Assignments

Grading Rubric - 10 Point Scale

 * Art: Is this project creative, poetic, artful, visually stunning, self-aware, participatory, some or all of these things? Has the student stepped out of her comfort zone to produce something challenging. Possible 3 points.
 * Scholarship: Do the project and statement work together to convey thoughtful engagement with course materials and outside influences? Possible 3 points.
 * Tech: Is the code functional, elegant, commented? Has the student challenged herself and extended her code literacy? Possible 3 points.
 * Challenge, Innovation, Exceptional Merit: Is this over the top in some way? Possible 1 point.

HTML Self Portrait
Write a hypertext self-portrait composed as a set of webpages

Compose a narrative hypertext containing at least five html pages, ten images, ten links, and as much text as you like. Links can direct to other websites. Alongside your hypertext, compose a short (1 paragraph) statement explaining your purpose and choices in your design, and why your hypertext is a self portrait. This is art. This is not necessarily your homepage, cv, promotional arena online. Consider how other modes of self portraiture (photos, paintings, autobiographical writing) interface with web space. Your statement should contain at least three links to websites that have influenced your aesthetic and structural choices, and should articulate why these sites are influences (put your work in dialogue with your influences). To prepare for this project, look at some of the (many) hypertext compositions on the nmr cd-rom, as well as Patchwork Girl (on reserve at McHenry's Media Center).


 * Challenge yourself to learn something new about HTML. Have you played with HTML5 yet? http://www.diveintohtml5.org/
 * We'll be reading your source code. Saving your word files as html does not advance your code literacy or learning, and we'll figure out your shortcut in about 5 seconds.HTML is simple to learn; writing a hypertext composition is within the programming capabilities of everyone in this class.

Spring 2010 Portraits 

Students from Dustin's section have their sites listed here: http://danm.ucsc.edu/~DUSTIN/fdm20c/. If you are in one of Andrew's sections we very much encourage that you post your work in this space

Wikipedia Project
Participate in wikipedia.org to further a critical dialogue on an aspect of new media art

Determine a focus for your participation in Wikipedia. For example, you might choose to expand the biography of one of the authors or artists we look at in class. Or you might choose to take on a "clean up" project and help rewrite an incomplete page. Our strong preference is for you to choose a topic where other people are already active in a discussion about that topic. Be interdependent, not isolated.

After signing up for a wikipedia account at http://en.wikipedia.org/: First, choose a topic you find compelling. Our syllabus suggests several options; just make sure your topic has something to do with our class; that way we can evaluate your work from an informed point of view. Second, determine what has already been posted about your topic. Maybe you will need to create a whole new page! Maybe you will find a stub that needs to be expanded. Maybe there are tons of great articles already, so you will need to focus on editing and contributing new information.

Finally, when it's time to turn in your project, point us to the URL showing your user history. We will evaluate your level of participation using this page, determining if you have contributed valuable information, if you have done concerted work around a specific topic, and if you have worked collaboratively with others in the (large) wikipedia community. Because we use your user history to evaluate you, make sure you are always logged in to your wikipedia account when you make edits. At minimum, we expect your user history to show 50 edits on pages related to your topic, with less than 10 of these being minor edits. Your contributions page is found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Your_Username. Document this page frequently. If pages you create are deleted, edits disappear from this list. One idea is to work in already existing pages. Another is to capture this page at the end of each editing session using a firefox extension called Scrapbook (or something similar). If you are an active wikipedia user and are concerned that your fdm20c edits will get mixed up with your other edits, consider opening a new account just for this project.

To turn in this project, send your TA your user contributions documentation and URL, accompanied by a brief (1 paragraph) statement describing your topic and how your participation in wikipedia has changed your understanding of it. See these pages for help getting started: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_portal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:New_contributors%27_help_page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Simplified_ruleset http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing

Processing Monster Project
Lukas Vojir started making processing monsters in order to learn how to use processing and promote code sharing. The rules for making a processing monster are simple: Strictly black and white + mouse reactive. Vojir has a gallery of monsters and their source code here: http://www.rmx.cz/monsters/. To complete this project you will need to download processing from http://processing.org/, look at the monsters on Vojir's page, and then play around with creating your own monster. If you are familiar with java, processing will be very intuitive for you. If you are new to coding and/or java, we suggest downloading processing right away and playing around with it as soon as possible (like, today!).

A tip for those new to processing/java : Try some of the processing tutorials on http://processing.org/ before you get started. Achieve mouse reactivity first, using a simple shape, then draw. The tutorials go from drawing to mouse reactivity, which might tempt you to spend a lot of time drawing, but in order to achieve mouse reactivity in just 9 weeks, skip to that after drawing a simple shape. A risk with drawing first and achieving mouse reactivity second is that you will draw something so complex that you will not know how to make it mouse reactive (and neither will your professor!).

To turn in the project, compose a short (1-2 paragraph) description of your monster and your script design and attach it to a commented and (hopefully) working prototype of the monster. We'll go over how to export and post your processing files in class. If any of the monsters in Vojir's gallery inspired your monster, credit them in both your code (as comments) and in your description. If your code does not run you can still receive full credit for this assignment if you write a very good description of your design. Conversely, even if your code does run, you will not receive full credit for this assignment if your written description of your design is poorly written or too abbreviated to be understood. A good description of a script design will include at least the following three parts:
 * A well-commented code listing: your code should be heavily commented even if it does not work. You should explain in your comments what the important lines of code do or are meant to do.


 * A description of the work planned and/or accomplished "behind the screen": even if your program does not run, you should outline its structure and dynamics. explain each of the elements that constitute the structural pieces of the game; and, comment on the functions implemented in javascript in order to explain how the elements work.


 * A description of the work as it is intended to be understood and implemented by a user; i.e., an explanation of the work any player will have to do "in front of the screen." It should be possible for most anyone to read this description of the work and then be able to use your script and understand its purpose. in short, it should read as a sort of simple "user's manual" for your script.

It is up to you if you want to submit your monster to Vojir's gallery. I hope you choose to do so!

Final Paper - Proposal for a Work of Digital Art
Your final paper is due on June 3. The paper will be in the form of a detailed proposal for a digital art work. It will be something that you might consider submitting to a competition for art commissions or as a grant proposal. You will not need to implement your artwork; it will be a proposal. Later in the term we will post specifics about how to write this paper and how we will be grading the papers. You might approach your projects as explorations of technologies or practices that you could return to in your proposal. You are not required to submit this paper to a competition, but this assignment is defined as an elaboration of the requirements for submissions to Ars Electronics's competition for [the next idea] art and technology grant:

The Requirements:
1. Register and upload your intent to The Pool.

2. Upload draft of approach to The Pool.

3. Review 6 projects in The Pool. Vote and comment on as many as possible. Document the comments you write to others and attach them to your final paper.

4. Turn in final printed paper, with your comments on other projects attached.

Grading by Components:
5% - Title & brief summary of the concept

50% - A longer description of the concept and its realization in detail (production plan including hardware and software requirements)

20% - A list of tasks including notation specifying which tasks are to be completed by the grant recipient and which require support

15% - Pool participation

5% - Portrait of the author

5% - Curriculum vitae of the entrant including technical and/or artistic background

Appendix to Proposal Assignment

In addition to the criteria of Ars Electronica's checklist, the following are required for your final paper: At least 1500 words written on the "description of the concept". This section of the proposal, when printed out, should be approximately five pages long; we expect you to write 1500 -1600 words not including the references. We expect the other four items on the checklist (list of tasks, CV, etc.) will require at least another three or four pages. So, the total length of your proposal will likely be between eight and ten pages. (Use MLA style)

Be absolutely sure to check your paper for spelling and grammar errors before you hand it in! We will not do copy editing of your proposal by faculty. If a word is misspelled or a sentence ungrammatical, we will simply skip it and move on to the next word or sentence. If the proposal is littered with spelling and grammar errors, we may need to skip the whole thing, in which case you would receive no credit for the paper. You must engage in a substantial manner with at least two key readings from the course. Therefore, at a minimum, your "works cited" list at the end of your paper (i.e., your references or bibliography section) should include the author, title, etc. of at least two texts. A key reading means of sufficient length and substance. If your are not sure about what this might mean, ask. "In substantial manner" means that your must demonstrate an understanding of the readings through paraphrase, summary, and direct quotation. You must do more than pull quotes from the readings, and you must quote anything you use to support your ideas.

The Pool will be used to give and receive feedback on proposals. This is based on an assignment designed by Jon Ippolito, one of the creators of The Pool. Using a system like this allows for feedback remotely, intercampus dialogues with students in Maine & beyond, and resonates with how many new media art proposal competitions use voting systems (i.e., Rhizome commissions).

Add Your Work To The Pool
First post the latest draft of your proposal online to your UCSC student account or some other url. Your can post it as .html, .pdf, .rtf, etc. You may choose to include all items on the checklist, but you are required to include the summary of concept and longer description of project. These can be in draft form, but should be complete enough to understand your main ideas. Then:

1. Create one 100x100 pixel headshot to represent yourself and another 100x100 pixel icon to represent your project. These should be .jpg or .png.

2. Visit The Pool Walkthrough and acquaint yourself with the process of navigating, reviewing, and adding to The Pool.

3. Point Firefox 3+ or IE7 to [], register if necessary, and log in using the formula lastnamefirstname0X. If your didn't get an email to the contrary, the last digit of your login is 1, as in ippolito01. If you don't remember using a different password in the past, it's probably swimmer.

4. Once logged in, navigate to the Art Pool via the link at upper right and click on the My Account button in the menu at the top of the Art Pool. If you haven't already, fill out the fields in the account tab as instructed in the Walkthrough, including your self-ratings. Upload the thumbnail icon you prepared of yourself, and click Update Account Settings.

5. Click on the Art Pool's Add to Pool button and following the instructions in Walkthrough on adding intent. Title your project; the title is really important. It's what people see first in The Pool. You can use your brief summary for the description.

6. Having added the intent, open its project panel by clicking on its floating title, select the intent (the little box at left), and add an approach. paste the url for your text-based proposal in the Approach url field. Add your thumbnail for the project. See the Walkthrough or Pool FAQ for more on adding approaches.

Review Other Proposals
1. Review 6 projects by other swimmers. Try to pick projects that don't already have many reviews (they will be floating on the left side of the Pool interface). Make sure to select the latest approach and click to view the text-based proposal so you can evaluate each proposal in its entirety.

2. Once you've read the proposal and are ready to respond, open the project panel again and select the latest version of a project by clicking the little box at the bottom of the version stream at left. Click on + Review and follow the guidelines in the Walkthrough.

As you review projects, keep in mind: The description field is just for a brief nonjudgmental sentence or paragraph. Take a stand--try to avoid giving out 4s, 5s, and 6s. Choose NA for any aspect that you're not qualified to review. If you want to look at projects from our class only, filter the results to fdm20c-2010-spring.