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)

A Guide to Essay Writing

Jstor is a very useful resource

http://www.jstor.org/

Where to find books

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

Nadine: What, how and why

Max: what, how and why

User:Kul/WhatHowWhy

Natalie / What, how and why / 30_09_15

Pleun / What, How, Why

Stone: What How Why

Sam / What, How, Why

Chloe / 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)

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)

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

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

F. Kittler essays: Introduction by John Johnston, Media theory After Poststructuralism (Colm's notes)

User: Sam/ Typographical Hallucinations/Calvino

Plato and Eric Havelock and Julia Kul

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?

18 November

Report on Making Things Public Thematic

Basic wiki style sheet

Titles and works = italics

Essays = Title in Caps

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

makingitpublic-report

2 December

Taking care of business

1) Review first trimester:

a) what we have done and what still needs to be done.

b) Review: For you, what were the most useful, least useful aspects of RW&RM seminar

2) Preview of presentations & group crit (Monday)

3) Contextualizing practice.

We do not produce work in a vacuum. We are influenced by the art, media and texts around us. For tomorrow’s session please bring along

a) a text (novel, theoretical text, shopping list &c)

b) a piece of media (Youtube clip, movie, TV program, website &c)

c) an art work (old, new, video, painting, installation &c)

We will look at them and discuss why they are important to you and make notes. This is the beginning of a process whereby we start to place self-directed research in a broader cultural context.

PAD HERE PLEASE — ok: http://pzwart1.wdka.hro.nl/pad/p/RW-RM-2015_12_02

Trimester two

14 January

The outcome of this trimester will be fourfold:

Two essays

1 (Jan) ) typographical hallucinations / discourse networks

working with texts from last trimester's seminar as your starting point

a) review texts

b) formulate your own question

use this guideline

A Guide to Essay Writing

Use Harvard method (as described in above guideline)

Word count 2000 words (excluding bibliography)

Deadline 21 January

2 ) Text relating specifically to your self-directed research(Feb)

3) Ongoing description and analysis of practice (Jan and Feb)

4 (feb) report on thematic two

During the thematic, make notes and follow the methods we used last time: (e.g.: thesis, argument, conclusion; synopsis of key texts;constant note taking &c.) We will use a few morning sessions in February to collate this information to make a collective report. Organize before the thematic, allocate tasks. Because you developed a method last time it should be quicker this time.

Unfinished business:

a) Cut the what whys and hows

b) update what why hows

c) re last thematic report: 1) make key of initials 2) place appropriate initials in brackets at end of each piece. For instance

"...into the public sphere, the original intention becomes impinged through the process of distribution. The nature of publicising content involves acts of distortion, corruption of intent, curatorial and editorial censorship and filtration. In order to present a coherent order of discourse from the multiplicity of sources to promote apparent “objectivity”, it becomes necessary to undergo selection, exclusion and inclusion. [SR]"

20 January-2016

UPLOAD ESSAY HERE

THINGS TO DO AHEAD OF NEXT METHODS SEMINAR

1) Finish essay by deadline of 21 January. I will review and mark them ahead of the next methods class.

2) Thematic report two: as discussed last week, as part of the methods class you will be making a report of the next thematic project. It will take the form of the last report you made together. This time, because you have established a series of methods and procedures for doing this, you can make it as you go:

a) make notes of thesis and conclusion of each presentation, lecture, introduction&c.;

b) make synopsis of key texts you are reading

c) use the same template as last time.

d) allocate jobs so you don't duplicate work and make sure all tasks are covered

Because this is familiar the report can be compiled and published on the wiki in a short time. We can spend one morning next month reviewing the process.

3) Note: the seminar has been shifted from 17 Feb to 18 February, in order that you can meet with Annet and Andre for Making Things Public project on the 17th.

3 February 2016

10:00

Making a report on thematic 2

Work as a group on making a report, using the first report as a

fuzzynarrators-report

12:30

Review progress and set short term aims

Whilst you work on the thematic report as a group

Steve reviews your essays (brief tutorials)

From 14:00

Tutorials continued (book on calendar)

NOTE: Thursday 4 February the methods class attends the reading by Fine Art Students.

Note on Active Voice

Active & Passive

Reading: Politics and the English Language (1948) by George Orwell.

It's an old text, but today we will use Orwell as a writing machine

Orwell writes:

" A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:

1. What am I trying to say?

2. What words will express it?

3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?

4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

And he will probably ask himself two more:

1. Could I put it more shortly?

2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?" (p.3)

Orwell later proposes the following rules:

"1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous." (p.5)

Experiment:

(a) Edit your essay excluding the passive voice. or: edit the text you wrote last week using the active voice. '

18-2-16

In the morning we will go through your plan for your second 1500 word essay of this trimester.

I have talked to most of you about how you can build on the last essay you wrote and extend it into a reflection of your practice based research.

The morning will be set aside to discuss your plans together

What do I bring to the session?:

Gather material = the texts and media you plan to use as reference material for your text. (You may wish to extend your research using texts and media mentioned in your previous paper. You may wish to follow threads you discovered whilst writing your last essay, which you feel has relevance to your own work.)

Outcomes of the session:

1) Formulate a (provisional) question

2) Write brief outline of what you plan to write

You will work in groups

A:

Sara

Max

Colm

B:

Nadine

Stone

Pleun

C:

Natalia

Julia

Cloe

March 2

We spend this weeks RW&RM seminar

1) finishing your essay on practice-based research

2) reviewing your essay on practice-based research

Upload your essay here:

Notes on plan:

Gather material; make synopsis of key texts; Identify key points; extract key quotations

Make outline: abstract; intro; body of text; conclusion; bibliography

Editing:

follow the "Orwell method";

identify the reader;

use active modeof address;

make three drafts with a specific outcome for each draft (these may correspond to text editing, copy editing and proof reading stages);

print each draft out;

file each draft;

read aloud (this helps with punctuation);

get second reader to give feedback on second and final draft.

Here is a general guide: A Guide to Essay Writing

March 23

Today we review progress of above, take time to work on draft, co-edit texts &c

Upload outlines and drafts here:

Pleun:

Essay: #II
Essay 2 Colm
Stone: Essay 2 (not finished)

Nadine: Ghost Writer

Julia: This is not an essay nr.2