It's time to look back and ahead as well. Lots of good things went on in the winter term of 2010. About 1/2 of the course was experimental (2/3 would be better, but would paradoxically require tighter organization than I would have been able to bring to bear on the course design this go-round).
I list some highlights below, after a quick note about the accompanying image. We started our project work in part three of the course with each person making a 6" X 6" collage on the theme of boundaries. These collages were on display in the WW3 Gallery for a few weeks. Then we messed with the boundary between one artist and another by cutting each 6" X 6" collage into four parts and recombining/remixing them into one large work. The image included here is of the remixed version.
Part of the deal here was to explore the idea that in the digital age social or co-creation is becoming a recognizable genre. In many cases artists are creating frameworks in which others can combine their creative efforts with others. The In B Flat website remains for me a significant example of this. The current generation already does much of their knowledge-work collaboratively (in this case platforms like Facebook provide the framework for others to combine forces) so the idea was in part to carry this logic over into a project. It was interesting to see how this kind of real-world or Newtonian-scale "digitization," put in place by a simple division, resulted in a powerful compression (around 70 collages got compressed into an area roughly 5'X 7') and also a powerful lesson in holographics, since most if not all of the compositions retained their DNA/logic even when reduced in size. This in addition to the aforementioned experiment in social/collaborative creative work. All in all, this ws a successful experiment.
--We used Facebook to discuss preparatory readings for the final exam. This was offered as an extra-credit option. Quite a few people took me up on the offer. Even though I described it in terms of "pairs of students" a couple of groups quickly formed up with seven or so participants each. So it kind of jumped off-grid immediately and nicely (and in a way that is typical of the kinds of teachings students give me). The conversations were amazingly good, containing as they did generative insights, reflective passages, and all the rest. This is something I will try to build on next term and see where it might go.
--In the first part of the course, the part on Liberal Arts and Fine Arts processes and overlaps, the learning got pretty good I think around issues of quantum reality (a reality of electrons being in two places at the same time, etc.) possibly being just what Marshall McLuhan was talking about with the dispersal of the nervous system (after all a matter of dispersing the material logic of electrons and electricity). This connection seemed to fall into place nicely this term.
--Also in the first part, the Katamari-style learning concept got pretty good play and traction. This was connected to Mimi Ito, Andrea Lunsford, and others who are pointing to new knowledge and skills in the current generation -- not a new species, just a new skillset-- that is dynamic/moving, nomadic, quick-to-assemble, etc. We also heard quite a bit of wonder and/or worry about this new skillset or attitude, but connected these worries to questions of new media going back to the ancient Greeks, some of whom worried about the destructive effects of the new technology of writing. Walter Ong's concept of secondary-orality fit real well into this discussion, which also wrapped around texting, IMing, Facebooking, etc.
--In the second part of the course, the part on Media Studies, I think the connections were also fairly well made. McLuhan of course was a perfect fit with the discussion of parallel universes and quantum reality --I hit on the notion of the current generation as "Generation Q" --the first group of humans to be be truly swimming in quantum effects due to growing up with the internet. Later on, in the final exam essays, I noticed that some of the Media Studies luminaries got mentioned even though this was not required. Bruce Mazlish for instance. I was delighted to see this, and it alerted me to the possibility that my "Sparks Notes" summaries of Media Studies heavy-hitters (McLuhan, Ong, Ito, and others) may have worked pretty well to get some some conceptual tools onto the table in a fairly strait-forward and usable way.
--In the third part of the course we focused on remix compositions. I picked remix because it seemed to fit well with the logic of Katamari-style learning (using the entire world as one's palette, rolling up this and that). This theme segued beautifully into the conceptual content of part three of course, which was intellectual property, copyright, and privacy. We did image, audio, and video remixes, using our own materials and/or materials that are in the public domain --including items from the Internet Archive and CCMixter.
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