Signs, signs, everywhere are signs

March

W1: Tuesday, March 30: Introduction to the course. Flickr sign-up. For homework read:

http://www.slate.com/id/2245644/

1) Signs work best when they are…. _________. How does your example relate to this point?
2) What’s a “pictoral Esperanto?”
3) What do the authors describe as the difference between sign making and “wayfinding?”
4) The article cites Lynch and his five-point theory of navigating urban environments. What are they?
5) What’s the problem with the USA exit sign?

http://www.galerie-weigand.de/pages/en/artists/schulz/show_1_3_10.htm

1) Pick a specific image. What does the form do? What is your impression of the form minus the text?

April

W1: Thursday, April 1: flickr groupwork, homework examples

Texts as visuals

W2: Tuesday, April 6: No class: conference Read: Bernhardt, “Seeing the Text” Task: Find a document (or an image of a document) that demonstrates his discussion gestalt and visual rhetorical control. Tag this document in flickr (in our group) and provide a paragraph explanation with your image.

W2: Thursday, April 8: No class: conference Read: Hocks, “Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments” Homework question: Look at the dates for the Bernhardt and Hocks articles. I want you to articulate to me how their discussions are similar and different. What connections can you make between both articles? What’s similar/different in terms of theory between both articles?

Read: Reynolds: Chapter on Contrast, Alignment, Repetition, Proximity http://www.presentationzen.com/chapter6_spread.pdf

Typography

W3: Tuesday, April 13: C.A.R.P Module one assigned. Read: Connors, “Actio: A Rhetoric of Manuscripts”

Photoshop: Combining images

Q: What is actio? How does it relate to typography? Task: I want you to find, combine, and compare two images. The first will be an example of traditional calligraphy, and the second will be an example of typography. How are the two formally different? How are they rhetorically different?

How to merge two images in Photoshop CS4:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek15Htg72rY

W3: Thursday, April 15: Read: Drucker, “Letterpress Language: Typography as a Medium for the Visual Representation of Language”

Q: What are two conceptual similarities and/or differences between the Drucker and Connors articles?

W4: Tuesday, April 20: C.A.R.P. Module one due. Film: Helvetica. Film response assigned.

W4: Thursday, April 22: Film, cont. Discussion of Connors, Drucker, and Film. Screenshots and photoshop. Read Katz-Haas: http://www.stcsig.org/usability/topics/articles/ucd%20_web_devel.html

and

http://www.usability.gov/methods/index.html (focus on reading four of these).

Questions: How do these methods understand texts? How does this approach to texts connect with the Bernhardt and Hocks?

Task: take screen captures of two websites you use daily, and evaluate each site based on the guidelines here:

http://www.usability.gov/methods/analyze_current/index.html

Annotate your images in Photoshop GIMPand upload them to flickr.

Screencapture on PC and MAC.

W5: Tuesday, April 27: Discussion of user-centered design. U.C.D. Module two assigned.

W5: Thursday, April 29: Read Sun, _Triumph of the User_

May

W6: Tuesday, May, 4: Read Rife, “Remix as ‘Fair Use’: Grateful Dead Posters’ Re-Publication Held to Be a Transformative, Fair Use”

W6: Thursday, May 6: U.C.D. Module two due. Extended to Tuesday, May 11. Read: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/index.html

W7: Tuesday, May 11 Module three assigned. Fair use argument. Watch:

Homework, read: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html and http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html

W7: Thursday, May 13 Read: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/discourse and
http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2007/12/5517-powerpoint-at-20/fulltext

W8: Tuesday, May 18 Read: http://uc.library.ingentaconnect.com/content/stc/tc/2005/00000052/00000001/art00008 and read http://lifehacker.com/5456174/prezi-improves-freestyle-presentations-with-simpler-editing-youtube-integration Homework: work on Prezi presentation

W8: Thursday, May 20: No class: conference Read: http://prezi.com/learn/manual/ and Work on Prezi presentation.

W9: Tuesday, May 25: Read: McNely: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1621995.1622053, and Boyd: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2009/11/24/spectacle_at_we.html Work on Prezi presentation.

W9: Thursday, May 27. Homework: Register for twitter for final presentations. Read: http://news.cnet.com/newbies-guide-to-twitter/. Medium on medium homework presentation is due in class today.

June

W10: Tuesday, June 1. Hand in module three Prezi/Xtranormal presentations on Googledocs/gmail before class. Module three due. Final presentations.

W10: Thursday, June 3. Final Presentations.