New York University - School of Continuing and Professional Studies
Fundamentals of Interactive Multimedia
Fall 2005 Y10.3000.002
Thursdays 6:20pm - 8:50pm
Professor: Diane Ludin
Email: dl84@nyu.edu
(Note: when emailing me please type nyu student in the subject heading of your email)
This course offers an introduction to historical, cultural, creative, and practical perspectives of interactivity and multimedia. Designed as an overview, addressing ideas rather than techniques, this class examines the concepts that drive interactive multimedia, by focusing on media convergence, hypertext/media, information architecture, and user experience. Through presentations, readings, Internet projects and guest speakers, this class explores the fundamentals of interactive multimedia and offers enrolled students the opportunity to experiment with their own ideas through hands-on prototype projects developed for the Web. Students will learn about the development of interactive multimedia throughout history and how to apply basic concepts inherent in interactive multimedia to their own projects, which will be presented in class and/or online at the end of the semester.
Grading Policies
Final Grade Evaluation:
25% Assignments - Notebook & 2 Presentations/Essays
25% Attendance and Participation
25% Midterm Exam - Take home essay
25% Final Project
Attendance:
You will be expected to attend every class. If you have more than 2 unexcused absences, your final grade will drop 1/2 a letter. Two unexcused latenesses will be considered the same as an absence from class.
Required technical skills before taking this course:
- Familiarity with the Internet
- Use of email and basic web browsing
- Rudimentary web design and/or digital image manipulation
Reading List
Several articles will be assigned according to the class schedule, for details see the Blackboard for the class. Each student is also required to read 3 books for this class.
Wardip-Fruin, Noah and Harrigan, Pat. First Person, New Media as Story, Performance and Game.
(MIT Press, 2004)
Garrett, Jesse James. The Elements of User Experience. (Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing, 2002)
Wodtke, Christina. Information Architecture. (Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing, 2002)
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Course Schedule (subject to change)
Week One:
09/08 Introduction and Overview
Week Two:
09/15 Interactive History The computer and the Avant-Garde, the intersection. I will be collecting Assignment One.
Week Three:
09/22 Hypertext and Media Materiality - Interactivity and Multimedia, the Foundations
Week Four:
09/29 The Internet as mass medium and Virtual Reality.
Submit a topic for your Presentation #1. A complete submission is a topic and an outline of what points within the topic you will be addressing. Additionally this will include a Bibliography of source material you intend to use.
Week Five:
10/06 Identity, Computers, the Internet, and Convergence
Submit a topic for your Presentation #1. A complete submission is a topic and an outline of what points within the topic you will be addressing. Additionally this will include a Bibliography of source material you intend to use.
Week Six:
10/13 User Design, Information Architecture, Way finding and the organizing of information on the Internet. What forms of narrative do the Internet and Interactive media devices make possible?
Week Seven:
10/20 Interactivity and Game Design
Presentation #1 Part I the class will have chosen a technology or topic to present to the class. Your presentation should be at least 10 minutes. Be prepared to hand in your bibliography and topic presentation outline. I will be handing out the take home mid-term exam.
Week Eight:
10/27 Emergent mediums: Blogging, mobile computing devices, pod casting.
Presentation #1 Part II the remainder of the class will have chosen a technology or topic to present to the class. Your presentation should be at least ten minutes. Be prepared to hand in your bibliography and topic presentation outline. Mid-term notebook entries will be collected. I will also be collecting the mid-term exams.
Week Nine:
11/03 Guest Speaker TBA
Handing back mid-term notebook work and exam.
Week Ten:
11/10 Guest Speaker TBA
Proposals for Final Projects DUE TODAY IN CLASS
Handing back mid-term notebook work and exam.
Week Eleven:
11/17 Guest Speaker TBA
Week Twelve:
12/01 In class Lab time - Working on final project web pages.
Week Thirteen:
12/08 In class Lab time - Working on final project web pages.
Week Fourteen:
12/15 Final Projects, Presentation #2 - Part I
Week Fifteen:
12/22 Final Projects, Presentation #2 - Part II
Assignments
1) NOTEBOOKS - You will be required to keep a notebook for the entire semester. Each entry must have at least a 1/2 page summary (1 page limit) of each week’s assigned reading OR a summary of an article related to the assigned weekly reading that you have discovered outside of class (be sure to include author and publication). Each notebook entry should also include your own thoughts and ideas on the subject. If you find an article from outside the class, please explain how the article relates to the assigned weekly reading. You will be required to turn in entries midway through the semester Due Week 8, October 27th: and the completed notebook at the end of the semester Due Week 13, December 8th.
2) 2 Presentations - You must present two assignments in class. A fully completed presentation includes submitting a bibliography and an outline. Alternate option to one of your presentations: Write a 4-page essay to be handed in to me with a complete outline and bibliography.
Presentation #1 - Due Week 7 & 8, October 20 & 27:
Analyze any type of media content that relates to terms discussed in class like "Interactivity" "New Media" "Virtual Reality", the "Internet", "Multimedia." Some examples of the types of media to analyze are Sci-fi films, fiction/non-fiction books, or science/technology documentaries and websites. Refer to class readings and your notebook to support your analysis in addition to any of your own outside research.
OR
Choose a new technology you wish to learn more about. Explain it's technical physiology, it's historical roots, and theorize how you think this technology will affect our culture. Use class readings to support your essay in addition to any of your own outside research. Some examples of technologies to write about are robotics, video games, websites or other Internet media, nanotechnology and surveillance technologies.
Presentation Proposal Due Week 10, November 17:
This includes your topic outlined, how you are going to approach the topic and some sources you are planning to use to build your presentation.
Final Project Proposal - Creative Option: Due Week 12, December 01:
Think of an idea that you have for an existing technology and how you would change it. Come up with sketches or pictures that would illustrate your idea. These illustrations will be images and text for a series of web pages that outline your proposed idea. Think about who would benefit from the technological revision you propose, and what changes it would help realize in the existing limitations of the technological project you are revising.
Examples of this process would be Vannevar Bush's Memex machine, Ted Nelson's hypertext and Tim Berners Lee's project proposal for what became the World Wide Web. These proposals must be approved by the Instructor.
Presentation #2 - Final Presentation Due Week 14 & 15, December 15 & 22: To be approved by the instructor in consultation with the student. These proposals must be approved by the 10th week of class.