Team Online Project: "Artists of Information"

The Basic Idea: Students will break into teams of two to four students each. Each team will conceive, research, and produce a Web site (using pre-designed templates and an automated database that can be edited through a Web browser). The Web site will be part of the "Artists of Information" section of the Transcriptions Web site. Each team will create a "Case Study" on some writer, artist, musician, philosopher, director, theorist, architect, designer, engineer, or other figure (or group or movement)--whether past or present--whose art exists in implicit or explicit relation with the information media and technology of the time. The idea is to create a view of artists or intellectuals in their information environment (which artists variously collaborate with, contest, influence, are influenced by, etc.). This assignment will require research into the life and work of the chosen artist(s); and it will also require research into the information environment of the artist's time. The following are examples of possible topics:

• The Wordsworth Circle and Information Culture circa 1800
• Hemingway and Media
• Pynchon and Information
• Faulkner and the Entertainment Industry
• War and the Art of Information
• How Information Works in a Hitchcock Film
• Maya Lin, the Vietnam War Memorial, and Monuments of Information
• The Art of Computer Games
• Neal Stephenson and the Art of Code
• Paul Rand, Designer for IBM
• Contemporary Women's Hypertext Fiction Writers (e.g., Deena Larsen, Shelley Jackson, M.D. Coverley)

Components of an "Artist of Information" Case Study Page: The following are the core elements of the Web page (on "PersonX") you will be producing. You can see the template for such a Web here.

1. Overview statement (the equivalent of just a few pages in print) about PersonX and his or her relation to information. You can create this overview in a word processor or (if you want to try your hand at putting links in your text) in an HTML editor. Prof. Liu or one of the Transcriptions research assistants can put this online for you on the home page for your project on the Transcriptions site. If you want to experiment, the statement might include as part of its presentation an interesting non-linear graphical or hypertext segment--for example, a juxtaposition of quotations, the staging of a fictitious or real interview with PersonX, etc. (Fancier variants will likely require some Web-authoring knowledge on the part of one of your team.)
2. Timeline of events in the life and times of PersonX. Material for the timeline will be entered in the Transcription Project's Filemaker Pro database through a Web interface. Once the material is entered (by writing or cutting-and-pasting into a Web form through any browser), Filemaker will automatically generate Web pages for the Timeline that can be dynamically adapted to the user's search criteria. For an example of a Transcriptions timeline built by a course in Spring 1999, see Postmodernism Timeline.
3. Linkbase of annotated links to online resources related to the PersonX timeline. These links will be entered in the Transcription Project's Filemaker Pro database through its Web interface; Filemaker then automatically generates the Web pages for the linkbase (see paragraph above). For an example of a Transcriptions linkbase built by a course in Spring 1999, see Postmodernism Linkbase.
4. Bibliography of works and online sites consulted in creating the above Overview, Timeline, and Linkbase.
5. Critical Issues: suggested questions for discussion. For an example of critical issues on a Transcriptions topics page, see Weaving Webs: Discussion Issues. These questions will also be a springboard for your short-essay assignment (see below).

Distribution of Responsibilities:

• You are free to distribute the work on your project among your team as you like to take account of varying interests and skills. For example, one of you can be the specialist on PersonX, another the specialist on information technology or media in the era of PersonX, another the technical specialist for the team, etc. Or again, one of you can be in charge of the Overview, another of the Timeline, another of the Linkbase, etc.
• It is highly recommended that you carve out defined areas of responsibility. That way, everyone on your team will be responsible for something in particular--often a more productive situation than if everyone is responsible for anything and everything. At least one of your team must also exercise editorial control over your work (editing for consistency, quality, typos, etc.). Imagine that you are part of a highly-skilled work team in charge of creating a professional product.
• An outline or organizational chart of the way you have distributed your tasks is due shortly after you submit a prospectus for your project (see below).

Schedule of Project Tasks:

1. Class 4, Workshop 1 for Team Projects: Break into teams and begin brainstorming about possible projects.
2. By Class 7, Workshop 2 for Team Projects: Your team must post to the class e-mail list (english165ci@humanitas.ucsb.edu) a prospectus of your intended project. The prospectus need be only a page or so. It should describe your idea and the areas of research you intend to pursue. If you are still up in the air about your project, you can post a couple of ideas and ask for feedback. (The Web archive of the class e-mail list conveniently organizes any responses to or discussion of the prospectuses into "threads.")
3. By Class 9, you must e-mail to Prof. Liu a statement about how you have distributed responsibilities for your project (see above). From this point on, every member of your team must at the end of each week submit an online weekly project log form that records roughly what you have been doing on the project that week. (This is to protect teams from bad situations in which one of its members never does anything at all and lets everyone else carry the burden.)
4. Class 11, Worshop 3 for Team Projects: This class will be devoted to a show-and-tell about what the class teams have been thinking and doing.
5. Class 12: Short individual essay relevant to your project is due on this date (see below). These mini-essays will be put online as part of the "critical issues" part of your project Web site.
6. Classes 13-16: Each team will be assigned one other team's project to critique. The medium for this critique will be a "threaded" Web discussion forum (enabled by the Transcriptions Exchange Server program). You post your comments through a Web browser, and others can respond or append to the thread of discussion you have started about a particular team project. For a guide to evaluating Web pages, see here.
7. Class 20: Formal presentation of projects to the class--a sort of fast-paced Emmys or MTV Awards show.

Short Individual Online Essay

A 600-800 word essay (about two to three pages in print) that gives a perspective on some issue relating to the artist of information page your team is working on. The essay may take off from, or contribute to, one of the "critical issues" you will be mentioning on your site. The idea is to find a provocative, interesting, tightly-conceived issue. Think about that issue carefully, define it and what is at stake clearly, and point toward possible theses or solutions. This essay must be submitted in digital form (on a diskette, by e-mail attachment, or in some other way) so that it can be put online as part of the Web page your team is building. (If you have some Web-authoring skills, you can include links or create a hypertext essay.) For a guide on how to cite Web pages in a paper, see here.

If you can read Adobe Acrobat (or .PDF) files (which requires the free Adobe Acrobat reader or plug-in available at ), Prof. Liu will mark up your essay and return it to you in .pdf format. (More on Adobe Acrobat) (download site)

Final Individual Essay

This essay must be 8-10 pages. It can build from your work on the team project, or it can be on a different topic relevant to the course. The essay must use or discuss some of the course readings. For a guide on how to cite Web pages in a paper, see here.

Discussion Participation

Participation in class or e-mail discussion will be a definite plus for the final grade. See Assessment: Grading Policy.

Attendance

Regular attendance is required (see Assessment: Grading Policy).

There is no mid-term or final exam in this course.