Read
- John Briggs, Fire in the Crucible (pp 1- 130, 190-99)
- William Zinsser, Ed., Worlds of Childhood
Blogging
The medium for the project this semester is the blog. Blogging sites such as WordPress now provide free hosting and an interface that automates many of the features that previously had to be composed directly in XHTML or using a program such as Dreamweaver. The only additional software required for the project is basic Photoshop. Details of the technology requirements are provided in class.
Requirements
The goal of the semester project is to discover and design your “image of wide scope.” What this image is and the method for composing it are described in the lectures, readings and student examples. We are not using the blog in the vernacular style practiced intuitively by many of the blogs currently appearing online at the rate of two per minute. Based on the assigned readings and student models, you will compose a Mystory that includes the following sections:
NOTE: a mystory is the collection of documents from within which the image of wide scope emerges as a pattern. To discover your wide image you must first compose a mystory. A collection of student mystories/images of wide scope is available in the Mystory/Myseum (see Special link below).
- FAMILY STORY
The concept of the Wide Image is based on a study of the lives of numerous creative people working in a great variety of fields in the Arts and Sciences. One of the principal findings of the study is the importance of childhood experiences and memories to the creative process in one’s career field or profession. The purpose of this section of the blog is to put into the micronarrative form some memory scenes from your childhood.
(Compose three micronarrative stories, plus supporting documentation and comments: 6 posts minimum). - ENTERTAINMENT SCENE
Select one narative in any medium (film, TV, literature, comics) that is memorable from your childhood or adolescence (prior to age 18, but it should not be anything recent). Document a key scene of this story world (diegesis).
(6 posts minimum) - FELT ATMOSPHERE
As an experiment in electracy, our mystory is designed not as a text but as a felt, using image (haiku) logic. This third section juxtaposes elements from the first two sections, using the Entertainment scene as a metaphor (figure, allegory) to express the mood/atmosphere of the Family story.
(3 posts minimum) - FORUM
An “afterword” or commentary section, in which you assess the design and learning process of the mystory so far. (1) What was the experience during the composition (describe your learning process)? (2) Name one instruction you derived from the readings and comment on how you applied it to the project. (3) Comment on intuitions you may have at this point about a possible pattern emerging for your Wide Image.(4) Which student mystory did you find most helpful?
(4 posts minimum)
Details of the above instructions and requirements are specified, explained, discussed in class.
Point totals: Parts 1-2 = 100; Parts 3-4 = 50