Group Project: Net­work Curat­ing of Visual Cul­ture

Col­lab­o­ra­tion: Main­tain site (through week 11) post­ing dig­i­tal exam­ples of visual culture—medium/form selected as group

• Plat­form options: PearTrees, Tum­blr, Pin­ter­est, Storify, Word­Press; social net­work account (decide as group)

Observe & dis­cuss new prac­tices & cul­tural forms across Inter­net plat­forms, art activities/events, artist Web pres­ence
Use Storify to doc­u­ment your posts (on blog)
* Anno­tate reflec­tion with “screen­caps” and/or videos

Audi­ence: pub­lic and spe­cial­ized read­ers in field (dis­course com­mu­nity); class­mates plus out­side class (social networks)

 
Objec­tives

1. In con­text of net­work media and dig­i­tal cul­ture, exam­ine new/current forms of art works and dis­course (dis­cus­sion).
Start by select­ing one visual-culture form as a group for focus (e.g. film/video, museum/gallery, pho­tog­ra­phy)
 
2. Doc­u­ment recent and emer­gent exam­ples of inter­est, with per­spec­tive con­nect­ing art and media/technology
—observ­ing forms, prac­tices, audi­ences, recep­tion, responses, and “institutions”(?)

Com­po­nents (indi­vid­ual work)

• Anno­ta­tions
  10 points; due 07-Nov; thought­ful dis­cus­sion (2−3 sen­tences) of your 10 posts
  — can be added to Par­tic­i­pa­tion Log, posted as new page, or pre­sented as video
   
  — Par­tic­i­pa­tion Log Tem­plate page
• Rhetor­i­cal Analy­sis: Web-based Pub­li­ca­tion (Pro­fes­sional or Scholarly)
  10 points; 500–700 words; due S 24-Oct
   
  Goal: Extend rhetor­i­cal knowl­edge and gen­er­ate insights about dis­course com­mu­ni­ties, specif­i­cally a visual arts dis­ci­pline evi­dent and main­tained through con­ven­tions of com­mu­ni­ca­tion — like your prac­tice of curat­ing with the group’s “edi­to­r­ial vision” (schol­arly and/or professional)

   
  Task: Exam­ine a Web-based “pub­li­ca­tion” pro­fes­sional and/or schol­arly, con­sid­er­ing the rhetor­i­cal aspects demon­strated, dis­played, and sug­gested.
  Present the results of your analy­sis using effec­tive and effi­cient prose, with crit­i­cal ideas sup­ported by spe­cific exam­ples; avoid sum­mary, descrip­tion, and gen­er­al­iza­tion in favor of pre­sent­ing your insights.
   
  The main ques­tion for this exer­cise con­cerns audi­ence — imag­ined, con­structed, sug­gested, actual — (“dis­course com­mu­ni­ties”) and the con­nec­tion to dis­ci­pli­nary con­ven­tions that you rec­og­nize.
  You might also con­sider, con­nect, and address any aspects of the rhetor­i­cal sit­u­a­tion tra­di­tion­ally defined:
  — Con­text, Pur­pose, Tim­ing, “Sender/Receiver,” Media, Deliv­ery, Means/Methods (Style? Genre?), Mes­sage, Mode(s)
   
  From your obser­va­tions and insights about the pub­li­ca­tion ana­lyzed, work with induc­tive rea­son­ing toward a con­clu­sion about con­ven­tions of the field evi­dent and implied, as well as the rela­tion to audi­ence (imagined/envisioned) and/or com­mu­ni­ca­tion of scholarly/professional dis­course — par­tic­u­larly in net­worked media ecol­ogy. (The con­clu­sion can be brief and spec­u­la­tive, and it should go beyond the rhetor­i­cal analy­sis — pre­sent­ing what you’ve learned from this exer­cise.)
   
  — Review guide/questions from “warm-up” class activ­i­ties & prompts
   
   

• Reflec­tion
  due S 08-Nov; 5 points; 300–500 words or video
   
  » Dis­cuss insights from your expe­ri­ence as author for cura­tory site, both indi­vid­u­ally and as part of team (Edi­to­r­ial Col­lec­tive; vision/statement?). Spe­cific points should be pre­sented thought­fully and pur­pose­fully, dis­cussing con­cisely and pre­cisely — in terms of net­work rhetoric, audi­ence, dis­c­pli­nary con­ven­tions, and/or dis­course com­mu­ni­ties.
   
  *note: you might cre­ate a video (screen-recording with voiceover) dis­cussing your reflection
• Pro­posal
  due S 08-Nov; 5 points; 300–500 words
   
  From your expe­ri­ence (both posts and reflec­tion) — cura­tion as “arts-based inquiry” (research) — pro­pose idea(s) for art praxis: appli­ca­tion for art prac­tices? (exam­ple: see Par­rika on “circuit-bending”) impli­ca­tions for dis­course com­mu­ni­ties? innovation/update of field con­ven­tions? Dis­cuss any/all these ques­tions and other ideas — par­tic­u­larly, research and dis­course (field con­ven­tions) “native” and suit­able to dig­i­tal media.
  (i.e. Your dis­ci­pline, in aca­d­e­mic and/or pro­fes­sional con­texts, in 21^st century?)