Workshop 2 “Narrative Walks”
Fine Arts – 435
Interactive Media
MW – 4:15-6:45pm
MMC 103
Course Instructor: Will Luers
Contact Information: wluers@gmail.com
September 29-October 31, 2008
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Description:
Mobile and locative media, along with the geoweb (Google Earth, Google Maps, etc.) has spawned new art forms that connect the physical to the virtual. In this segment of Interactive Media, we will focus on designing/authoring walks using video, audio, GPS devices and mapping tools. Looking at historical examples of “walk art” – from haiku walks to psychogeographic drifts to contemporary locative media artworks – we will examine the relationships of body, place and the virtual. As locative media artists, how might we engage, agitate and/or intensify these relationships? How might storytelling techniques, such as suspense and dramatic arcs, connect “points of interest”? How can we incorporate elements from computer games – spatial navigation, puzzles and goals – into our walk experiences?
Selected readings, short assignments and class discussions will help students “navigate” this very new field of media design. Students are expected to contribute to their own blogs regularly with assigbment work, as well as ideas and responses to readings. Final projects will be for groups to design a locative experience using sound, image, text and video.
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Materials: Personal media tools, such as pocket cameras, video cameras, 3G phones and GPS devices (optional)
Short Assignment #1: Drift (10%)
Short Assignment #2: Story Map (10%)
Short Assignment #3: Locative Game Proposal (10%)
Final Project (50%)
1. Present idea to class (10%)
2. Blog progress (10%)
3. Walk project (30%)
.Blog Posts: (20%)
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Class Schedule
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Monday, September 29
Introduction
Groups
Tools: Blogs/Flickr/Youtube, etc.
Read: Walking the City
Blog: reflect on reading
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Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Discuss “Walking in the City”
GPS overview
Google Earth: pushpins and polygons
Read: Theory of Derive, The Street, Manifesto for a New Walking Culture
Assignment: Drift
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Monday, October 6
Discuss Drifts
Film clips: ethnography of the everyday
Tools: Video
Explore: Patalab, 7 Maps, Croma
Blog: respond to online projects
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Wednesday, October 8
Designing fictional/narrative walks
Film clips – cinema and the city
Tools: Designing for iPhone and mobile devices
Read: Narrative Archaeology
Explore: 34 North 118 West Project, 29 steps, And While London Burns
Assignment: Story Map (due Monday)
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Monday, October 13
Discuss Story Maps
Locative Journalism
Tools: Geotagging and social networks
Read: Blast Theory, Plundr. Wherigo
Blog writing: blog responses to online game projects
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Wednesday, October 15
Narrative vs. Games
Designing locative games
Tools: Geodelic and other mobile applications
Assignment: Locative Game Design
Groups: present ideas to class
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Monday, October 20
Discuss game design ideas
Final projects – present ideas
Groups
Blog writing: project report
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Wednesday, October 22
Final projects
Blog writing: project report
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Monday, October 27
Final projects
Blog writing: project report
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Wednesday, October 29
Groups present final projects
Narrative Walks 