Fireside Chat

Dana Atchley, "Next Exit"

Here's the assignment description of the Fireside Chat...

Each student will prepare and perform an interactive theatrical performance that addresses some belief that he/she has. The fireside chat will include the student's performance of a (more-or-less) scripted story, accompanied by a visual, audio, audio-visual, or other design element. Students are to rehearse the story and accompanying elements to become comfortable with their performance. Students will meet at an undetermined location [actually the Nelke Theatre] at an undetermined day and time [actually Saturday, April 9 from 6:30 to 10pm] and share these stories. Students will be asked to bring food, friends, and family to enjoy the evening.

To help you get a sense of what we're doing, here's "There is a Such Thing as Truth" by Errol Morris.

And then remember this?

Damon from Benjamin Thevenin on Vimeo.

Here is are some additional notes that will be helpful in preparing your 'Chat.' 

• Most importantly, media is due to Jesse by Tuesday April 5th at midnight.
• Your media should be thoughtfully selected/created and function to communicate your story and theme. This is not the time to sample crappy stock photos from Google to make a poor power point presentation to accompany your chat. You may use pre-existing images/text/video/audio, but your use of them has to be purposeful and artful.
• You may use images OR video OR audio OR props OR costumes OR whatever media (or combination of multiple media) you think will best serve your chat. It doesn't matter to me, as long as it exemplifies your effort and creativity.
• Your performance should be (more or less) scripted and performed BUT NOT wholly pre-recorded. Part of this experience is for you to tell your story in this space at this time. SO, there must be some performed element and some mediated element.
• Your performance should be no longer than 4 minutes long. Remember how some of those Webspinna Battles got tiresome, and some people had to leave before it ended? Let's stick to 4 minutes or less with each performance. And plan on staying for the duration of the evening.
• Your artist's statement will require you to reflect on the creation and presentation of your chat, as well as your experience listening to and sharing with other students on the night of the performance.

Here's a link to This I Believe, if you're in need of some inspiration for your piece.

Media & Empathy

First, here's this to bridge our conversations from media's relationship with society & community to our current discussions of empathy and belief.

And another thing...

Here is the assignment description for the Exercise in Empathy...

Each student will ask someone close to them to share a story about a difficult trial that he/she has faced. (This someone will need to have an understanding of the assignment and agree to participate). During the telling of the story, students are to practice empathy--llistening intently, asking questions when appropriate, sharing their own thoughts and feelings if invited.Then students will write a journal entry about the thoughts, feelings and impressions that they experienced during and after this exercise and will turn the entry into the instructor rather than post it on their blog. The journal entry must not include the name or relation of the someone or any details of his/her story--students must consider the assignment as a personal practice of empathy not an exploitation of another’s struggles. 

And here's a last intersection of media and empathy.

Media & Community

Here's something to consider...

And another...

And another...

And a last one (perhaps closer to this week's assignment)...

Here are a few thoughts related to your Concerned Citizen project due Tuesday:

• Remember 1-3 minutes is your time requirement. 
• Post the video/audio doc on your blog with an accompanying artist's statement that (1) addresses your creative process--how and why did you choose to make this thing in the ways that you did, (2) correlates your piece with concepts from the reading (Goldbard's article) and media from outside of class.
• A common mistake on this assignment is to overemphasize institutions rather than individuals. Remember that this is not a promotional video for a non-profit or whatever. It is to address an individual's involvement in their community. It should tell a story--one that will probably describe the person's engagement in their community, depict their relationships with others, and give us insight into the personal experiences and motivation behind this engagement.
• Another common mistake is to tell rather than show. Or maybe that's just a symptom of a potentially larger mistake--forgetting to merge theory with practice. Don't forget what Brad's been teaching you all semester long. While the stakes aren't as high on this week's assignment as your final projects in 185, I expect you to practice those same visual storytelling skills in this little doc.

Additional Stuff

First, links to

Anna Anthropy's Queers in Love at the End of the World

Lydia Neon's Player 2

and Anna Anthropy's Twine Tutorial 
(This will provide you with some basic game-design skills, but feel free to explore more games and game tutorials to incorporate more sophisticated game elements/experiences)

When you complete your game, please host it online using Philome.la  *You have to have a twitter account to host with Philome.la, so if you're not a Twitterer, or are opposed to Twitteration, save the game as an html file and somehow share it with us online (Google Doc, Dropbox, etc.).

And as always, accompany your game with an artist statement addressing the prompts in the assignment description.

NEXT...

Concerned Citizen (60 pts.)
Students will work in pairs to produce a 1-3 minute audio or video documentary profiling someone that is working to improve his/her community. The subject may be an artist, activist, social servant, community organizer, or an otherwise ‘concerned citizen.’ Artist statements should include a discussion of the dynamic between the agency exercised by the individual and the social, political, economic and cultural context in which he/she is working. 

So, find a partner and start brainstorming who you might choose to profile for next week's assignment.

Game for Change

To begin, here is a TED Talk from Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie talking about the consequences of the uniformity and unity of media in 'The Danger of a Single Story.' This is your assigned viewing for the week, so be sure to reference it in your artist's statement next week.

  

 As a reminder, here is the assignment description for the Game for Change.

Each student will create a video game using Twine that raises awareness about a particular social issue that he/she feels has been inadequately addressed in public discourse (and mainstream media). Students' artist statements must refer to at least 3 research sources that address this issue (including news stories, scholarly works, documentaries, etc.), and situate their game (the perspectives it represents and the experience it provides) in relation to these sources. Students should consider the aesthetic presentation of their ideas, the information provided, the political perspective represented, and the way in which the game encourages engagement (in the game and the issue itself).

I understand that creating a video game might seem a daunting task for some of you, but we've had some great success in recent semesters with the assignment and I'm confident that this semester will do the same. Remember to:

1. Select a social issue that interests you 
2. Conduct some research to learn more about the issue and understand how it is typically represented in media
3. Create a concept for an interactive text-based game that raises awareness about the issue.  

And for Thursday, please complete the following:

• View the TED talk by Chimamanda Adiche above and play the rest of Depression Quest. Be prepared to discuss both in class on Thursday.
• Especially if you don't feel playing Depression Quest would help you, visit Twinery.org . Do some tutorials, play some games. This should give you an idea of the types of games you might potentially create for the assignment. It's also pretty fun. 
• Select a social issue you would like to explore in this assignment. It could be air pollution, gender inequality, animal rights, freedom of religion, gun control--whatever you're interested in. Even better, whatever you're passionate (or potentially passionate) about. 
• Then, start your research. Remember that in your artist's statement, you need to reference at least 3 research sources. So, get started. Read a thing or two before Thursday.

It's time to explode...

...your brains off. Ready? Here we go.

Politics & Aesthetics

This week we're discussing the relationship between society and culture, politics and aesthetics. The idea is that there is a dialectical relationship between a civilization's social, economic, and political structures and its art, expression, and thought.  To help illustrate this point, let's look at a few historical examples...

Cultural theorist Raymond Williams defines structure of feeling as being:

...as firm and definite as 'structure' suggests, yet it operates in the most delicate and least tangible parts of our activity. In one sense, this structure of feeling is the culture of a period: it is the particular living result of all the elements in the general organization. And it is in this respect that the arts of a period, taking these to include characteristic approaches and tones in argument, are of major importance. (1965)

German Expressionism



What are some of the salient aesthetic characteristics between these films? What correlation can you find between the stories being told, the way in which they are told, and the historical context of post WWI Germany?

Soviet Montage

Films, like Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, were clearly inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution. But not just in regards to their subject matter. What correlation can you find between the aesthetics employed in this sequence and the politics of early Communist Russia?

Glitch Art!

Embrace the Glitch

Here's a cool thing...

On making weaknesses into strengths...

Now, check this out.

Or perhaps even more appropriate for our assignment this week...