Week 1: August 31: Introductions & Course Overview
CASE STUDIES
- Shawn Micallef, “Toronto’s Corridor of Power” Spacing Toronto (October 26, 2008).
- Nicole Starosielski, “Surfacing”
- Lisa Parks, “Earth Browsing: Satellite Images, Global Events and Visual Literacy” O’Reilly Where 2.0 Conference (May 14, 2008)
- Helki Frantzen & Center for Urban Pedagogy, “The Internet is Serious Business”
- mammoth blog
MAPS
- Brian McGrath, Mark Watkins, Akiko Hattori, Lucy Lai Wong, Manhattan Timeformations
Week 2: September 7: Tubes & Wires, Cables & Waves
FIELD TRIP: Tour of cellphone infrastructure with architect Michael Chen and Justin Snider. I will contact you via email w/ the rendezvous info. If we finish early, we’ll probably meet somewhere nearby to continue the conversation.
READINGS
- Kate Ascher, “Communications” The Works: Anatomy of a City (New York: Penguin, 2005): 122-147.
- Shannon Mattern, “Puffs of Air: Communicating by Vacuum” In John Knechtel, Ed., Air (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010): 42-56.
- Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin, “Approaching Telecommunications and the City” and “Urban Physical Form” In Telecommunications and the City: Electronic Spaces, Urban Places (New York: Routledge, 1996): 79-122, 312-336. [These selections may not make for the most exciting reading, but they do identify myriad theoretical approaches and analytic frameworks that you could apply in your own study of media infrastructures.]
- Andrew Blum, “Netscapes: Tracing the Journey of a Single Bit” Wired (December 2009).
- Michael Chen, “Signal Space” Urban Omnibus (July 6, 2011).
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Week 3: September 14: Putting the Urban into Media Archaeology
ACTIVITY: Looking at Past Student Projects
GUEST: Stephen Taylor, Fall 2010 UMA Student, “Edison and the Early Electrification of New York City” – Show front end and behind-the-scenes, e.g., record types, fields, etc.
READINGS
- Erkki Huhtamo and Jussi Parikka, Eds., Table of Contents and “Introduction: An Archaeology of Media Archaeology” In Media Archaeology: Approaches, Applications, and Implications (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011): 1-21.
- Jussi Parikka, Interview with Garnet Hertz, “Archaeologies of Media Art” CTheory (April 1, 2010).
- Friedrich A. Kittler, “The City Is a Medium” New Literary History 27:4 (1996): 717-729.
- Vyjayanthi Rao, “Embracing Urbanism: The City as Archive” New Literary History 40:2 (Spring 2009): 371-383.
- Kazys Varnelis, “Centripetal City” Cabinet 17 (Spring 2004/2005): 27-33.
Week 4: September 21: Digital Humanities & Assessment Rubrics
READINGS
- Tara McPherson, “Introduction: Media Studies and the Digital Humanities” Cinema Journal 48:2 (Winter 2009): 119-123.
- UCLA Digital Humanities & Media Studies, “Digital Humanities Manifesto 2.0” (2009).
- Shannon Mattern, “Evaluating Multimodal Student Work” Words In Space [blog post] (August 11, 2010).
- Jeanne Haffner, “Things Visible and Invisible” Architecture Boston (Winter 2009): 34-41.
- Todd Presner, “HyperCities: A Case Study for the Future of Scholarly Publishing” In Jerome McGann, Andrew Stauffer, Dana Wheeles, & Michael Pickard, Eds., Online Humanities Scholarship: The Shape of Things to Come. Proceedings of the Mellon Foundation Online Humanities Conference (Rice University Press, 2010). [We’ll test this tool in class on Oct. 12.]
- Shannon Mattern, “Critiquing Maps” Words In Space [blog post] (August 29, 2010).
IN-CLASS CRITIQUE: Group critiques of multimodal projects, TBD – likely to include examples from Vectors, Kairos, Sensate
September 28: NO CLASS: ROSH HASHANAH
Week 5: October 5: Research Strategies
ACTIVITY: Presentations of Project Proposals
READINGS
- Kellen Archives, “Introduction to Archival Research.”
- Yale University Library, “Using Manuscripts and Archives: A Tutorial”: “Introduction,” “Getting Started,” “Finding Sources: Tools For Sources Outside Yale”
- Shannon Mattern, “From Post Offices to Radiograms: Local Primary Resources on Urban Media History” Words In Space [blog post] (July 20, 2010).
Week 6: October 12: Mapping Along X, Y, and Z Axes
URT: Creating Your Subprojects
IN-CLASS CRITIQUE: HyperCities + Stanford Spatial History Project
FILM: Charles and Ray Eames, Powers of Ten
READINGS
- Denis Wood and John Fels, Excerpts from “The Nature of Maps” In The Natures of Maps: Cartographic Constructions of the Natural World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008): 6-16. [the pdf includes additional pages, but you need only read to p. 16]
- James Corner, Excerpts (Intro, “The Agency of Mapping,” “Maps and Reality” & “Mapping Operations”) from “The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention” In Denis Cosgrove, Ed., Mappings (London: Reaktion, 1999): 213-217, 221-225, 229-231.
- Alison Sant, “Redefining the Basemap” Intelligent Agent 6:2 (n.d.).
- Jeremy Hight, “Rhizomatic Cartography: Modulated Mapping and the Spatial Net” NeMe (May 5, 2009).
- Scan through some of my other bookmarked sites on mapping
The second half of the semester is dedicated primarily to (1) map critiques, (2) self-directed reading and research, and (3) hands-on work. We may need to make changes to the syllabus so our in-class time can best support your individual and collaborative work. I ask that you please be flexible and responsive.
Week 7: October 19: Mapping Platforms & Politics
GUEST: Matt Knutzen, Assistant Chief, Map Division, New York Public Library
MAPS: Student Presentations: Choose from Atlas on Class Website
READINGS
- Anne Kelly Knowles, “GIS and History” In Anne Knowles, Ed., Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS are Changing Historical Scholarship (Redlands, CA: ESRI Press, 2008): 1-26.
We may not discuss the following, but they’re still worth your time!
- Jason Farman, “Mapping the Digital Empire: Google Earth and the Process of Postmodern Cartography” New Media & Society 12:6 (September 2010): 869-888.
- Timothy Erik Strom, “Space, Cyberspace and Interface: The Trouble with Google Maps” m/c journal 14:3 (2011).
- Section 2 of the OpenStreetMap Wiki + OpenStreetMap
Week 8: October 26: URT: Spatialized Data Modeling; Plotting Points, Routes & Areas
MAPS: Student Presentations
READINGS
- Excerpts from Raghu Ramakrishnan and Johannes Gehrke, Database Management Systems, 2nd Ed. (McGraw Hill, 2003). [Remember: you’re reading not to develop expertise — some of this might be difficult to digest — but to familiarize yourself with some of the key terms, and to help you begin to “think like a database.”]
- Michael F. Worboys, Hilary M. Hearnshaw & David J. Maguire, “Object-Oriented Data Modelling for Spatial Databases” International Journal of Geographical Information Systems 4:4 (1990): 369-383. [Some of this might be over your heads; just give it your best shot!]
- Optional: Scan through my bookmarked sites on urban archaeology and consider how one might “data model” the sites, systems, processes, represented in some of these projects.
Week 9: November 2: Pecha Kucha & Conceptual Design Feedback
PREP: PECHA KUCHA: Learn about PechaKuchas here. See also Olivia Mitchell’s “Five Presentation Tips for Pecha Kucha or Ignite Presentation” Speaking About Presenting [blog post], and check out some videos of Ignite presentations. As you’ll see, PechaKucha presentations typically involve presentations consisting of 20 slides, with 20 seconds dedicated to each. In the interest of time, we’re going to limit our presentations to 12 slides at 20 seconds each.
GUEST CRITICS: Jane Pirone, Jessica Irish & Joseph Heathcott
Week 10: November 9: User Scenarios & Paper Prototyping
URT: Record Types & Fields
MAPS: Student Presentations
READING/SCREENINGS [Note: These are all short (1-2-pp.) guides to help you prepare for our in-class prototyping activity.]
- “Use Case / User Scenario” Fat Purple (February 2007).
- Gerry Gaffney, “What Is a Scenario?” Information & Design (2000).
- Rebecca Trump, “Using Visual User Scenarios for Concept Generation” [handout] “User-Centered Design of Interactive Experiences” class, Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University (Spring 2006).
- Shawn Medro, “Paper Prototyping” A List Apart [blog post] (January 23, 2007).
- Paul Andrew, “10 Effective Video Examples of Paper Prototyping” Speckboy Design Magazine (June 24, 2010).
PREP FOR CLASS: Think about what major arguments you hope to make through your project, or what stories you hope to tell. How could users navigate through your finished project (yes, this involves some projection into the future!) and come away having comprehended your argument or story, and achieved your desired user experience? Now, write or sketch two or three brief (one page max) user scenarios that tell the story of how different users might navigate through your project to achieve a particular goal. Finally, consider how you’d actualize that scenario on a paper prototype – a prototype not of the overall URT interface, but of a user’s concrete interaction with your particular project. We’ll be constructing our prototypes in class – e.g., using yarn to represent paths, scraps of paper to represent photos or other media – but if you have a particular preference for how you’d like to materially prototype your project on a paper map, you’re welcome to bring your own “crafty” materials.
Week 11: November 16: URT: Cartographic Arguments – Short Class This Week
MAPS: Student Presentations
INDIVIDUAL MEETINGS: Sign up for an individual 20-minute meeting to review your research dossier and draft map
November 23 NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING
Week 12: November 30: Networking Nodes
MAPS: Student Presentations
Through various group exercises (e.g., “speed dating,” interviewing one another) students will explore possible connections between their own projects and their classmates’. We’ll discuss what we might learn by layering or networking these projects on the map — and what modes of presentation can help us to convey these larger, multi-project arguments.
Week 13: December 7: Independent/Group Work & Individual Consultations
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Week 14: December 14: Final Presentations
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Week 15: December 19: Peer Review & Semester Reflection
Over the course of the semester, we’ll have collaboratively agreed upon standards for evaluation of map-based multimodal scholarship. Today we’ll critically evaluate one another’s projects based on those criteria, as if we were officially reviewing works for publication.