hemmer – 1000 platitudes 3.1 (9/5) Labor Day–No class 3.2 (9/7) What is the role of the projection surface? Shifting from a white wall to architecture, monuments, statues The boundaries of light intervention as illuminating as public acts The function of darkness of public spaces for projection Introducing a performative element between the audience and the projection 3.3 (9/9) In-class exercise 2: Working in teams. Choose a location and think of a possible form of light intervention. How could you speak to the social, political and economic configurations and symbolism of that space through an expanded cinema project. Write a short response to this premise.
Module 2 Interactive media and electronic writing
Language games (a brief history)
Reading:
Flanagan, Mary. Critical Play: Radical Game Design. Ch. 4 Language Games pp. 117 – 138
Media:
Susan Briante – Defacing the Monument
Claudia Rankine – Just Us / Don’t let me be lonely
4.1 (9/12)
Early experimentation in literature
Palindromes and Puns
Chance in language (the unconscious) – Dada and Surrealism
Forms of interaction with language – Active reading
Automatization
4.2 (9/14)
In-class exercise 3:
Print out a document: an excerpt from a book, an article, an entry from wikipedia.
Working in teams look into forms of editing, reorganizing, censoring, removing or erasing to produce a new original text. This could be done as a exquisite corpse or a form of automation, randomness.
4.3 (9/16)
Presentation of in-class exercise 3
The grammar of new media and computers
Reading:
Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. What is new media and The Principles of New Media. pp. 43 – 65
5.1 (9/19)
Showcase of module project 1
5.2 (9/21)
Showcase of module project 1
5.3 (9/23)
What makes new media new?
Technological developments and their impact on production, distribution and consumption of digital and computerized media.
Writing machines
Reading:
Haynes, N. Katherine. Writing Machines. Ch. 2 Material Metaphors, Technotexts, and Media-Specific Analysis. pp. 19 – 33, and Ch. 3 Entering the Electronic Environment pp. 34 – 45
6.1 (9/26)
The role of materiality in producing text in the digital era
Interfaces of language – Material metaphors
Changing the conventions of the book and the inscription technologies
Techno texts – Hyper-text and Cyber-text
Hyper-media
6.2 (9/28)
In-class exercise 4:
Working in teams select a project for presentation from The Digital Review, The New River Electronic Journal, or Electronic Literature Collection. Present and overview of the project selected as well as connecting the ideas introduced by Haynes, N. Katherine in Writing Machines.
6.3 (9/30)
presentations of in-class exercise 4
Electronic/ Concrete Poetry
Reading:
Kenneth Goldsmith. Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age. Introduction pp. 1 – 13, and Revenge of the Text pp. 14 – 33
Media:
Jorge Lorenzo – On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Jacob Riddle – Jpg.
Eliseo Ortiz – How many euphemisms for prison are there?
7.1 (10/3)
What are the working of non-creativity? What are the boundaries of creative non-creativity?
Writing vs. editing: reorganizing, quoting, modulating text. Writing as a fluid process
“Patch-writing” – Context as a content
Writing as programming (Copy-paste as a practice in writing)
Coding and decoding language
The technological shift of photography to painting as an analog to the computer/internet and writing
The aesthetic of the error – infiltrating language in digital files
Digital technology as a replacement of the typewriter
7.2 (10/5)
In-class exercise 5:
Electronic intervention. Writing on the internet. Working in teams find a place on the internet that could serve as inspiration to hack, infiltrate a message, extract language, etc. Think of Goldsmith’s approach to writing in Uncreative Writing
7.3 (10/7)
presentations of in-class exercise 5
Module 3 Playable media art and video games
The basics of relationality
Reading:
Sicart, Miguel. Play Matters. Ch. 3 Toys pp. 35 – 49 Ch. 4 Playgrounds pp. 49 – 61 and Ch. 8 Play in the Era of Computing Machinery pp. 93 – 103
Media:
Francis Alÿs – Samples 2
Kenneth Goldsmith – simultaneous music from Wasting Time on the Internet
Miranda July – Somebody: A new message service
8.1 (10/10)
Difference between play and game
What makes a game different than play? What is the role of the material of toys and
playgrounds?
What is the role of appropriation of toys and playground?
8.2 (10/12)
Showcase of module project 2
8.3 (10/14)
Showcase of module project 2
Changing the rules of the game
Reading:
Anthropy, Anna. Rise of the Videogame Zinesters. Ch.1 The Problem with Videogames. pp. 1 – 21, and Ch. 4 Changing the Game pp. 69 – 91
Media:
Yoko Ono – Play it by Trust
Ruth Catlow – Rethinking War Games
9.1 (10/17)
Playing Mexico | USA and additional references / Jenga-Agnej / Guess who did the Crime? / The Choreography of Us
9.2 (10/19)
Why do we want to change the game? What is wrong with it?
What is the function of hacks and mods?
9.3 (10/21)
In-class exercise 6:
Bring a toy (it does not have to be a recognizable toy, just an object) and interrogate the function of it as a material source for play. Working in teams bring those objects together and think of ways in which they could be material sources for a game. Then bring those toys to a space and think of ways in which that space could sustain play in the form of a playground. Write a short response to this premise.
Video games and society – A case study
Reading:
Milburn, Colin. Respawn, games, hackers. Introduction All Your Base. pp. 1 – 24
10.1 (10/24)
What is the meaning of a video game within a larger social and cultural formation?
How is the example of Zero Wing informing a reality?
Post-humanism. Relation between technology and humans (Life and games)
Using games as methods in a social laboratory
Respawn as a metaphor of post-humanism
Does the game spill out onto the reality or the reality infiltrates the game? ‘Wavedashing’
10.2 (10/26)
In-class exercise 7:
Working in teams, chose a video game (it can be as simple as Parkman or Tetris, or as complex as Halo or Call of Duty) and interrogate its function. What is missing there, what is underrepresented, absent, visible? How can that game be modified, changed?
How is it speaking about the present or speculating about a future?
10.3 (10/28)
Presentations of in-class exercise 7
Critical computer games – Serious gaming
Reading:
Flanagan, Mary. Critical Play: Radical Game Design. Ch. 7 Critical Computer games pp. 223 – 251
Media:
Zach Gage – Lose/Lose
Joseph DeLappe – dead-in-iraq (Introduction to America’s Army)
Brenda Romero – Train
11.1 (10/31)
Artists reclaiming an art form to 1) make it accessible and to 2) be represented
Our presence within the game should be active and our existence embodied in the technology
11.2 (11/2)
In-class exercise 8:
Review the artist discussed in the reading by Mary Flanagan and choose one game made by one of them. Play the game and discuss its effectiveness, its mechanics, and its function as a resource for social change. 1) Eddo Stern, 2) Wafaa Bilal, 3) Gonzalo Frasca, 4) Jame Antonisse, Devon Johnson, Chris Baily, Joey Orion and Brittany Pirello, 5) NetAid 6) Persuasive Games
11.3 (11/4)
Presentations of in-class exercise 8
Module 4 Tactical media and hacktivism
Locative Media
12.1 (11/7)
Showcase of module project 3
12.2 (11/9)
Showcase of module project 3
12.3 (11/11)
Veteran’s day–No class
Tactical media
Reading:
Raley, Rita. Tactical Media. Introduction: Tactical Media as Virtuosic Performance pp. 1 – 30
Media:
Calixto Ramirez – Pisciando
The Yes Men – BBC news intervention
Eder Castillo – Guggensito and PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) protest at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC
Marcela Armas – Ocupación
Alyssa Quintanilla – Vistas de la Frontera
Alejandro Cartagena – Por lo que peleamos
Medi & Keith Obadike – black.net.art
lectronic Disturbance Theater – Transborder Immigrant Tool
Ricardo Dominguez – Hacking the official website of the Mexican Government
Operator – I’d rather be in dark silence than
13.1 (11/14)
Shift from physical to virtual occupation
The role of digital humanities in dismantling forms of oppression
Data visualization
13.2 (11/16)
Individual group 1 – meeting to discuss the development of Module project 4: Located and tactical media
13.3 (11/18)
Individual group 2 – meeting to discuss the development of Module project 4: Located and tactical media
Intervention tactics – A case study
Reading:
Ardizzoni, Michela. Matrix Activism: Global Practices of Resistance. Culture jamming and Veiled Bodies in French Guerilla Graffiti pp. 91 – 109
14.1 (11/28)
Individual group 3 – meeting to discuss the development of Module project 4: Located and tactical media
14.2 (11/30)
Case study of Princess Hijab in France. Intervention tactics to critique western and capitalism models of colonialism of the Middle East and the construction of otherness through islamophobia.
14.3 (12/2)
Individual group 4 – meeting to discuss the development of Module project 4: Located and tactical media
Cinema as a form of resistance
Reading:
Steyerl, Hito. The Wretched of the Screen. The Articulation of Protest pp. 77 – 92
15.1 (12/5)
Individual group 6 – meeting to discuss the development of Module project 4: Located and tactical media
15.2 (12/7)
Individual group 5 – meeting to discuss the development of Module project 4: Located and tactical media.
15.3 (12/9)
Montage as a form of protest
Reflections on cinema articulation as a metaphor for political movements
The ideology of montage
Final presentations
(12/15)Module project instructions
Module project 1: Experimental moving image and/or expanded cinema Working in teams create a video piece inspired by one or more forms of experimentalism explored in module 1. The deliverable should not exceed a running time of 5 minutes.
Module project 2: Hypermedia project / electronic writing Working in teams create a piece of electronic writing borrowing from the concepts introduced in module 2. This piece should exist on the internet in the form of hyper-textual writing, it could be generated using html (Dreamweaver, or any other online resource). It can be a transformation of an existing writing in the form of intervention. The deliverable should be a link.
Module project 3: Participatory and interactive media project Working in teams create an original game or a game modification borrowing from the concepts introduced in module 3. The project can take the form of a speculative game (physical or digital, analog, or computer-based) interactive physical or screen-based piece. The deliverable should take the form of a link or photographs, writing, video or other multimedia documentation that drafts the work.
Module project 4: Located and tactical media Working in teams create an original media intervention inspired in the tactical and locative media projects discussed in class and the ideas presented in the readings. The project can take the form of a virtual hack, a physical intervention, a game-like form of resistance. The deliverable should take the form of a video, photographs, a web link, writing, or any other medium that serves the purpose of documenting the process and result.