Reading, Writing & Research Methodologies 2014/2015

This is a shared page for the R,W & R module.

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.

First draft: early May (review in groups)

Final draft: late May (review in groups)

A Guide to Essay Writing

http://www.jstor.org/

TRIMESTER ONE

Note: Because you are writing an essay for the thematic class, the emphasis over the next month will be on describing and contextualising your own work. We will undertake a series of exercises that help identify your method and help you consider work by others to which it may relate and to consider the context in which you are working.

17-Sept

Description of work

Upload your texts here by 15:20

24-Sept

Review description of work

add:describe the broader cultural context (art-design works, film, texts which inform our understanding of the work) = 50 words

01-Oct

Bring along a text, an art object (repro) by another and a piece of popular media (film,clip &c) that interest you.

three things ^{(= dead link, content is taken out of the Antman territory, and placed here ↓)}

08-Oct

1) Three things continued

place your links here:

2) Our Simple Wiki Style Sheet:

Titles and works = italics

Essays = title in caps

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

URL = make link

3) Annotation, note taking and citation - a practical guide

http://piratepad.net/fhrqoUjXb2

notes on pirate pad

JoOº and JoOº

15 Oct

Annotation- note taking and commentary

We Live in Public

Last show of Josh reminds me this performances series,

One year performance from Tehching Hsieh

Project 0.2 - 29 Oct

Annotation- note taking and commentary

The changing face of an idea # 1

Michel Foucault – The Means of Correct Training, from Discipline and Punish (1977) (link to PDF → )

Gille Deleuze – Postscript on Control Societies (1990) https://files.nyu.edu/dnm232/public/deleuze_postcript.pdf

Mark Poster – Foucault and Databases, from The Mode of Information (1990)

Jean-François Lyotard – The Postmodern Condition (1979)

Brian Holmes – Future Map (2007)

Deleuze identified a shift from disciplinary societies to control societies, which is dependent on a shift from regulation by precepts and regulation by code. Lyotard understands this shift toward the digital order as changing the definition of knowledge. Here we will take Foucault and Deleuze’s texts as a starting point and consider how their ideas have informed discourse on media. Brian Holmes, for instance, draws on Deleuze and Foucault to make a contemporary assessment of society in which computation and prediction is central. During the seminar we will draw on other media – artworks, films and written texts – that are informed by these ideas of how reality is mediated.

Arantxa : Foucault and Deleuze / Arantxa: Hybrid text

Anne Lamb : Deleuze +

Cihad: Foucault and Deleuze

Ruben: Foucault and Deleuze

12 Nov

Write a text based on the previous texts and films.

12 Nov-19 Nov

Annotation: repurposing text

In teams, make a new text using previous notes on texts and films we have been studying. ( Foucault, Deleuze, We Live in Public, Black Mirror,How Little We Know of the Neighbors &c)

The following genres have been suggested: game, puzzle, article, consumer contract, bot, social network profile, sci-fi story, gameshow, letter, news report, manifesto, terms and conditions text flowchart, diagram, hypertext, info graphic &c

Groups of 3 or 4- choose an editor.

Upload links and brief outline of project (50 words max) below:

Group 1: A Hyperized Story of Discipline and Control

Project 0.3

03-Dec

Reading and Writing Ideology; # 1

Intro

http://www.chadmccail.co.uk/snake/snake.html

Today we will be watching extracts from 'the perverts guide to ideology', the 2012 British documentary film directed by Sophie Fiennes and written and presented by Slovene philosopher Slajvo Zizek. We will view the film in chapters, and make notes in order to establish what Zizek's thesis is.

Key contextualising texts on ideology:

The Ruling Class and the Ruling ideas, from The German Ideology 1845, Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01b.htm#b3

(i) History of the Subaltern Classes; (ii) The Concept of 'Ideology'; (iii) Cultural Themes: Ideological Material, Antonio Gramsci, 1927

Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses, Louis Althusser 1970

10-Dec

Reading and Writing Ideology; # 2

Perverts Guide to Ideology continued

+ The Men Who Made Us Spend (part 1) Scott Kilgour (2013)

We will continue to watch, discuss and take notes of the Zizek film and also watch The Men Who Made Us Spend. We will consider Zizek's ideas in the light of what we find out from The Men Who...

TRIMESTER TWO

January 7

Reading and Writing Ideology; # 3

Today we will consider:

Zizek and the kinder egg

and Renzo Martens' film Enjoy Poverty

and discuss how the Zizek's notions of ideology can inform our reading of the film

From Renzo Marten's website:

" Episode III, also known as 'Enjoy Poverty', is the 90 minute film registration of Renzo Martens' activities in the Congo. In an epic journey, the film establishes that images of poverty are the Congo’s most lucrative export, generating more revenue than traditional exports like gold, diamonds, or cocoa. However, just as with these traditional exports, those that provide the raw material: the poor being filmed, hardly benefit from it at all.

Amidst ethnic war and relentless economic exploitation, Martens sets up an emancipation program that aims to teach the poor how to benefit from their biggest resource: poverty. Thus, Congolese photographers are encouraged to move on from development-hindering activities, such as photographing weddings and parties, and to start taking images of war and disaster. With a neon sign, packed in metal crates and carried through the jungle by Martens' porters, the local population is encouraged to capitalize on what the world has given them as their share. It states 'Enjoy Poverty.' Hapless plantation workers question it, accept it, dance around it, yet in the end, the whole project seems bound to fail.

The piece is the third in a series of films that, by enacting their own parameters, try to make visible their own complicity in a world obscured by depictions of it. The first of this series was 'Episode I' set in Chechnya.

Episode III was first shown at the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam. The trunks that were carried throughout the jungle, now contained the master-tape of these activities, some left over neon lights, a photograph made in collaboration with the Association des Photographes de Kanyabayonga, and a certificate. The film was screened a few times daily.

On the very same day, the piece served as the opening night film the Amsterdam International Documentary Festival's 2008 edition. Ever since, the film has been shown in over 40 filmfestivals, art venues including Centre Pompidou, ZKM Karlsruhe, Kunsthalle Goteborg, Tate Modern, Arnolfini Bristol, The BOX LA, Nomas Foundation and art biennals such as the Moscow Biennal, Berlin Biennal and Manifesta."

January 14

Arantxa/Dreams

Upload by January 13 = 1000 - 1500 word text

abstract 50 words

intro = 1 para

1 point

2 point

3 point

conclusion ( in which you recap your argument - do not bring in new elements)

January 21

revised version:

manetta
Arantxa/Dreams (Revised)
Yuzhen
Antman
Lucas
Thomas (update on the top)

Sol

The work of...

Project 0.4

The changing face of an idea # 2

5-February-2015

Walter Benjamin’s text The Work of Art In an Age of Mechanical Reproduction has been a cornerstone of media theory since it first appeared. Here we take this text and two others which take Benjamin’s text as a starting point and consider how the ideas from Benjamin’s text have informed discourse on media.

Texts:

Walter Benjamin - The Work of Art In an Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)

Antman synopsis

Solange

Arantxa - Synopsis

manetta

Ruben
Julie

-AnneLamb Notes

Yuzhen

Thomas

Lucas

JoOº

Bill Nichols - The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems (1988)

http://www.nomads.usp.br/pesquisas/cultura_digital/arte_em_processo/Processo/Textos/Nichols%20-%20The%20Work%20of%20Culture%20in%20the%20Age%20of.pdf

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

http://oliverlaric.com/

http://geertmul.nl/Geert_Mul/NederlandsFotomuseum.html

February 18

Antman: User:Themsen/RWRM3-3

Ruben

JoOº

Yuzhen summary on my notes

manetta : Benjamin, Nichols, de Mul

Thomas

Lucas

Annelamb: http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/wiki/Notes:_Walter_BJ
Annelamb: http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/wiki/Annotation:_Joe_De_Mul

Cristina

Sol https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/The_Work_of_Art_in_the_Age

Morning:

In groups of 2 or 3, review the notes/ texts made on Benjamin and:

Bill Nichols - The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems (1988) http://www.nomads.usp.br/pesquisas/cultura_digital/arte_em_processo/Processo/Textos/Nichols%20-%20The%20Work%20of%20Culture%20in%20the%20Age%20of.pdf

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

10:00- 11:30: review texts in groups

11:30- 12:30: make changes - upload on wiki

13:00 lunch

Afternoon:

Unfinished business and ideology

14:00 - Review the material you have produced during the ideology sessions (upload on wiki ahead of time on this page).

In groups of 4, discuss how that material can be used in a 'parallel publishing' project (as you did with the society of discipline-control texts last trimester).

at 16:00 we meet to discuss your ideas (draft plans) &c

Upload you groups plans below (sketches, ideas &c)

Ideology writing parallel session exercise in group - thingy (Arantxa, Yuzhen, Allyson, Lucas Solange)

Antman + Joana + Benjamin + Thomas = http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/wiki/Hybrid_Ideologies

(Ruben, Julie, Cristina, Manetta)'s piratepad

4 March

ideology 'parallel publishing' projects

This week we will continue with the project in groups

14:00 we review progress together in group

16:00 presentation of 'parallel publishing' project

play the ideology game: *fingerkrieg* (beta)

Project 0.5

March 25

Self-directed research, reading, writing and research day.

Morning: 10:00=

brief introduction

10:30 - 17:00 =

This month, the aim of the RW&RM seminar is to = compile library of notes, synopses, reviews and descriptions related to your self-directed research.

Today you will work on researching, reading and taking notes on the texts we discussed in the personal tutorials with me last week.

In those tutorials we identified texts, research strands, art and media which could inform your self-directed research.

Spend this week's seminar following up on those discussions and post the results on the wiki

Although I have to attend the evaluation of the Fine Art students for most of the day, I will visit your studios to check how you are progressing regularly.

April 8 - mid May

Project 0.6

Reflection on your practice.

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.

The aim of this assignment, in the first instance, is to use description of your work as a way of identifying and articulating your method and methodology. Describing first what and then how and why you make work often leads to discussions of the works context. The theoretical elements of the texts you write therefore emerge from, and have a very clear connection with, the work you are making.

You may find it useful to make descriptions of recent work following the "what, why, how" method.

You may also find it useful to draw on existing annotations of texts you have read which have a particular relation to the work you make.

You may also wish to use elements from the interview you conducted with your fellow students.

Outline for the text (this is a guide rather than a prescription)

General note on mode of address. Write as if to someone not familiar with your work.

Title

Introduction Current Practice (resource: here you can use the descriptions of recent work)

Relation to previous practice

How does your current work connect to previous projects you have done? (resource: here you can use a) the descriptions of older work b) extracts from your interview.)

Relation to a larger context

Outline practices or ideas that go beyond the scope of your personal work. Write briefly about other projects or theoretical material which share an affinity with your project. It is simply about showing an awareness of a broader context, which you will later build upon in your project proposal and writing component in the second year (resource: here you can draw on the texts from the interviews and from the session using Jstor and the sessions in which you examined a media, art object and a text.)

Research strands

Consider the possibilities open to you and where you would take your work in the near future (resource: here you can draw on the texts from the interviews and from the session using Jstor)

Conclusion

Examples of texts on method by Fine Art students

http://pzwiki.wdka.nl/fineart/Texts_for_self-evaluation_seminar_2015

Establishing your own 'research library'

March – April:

Aim: Establish a practice of annotation and note taking relating to your self-directed research.

From this point in the course, (continue to) write notes, synopses and descriptions of work which relate to your own interests and research. Archive them on the wiki like this:

http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/wiki/User:Sol#NOTES or go to Self Directed Research

http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/wiki/User:Laurier_Rochon

Lucas: All the texts I have produced so far

JoOº

Solange https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/NOTES

Individual tutorial with Steve (I can also meet you in a group of two, if you prefer)

Wednesday:

http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/wiki/Calendars:Networked_Media_Calendar/Networked_Media_Calendar/11-03-2015_-Event_1

or Friday

http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/wiki/Calendars:Networked_Media_Calendar/Networked_Media_Calendar/13-03-2015_-Event_3

In preparation for the tutorial- gather texts together (see example above) and make a link just below the example above

Agenda for tutorial:

a) Review writing done so far for the class;

b) Discuss it in terms of your practical work

c) Identify key themes, writers, artists and texts relating to self-directed research

d) Follow existing research strands

e) Discuss resources. Of course there are a million on line channels for research (and over abundance can be a distraction), so how do you get the most out of the school library and Jstor while you have the chance?

March-April: compile library of notes, synopses, reviews and descriptions. Make a link to this page.

May – Write text on method. The collection of texts relating to your self-directed research will be useful for the text on method, and in the second year they will help project proposal and thesis. More generally they will help deepen your research as a whole.

Link to Jstor: http://www.jstor.org/

April 14: remember the deal we made last week:

I WILL set no assignments outside the class for the rest of the trimester

YOU WILL work on reading and writing related to your self directed research as you prepare your TEXT ON PRACTICE.

EACH WEEK, at the beginning of the session, you will set achievable aims for the day and work toward them.

I will be around to talk to you about progress.

April 22: You will follow up on the interview project you did with Annet. Using the same mode – group of three= interviewee, interviewer and moderator – you will conduct an interview on your work for 15 minutes. This time you will RECORD AND TRANSCRIBE the interview. The transcript will provide material for your text on your practice.

In keeping with our tradition of setting achievable aims we will:

10:00 = meet in large project space and prepare interview

10:30 = conduct interview

12:00 - 16:30 = transcribe and edit interview

16:30 = upload interview and review as group

UPLOAD HERE: