Design Seminar I

Course Number: 
DE 611

Required | Students examine the historical, socioeconomic, and technological context of dynamic media design disciplines through readings, discussions, and a major research project. (3 credits)

  • Share this content
Selected Projects from Design Seminar I

Documentation of Live Performance and Variable Media Artworks

documentation_01-thumb.jpg

Abstract:
In response to a research assignment asking us to speculate on the future of a non-digital technology as it transitions to a media platform, I chose to examine the impact of documentation on performance artists’ approach to creating new work, and the role that digital documentation plays in shaping our experience of live performance.

Presentation Overview

What is Performance Art?  read more »

Memex & Facebook: Similar tools. Similar goals. Divergent paths.

facebook.png

In comparing the features of Vannevar Bush’s mythical Memex and Mark Zuckerberg’s social network powerhouse Facebook, this paper highlights the similarities in each system’s lofty goals while pointing out differences in the paths taken to achieve them. Whereas both systems allow users to collect, consult, and share data, Bush’s focus is on introspection while Zuckerberg’s is on over sharing.  read more »

Auto-Tune: Altering The Musical Landscape

autotune_04-thumb.jpg

Jeff Bartell and Zach Kaiser collaborated on this project.

The goal of our project was to research the musical and cultural implications of the recording software plug-in, Auto-Tune; a relatively new tool has taken the musical world by storm over the past 12 years. Our research highlights, and seeks to present the qualitatively new phenomena that have been created by its ubiquitous use in music and Internet culture.  read more »

Dynamic Range Insanity: The Effect of Digitalization on The Art of (Popular) Music Recording (Briefly)

field_dynamicrangeinsanity_05-thumb.jpg

A presentation detailing how popular music recording has been uniquely effected by the use of digital recording devices and practices, and the digital phenomena that is a direct result of these devices and practices.

Analog Vs. Digital:  read more »

Having or Not Having an Experience: The Beatles: RockBand in High Definition

field_experience_02_thumb.jpg

In his seminal 1934 essay Having an Experience, John Dewey, philosopher, psychologist, and straight-faced user of the word inchoate, describes the difference between experiencing things and “having an experience” [1]. He states “experience occurs continuously, because the interaction of live creature and environing conditions is involved in the very process of living” [2]. Thus, everything is experience.  read more »

Uninformed Opinions [1] & Other Observations on "New Media" Innovations/Inventors

field_uninformed_01-thumb.jpg

Throughout the lurid and sundry course of human technological history, mankind has continuously and relentlessly sought ways of improving the human condition. Whether it be figuring out how to fashion a round stone to construct a wheelbarrow to make the carrying of, well, things easier or unlocking the power of the atom to achieve cataclysmic energy sources because we can, the human race does not rest.  read more »

The Observer and the Observed

facebook.jpg

“The Observer and the Observed” analyzes Facebook as ‘an experience’ as defined by John Dewey. Charles Baudelaire's usage of the term flâneur, one who walks to experience the urban landscape, is used as an additional lens to explore and compare the modern day virtual navigator.  read more »

Telling Stories: Digital Personae and Self-Discovery 1998-2000

experience_04-thumb.jpg

Abstract:
An exploration of my/ own autobiography as told through interactions with dynamic media. The dynamic media user constructs a digital persona whose desires influence the experience of media interaction. To the extent that the creation of this persona is an intentional and performative act, potential exists for an "aesthetic" experience as defined by John Dewey.

Beginning  read more »

Digital Cartography

digitalcartography_06-thumb.jpg

Andrew Ellis and Alexander Wang collaborated on this project.

Digital Cartography is a short documentary film on the transition of maps into their digital form. In this film we speak with programmer and mapmaker Jeffrey Warren from the MIT Media Lab and Dietmar Offenhuber from SENSEable City Lab at MIT. We explore the cultural, economic and technical aspects of mapmaking and how they affect the way we communicate with one another.  read more »

Login | The Dynamic Media Institute and Massachusetts College of Art and Design are trademarks and all contents of this site are Copyright 2005 - 2010 unless otherwise noted. Writings and projects are property of their respective authors. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without prior consent.