School: NYU - Abu Dhabi
Semester: January 2018
Location: NYU Shanghai
Course: CADT-UH 1015J
Area: Art, Design, & Technology
Class Time: M-F 9:30am - 12:30pm
Room: TBD
Instructor: Craig Protzel
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: TBD
The fundamental building blocks of good storytelling have remained consistent throughout history. What constantly changes though are the technologies, specifically the tools, mediums and platforms, through which stories are communicated. In this class, we will utilize one of today's dominant platforms for communication, the world wide web, to create and share stories that are engaging, interactive, and “explorable”.
But what does it mean for a story to be “explorable”? In terms of the modern web, does allowing a user to click and swipe make something “explorable”? Does that mean it is interactive? Is there a difference? This course will embrace the principles of constructionist learning theory along with tenets of networked systems thinking and user-centered design to help answer these questions. Embracing an active learning approach, both in practice and in content, we will challenge ourselves to produce stories that empower users to become active media consumers. Can we design meaningful opportunities for inquiry, creativity, agency, and discovery? Fortunately, current web browsers offer an open computational playground where we can generate, share, and test these very ideas.
Combining traditional writing skills with modern web javascript libraries and other multi-media tools, students will ultimately learn how to write, design, and code their own 21st century explorable stories. These stories may take a variety of forms including but not limited to creative fiction, journalistic non-fiction, educational lessons, or personalized accounts. The work will be inspired and influenced by our time in Shanghai, but will be accessible to a global audience. The goal will be for each student to iteratively produce their own compelling and usable explorable story that lives on the web and can be shared universally. Some web development or coding experience is preferable but not required.
- Understand and produce stories that empower users to become active media consumers
- Develop a baisc understanding of constructionist learning theory along with its relationship to the world wide web
- Think critically about current and future web-based content, interactions, and experiences
- Gain an understanding of client-side web technologies, specifically HTML, CSS, and javascript
- Identify and generate engaging interactive stories written, designed, and translated for the world wide web
- Gain experience with iterative prototyping and user-centered design
This course embraces an active learning approach, will be both seminar and studio. In the seminar portions of the class, time will be spent engaging in short lectures and critical discussions, reviewing readings, sharing assignment work, and meeting with special guests. In the studio portions, students will participate in hands-on creative and technical activities, engage in practice-based workshops, generate and evaluate project ideas, and research case-specific topics. Throughout the class, students will be encouraged to learn through play, experimentation, collaboration, and (of course) exploration.
- Learn - skills, tools, processes, techniques, resources
- Explore - challenges, risks, failures, adventures, dreams
- Grow - advance, empower, progress, reflect, repeat
- Share - describe, document, communicate, contribute, participate
10% Attendance
15% Participation
25% Homework Assignments
20% Project #1
30% Project #2
In addition to the assigned readings, we will be exploring and engaging in hands-on exercises. You will be expected to utilize a web blog* to document your work, describe your experiences, and draw connections to course readings, presentations, and discussions. Your posts should include at least a half page to a page of original writing (approx. 200 - 400 words) plus any other requested media assets such as photos, sound, video, code etc. *Each student will be given their own dedicated web space at the beginning of the class.
Due Wednesday 01/10
Working individually or with a partner, create a web experience that tells a “site-specific story” on a topic of your choice. The experience should be constructed around a specific location in Shanghai, include at least 2-3 pages of written material (approx. 1000 - 1200 words), and incorporate some basic forms of interactivity (i.e. “click events”). Code examples will be provided to help with some of the technical aspects. You must also include some multimedia (i.e. sound, video, images, gifs, etc) to augment the storytelling experience. The project should also include an ‘About’ page (200-400 words) that provides a brief description of the project, the overall goals of the site, the design approach, the technical aspects, any major challenges or insights, and possible next steps. Be prepared to present and share your project with the class.
Due Friday 01/19
Working independently, utilize p5JS or an “experiential” javascript library of your choosing to create an “explorable story” that includes 3-4 pages of written material (1200-1400 words) plus some additional multi-media (i.e. sound, video, images, gifs, etc). You may continue with the story from your first project or create an entirely new one. The explorable should allow for some form of “active” media consumption. Your project should live on the web and be designed in a way that is accessible to a general audience. The project should also include an ‘About’ page (200-400 words) that provides a brief description of the project, the overall goals of the site, the design approach, the technical aspects, any major challenges or insights, and possible next steps. Be prepared to present and share your project with the class.
We will take several trips around London to gain inspiration and insight into the world of interactive explorable media. Places we plan to visit include the following:
- Saturday Jan 6 10:30am - 5:30pm
- Propaganda Poster Art Museum
- FuXing Park
- First Communist Congress Museum
- K11 Mall + MOMA PS1 Gallery
- Sunday Jan 7 All Day (OPTIONAL)
- Shanghai Sightseeing Tour
- Wednesday Jan 10 1:00pm - 6:00pm
- Power Station of Art
- Bund Sightseeing Tunnel
- Thursday Jan 11 6:00pm - 11:00pm
- "Sleep No More" Play
- Tuesday Jan 16 1:30pm - 4:30pm
- IDEO (or other Company)
- Jiwon Shin - NYUAD Alum, IMA Fellow
- Luis Morales-Navarro - NYUAD Alum
- Northy Chen - Nerve Milk
- Rock Zou - NYUAD Alum, IMA Fellow
- Ann Chen - NYU ITP Alum, IMA Faculty
- Papert, Seymour, Mindstorms (Basic Books, 1993)
(These readings will either be distributed or available online)
- Piaget, Jean, To Understand Is To Invent: The Future of Education (Grossman, 1973)
- Meadows, Donella, Thinking In Systems: A Primer (Earthscan, 2001)
- Manovich, Lev, The Language of New Media (MIT Press 2001)
- Victor, Bret, Explorable Explanations (worrydream.com/ExplorableExplanations, 2011)
- Crawford, Chris, Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling (New Riders, 2013)
- Victor, Bret, Media For Thinking the Unthinkable (worrydream.com/MediaForThinkingTheUnthinkable , 2013)
- Bostock, Mike, Visualizing Algorithms (bost.ocks.org, 2014)
- Ford, Paul, What Is Code? (Bloomberg, 2015)
- Case, Nicky, Explorable Explanations (explorableexplanations.com, 2016)
- Students are expected to attend ALL classes and actively engage in ALL discussions, exercises, and activities.
- Be on time - for class, for assignments, for meetings, for site visits. Habitual lateness will not be tolerated.
- BE ON TIME FOR SITE VISITS! If you are late, you make the whole group late.
- If you know you are going to be late or absent due to illness or other circumstances, please email me in advance. If an emergency occurs, please let me know as soon as you can.
- Unexcused absences or habitual lateness will negatively impact your final grade for the class:
- Being more than 15 minutes late to class or a site visit will result in 2 percentage points off your Attendance Grade each time this occurs.
- 1 unexcused absence will result in 4 percentage points off your total attendance grade.
- More than 1 unexcused absence will result in an entire lower letter grade.
- More than 2 unexcused absences will result in an F
- Sustained in class participation that demonstrates careful reading and reviewing of all materials is a requirement for succeeding in this course. Participating during class helps me get to know you as an individual and keep track of your progress. It also provides you and your classmates greater opportunities to learn from each other.
- Ask questions. If you do not ask questions, I can only assume you understand the material completely.
- Be prepared to work in groups on some of the assignments.
- All homework assignments must be turned in on time. For each day a homework assignment is late, it will result in 2 percentage points deducted from your Homework Grade.
- All project assignments must be turned in on time. For each day a project assignment is late, it will result in 5 percentage points deducted from your Project Grade.
- You are expected to present your work in class. Explaining your work to other people is a great way to better understand the material and answer questions for yourself.
- Communicate with me and let me know if you have any concerns pertaining to the course. If you would like extra help or additional instruction, please let me know. You can email me, sign up for office hours, speak with me before or after class, or all of the above.
Laptop use will be expected in class, but should be focused on class-specific material, applications, and research. Whenever classmates are presenting please keep your laptop closed. The quality of the class depends in large part on your attention and active participation, so please respect your fellow classmates and close your lid.
Please put them on vibrate or turn them off before you come to class. If you have an emergency that requires you to answer your phone during class, please let me know me ahead of time or quietly step out of class to take the call.
NYU Abu Dhabi expects its students to adhere to the highest possible standards of scholarship and academic conduct. Students should be aware that engaging in behaviors that violate the standards of academic integrity will be subject to review and may face the imposition of penalties in accordance with the procedures set out in the NYUAD Policy
At NYU Abu Dhabi, a commitment to excellence, fairness, honesty, and respect within and outside the classroom is essential to maintaining the integrity of our community. By accepting membership in this community, students, faculty, and staff take responsibility for demonstrating these values in their own conduct and for recognizing and supporting these values in others. In turn, these values will create a campus climate that encourages the free exchange of ideas, promotes scholarly excellence through active and creative thought, and allows community members to achieve and be recognized for achieving their highest potential.
If you have any questions, would like extra help or need further instruction please reach out to me. You can communicate with me via e-mail, sign up for ofice hours, speak with me before class, after class or during break, but please let me know if you have any concerns pertaining to the course.