56:209:520 Experimental Emerging Media (Fall 2024)


"Sycamore Leaves Edging the Roots of a Sycamore Tree," Andy Goldsworthy

How do artists and researchers use emerging media forms and technologies to re-imagine creative practice and research? This graduate seminar pursues this question by exploring experimental work with interactive devices, site-specific installations and sculptures, alternative social media platforms, games, zines, large language models, and more. The class will focus on how digital media can be used not only to distribute research findings or display results but also as a way to re-conceptualize scholarly inquiry and creative practice. What new questions and experiences can be constructed by experimenting with various media? How do digital media call for a reconsideration of longstanding questions across disciplines? Students will work with various media in order to produce their own experiments in/with emerging media.

Fall 2024
Tuesdays, 6:00 PM - 8:50 PM

Syllabus

Professor: Jim Brown
Class Time: Tuesday, 6:00 PM - 8:50 PM
Meeting Place: Digital Commons, Room 102

Professor Brown's Office: Digital Commons, Room 104
Office Hours: Tuesday, 5:00-6:00pm, or by appointment
Email: jim[dot]brown[at]rutgers[dot]edu

Course Website: http://courses.jamesjbrownjr.net/520_fall2024

Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this class, students will be able to:

  • Understand and deploy methods for experimenting with emerging media platforms
  • Research experimental media projects and connect them to appropriate theoretical and historical contexts
  • Develop research and creative projects in various modes, including writing and/or digital media arts
  • Explain and justify their own writing and design processes

Required Books
Readings for this course will be made available to you either online (web pages, videos, etc.) or as PDFs on Canvas. You may also purchase hard copies of our texts. A full list of our texts is available at the course bibliography.

Course Work and Grades
In this class, the following work will be evaluated:

  • Attendance: 15%
  • Reading Log: 20%
  • Project proposal - First submission: 25%
  • Project proposal - Second submission: 25%
  • Final presentation: 15%

Grades will be assigned on the following scale:

A 90-100
B+ 87-89
B 80-86
C+ 77-79
C 70-76
D 60-69
F 59 and below

Names and Pronouns
This course affirms people of all gender expressions and gender identities. I will distribute a form so that you can tell me preferred pronouns and names. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Content Warnings
If we will be reading and discussing material that addresses sensitive topics, I will do my best to let you know in advance. If there are certain specific topics you would like me to provide warnings about, please let me know. I will do my best to flag content based on your requests.

Code of Conduct and Academic Integrity
Rutgers University-Camden seeks a community that is free from violence, threats, and intimidation; is respectful of the rights, opportunities, and welfare of students, faculty, staff, and guests of the University; and does not threaten the physical or mental health or safety of members of the University community, including in classroom space, and a community in which students respect academic integrity and the integrity of your own and others’ work.

As a student at the University you are expected adhere to the Student Code of Conduct and Academic Integrity Policy. To review the academic integrity policy, go to https://deanofstudents.camden.rutgers.edu/academic-integrity To review the code, go to: https://deanofstudents.camden.rutgers.edu/student-conduct

Please Note: The conduct code specifically addresses disruptive classroom conduct, which means "engaging in behavior that substantially or repeatedly interrupts either the instructor's ability to teach or student learning. The classroom extends to any setting where a student is engaged in work toward academic credit or satisfaction of program-based requirements or related activities." Please be aware of classroom and out-of-classroom expectations by making yourself familiar with and by following the Student Code of Conduct

The Office of Disability Services
Office of Disability Services (ODS)- Students with Disabilities
If you are in need of academic support for this course, accommodations can be provided once you share your accommodations indicated in a Letter of Accommodation issued by the Office of Disability Services (ODS). If you have already registered with ODS and have your letter of accommodations, please share this with me early in the course. If you have not registered with ODS and you have or think you have a disability (learning, sensory, physical, chronic health, mental health or attentional), please contact ODS by first visiting their website https://success.camden.rutgers.edu/disability-services.The website will further direct you who to contact and how to contact them depending on the free, confidential services you are in need of.

Please Note: Accommodations will be provided only for students with a Letter of Accommodation from ODS. Accommodation letters only provide information about the accommodation, not about the disability or diagnosis.

Computers, Smartphones, etc.
Smartphones should be silenced and put away during class discussion. Feel free to use your computer during class if that is how you take notes.

Shared Files, Course Website, and Email
You should check your email daily. Class announcements about readings and assignments will be distributed through email and on Canvas. The course website will also have important information about assignments and policies. Pay close attention to the course calendar as we move through the semester. I reserve the right to move things around if necessary.

Schedule

This schedule is subject to change, but any changes will be announced in advance. Readings are either available on Canvas as PDFs or are linked from this schedule.

Experimental Emerging Media:
Historical Examples

September 3

Reading/Watching:

  • Sherrie Rabinowitz and Kit Galloway, "A Hole in Space" (video)
  • Sherrie Rabinowitz and Kit Galloway, "Satellite Arts" (video)
  • Annmarie Chandler, "Animating the Social: Mobile Image/Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz"

Writing: Take notes on videos and reading to prepare for class discussion

In Class: Course introductions, course logistics, lecture and discussion about readings/videos

September 10

Reading: Glahn and Levine, The Future is Present

Writing: Reading Log

In class: Lecture/discussion, work on and discuss project proposals

September 17

Reading: Gerhard Fischer and Elisa Giaccardi, "Meta-design: A Framework for the Future of End-User Development"

Writing: Reading Log

In class: Lecture/discussion, work on and discuss project proposals

Experimental Emerging Media: Methods

September 24

Reading: Easterling, Medium Design

Writing: Reading Log

In class: Lecture/discussion, work on and discuss project proposals

October 1

Reading: Barker, "Experimental research in the digital media arts"

Writing: Reading Log

In class: Lecture/discussion, work on and discuss project proposals

October 8

Reading: Auger, "Speculative Design: Crafting the Speculation"

Writing: Reading Log

In class: Lecture/discussion, work on and discuss project proposals

October 15

Reading: Andreas Fickers and Annie van den Oever, Doing Experimental Media Archaeology

Writing: Reading Log

In class: Lecture/discussion, work on and discuss project proposals

Project Proposal Workshop

October 22

Writing: Ensure you have a completed draft of your proposal prior to class

In class: Work on project proposals, get feedback from Prof. Brown and classmates

October 25

Project Proposal - First Submission Due

Experimental Emerging Media: Contemporary Examples

October 29: Games

Reading: Jagoda, Experimental Games

Writing: Reading Log

In class: Lecture/discussion, Twine workshop, work on and discuss project proposals

November 5: Social Media

Reading:

Writing: Reading Log

In class: Lecture/discussion, work on and discuss project proposals and final presentation

November 12: The Book

Reading:
Amaranth Borsuk, The Book (Preface and Chapter 1)

Writing: Reading Log

In class: Workshop: Making ink and paper with Sophia Westfall

November 19: Large Language Models

Reading:

  • Allado-McDowell, Amor Cringe
  • Hannes Bajohr, "The Paradox of Anthroponormative Restriction: Artistic Artificial Intelligence and Literary Writing"

In class: Lecture/discussion, LLM workshop, work on and discuss project proposals and final presentation

November 26

NO CLASS MEETING - RUTGERS FOLLOWS THURSDAY SCHEDULE

Project Proposal and Presentation Workshop

December 3

Writing: Ensure you have a completed revision of your proposal prior and completed draft of presentation slides prior to class

In class: Work on project proposals and presentations, get feedback from Prof. Brown and classmates

Final Presentations

December 10

Project Proposal - Second Submission Due

Final Presentation Slides Due

In class: Final Presentations

Assignments

Reading Log

Each day a reading is assigned, you will complete an entry in your reading log. That entry is designed to help you organize your thoughts for that week's class meeting. Reading log entries are due by 12:00 noon on the day of our class meeting. I will grade these entries, but I will do so on a credit/no-credit basis. Students who put forth a good faith effort to complete the assignment will receive credit.

Reading Log entries are recorded in a Google Document that you share with me, and these entries provide you with your "agenda" for class meetings - they include a summary of the reading as well as questions, comments, and quotations from the reading. They will also help you think through how that week's reading might help you develop your ideas for the final project.

Each Reading Log entry has three sections:

Summary of Reading (250 words max)
You should try to write a concise summary of the reading, and you only have 250 words to do it. If we have read an extended work, like a book or a long article, this will be challenging. But the assignment is designed to get you to think about what is most important about the reading. You will not be able to cover everything the authors say, so you should be picking out what is most important about their argument, their method, and/or whatever it is they are analyzing or producing.

Questions of Clarification (no word limit)
This is the section for asking questions about things you didn't full understand or that you'd like me or your classmates to help you with? Are there terms or concepts you didn't understand? Are there portions of the argument that are unclear to you? List these kinds of questions here.

Important Quotations and Ideas (no word limit)
This section is a space for you to record what you think are the most important quotations and ideas from the reading.

How does this reading help me with my final project? (no word limit)
As we read and discuss the work of artists and theorists, your task is to consider which ideas from that week's reading and discussion can help you think about your final project. At the beginning of the semester, you may not know what that project is, or you may even have multiple ideas. This section is designed to help you think about those ideas and consider how our readings can help you refine them. Remember that even a reading that seems completely disconnected from the medium you hope to work with or the method you hope to use can be helpful as you revise and reconsider your project. What approach does the author take, and how can you learn form it? How did they conduct their research? What terms or concepts do they develop that might help you approach your own project? Think expansively and creatively about how our readings can help you hone and sharpen your thinking about your own project.

Project Proposal

The main piece of writing that you will produce in this class is a project proposal. We are completing a proposal because it's very difficult to conceive of and execute a project within the condensed, 14-week time frame off a semester. Instead of trying to rush through and complete a project, our goal is to take the semester to conceive of and plan a project, to begin to develop a justification and approach to that project. If you get to a point where you can actually complete a draft of your project (if it's a piece of writing) or a prototype of your project (if it is delivered in some other medium), that is a huge bonus. However, our primary goal is to develop a detailed proposal.

You will work on this proposal throughout the course of the semester. As you complete reading log entries, you'll write about how our readings are informing your thinking about the project, and at certain points during class I'll ask you to pull up your current draft of the proposal and work on it. We'll also have opportunities to share our proposal drafts with one another during class.

You will submit your proposal twice, once on October 25 and once on the final day of class. The goal is to continually revise the proposal throughout the semester, and when I provide feedback on it I will be focusing not only on your end product but also on your writing and design process. Are you incorporating feedback from me and others as your revise and rethink the project? This is an important thing to consider throughout the semester.

The Project Proposal is broken into the following sections.

Research Question
What do you want to ask, and why? Are you trying to solve a problem? If so, what is the problem and how are you proposing to solve it? Are you proposing to ask a question that others have asked? If so, how will your approach differ from previous approaches?

Genesis of Research Question
How did you arrive at this research project and research question? Is this an ongoing project that you have been working on for a while, or is it a new project? Is there a reading, author, or project that helped you develop this question or that helped clarify your thinking around it? Is this part of a longer creative or research trajectory in your work? Is it a break with the kind of work you usually do? These are the kinds of questions you can address in this question, but your primary goal is to give us context for the project and research question you want to pursue.

Literature Review
Who else has conducted similar research and/or creative activity? This section allows you to show how your work is part of a broader conversation. This section can be written as an annotated bibliography (a list of sources with brief summaries of each source), or it can be written in prose form where you weave together the sources and tell the story of how others have conducted work that is similar to your proposed project.

Audience
Who is the primary audience for your project? Many times, this section is linked to the previous one (Literature Review) since the people you cite in that previous section could be your audience. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes, your audience is different from those who have conducted similar research or carried out similar creative projects to yours. Regardless, your goal in this section is to explain who you're trying to address in this project. One way to think of this is in terms of publication, if this is a piece of writing. What publications would be ideal for your project? If it's a creative project, you should be thinking of venues (galleries? festivals? conferences?) and you should avoid answering this question with something like "the general public." Be as specific as possible when you think about your intended audience, even if those outside of your intended audience might encounter your work as well.

Material/Data
What material will you be working with in your analysis and/or creative activity? If this is an archival project, what archives would you be drawing upon? If this is a data analysis project, what data will you analyze and how will you get that data? If this is primarily a creative project, what material will you be working with?

Method
How do you propose to conduct your analysis and/or creative activity? Why? Are you using an existing method? If so, describe that method (citing appropriate sources) and describe how you'll use it. Are you mixing methods? If so, describe the methods you're mixing and how/why you're planning to mix them. Are you attempting to build your own method? If so, describe that method and how it's related to other existing methods. In addition to describing your method of analysis and/or production, be sure to justify your choice of method. Why have you chosen this method? What does it allow you to learn about your material, and how does it allow you to pursue your research question?

Medium/Form
What form or forms do you expect the project to take? Is it an essay or a paper? Explain why writing this is the ideal medium for your project? Is it a video? An audio project? A videogame? Something else? This section should be where you describe what you plan to write/make and why that media form is the best fit for what you're trying to accomplish.

Expected findings, conclusions, and/or results
This is just a proposal, so you don't know what you will find or what the results will be. However, this section allows you to speculate a bit about what you think you will find or perhaps even what you hope the results will be. In this section, you might even talk through what you hope the audience will take from your project.

Each submission of your proposal is worth 25% of your grade. When responding to your proposal, here are the questions I will be asking:

  • Does the proposal provide a detailed account of your project?
  • Is the proposal detailed and specific?
  • Have you described in detail, what you propose to do, how you propose to do it, why you propose to do it?
  • Are you getting the idea that the document is supposed to be detailed?
  • Is each section organized and is the document as a whole organized? In other words, do the sections make sense both on their own and in relationship to one another? More specific versions of this question might be: Does your method match your goal for the project? Does your medium make sense in terms of your method and goals? Does your literature review provide the broader "conversation" that your project is trying to join?
  • Are your research questions clearly articulated and justified?
  • Does the proposal reflect that you have spent a great deal of time researching your project and considering work that is similar to it?
  • Does the second submission reflect that you have significantly revised the proposal and incorporated feedback?
  • Is the document prepared in such a way that it could be credibly used to begin work on your proposed project?

Final Presentation

During our last day of class, you will deliver a 15-minute presentation about your project proposal. I will time the presentation, and we can add up to two-minutes for Q&A (though, you may also use some of your 15 minute time slot for Q&A as well). The goal of the presentation is to describe your project in as much detail as possible. You should use the project proposal as a guide for the presentation, but you do not have to cover everything in the proposal. In fact, if you've done written an effective proposal, there will be way too much information in it to present in 15 minutes.

Your presentation should reflect careful design and rehearsal. You are designing a 15-minute experience for an audience, and this takes careful planning and consideration. We will address some strategies for building an effective presentation in class.

The presentation is worth 15% of your grade. When responding to your presentation, here are the questions I will be asking:

  • Did you observe the time limit?
  • Does the presentation show evidence that you have carefully planned and rehearsed?
  • Is the design consistent, and does it observe the guidelines we discussed in class (such as choosing images carefully, deciding when to use text, deciding how much text to use, considering how long an audience has to absorb the information on a slide)?
  • Does the presentation effectively describe your project, the logic and reasoning behind it, your research question (and the stakes of that question)?
  • Did you effectively respond to questions during Q&A?
  • Part of your job during this class session is also to be a good audience for other students. During other presentations, were you engaged, paying attention, and (where appropriate) asking questions?

Course Bibliography

Course Readings and Resources

This is a list of all materials students are responsible for in this course. Any resources that are not available online are available for download on our Canvas site.

Allado-McDowell, K. Amor Cringe. Deluge Books, 2022.

Auger, James. “Speculative Design: Crafting the Speculation.” Digital Creativity, vol. 24, no. 1, Mar. 2013, pp. 11–35.

Bajohr, Hannes. “The Paradox of Anthroponormative Restriction: Artistic Artificial Intelligence and Literary Writing.” CounterText, vol. 8, no. 2, Aug. 2022, pp. 262–82.

Barker, Tim. “Experimental Research in the Digital Media Arts.” Handbook of Research on Creativity, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013, pp. 282–96.

Borsuk, Amaranth. The Book. MIT Press, 2018.

Chandler, Annmarie. “Animating the Social: Mobile Image/Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz.” At a Distance: Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet, edited by Annmarie Chandler and Norie Neumark, MIT Press, 2005, pp. 152–74.

Easterling, Keller. Medium Design: Knowing How to Work on the World. Verso, 2021.

Excerpts from A Hole in Space -- the Mother of All Video Chats. Directed by Larry press, 2008. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSMVtE1QjaU.

Fickers, Andreas, and Annie Oever. Doing Experimental Media Archaeology: Theory. De Gruyter, 2022.

Fischer, Gerhard, and Elisa Giaccardi. “Meta-Design: A Framework for the Future of End-User Development.” End User Development, edited by Henry Lieberman et al., vol. 9, Springer Netherlands, 2006, pp. 427–57.

Philip Glahn, and Cary Levine. The Future Is Present. MIT, 2024.

Jagoda, Patrick. Experimental Games: Critique, Play, and Design in the Age of Gamification. University of Chicago Press, 2020.

Kazemi, Darius. How to Run a Small Social Network Site for Your Friends. 31 Aug. 2019, https://runyourown.social/.

Minus. https://bengrosser.com/projects/minus/. Accessed 28 July 2022.

“NET ART ANTHOLOGY: The World in 24 Hours.” NET ART ANTHOLOGY: The World in 24 Hours, 27 Oct. 2016, https://anthology.rhizome.org/the-world-in-24-hours.

SATELLITE ARTS_ JUL-NOV 1977 - Galloway & Rabinowits - Invention of Distributed Immersive VR & Telecollaborative Performance on Vimeo. https://player.vimeo.com/video/436193481. Accessed 22 Aug. 2024.

Stuck in the Scroll. https://bengrosser.com/projects/stuck-in-the-scroll/. Accessed 22 Aug. 2024.

Supplemental Resources

This is a list of supplemental resources. Students are not responsible for these sources, but Prof. Brown will add to this list throughout the semester as he references things during lecture and discussion that are not on the list above.

Adrian, Robert. "The World in 24 Hours" (Net Art Anthology Entry)

Blow, Jonathan. Braid (Video Game). 2008

Brady, Scott. Hues and Cues (Tabletop Game). 2020

Bratton, Benjamin H. "On Speculative Design." DIS Magazine.
https://dismagazine.com/discussion/81971/on-speculative-design-benjamin-...

Cox, Geoff, and Alex McLean. Speaking Code: Coding as Aesthetic and Political Expression. MIT Press, 2012.

Emmons Jr., Robert A. & James J. Brown, Jr, "R-CADE's Ecology of Practices: An Exploded-View Diagram," Artifact & Apparatus: Journal of Media Archaeology 2 (Fall 2022): 19–40.

Galloway, Anne, and Catherine Caudwell. "Speculative design as research method: From answers to questions and “staying with the trouble”." In Undesign, pp. 85-96. Routledge, 2018.

Gidney, Eric. “Art and Telecommunications: 10 Years On.” Leonardo, 1991, pp. 147–52.

---. “The Artist’s Use of Telecommunications: A Review.” Leonardo, 1983, pp. 311–15.

Goldsworthy, Andy. Andy Goldsworthy: Rivers and tides. Roxie Releasing, 2004.

Joshi, Viraj. "World-Building Methods for Speculative Design and Fiction." 2021.
https://medium.com/world-building-methods-for-speculative-design-and/wor...

Latour, Bruno. “Sensitizing.” In Experience: Culture, Cognition, and the Common Sense, edited by Caroline A Jones, David Mather, and Rebecca Uchill. MIT Press, 2016.

Ratto, M. (2011). Critical making: Conceptual and material studies in technology and
social life. The Information Society, 27(4), 252-260.

Tarsa, Becca, and James J. Brown Jr. "Complicit interfaces." Precarious rhetorics (2018): 255-275.

Van der Heijden, Tim, and Aleksander Kolkowski. Doing experimental media archaeology: Practice. De Gruyter, 2022.

Youngblood, Gene. “Metadesigning for the Future - Gene Youngblood.” NeMe, 31 Oct. 2013, https://www.neme.org/texts/metadesigning-for-the-future.