I switched two folks (pushed them back), because I didn’t want anyone to have to present on the day the final paper was due, so please check the schedule to see when you are presenting:

April 10th: Alex

April 17th: Gwen, Andrew A.

April 24th: Tifani, Nedda, Salvatore, and Andrew R.

May 1st: Abby, Rebecca, Emeric, and Michelle

Check out this slide show, “The Avatar as Communication,” by Angela A Thomas (aka: “Anya Ixchel” in SL), a lecturer from the University of Sydney. It speaks to a number of issues that we’ve been talking about in class.

FYI: Howard Reingold’s book, The Virtual Community, has been made accessible online.

These videos are by an IAM professor, Patrick Lichty:

Patrick writes: “In early 2000, I purchased a Casio WQV-1 WristCam watch on a whim, and it has become one fo my favorite tools. It is simultaneously the embodiment of technological determinism and its antithesis, as it was once the ‘next big thing’, and also a device that challenges the idea that digital art is about resolution and verisimilitude (as the WQV-1 is black and white at 100×100 pixels resolution), thus resembling older technologies such as 1980’s style personal computers.” 

Brief Synopsis of 8 Bits or Less (4:47, Q1 2002): “An artist who has become blind (whether physically or ideologically) has resorted to viewing his world throught the prosthetic devices that constitute his sense, like cell phones, and wristcams. The result is a distored landscape that considers Sitationist theory, surveillance culture, identity, and alien abduction.”

Download

Brief Synopsis of A Wristful of Bits (4:34, Q4 2002, Featuring Holly Hughes): “Our protagonist feels that he has been dependent on prosthetic sight for too long, and any distinction between the real and simulated seem blurred at best. The video contrasts a musing on reality in the digital world with a surreal story about the rise and fall of animatronic animals, and how the world was saved by performance artist Holly Hughes.”

Download

Utilizing the same example we did in class while in groups, please make sure that you consider the following questions while revising your essay. If you cannot apply each of these questions to your essay, then you will able to identify weak areas within your text.

1) Identify the one-two sentences in your essay that explicitly states your thesis/argument.

2) How do you lead up to this argument/thesis; do you get to your thesis relatively quickly? Is the prose that comes before your thesis absolutely relevant to the understanding of your argument? If not, could you get rid of some or all of it and go directly into your argument?

3) Identify at least three uses of textual evidence within your essay and see if you are very explicitly explaining the relevance of this evidence to your overall argument/thesis.

4) Identify at least three examples that you are using within your essay; how are you using these examples? How does each example support the thesis/argument?

5) Locate your quotes – are you explaining the purpose, relevance and/or ways in which each of those quotes is relevant to your argument or helps support your argument?

6) Do you reiterate your argument/thesis within 1-2 sentences within your conclusion?

7) Does each and every paragraph speak explicitly to your thesis? Does each and every sentence lend support to your thesis?

If you come across any good sites, books, or other resources for your essay, post them here, so you can share with the rest of the class. Also, if you are struggling with any particular issue or way of approaching a certain text, post your thoughts, concerns, and questions here — so we can all help!

No required blog posting for next week, but make sure that you come with your essay in hand. Please email me with any questions.

The College is shutting down — no evening classes for tonight, Feb. 13th. Be safe, and I’ll see you all next week.

Check out this short video by Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University.

I found a pretty cool website: http://www.theory.org.uk/ 

Check it out! Lots on web and media theory, too.

Students: you are responsible for posting to this blog at least once a week during the course of your class. On most occasions, I will begin the weekly blog by posing a set of questions; but even when I do not, you are still responsible for writing an entry in response to whatever we are reading or discussing that week in class. Blog entries MUST be posted by 6 p.m. the day of class in order to count. You are also expected to add to the content of class resources by posting relevant web links, articles, and images.

NOTE: 25% of your grade for this course will be based on your blogs and the content/resources you add. I am not as concerned about length as I am with content. Please make sure that all of your blogs are thoughtful, inquisitive, critical, and utilize the readings and class discussions. Also, it is imperative that you pay attention to what other students are writing on the blog, so that you can respond appropriately.

* This blog has been created for my Cyberculture: Theory students, but I welcome any other comments on this blog, as long as they are related to the study of cyberculture/s.