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 2015-16 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.
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)
Jstor is a very useful resource
Session one Sept 30
Intro to this trimester
Managing your wiki stuff - here is a good example of a well managed wiki page:
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:
Colm RW&RS: What, how and why
Natalie / What, how and why / 30_09_15
Stone: What How Why
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)
James Gleick - The Information (2011)
Kenneth Goldsmith - Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age (2011)
Typographical Hallucinations - 14 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.
Afternoon: Make sketch of project: Upload here:
project outline draft directive page
- Colm: project outline draft v0.1
- Nadine - Project outline draft
- Sara - Project outline, first draft
- Pleun: Project Outline, first draft
- Natalie / Outline draft of self-directed research / 14_10_15
- Chloe - Project outline, first draft
- Max - Project outline, first draft
- Sam - Project outline, first draft
Upload texts here which outlines the thesis and conclusion of the text you presented (deadline 6 Oct)
Max: Understanding Media & The Information
Natalie / Katherine Hayles and Kenneth Goldsmith / 13_10_15
User:Nadiners/ Typographical Hallucinations
5 November
We start a little later this week, THURSDAY 5th AT 11:00
Taking stock of the seminar
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Thematic-Making_It_Public
Agenda:
Morning
1: While the issues are fresh in your minds, using the material you have generated over the last few days (notes, drawings, annotations &c), you will make a (collective) report of the Making it Public seminar.
Afternoon
2: consider particular issues raised in the seminar in relation to your own ongoing research
(a) what research strands can you follow in relation to your own work?
(b) how can you gather and structure relevant information arising from the seminar in a way that is most productive for you?
(c) How can the above be integrated into the self-directed research proposal you have been working on?