Re-post: Course Syllabus
Since the syllabus and resources page will probably have disappeared off your pages by now, I'm re-posting it here along with the Resources post of sites related to the course.
Interactive Documentary (3916)
Summer 2001
New School University
Media Studies Program
Course instructor: Dr. Martin Roberts
Class meetings: Fridays 3-6 p.m. (June 8-July 13)
Class location: KU (55 West 13th Street): 804
Office hrs.: by appointment
mroberts4@nyc.rr.com
Course Description
Documentary has historically been associated with the media of photography, cinema, television, and video. Over the past decade, however, digital media technologies have led to the emergence of new forms of documentary in the interactive realm of CD-ROM, the Internet, and the Web. While these forms commonly include photographs or video, they also differ from older forms of documentary in significant respects: they are non-linear, event-based, and offer new possibilities for participation in the production process itself.
This course provides an introduction to these new forms of interactive documentary, and considers what happens to historical genres of documentary (political, ethnographic, cinema verite, etc.) when they enter the world of digital, networked media. Topics addressed include: personal web pages as a continuation of popular self-documentary practices such as family photograph albums and home movies; web diaries and travel narrative; testimonial sites organized around historical events; uses of the web to document and mobilize support for ongoing political struggles; webcams (networked videocameras) and their relation to verite and reality-TV; and recent attempts to document cyberspace itself. Taking neither a utopian nor a reactionary approach to its subject, the course considers the possibilities offered by interactive media for the future of documentary.
Assignments: Reading
REQUIRED: Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media. Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2001.
RECOMMENDED: Erik Barnouw, Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film. Rev. ed. Oxford University Press, 1993.
Most reading assignments for the course will be web-based. Some photocopied articles will be distributed. Recommended background texts are listed in the bibliography below.
Assignments: Writing
1. Weblog response and other posts (min. 10)
* Create a personal weblog (week 1) on Blogger site.
* Post 1 response weekly on this no later than Thursday at midnight each week.
* Min. 1 other post weekly required.
2. Site report/review (oral/written: 15 mins/1000 words)
* Choose one web documentary site from the approved list (or propose another - must be preapproved).
* Study site and give 15 min presentation of/commentary on it to the class.
* Post review on personal weblog (due on day of presentation).
3. Research report (oral, group: 30 mins)
* Conduct additional research in a group of 2-3 and report orally to class on this.
* Post annotated links on class weblog (zone1, zone 2, etc.) created for this purpose.
4. Analysis paper (1000 words), due 7/6/01
* Write a review-essay on an approved topic in Lev Manovich's book The Language of New Media, paying particular attention to how it relates to the question of interactive documentary.
Grading and Evaluation
Weblog: 20%
Site report: 20%
Research report: 20%
Analysis paper: 20%
Class participation: 20%
Agenda
[X] = xerox
06/08/01 Introduction
* Personal documentary
* Screening of Doug Block’s Home Page [VHS]
* See also: Doug Block; Justin Hall; Carl Steadman; Julie Petersen; Howard Rheingold; Suck
06/15/01 Public Secrets (1)
* Rebecca Mead, "You’ve Got Blog", New Yorker 13 Nov 2000: 102, 104, 106-08
* Meg; megnut cam; Jason; the "infamous" bathroom mirror picture; also, check out the Mirror Project itself
* See also (optional): Ev; EvLover (aka The Pyra Shrine); Beebo.org (community weblog); Metafilter; Medianews; Arts and Letters Daily
* Web diaries: LiveJournal; Diaryland
06/22/01 Public Secrets (2)
* Charles Platt, Steaming Video," Wired, 8.11 (Nov 2000).
* Aparna Kumar, "He Said, She Said, Web Dread," Wired News, 23 Feb 2001.
* Jennicam
* Carlazone
* AnaCam
* CameraPlanet
* See also: Earthcam; Leonard's Cam World; Yahoo Webcams.
06/29/01 In Memoriam
* Survivors: Testimonies of the Holocaust [CD-ROM]
* Visual History Foundation: Survivors of the Shoah
* Other sites tba
07/06/01 Counter-Publics
* Boyle, "From Portapak to Camcorder: A Brief History of Guerrilla Television" [X]
* Independent Media Center
* Guest: Matt Kohn, Election
07/13/01 Kino-Eye
* Manovich, The Language of New Media
* Vertov, Man with a Movie Camera [DVD]
* Mann, "Cyborg Seeks Community" (Technology Review, May-June 1999.
*** DEADLINE: review-essay of The Language of New Media ***
07/14/01 Classes end
Select Bibliography
Barnouw, Erik. 1983. Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film. Rev. ed. Oxford University Press.
Barsam, Richard Meran. 1992. Non-Fiction Film: A Critical History. Rev. ed. Indiana University Press.
Boyle, Deirdre. "From Portapak to Camcorder: A Brief History of Guerrilla Television."
FEED Special Issue: Documentary
Jacobs, Lewis. 1987. The Documentary Tradition. Rev. ed. Norton.
Manovich, Lev. 2001. The Language of New Media. Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
Nichols, Bill. 1991. Representing Reality. Indiana University Press.
———. 1994. Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture. Indiana University Press.
Renov, Michael, ed. 1993. Theorizing Documentary. Routledge.
Films
Cinema Verite: Defining the Moment, dir. Peter Wintonick
Home Page, dir. Doug Block
Man with a Movie Camera, dir. Dziga Vertov
My American Girls, dir. Aaron Matthews
Sans Soleil, dir. Chris Marker
Startup.com (currently playing at Film Forum)
posted by martin @ 23:16
