Digital PostcardsThis week you will be reading the work of avant-garde poet Mina Loy and viewing the work of performance artist Laurie Anderson. A current project devoted to Mina Loy's work invites digital postcards interpreting what the authors of this project call En Dehors Garde, or a more encompassing theory of the avant-garde with a title drawn from ballet. You can read more about the theory here: http://mina-loy.com/avant-garde-theory-2/the-en-dehors-garde/ Avant-garde is a term from the military, one that describes the troops before the troops, or in art, that which is so new that it changes how we think about art. Both Loy and Anderson demonstrate this kind of work, always innovating and thinking 'outside the box.' As part of your assignment this week, you will submit a 'digital postcard' to the crowdsourced Loy project, pairing an image with an explanation of its relationship to your sense of the En Dehors Garde. The instructions are here: http://mina-loy.com/avant-garde-theory-2/digital-flash-mob/ In addition to submitting your work using the project's site, you will also post your image and caption on our discussion board, 'creating a new thread' to do so and responding to one of your classmates' postcards within 48 hours of the deadline. You can pick any image you would like, and it could be drawn from something we read this term (remember not to use images that are copyrighted), or something that interests you outside of the class, perhaps an example from art or music, as long as it is appropriate for an academic context. You can also use a photograph of your own. When submitting your postcard, you can choose whether to use your own name or a pseudonym. The pseudonym you choose should appropriate for an academic audience. You should also include the source of or link to the image and any other sources (if you draw on any) in your postcard caption. When it is posted, you are welcome to add the link to your digital postcard on our discussion board site as well. You can see examples of other postcards on the Loy project site. You will be graded for this assignment using the discussion board posting rubric.
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Woolf ScreencastsDue Sunday 7.29, 11pm est. In preparation for your final projects, this week we will make three to five minute screencasts using Screencast-o-matic. In your video, you will answer one of the following questions, analyzing at least two quotations from Virginia Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own (1928) to support your point, and showing passages, highlighting words, and explaining how the text makes meaning as you analyze them in your video. It may help to pair passages that address different facets of a concept or show the progression of an idea. Remember to draw conclusions and consider why Woolf’s points matter, then and now. You can also include typed passages or images or media as you explain your points. Get creative!
You can either share your video to the discussion board, clicking ‘create new thread,’ or if the file is too large, share it to our folder on google drive and put a link to it on the discussion board. Remember to cite all sources you consult, including a works cited page in your video. This list should include sources and links for images or media you include. You will be graded using the Discussion Board Posting Rubric from the Posting 1 assignment. You should comment on at least one of your classmates' videos within 48 hours of the deadline. Feminist InfographicsStudent infographic interpreting Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “We Should All Be Feminists” TED Talk and Nada Anid’s essay from The Internet of Women. See the assignment in the previous post.
Week 8 Infographic Assignment
Due Sunday July 15, 11pm, est. Earlier this term, we mapped the locations of moments in The Bell Jar. Later on, we will be creating podcasts or videos. These tasks use different forms of communication, visual and oral, to make meaning. In preparation for this project, we will begin considering the ways that visual and oral texts communicate ideas, and how they could do so more effectively. Below you will see an example of an infographic addressing the role of Otjize in Nnedi Okorafor’s novel Binti and Afrofuturism created by a former student of this class. Infographics blend information and visual argument, communicating data and ideas. Using Piktochart or Canva (both have free access), you will create an infographic interpreting at least one concept in Chimanada Ngozi Adichie’s “We Should All Be Feminists” TED Talk (the printed essay is also in our Google Drive if you would like to refer to it), or Nada Anid’s essay from The Internet of Women (also on Google Drive), or a theme or concept present throughout both essays. Feminism is a familiar topic. You might think about what Adichie or Anid teach us that we did not expect them to. Make sure to acknowledge these sources and any others you consult (or images you include) as part of your infographic, perhaps at the bottom, using your own words and quoting appropriately. Taking a look at the examples on Picktochart.com, you will notice that infographics can include data, and this may be a place to note some of Anid’s statistical findings and reflect on their significance. Your assignment for this week will be to ‘create a thread’ on the Discussion Board in which you post a screenshot of your infographic and a 150 word response addressing why you made the design decisions that you did, how your infographic interprets the text, and what you learned about the text and making visual artifacts in the process of doing so. If you would like, you can also draw connections to previous texts that we have read. You are also required to respond to at least one classmate’s postings within 48 hours of the deadline, addressing the ways that they made meaning visually and how it altered your sense of the text or texts they interpret. Mapping The Bell JarTogether, we will create a map Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar. You will receive an invitation to join a shared Google Map. We will each add one pin and an annotation of a place from the first 98 pages of the novel. Your annotation will analyze the passage from the novel to which the location refers, addressing why it matters in terms of the novel (as far as we have read), the location’s historical significance, and any other details you find that shed light on why it matters in the novel or in light of Plath’s biography. Your annotations can include other images, such as street views, historical photographs, or links to video footage or other texts. Make sure to cite all sources for the content of the annotation. Be creative in the locations you seek. You can also figure out their distances from each other and consider how this alters your sense of the novel. Locations can be both from the novel and from Plath’s life, and your annotation will address why what you have found matters in terms of your sense of the novel. Possible locations include the United Nations, Bloomingdale’s, Sing Sing Prison, Ladies’ Day, Mademoisellemagazine (where Plath worked in 1953), Smith College, Haven House dorm (Plath’s first year residence), the Amazon/Barbizon Hotel, Yale University, the movie theatre where the guest editors become ill, Lenny Shepherd’s apartment (the narrator gives directions from the Amazon/Barbizon Hotel). You are also welcome to add locations that occur later in the novel. You can choose whether to add lines between locations or to leave them unlinked, noting in your annotation the page on which the event occurs, or the pages if you are commenting on a character’s subsequent visit or memory of a place. You can also group map locations into layers on the map and color code and group them, by chapter or by topic. You should also cite and consult resources like Elizabeth Winder's Pain, Parties, and Work: Sylvia Plath's in New York, Summer 1953, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, Tracy Brain's The Other Sylvia Plath, and Plath’s correspondence in the Letters of Sylvia Plath: Volume 1. Some of these texts are searchable on Amazon. Peter Steinberg’s Sylvia Plath Photograph Albums from Plath’s time in New York will also be particularly useful, as is his blog, Sylvia Plath Info. Your map can provide a resource, complementing the Sylvia Plath Map of Northampton, but with further annotations. You will post locations and annotations on a first come, first served basis. The first students to add to the map, get first choice of locations. You can also add to another student’s annotation. Your Discussion Board posting this week will address your contribution to the map, so you can specify what you added and why it matters. You will compose a 150-word response about your addition to the map and what researching it allowed you to understand about the text as a whole, analyzing at least one quotation from the text to make your point. Add your posting to the Discussion Board this week by clicking “Create Thread.” Your map annotation and your Discussion Board posting must use your own words and appropriate use of quotation. You must cite all sources you have consulted, including webpages. You should also attribute sources of images and content on the map itself. |
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