Digital Poetics LTWR 103
This Syllabus is Provisional
Elizabeth Losh
Course Description:
This workshop/lab for creative writers includes instruction on using software and writing basic computer code. Student writers will create innovative web-based works that experiment with poetic form, draw on rich media resources, and provide more accessibility and interactivity for public audiences. Participants will also be encouraged to interrogate the definition of poetry itself, as they work with different fonts, screen layouts, sounds, and rules and consider the analogies between writing poems and writing computer code. Further information about this course is available at the syllabus at http://losh.ucsd.edu/courses/digitalpoetry.html
We will be working with the Archive for New Poetry to see examples of experimental work in the twentieth century that uses poetic effects from the concrete form of the text on the page, sound, nonlinear composition, and chance.
Office Location: Pepper Canyon Hall 249
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursdays 12:30-1:30PM
Grade Breakdown:
Flash Adaptation Assignment: 10%
Original Flash Assignment: 15%
Audacity Adaptation Assignment: 5%
Original Audacity Assignment: 10%
Hypertext Adaptation Assignment: 10%
Original Hypertext: 15%
Processing Adaptation Assignment: 5%
Final Project: 20%
Class Participation: 10%
Recommended Non-Poetry Books:
Digital Foundations: Intro to Media Design with the Adobe Creative Suite, Xtine Burrough and Michael Mandiberg
Getting Started with Processing, Casey Reas and Ben Fry
Week Zero
9/22 Thursday
Meet in Lit 455
Introductions - Bring a poem that you have written or one you admire to read out loud.
Talking about Technical Matters: Conceptual, Rhetorical, Stylistic, and Technical Issues
Showcase from last year's students
Week One
9/27 Tuesday
Meet in Lit 455
Electronic Literature Organization
Electronic Literature Collection
E-Poetry at The Electronic Poetry Center
Joe Davis, I Made Tea
Animated Poetry
Robert Kendall, Faith
Brian Kim Stefans, The Dreamlife of Letters
9/29 Thursday
Meet in Geisel Library Special Collections
Session in Special Collections
Also check out the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry
And Early and Clairvoyant Journals by Hannah Weiner
Reviewing Experimental Movements of the 20th Century: Symbolism, Imagism, Surrealism, Objectivism, The New York School, Black Mountain School, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poetry
Week Two
10/4 Tuesday
Meet in Center 315
Working with Flash and adapting James Schuyler's "Father or Son"
(Sample Flash adaptation from Rose Mireya from last year)
Kinetic Typography (bring USB drive for .fla files)
K. Michel and Dirk Vis, Ah
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Cunnilingus in North Korea
Adaptation and Motion Graphics
Pulp Fiction in Motion Graphics
Jeff Smith-Luedke, Minimalism
Ellen Lupton, Thinking with Type
Lev Manovich, "Generation Flash"
10/6 Thursday
Meet in Pepper Canyon Hall Smart Classroom on the Second Floor, PCYN 240
Reading and Responding to Electronic Literature with Jeremy Douglass of CRCA
Word at a Time Works
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Dakota
William Poundstone, Project for Tachistoscope
Interactive Works
Sam Barlow, Aisle
Daniel C. Howe and Aya Karpinska, open - ended
Dan Waber and Jason Pimble, I, You, We
Week Three
10/11 Tuesday
Meet in Lit 455
Archivally Inspired Illuminated Manuscript Created with Photoshop Due! [dropbox]
Using Photoshop or a similar form of image editing software, create an electronically generated "illuminated manuscript" inspired by a work of concrete poetry from the Archive for New Poetry at UCSD. Please turn in a one-page print-out, either in black-and-white or in color. Please also include your name and the author and title of the work that inspired your homage.
10/13 Thursday
Bring Your Laptops to Class!
Meet in Lit 455
Today the focus will be on electronic literature off the screen and into social media with Mark Marino of Bunk Magazine, Critical Code Studies, and the University of Southern California will be leading our class.
Mark Marino, Stravinsky's Muse
Mark Marino, The LA Flood Project
Allison Clifford, The Sweet Old Et Cetera
Jeremy Douglass, He began: She ended
Remember the And Now Conference is taking place, so check out the e-lit sessions today!
Week Four
10/18 Tuesday
Meet in Center 315
Working with Audacity and adapting Hannah Weiner's Clairvoyant Journal
(Sample Audacity adaptation by John Schell from last year)
Tips on working with audio from the Library:
You can limit the scope to "audio" on the Roger basic search page before entering your search terms. You will notice on the Roger search page a number of options just above the search box: All Audio Books Digital Images Electronic Materials Films & Videos Journals & Serials Maps & Atlases – The default is "All," when you select "Audio" the bar across the top turns purple. You may then enter your search terms and results will come from across libraries, including digital audio collections, and will exclude printed works, films, etc.
To find audio recordings from the Archive for New Poetry specifically limit the scope to audio, as above, and enter Archive for New Poetry as your search terms. Everything in ANP is given this additional heading, so it is a good way to bring together all ANP titles. You will see this is 1477 results. So, you will no doubt want to perform a more precise search for particular poets, date ranges, etc.
Even more specifically, everything in the New Writing Series is pulled together with an added title New Writing Series (as it was called from the years 1982-on) or UCSD New Poetry Series (1973-1981, as it was called during that time). You will notice that the most recent years have been digitized and the links to the audio is available from Roger as you search that way. We also post the current quarter readings on our website: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/locations/mscl/resources/new-writing-series-podcasts.html
10/20 Thursday
Meet in Lit 455
Flash Adaptation Assignment Due [dropbox]
Introducing Sound
John Cayley, Windsound
Thomas Swiss, Blind Side of a Secret
Jennifer Hill-Kaucher, Dan Waber, and Reiner Strasser, >>Oh<<
Sound and Performance: From the Beats to Spoken Word
John Kusch, Red Lily
Discuss Flash Adaptation assignments
Week Five
10/25 Tuesday
Meet in Lit 455
Original Flash Composition Due [dropbox]
Thinking about Databases and Information Visualizations
Public Secrets and Blood Sugar by Sharon Daniel
Discuss Original Flash Compositions
10/27 Thursday
Meet in Lit 455
Remix Culture
Finish Discussing Original Flash Compositions
Week Six
11/1 Tuesday
Meet in Center 315
Introduction to HTML, CSS, and Javascript with Dreamweaver and adapting George Oppen's "Route"
11/3 Thusday
Meet in Lit 455
Non-Linear Poetry
"Procedural Literacy: Educating the New Media Practitioner," Michael Mateas
Thinking spatially: Sarah Waterson, Elena Knox, and Cristyn Davis, Trope and Chico Marinho, Palavrador
Audacity Adaptation Assignment Due [dropbox]
Discuss Audacity Adaptation assignments
Week Seven
11/8 Tuesday
Meet in Lit 455
Hypertext Poetry
Judd Morrisey, The Jew's Daughter
Scott Rettberg, The Unknown
Special Guest: Jessica Pressman of Yale University
11/10 Thursday
Meet in Lit 455
Original Audacity Composition Due [dropbox]
Discuss Audacity Original Compositions
Week Eight
11/15 Tuesday
Meet in Lit 455
11/17 Thursday
Meet in Lit 455
Week Nine
11/22 Tuesday
Meet in Center 315
Introduction to Processing and adapting Harryette Mullen's "Bad germs" from S*PeR**K*T
11/24 Thursday
Thanksgiving Holiday
Week Ten
11/29 Tuesday
Critical Code Studies
10-Print
Non-Linear Adaptation Assignment Due: George Oppen's "Route" [dropbox]
Discuss Oppen Hypertexts
12/1 Thursday
Original Hypertext Composition Due [dropbox]
Sample Original Hypertext from Last Year
Discuss Original Hypertexts
12/7 Wednesday 6:30 to 8:30
Project Showcase
Meet in Pepper Canyon Hall Smart Classroom Second Floor, PCYN 240
Processing Adaptation Assignment Due [dropbox]
Final Project Due [dropbox]