Reading, Writing & Research Methodologies 2015/2016

Intro:

The Reading, Writing, and Research Methodologies Seminar is tailored towards (further) developing research methods within the first year of this master. By establishing a solid foundation of research skills, it will eventually prepare students for their Graduate research in the second year. Through reading core theoretical texts, they will establish a common vocabulary and set of references to work from. They will learn the practice of classic ‘essayistic methodologies’, including close reading, annotation, description and notation, students learn to survey a body of literature, filter what is relevant to their research and create comparative pieces of analysis. The seminar helps students to establish methodical drafting processes for their texts, where they can develop ideas further and structure their use of notes and references. The course takes as axiomatic that the perceived division between ‘practice’ and ‘theory’ is essentially an illusion.

Curriculum: The seminar will involve:

(a.) Identifying the object of your research: description and analysis of your work

(b.) Contextualizing your work through description and reflection on contemporary and historical practices.

(c.) Identify research material key to your practice.

(d.) Synopsis and annotation of key texts

(e.) Writing machines: creating methods for group and individual writing.

Throughout, there will be an emphasis on working collectively, whether in a larger discussion group or in smaller reading and writing groups.

Outcome of the seminar (trimester three)

The specific outcome for the RW&RM seminar of 2014-15 will be a 1500 word text which reflects on your own method and situates your work in relation to a broader artistic and cultural context. The various texts produced within the RW&RM seminar will serve as source material for your text on method. In common with all modules on the course RW&RM serves to support your self-directed research. Therefore, the text on method will inform your Self-Evaluation at the end of the third trimester and provide the basis for your Graduate Project Proposal that you will produce in the fourth trimester.

Brief for 1500 word methods text. The aim of this assignment is to use description of your work as a way of identifying and articulating your method. Describing first what and then how and why you make work often leads to discussions of the works context (what work is similar to the work you describe; what are the key ideas the work deals with). The theoretical elements of the texts you write should therefore emerge from, and have a very clear connection with, the work you are making. For this experiment I am asking you to follow the method outlined above so that you can begin to reflect and write quite deeply about the work you are making. A second method you will find useful is to draw on annotations of texts you have read which have a particular relation to the work you make.

Deadline: a week before self evaluation seminar

General info re writing

Basic wiki style sheet

Titles and works = italics

Essays = Title in Caps

Notation = Harvard System (writer, page number) = (Smith, 26)

URL = make link

A Guide to Essay Writing

Jstor

http://www.jstor.org/

Monoskop

http://monoskop.org/Monoskop

Print Room

Where to find books

Session one Sept 30

Intro to this trimester

managing your wiki stuff:

https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/User:Laurier_Rochon

10:00-10:30

Intro to course

Trimester one:

The seminar is in two parts

Texts on Method

1) Descriptions of work: what, why and how

2) Texts made after visit to 'art in an age of asymmetrical warfare'

Upload texts here:

Typographical Hallucinations: Orality, Literacy and Discourse Networks

Raymond Queneau Exercises in Style (1947)

Eric A. Havelock Preface to Plato (1963)

M. McLuhan Uderstanding Media, The Extensions of Man (1964)

Six Selections by the Oulipo (from 1961)

William, S. Burroughs The Ticket That Exploded (1962)

Calvino- Night Rider (1967)

Calvino- Cybernetics and Ghosts (1967)

Walter Ong - Orality and Literacy (1982)

John Johnston - Introduction Friedrich Kittler: Media Theory After Poststructuralism

F. Kittler - Discourse Networks 1800-1900 (1985/1990)

Jos de Mul - The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Recombination' (2008)

http://www.demul.nl/nl/publicaties/publicaties-per-categorie/boekbijdragen/item/1549-the-work-of-art-in-the-age-of-digital-recombination

James Gleick - The Information (2011)

Kenneth Goldsmith - Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age (2011)

Link to download books: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1gOtWWP6X5-SW1BWXQxR0JEbkk&usp=sharing

Typographical Hallucinations - 7 Oct Outcomes:

This session will be the Typographical Hallucinations seminar (Number One) in which we discuss the texts above

Outcome 1) make notes of two of the texts listed above (a chapter or an essay) in which you describe

a) The thesis of the text (what is the text about?) and

b) The conclusion.

Remember, the aim is to convey what the text communicates as best you can

Outcome 2) = give presentation outlining the texts you chose (10 mins)

Here we will discuss the various texts and considered how they interrelate and further consider how you can develop a line of research which is pertinent to your own work and interests

Outcome 3) consider research strands. Where would you like to take your research?

Typographical Hallucinations seminar

Presentations on the text and discussion.

Upload texts here (deadline 6 Oct)