Semester Project Presentation Prompt

Next week each of you will be doing a presentation on your semester project in progress. We will be going in alphabetical order, so folks in the beginning of the alphabet need to be ready to present on Monday (25 April).

Your presentation should be 3-5 minutes. If it goes any longer than 5 minutes, I’ll need to cut you off. Since there are 34 students in class, we’ll need to keep it tight if we want to get all the presentations done in one week.

You’ll want to give a basic description of your project, and what it will look like when it’s finished. Having something visual to show would be great, though, obviously, you don’t have to present a finished project. Showing something like a table of contents page, or an opening page or entry, would work.

You’ll want to say something about the interface or navigation structure of your project. You’ll also want to discuss the medium you have chosen to work with, and how that medium affects your story or poem. (For instance, if you choose to work with a wiki, how does the fact that other people can change what you’ve done affect how you tell your story—or does it? If you choose to work with hypertext, how does random navigation and a non-linear narrative affect how your tell your story, and how others read it?). Another way to discuss the medium is to discuss the genre: all our genres are distinguished by the medium they use.

In your presentations, as in your project “manifestos,” you’ll also want to address some of the concepts we’ve dealt with in class such as multimedia, interactivity, immersion, database; also digital subjectivity and the factuality/fiction divide (your project, to qualify as a digital object, must deal with at least one of those concepts, but not necessarily most or all of them).

I’m very interested to see what you all do with the genres and ideas we have discussed in class.

Semester Project Prompt

For your class semester project, due May 9, you will create a work of digital literature, including a reflection on your creative process in the context of things we have discussed in class. Specifically:

3-5 pages (or equivalent) consisting of your digital object (approximately 750-1,250 words)
2-4 pages (or equivalent) consisting of your reflection—what I’m calling your “manifesto” (approximately 500 words)

The digital literary work you create can be just about anything, as long as it is both digital and literary. To make things easier, you might want to work in a genre we covered in class: hypertext, digital poetry, interactive fiction, the MOO, flog, and fiction wiki (fwiki?). (Note: You can use Powerpoint to create hypertexts).

You might also do something creative with Facebook, Twitter, or databases (Google). If you decide to go this route, you will need to get the approval of the instructor.

Here is the breakdown of the requirements for the main genres:

• hypertext: 3-5 pages of hypertext (approximately 250 words each page), 2-4 pages of manifesto (at least 500 words total)
• digital poetry: 3-5 pages (or screens) of poetry (approximately 50 words each page), 2-4 pages of manifesto (at least 500 words total)
• interactive fiction: 10 commands (a question and answer pair), a “cheat” (map of how to “win”), and within the “game” a text that is your manifesto (at least 500 words total).
• MOO: 10 objects (including rooms) with detailed descriptions; one of these objects will be your manifesto (at least 500 words total).
• flog: 3-5 entries (approximately 250 words each entry), 2-4 entries of manifesto (at least 500 words total)
• fiction wiki: 3-5 pages (approximately 250 words each page), 2-4 pages of manifesto (at least 500 words total)

These are bare minimums. You can do more pages/screens/entries/objects/commands if you like.

For all of these, you are encouraged to be as multimedia as possible (adding images, sound files, etc.). But you will not be able to just fill up your pages with images/sounds etc. You will still need to meet the textual requirements listed above.

For your manifesto: you will briefly describe your project in the context of the genre you have chosen to work in (How does it represent that genre? Is it a creative departure from that genre?). You will also need to situate your project in the context of class concepts, readings, lecture, and discussion (e.g. How does your project use media? Is it a multimedia object? How interactive is it? Does it create a sense of immersion? Does it use database capability, i.e. can you search or query it?)

Your work of digital literature should be as completed as possible when you turn it in. That is, it must fulfill the requirements above. If you would like to continue working on your project after you turn it in, you may of course do so.

Group projects are acceptable. The groups, however, should be no bigger than three people. And the group project should include some kind of report that shows in detail who did what (this is in addition to the project manifesto).

Each of you will give a 5-minute presentation on your project during the week of April 25-29. I will put up a separate prompt for your presentation, but basically it will entail presenting your digital work in progress and addressing some of the issues mentioned above in the context of your manifesto.

Please send me the final project to me in the form of an email attachment or a URL. Once again, it is due May 9 (by midnight).

First Paper Prompt: Critical Reading of a Digital Literary Work

For your first paper in ENGL278W, you will be doing a critical reading of a digital literary work. Your paper should be 3-4 pages in length, double-spaced, in 12pt Times or Times New Roman font.

Your paper is due on Friday 11 March at 10pm, via email attachment.

Your analysis will focus on two major questions.

1. How does your digital literary work function as media?

2. How does your digital literary work function as literature?

In answering those two questions, you do not have to do any research but you should be familiar with the readings and lectures that address the topics of media and literature.

In terms of media, you will want to consider how your digital literary work is:

a. A means of communicating messages
b. A form of technology
c. An extension of humans
d. A social practice

You will also want to determine how media as technology helps create meaning, and whether remediation is a factor in understanding your digital literary work.

In terms of literature, keep in mind our working definition:

Literature is writing that is read, writing that is considered by both critics and readers in general to have artistic value, and writing that uses language in creative ways.

So you will want to consider how your digital literary work:

a. is written
b. is read
c. uses language in a creative way
d. has artistic value

For your analysis you may choose from any digital literary work on our syllabus (this includes print works such as He, She, and It, and digitized works such as the Frankenstein edition at Romantic Circles). You may also choose a work found and presented by class research teams. Or you may choose a work that you find on your own. For this last option, you will need the approval of the instructor.

As already mentioned, you may consult and cite any of the class readings and lectures in your paper. You will definitely want to look at these blog entries:

http://engl278w.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/literature-definitions/

http://engl278w.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/media-mediation-and-remediation/

The following websites that have examples of digital literary works, or links to sites that do.

Word Circuits
http://www.wordcircuits.com
(see especially “gallery”, “directory”, and “literature unbound” sections)

Glass Wings
http://www.glasswings.com.au
(see especially “what’s new”, “glass wings blog”, and “archives” [modern adventure] sections)