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Course Outline - AVT 399: Tactical Media
Professor: Mark Cooley
Class hours: Spring '07 - MW, 4:30 pm - 7:10 pm
Location - Fine Arts Building B202
Office hours: TBA
Office - C209D
NOTICE: This course outline indicates a rough guide to where we are headed. However, additions, subtractions and reorganization of course content is likely. You will be informed of any changes during class meetings. In addition, you should revisit this page routinely. It may be updated throughout the semester.
It should go without saying that this outline, along with the rest of this site, is not any kind of substitute for class attendance and participation. As stated numerous times on this site: this is not an online course. You cannot pass this course by relying simply on content provided on this site. Project descriptions on this site will, more often than not, lack specific technical and conceptual parameters. They should be treated as a resource to accompany in-class lecture, discussion and project descriptions.
M 1/22 - Media, Democracy & Making History
In-class
Course introduction
Assignment
Read and outline - Noam Chomsky - Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda pg. 1-34
Tactics, Models, Tools: Independent Media & Participatory Media
Guerrilla News Network, Big Noise Films, Independent Media Center
W 1/24
In-class
Discuss reading
Video - Manufacturing Consent, Mark Achbar, Peter Wintonick
Assignment
Read and outline - Noam Chomsky, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda pg. 35-69
Set-up a blog for this class @ blogger.com or another free service
Action - 1. Using press listed below. Compare and contrast how each addresses and represents the same subject or event. 3. post your findings on your blog. Due 1/31
Subject / Event - The State of the Union - FOX, BBC, Democracy Now, Al Jezeera
Tactics, Models, Tools: Independent Media & Participatory Media
Guerrilla News Network, Big Noise Films, Independent Media Center, Democracy Now
M 1/29
In-class
Discuss reading
Continue video: Manufacturing Consent, Mark Achbar, Peter Wintonick
Assignment
Read and outline - Noam Chomsky, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda pg. 69-100
Tactics, Models, Tools: Independent Media & Participatory Media
Guerrilla News Network, Big Noise Films, Independent Media Center, Democracy Now
W 1/31
In-class
Discuss Action & reading
Videos - Retooling Dissent, Street Rec, This is what democracy looks like, Big Noise Films
Assignment
Read and outline - George Orwell, As I Please, published in Tribune, 4 February 1944
Tactics, Models, Tools: Independent Media, Participatory Media and Media Remix
indie news - Guerrilla News Network, Big Noise Films, Independent Media Center, Democracy Now
some projects - cnnplusplus, Interrogative Design Group (various projects), Remebering Ron, Global Anxiety Monitor, Telestreet, meta-cc
M 2/5 - The Good Consumer
In-class
Discuss Actions & reading
Video - The Corporation, Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott and Joel Bakan
Assignment
Read and outline - "Signs Address Somebody", Judith Williamson, from Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and meaning in Advertising 1978, 1983, 2002
Tactics, Models, Tools - Detournement, Culture Jamming & Guerrilla Hacks
Adbusters.org, Billboard Liberation Organization, Negativland, Barbie Liberation Organization
W 2/7
In-class
Discuss Reading & video
Videos - The publicity Image, John Berger
Assignment
Action - 1.Create a detournement of an advertisement or other product graphic. 2. Distribute as parasitic or viral media. 3. Document the distribution process. Due 2/19
Tactics, Models, Tools - Detournement, Culture Jamming & Guerrilla Hacks
Adbusters.org, Billboard Liberation Organization, Negativland, Barbie Liberation Organization
M 2/12
In-class
Discuss Reading & video
Videos - The publicity Image, John Berger
Assignment
TBA
Tactics, Models, Tools - Detournement, Culture Jamming & Guerrilla Hacks
Adbusters.org, Billboard Liberation Organization, Negativland, Barbie Liberation Organization
W 2/14 -
In-class
Discuss Reading & video
Videos - Reverend Billy, "The publicity Image" from John Berger's Ways of Seeing
Assignment
TBA
Tactics, Models, Tools - Detournement, Culture Jamming & Guerrilla Hacks
Adbusters.org, Billboard Liberation Organization, Negativland, Barbie Liberation Organization
M 2/19
In-class
Discuss Action
Video - The Yes Men
Assignment
Action - 1. Create an identity for a fictional organization. Write a mission statement for the org or corp that clearly indicates parameters for the organization's operations. 2. Acting as a representative of this organization, perform a service to a chosen public. The service should include visual representations of the organization and be documented for others to see. Due 3/7
Tactics, Models, Tools - PROformances & Shifting Identities
Reverend Billy, my dad's strip club / The Vacuum Cleaner, RTmark, The Yes Men
W 2/21
In-class
Video - Reverend Billy
Clips - my dad's strip club & more
Discuss action
Assignment
TBA
Tactics, Models, Tools - PROformances & Shifting Identities
Reverend Billy, my dad's strip club / The Vacuum Cleaner, RTmark, The Yes Men
M 2/26
In-class
Discuss action
Assignment
TBA
Tactics, Models, Tools - PROformances & Shifting Identities
Reverend Billy, my dad's strip club / The Vacuum Cleaner, RTmark, The Yes Men
W 2/28
In-class
Video - Reverend Billy
Assignment
TBA
Tactics, Models, Tools - PROformances & Shifting Identities
Reverend Billy, my dad's strip club / The Vacuum Cleaner, RTmark, The Yes Men
M 3/5
In-class
Visiting artist Fereshteh Toosi
W 3/7 - The Loyal Subject
In-class
Discuss Action
Video - SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY part 1, part 2, part 3
Assignment
Read - Streets into Stages: an interview with Surveillance Camera Players’ Bill Brown. Download from this page.
Actions - 1. Choose a physical site where surveillance cameras are in use. 2. Make a map of the site including placement of all cameras. 3. Perform an act of sousveillance. 4. Document the action.
Tactics, Models, Tools: Sousveillance, Interruptions and Reversals
Beatriz da Costa - swipe, The Surveillance Camera Players
M 3/19
In-class
Video - SCP Tour with Bill Brown. Download from this page.
Clips - Bob Dylan, more
Assignment
Read - Sousveillance: Inventing and Using Wearable Computing Devices for Data Collection in Surveillance Environments* Steve Mann1, Jason Nolan and Barry Wellman. Download from this page.
Tactics, Models, Tools: Sousveillance, Interruptions and Reversals
Beatriz da Costa - swipe, The Surveillance Camera Players
W 3/21
In-class
TBA
Assignment
TBA
Tactics, Models, Tools: Sousveillance, Interruptions and Reversals
Beatriz da Costa - swipe, The Surveillance Camera Player
S 3/24 - NY artsbus trip to meet The Yes Men
M 3/26
In-class
TBA
Assignment
Final Project due 5/2
Tactics, Models, Tools: Mapping, touring, drifting
Alex Villar, Situationist International
W 3/28 - Territories - Cyberfeminism
M 4/2 - Cyberfeminism
W 4/4 - Cyberfeminism
M 4/9 - Territories - Infowar, Resistance, ECD
W 4/11- Infowar, Resistance, ECD
M 4/16 - Infowar, Resistance, ECD
W 4/18 - Territories - Biotech
TH 4/19 - Steve Kurtz lecture 7PM @ American University
M 4/23 - Biotech
W 4/25 - Biotech
M 4/30 - Biotech
W 5/2 - Final course review
Final - We will not meet for a final. However, all project revisions and blog entries must be done by the end of the day on 5/10.
Additional Dates - These dates are events that happen outside of scheduled class times -
S 3/24 - NY artsbus trip to meet The Yes Men
TH 4/19 - Lecture: Beral Madra: “Art as Mediation” 7PM @ Katzen Arts Center, Recital Hall, American University
4/20-4/22 - Multimediale - Provisions Library, DC
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