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S  Y  L  L  A  B  U  S

 

(download, Word document : 3711syllabusF09.doc)

   

 

OVERVIEW

 

This course is an introduction to the basics of interactive multimedia production. Class projects explore the potential of interactive media to communicate, express, and challenge cultural ideas. The course seeks to develop a combination of critical, technical, and design skills.  

 

The principle challenge in this course is to develop fluency in the vocabularies of interactive media materials: sonic, visual, and narrative/interactive. The second challenge is to develop a clear sense of craft in working in those vocabularies, and in developing strategies for combining and integrating these vocabularies through contemporary interactive media. We will construct a meaningful aesthetic, historical, and theoretical context in which to place your own interactive media work.

 

While contemporary interactive media is made with a multiplicity of technologies, we will focus on web delivery via HTML and Flash. Like any mature media production environment, the software we’ll be using (Dreamweaver, Flash, and a number of music and sound apps) can be a bit overwhelming at times, but I plan to present the technical portion of this course in a way that is organic, thoughtful, and not intimidating. I am most interested that you achieve a BALANCE among your design and technical abilities and your conceptual and aesthetic intentions. 

 

 

ASSIGNMENTS, GRADING, EXPECTATIONS

Assignment 1: HTML Design – first draft 20% Assignment 2: Sound Textures 20% Assignment 3: Flash Elements 20% Final Project: The Web Presence (HTML, Web 2.0, Flash) 30%     Attendance and Participation 10%

 

 

Assignments grades are based on the quality of work and timeliness of assignment submission. All projects need to be finished before the start of the class in which they are due and any assignments turned in after the class is over are considered late (5% off the assignment grade)

 

You are expected to attend all classes for the full duration of the class.  

 

PARTICIPATION: 

 

Your participation score (5% of your total grade) will be based on fulfilling three items from the following: a) contributing to the experimental media database (voice-overs, one REQUIRED.  Select your favorite two or three short narratives from here, you can download this as a Word document here.), b) participating in one or more performance or production events. So, for instance, you might do one voice over and two events, or two voice-overs and one event, or three voice-overs. Voice-overs can be scheduled during office hours (Wednesdays, 9AM to noon), or other times by appointment.

 

GRADE SCALE, EVALUATION CRITERIA 

 

A Range (90-100)	Exceeds Expectations in ALL areas. Conceptual: Concepts engaging, thorough, related to class theme/topic, and coherent; Original thinking, moves beyond assignment bounds, experiments, takes work to a high level; Design: Well thought through design, innovative, inventive, consistent design elements; Presentation and Style: Careful attention to detail, 100% complete, technically superior, no errors in spelling, compression, graphics, presentation, stays within exercise limits, hands in assignment in the manner requested by professor (i.e. posts to web and turned in locally before class due), and exceeds goals of exercise.
B range (80-89)	Conceptual: Complete assignments with originality, related to class theme/topic; Design: Mostly clear design and interaction, some problems with design and interface; Presentation and Style: Shows technical knowledge, but may have one or two technical glitches, meets goals of exercise, stays within exercise limits, hands in assignment in the manner requested.
C range (70-79)	Conceptual: Unoriginal or common sense thinking, only somewhat related to class theme/topic; Design: Inconsistencies in design, lack of attention to detail; Presentation and Style: lack of thoroughness, does not meet goals of exercise, structural and technical problems, spelling errors, does not hand in assignment in manner requested.
D range (65-69)	Falls below expectations in most categories. Minimal effort expended on the work.
F (64 – less)	Fails to meet requirements of Assignment/Not turned in on time
*All work turned in for this class must be created for this class alone (unless you are also in 4713, in which case you can use the same domain name and hosting for the ‘Web Presence’ assignment. No assignments from previous courses accepted, and “joint” assignments completed for more than one class are not acceptable unless prior written arrangements are made between the student and both professors involved. Failure to comply with this expectation will result in a failing grade.
While we recognize digital appropriation, re-mediation, and re-imagination of existing work as acceptable and often politically subversive aesthetic principles, blatant, intentional plagiarism will not be tolerated, and will be handled according to FAU Academic Guidelines

  

CLASS TIME

 

Class time will generally alternate between Lecture/Discussion and Production/Studio. During Lecture/Discussion portion, monitors and smartphones should be turned OFF. 

 

COURSE SITE  - http://fau3711.pbworks.com

  

This is a wiki site  - you will be creating a link from your hosted site to the “YOUR PAGES” page on the wiki.

You can build additional pages on your own, too, but please select the ‘template’ page as your template if you do. 

 

DOMAIN NAME AND HOSTING EXPENSE

 

You will be required to register and buy your own domain name and hosting plan.

 

While you can use whatever registrar or ISP to do this, we recommend www.nearlyfreespeech.net (NFS), where you can purchase and register an available domain name for $8.59 per year (for a .com, .net, or .org name), and pay for hosting as you need it (usually $5 - $10 will last a several months or even longer). Plan on spending about $15 on this, and make sure you have a way of paying online (Credit card or Paypal).

 

NOTE: Certain web ‘hosting’ packages will NOT work, such as small business packages, or ‘free web hosting’ plans by Google, Yahoo, MSN, or AOL (or GeoCities – if anybody still uses that) - - they usually don’t allow the total flexibility in control and design that we will need in this course. 

 

NOTE: If you've already got a site (and/or domain): 1) your domain name should be a single name address, in the form of www.yourDomainName.com (or .org or .net or .tv); 2) you must be able to edit the <head> tags of your pages (some plans are content management systems - - CMS - - that only allow you to edit the <body> tags); and 3) you MUST be able to use FTP (file transfer protocol) to upload your files to your server. 

 

If you wish to use other registrars (like GoDaddy), you’re welcome to do so, but you may need to pay a DNS transfer fee (usually another $7.50) to your ISP to activate the name. If you've already registered with GoDaddy, you will need to transfer your domain if you want to host with NFS - - we won't use class time to do this because it's usually difficult. If you are locked into a package deal of some kind, at least upgrade to a premium package that allows you to use FTP and doesn't slap ads on your pages.

 

If you already have a domain name, site, and hosting plan, I'd prefer you create a subdomain specifically for this course (a name that would replace the ‘www’ part of your address); if a subdomain can’t be done, you can create a site-let (www.yourdomain.com/thisCourse).

 

Your site and domain is yours to do with as you please, once the course is over. However, I recommend you keep your domain active if you're planning on taking other courses in the Interactive Multimedia sequence (3711, 4713, 4930, and 4943 - - Multimedia Practicum).

 

 

TEXTBOOKS - Suggested

 

The following texts are not required, but may be useful resources:

• Dreamweaver CS3 Visual Quickpro Guide - $39.95. This is a good basic resource, but much of the basic Dreamweaver and HTML information will be covered through tutorials and web-based material.
• Flash CS3 – Visual QuickPro Guide - $39.95. The introductory text in this series spends about 300 pages covering basic drawing and animation tools - - again, this will be covered in my tutorials and some additional material, so if you want to buy a Flash book, get a more advanced one; also the O’Reily Series book on Actionscript is a great resource.

 

An abundance of media resources – books, online materials, DVDs –can be found on the COURSE RESOURCES page of the wiki site.

 

SOFTWARE VERSIONS

 

While we use the CS3 version of Adobe Dreamweaver and Flash in this course, you may use older versions of the software already on your home machine. Dreamweaver is compatible back to at least Dreamweaver 8 or MX; Only Flash 8(MX) will be compatible with CS3, however, and you will need to save your work done in the lab as Flash 8.

 

If you have the newest version of Dreamweaver (CS4), you should be OK. Not all features of Flash CS4 will work in CS3 - - but you can again save your work as Flash CS3 and that should work. Remember, the demo only lasts 30 days, so don't get Flash immediately, if you're planning to use just the demo version.

 

HARDWARE

 

You will need at least a 2GB thumb drive (USB 1.0 or 2.0) for backup/file transport. It is your responsibility to ALWAYS have backups of your class files. And, you should ALWAYS have the most recent versions of your work WITH YOU (backing up to the web is OK, too).

 

 

COURSE SCHEDULE OVERVIEW

 

WEEK 1 Aug 25     Aug 27 INTRODUCTION – Course Overview: Interactive Multimedia. HTML: Site structure, create background graphics and navbar. Create HTML pages with nav bar and background images. Links, image maps. WEEK II Sept 1 Sept 3 Cells, tables, and divs. Create working local site. Studio time. WEEK III Sept 8 Sept 10 Text. Make a wordpress blog. Make an i-frame. Studio time: putting it all together. WEEK IV Sept 15 Sept 17 CSS: text styles CSS: layout styles WEEK V Sept 22 Sept 24 CSS, plus Studio Day. SHOWTIME: your site, so far. WEEK VI Sept 29 Oct 1 SOUND: Sound Design for Interactive Media Working with Audacity WEEK VII Oct 6 Oct 8 Creating Sound Texture Types: Sound Hack Sound Production Tools: Sequencers, Loopers, AlternativeApps WEEK VIII Oct 13 Oct 15 More Sound Apps & Studio Time FLASH. Basic Hierarchy and Interface. Symbols. (Tutorial 10) WEEK IX Oct 20   Oct 22 Basics: Workspace & Interface (Tutorial 11); Graphic Symbol (Tutorial 12)  The Button Symbol (Tutorial 13) WEEK X Oct 27 Oct 29 Timeline to Interface-in-a-Movie-Clip 1 (Tutorial 14a) Timeline to Interface-in-a-Movie-Clip 1 (Tutorial 14b) WEEK XI Nov 3 Nov 5 Adding Text and Images; Image Masks (Tutorial 15) Working with Preloaders (Tutorial 15a) WEEK XII Nov 10   Nov 12 Publishing Your Flash (Tutorial 16) Video in Flash (a preview) Studio Time: Putting it All Together. WEEK XIII Nov 17   Nov 19 Studio Time: Final Projects. Studio Time: Final Projects. Studio Time: Final Projects. WEEK XIV Nov 24 (Nov 26) Studio Time: Final Projects. (Thanksgiving Holiday – No Class Meeting) WEEK XV Dec 1 Dec 3 Studio Time: Final projects Studio Time: Final projects FINALS WEEK (TBD) SHOWTIME: PRESENT FINAL PROJECTS