DIGITAL NARRATIVE


Syllabus for Digital Narrative Professor Mark Amerika
Spring 2001
Mon/Weds 4:30-7:00
N275 (Digital Arts Computer Lab)
email: Mark.Amerika@Colorado.Edu
Weeks One through Five  
January 15 through Feb 12th

January 15: no class

Course Introduction
What is Digital Narrative?
How does one evolve a digital narrative practice?
The Narrative Interface.

Begin survey of various narrative art works relevant to the course including:

  1. film/video
  2. CD-ROMs
  3. sound narratives
  4. anti-operas
  5. online/Internet art

First assignment: research online narratives and choose one work of art that you would like to present to the class. Create a small web site that will assist you in your class presentation. Tell us all why you think this one Internet art work serves as a model for future digital narrative development. Questions to ask yourself while researching this project include:

  • What is Digital Narrative to you and how is it exhibited/published on the web?
  • At this early stage of new media art history, what are the evolving models of digital narrative art and which model does your selected work rely on? Is it hypertext? Flash? Audio? Multi-media? Net Art? What other terms describe this kind of work you now finding on the web?
  • How do the various art works reviewed in class and linked from the syllabus compare to each other? What are their similarities and/or differences? Highlight the elements in the work you are presenting that are most intriguing to you and explain why they are making an impact. Also, talk about what ideas they are giving you for your own project.
  • How does Digital Narrative compare to other works of art from other media? Use concrete examples comparing work from these various media. For example, how does conceptual art inform hypertext production? Or, how does video art or installation art relate to narratives composed in Director? Are there any connections to be found when comparing Postmodern fiction with some of the Digital Narrative work you're investigating for this class? Is there an ongoing Rival Tradition in art that "goes against tradition" and if so, how do the values of this anti-Tradition manifest themselves in your selected art work? Etc.

Presentations should be specific and articulate what it is about the work you are showcasing that makes it an important model for our digital studies.

Presentations will take place starting January 31st and should be between 10-15 minutes each.

Sites to investigate Net Art Narratives:

Sites that feature Digital Narrative:
Weeks Four and Five  
February 5th and February 12th Finish First Presentations

Dreamweaver Demo

An introduction to the concept "designwriting" and how to use it in your digital narratives

In-class writing exercise: an experiment in "designwriting"

Week Six  
February 19th Conceptual Proposals
Create an online proposal that outlines what kind of digital narrative you will create this semester. This online proposal should include the following elements:

  1. tentative title of project
  2. mission statement (usually 1-2 paragraphs that clearly articulate what you hope to achieve with this project, i.e. goals, creative research objectives, and anticipated outcomes including ideal exhibition or publication formats)
  3. storyboard outline: a future projection of what this digital narrative will be about with particular emphasis placed on the themes you will be exploring, the media you will be employing, and the story you plan to tell
  4. at least five sample pages identifying the direction your site's development is heading in (or for those working in other media, the equivalent of five sample pages)
Week Seven  
February 26th Presentation of Conceptual Proposals

Present these Conceptual Proposals using your web site as a presentation tool. Presentations should be specific and articulate what it is about the work you are creating that makes it an important model for our digital studies.These should be 15-20 minutes each.

Special Guest: Talan Memmott. Winner of the 2000 trAce/Alt-X New Media Art Award, Director of the BeeHive site, and founding partner of Percepticon.

Sites to investigate To be announced.
Weeks Eight through Fourteen  
March 5 through May 3 Demo Cycles
Much of the workshop will be spent demonstrating and critiquing your digital narratives as they develop over the course of the semester. In general, we will have work days on Mondays and demos and critiques on Wednesdays. This is subject to change.

Expect to show new versions of your project every 2-3 weeks as it develops. Your grade will very much depend on how well you build your project over the course of the semester, how well you reconfigure your sites after receiving critiques, and how well you are able to articulate the creative research, goals and discoveries of your own project as well as the projects of your colleagues in class. In this regard, constructive critiques of your colleague's work is absolutely essential and a major part of your evaluation.

We will also have in-class exercises whose purpose is to trigger new story ideas (narrative data) for your digital creations.

Other sites to investigate To be announced in class.