“I find it odd that we’re still using 19th and 20th century forms as a way of disseminating what we do.”

Professor Roger Burrows, head of sociology at the University of York. The Wire HBO TV series is the subject of a new final year sociology subject there.

Other interesting quotes from Professor Burrows:

“We look at The Wire as a form of entertainment that does the job some of the social sciences have been failing to do.”

“It’s a contrast to dry, dull, hugely expensive studies that people carry out on the same issues.

“We spend an enormous amount of our time trying to craft books and articles that are read by so few people and it could challenge how we represent the work that we do in the academe.”

“It’s easier to get students to use The Wire as a way of looking at the current political system than it is to get them to read a dull book on it.”

Which begs the question – Will students have to write a “19th and 20th century-style long dull essay” to evaluate The Wire??

Interestingly, there was an academic conference on The Wire of criminologists, sociologists, historians and cultural theorists in the UK last year.

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CBC Radio’s technology show Spark recently looked at the use of mobile phones in the classrooms, specifically a maths classroom in an American high school in the K-Nect project.

The interview with Maths Teacher Homer Spring is really interesting – A teacher for over 30 years, he encourages students to bring in video and photos to the classroom so they can “find the maths” in it, and does the same for his students,  creating videos for his class of someone laying carpet and other real-life situations to see the maths at work.

http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2010/04/spark-112-may-2-4-2010/

While watching this documentary, write down at least 5 keywords or phrases that focus your attention.

What is the associative link for you with the words/phrases that you have noted down?

So, if you can read the lecture that I would have given (it’s on blackboard) that would be great. Jane’s tute will run as usual and for my group, please feel welcome to use the lab to work on your projects and to talk to each other about what you are planning to do. I am going to post some more info here about how to get going with your projects – where to start, what to read etc, so keep checking it.

A small point of clarification. There is no ‘question’ that you have to ‘answer’ in your projects. If I was to put in that form it might read something like this:

If memory shapes your identity, and memory is transformed through new technologies of remembrance (like digital media – visual and auditory), then how do digital media change the ways in which you understand yourself and the world around you?

But this would only be a starting point. It’s meant to kick start your thinking about these things as they relate to you. In fact, the project itself might not even directly address this question at all but in the process of making it you will have implicitly engaged with this idea. The project is meant to be exploratory not explanatory. One way to begin might be to start with an image that is meaningful to you – it might be of you or it might be of something or someone who is important to you – and then start to read and think about what it is about that image that makes you feel/think.

In the case of my Halflives project, it started very simply like this – I had a picture of my grandmother with a shadow that looked, to me, like the ghost of my grandfather. I then started to read about the following – ghosts, spirit photography, ancestors – and it went from there. The important thing is to let your research guide you and see what emerges.

Have a look at the examples Jane has posted below as well.

More soon and apologies for tonight
Best, Lisa

The Fridge Project by Mei Chong

I don’t remember, but I can look it up for you by Graeme Dunlop

Project by Sarah Simpson

Project by David Levy

Link to the assignment handout – if you downloaded the earlier version, please replace it with this one.

http://www.peachpit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=flash&seqNum=370

While you might not be able to produce high end kinetic typography with these – you can make stuff move (including text) so it’s an easier alternative to learning After Effects. Have fun and have a great long weekend!

And there’s remixes of movie lines in the form of kinetic typography…
Trainspotting’s Choose Life and Zoolander’s School for Children Who Can’t Read Good and a Vimeo channel

Absolute fear would then be the first encounter of the other as other: as other than I and as other than itself. I can answer the threat of the other as other (than I) only by transforming it into another (than itself), through alternating it in my imagination, my fear, or my desire. Jacques Derrida

INNOVATION. Always ‘dangerous’.
Gustave Flaubert

Read on >>>