NOTE: This first homework is a modified version of an assignment for my Principles of New Media class. Both classes are using the same textbook, and the purpose of this first homework assignment is meant to get us familiarized with the text. Later homework assignments that appear here will emphasize aspects of “cultural software” that are relevant to ideas like “sharing”, “virality”, and other key “social media” concepts.
Welcome to the class blog, each Tuesday I will be putting up a new homework assignment, and assigned students will be asked to give a blog response. While assigned students MUST add to homework discussion, all students are encouraged to contribute their thoughts.
Access syllabus HERE.
Your reading/video/discussion assignments will appear here on the blog each week.
SOFTWARE TAKES COMMAND
First, HERE is a quick introduction to Lev Manovich. He wrote the textbook we’ll be using in class. || ACCESS CC TEXTBOOK HERE. || BUY TEXTBOOK HERE. || We won’t be reading the entire textbook (unless you just want to), but instead will use it as a guide through which to contextualize software we will demo in class. You can see the list of software we will be taking a look at in Thursday class sessions HERE.
Your first assignment is to read the article What is New Media? 8 Propositions by Lev Manovich
ARTICLE LINK : http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/Manovich-NewMedia.pdf
I’d also like you to read pages 1 through 33 in our textbook Software Takes Command also by Lev Manovich. Pay special attention to Manovich’s 7 aspects of “cultural software”:
- Creating cultural artifacts and interactive services which contain representations, ideas, beliefs, and aesthetic values
- Accessing, appending, sharing, and remixing such artifacts (or their parts) online
- Creating and sharing information and knowledge online
- Communicating with people using email, IM, online text and video chat, social networking features such as wall postings, pokes, events, etc.
- Engaging in interactive cultural experiences
- Participating in the online information ecology by expressing preferences and adding metadata
- Developing software tools and services that support all these activities
And if you haven’t had enough, and remain hungry for more lists of high minded concepts, check out 24 Things Most People Pretend To Understand But Don’t
http://www.buzzfeed.com/moerder/things-we-all-pretend-to-understand-but-dont
Have these read (though obviously you don’t have to read that last one) by Tuesday. Students assigned to post, please do so by Tuesday’s class.
[Tuesday’s lecture slides will be posted here after Thursday’s class]
