benmiller314/cdm2022spring

source files for [Ben Miller's course in Composing Digital Media](https://benmiller314.github.io/cdm2022spring) at Pitt

cdm2022spring's Issues

Forum: sounding the depths of possibility

Throughout the semester, I will periodically ask you to develop proposals for a collaborative final project that will allow you to integrate – and extend – what you’ve learned about composing digital media. This is the first of those proposals. There is no minimum length.

Consider: What further possibilities of sound, or sound design, might you want to explore in connection with other people, and/or other media?

As always on the forum, replying directly to each other is optional but encouraged: just use the @ symbol to flag someone by username.

Digital media + soundwriting preview: training our attention

After completing the reading and listening portions of the homework after lesson 02, come here and record a few thoughts. What do you notice, i.e. what stands out while reading or listening? What does that suggest, or what does it make you wonder? You don't have to connect the audio narratives to the theory from Su, but you're certainly welcome to. :¬)

As always in forum posts, responding to each other is optional but encouraged: you can use the @ symbol to mention someone by username, and they'll receive a notification.

Forum: compiling across the stack

Periodically in the semester, I will ask you to develop proposals for a final project that will allow you to integrate – and extend – what you’ve learned about composing digital media. This is the third of those proposals; you may wish to review the first and second. As before, there is no minimum length.

Consider:

• What further possibilities of web, graphic, or sound design might you want to explore in connection with other people, and/or other media?
• What projects have you started that don't yet feel finished, that you might want to spend another couple of weeks on?
• What tools or genres were you hoping to try in this course that haven't been assigned?

NB: This final project can be a solo or group project, or, with enough shared enthusiasm, a collective project that we divide up among all members of the class. But bear in mind we only have a few weeks after the web unit ends!

As always on the forum, replying directly to each other is optional but encouraged: just use the @ symbol to flag someone by username.

Audio Narrative proposal (HW after lesson 4)

Write a brief proposal for your audio narrative project. What place or environment will you try to represent? What story will you try to tell – or, at least, what is the premise (starting point) of that story?

See the full range of thought-questions in the assignment prompt for brainstorming strategies, and the Parachute Prompts at the bottom of that page if you're stuck.

NB: I am asking you to include a prospective assets list, i.e. a table of the sounds you think you'll need and where you might be able to source them. You can choose to include that assets list here or to place it as a file in your repository (either directly in README.md or in a separate assets.md), which would help you more easily update and track changes as you fill in the real sources.

Either way, please include a link here to your repository, making it easier to find when we get to group work.

Proposal: Website Portfolio

Write a brief proposal for your multi-page website project. What materials or ideas will you include? Where will viewers of the site begin ("land"), and by what paths will they find their way to other areas of the site? How might you guide their attention to and through the materials, based on what you want to emphasize and on what they'll be looking for?

See the full range of thought-questions in the assignment prompt for brainstorming strategies.

As explained in class, your proposal should include the following:

• some text about the idea or appeal you're hoping to make;
• some sense of what pages and page sections you expect to include;
• a prospective assets chart (what you'll need, where you might get it);
• at least one design sketch, showing possible layouts; and
• a link to your repository.

Audio Narrative: Final Reflections

This is a space where you'll be able to post your final-for-now thoughts on your audio unit projects, your audio narratives. These are both a space for you to think back on what you've learned, and how, and also to help me appreciate the work you've done (whether in successful product or ambitious process).

At a minimum, this should include:

• at least 500 words describing the work you did
• at least two screenshots showing your work in progress
• at least one screenshot of feedback that you responded to in revising (and please say how)
• your own assessment of how you met the baseline criteria for the class, as well as aspirational criteria as appropriate

This will be due on Tuesday, February 8th.

Proposal: Visual Argument / Rhetorical Collage

Write a brief proposal for your visual rhetoric project. What idea or argument will you try to represent? What claim will you try to make – or, at least, what is the triggering idea (starting point) of that claim?

See the full range of thought-questions in the assignment prompt and/or in lesson 10 for brainstorming strategies.

NB: I am asking you to include a prospective assets list, i.e. a table of the images you think you'll need and where you might be able to source them. You can choose to include that assets list here or place it in your repository (whether as its own file or in the README), to more easily track changes as the list moves from prospective to actual assets.

Either way, please include a link here to your visual-argument repository, making it easier to find when we get to group work.

Visual Argument / Rhetorical Collage: final reflections

This is a space where you'll be able to post your final-for-now thoughts on your visual unit projects, your rhetorical collages. We've talked in class about what that should include, but the main goals are to give a sense of what you've learned from doing this project, the work you put into it, and whether it accomplishes what you wanted it to.

At a minimum, please include:

• At least 500 words
• Your own assessment of how you met the baseline criteria and goals for the unit, as well as any aspirational criteria or self-assigned stretch goals, as appropriate
• At least one screenshot of feedback you used (and please say how)
• At least one or two screenshots of your work in progress (ideally, related to the discussion in the previous two bullets)

NB: After using the formatting buttons and drag/drop tools to add images here in the Issue queue, you can optionally copy the source code and paste it into a new reflections.md file in your repository: it should then have the same formatting there!

Final Website Reflections

This is a space where you'll be able to post your final-for-now thoughts on your website portfolios. We've talked in class about what that should include, but the main goals are to give a sense of what you've learned from doing this project, the work you put into it, and whether it accomplishes what you wanted it to.

At a minimum, please include:

• At least 500 words
• Your own assessment of how you met the baseline criteria and goals for the unit, as well as any aspirational criteria or self-assigned stretch goals, as appropriate
• At least one screenshot of teacher/peer feedback or advice you used (and please say how)
• At least one or two screenshots of your work in progress (ideally, related to the discussion in the previous two bullets)

NB: After using the formatting buttons and drag/drop tools to add images here in the Issue queue, you can optionally copy the source code and paste it into a new reflections.md file in your repository: it should then have the same formatting there as here!

Forum: laying out the possibilities

As you now know, throughout the semester, I will periodically ask you to develop proposals for a collaborative final project that will allow you to integrate – and extend – what you’ve learned about composing digital media. This is the second of those proposals; you can directly reference an idea from the last one, or start fresh. The question is almost the same:

What further possibilities of image, or graphic design, might you want to explore in connection with other people and/or other media?

There is no minimum length.

As always in this forum, replying directly to each other is optional but encouraged: just use the @ symbol to flag someone by username.

Forum: visual arguments are everywhere

For homework after lesson 9, I'm asking you to find and screenshot (if online) or photograph (if offline) an example of an argument being made through graphic or visual design. Then you'll post it here, along with answers to the questions below.

To be clear:

• By "design," I mean that some person made an active choice in its arrangement. A heap of clothes on the floor may have a lot of artistic potential to a photographer, but it's not yet designed.
• By "in the wild," I mean that I expect you to come across some in the course of your routine travels around the web – or around your surroundings, if you're in a place where you get out into your surroundings. That said, if you need to search more actively, so be it; for one thing, you may need to pay more attention to ads that you've trained yourself to ignore. (But, to answer a question from class, yes, ads are totally fine.)
• By "argument," I mean there should be an idea beyond the pure visual layout. The argument could be explicit or implicit; it could be serious or a joke. (Some claims are just X is like Y.) Often multiple kinds of claims will exist in the same artifact, and will interact. But you should be able to put it in words.

Once you've found a visual argument, post a picture of it here, and tell us more about the image:

• What is the argument it's making?
• How does the design function in terms of dominance and hierarchy, positive and negative space, or rhythm and movement?

Greetings and Salutations!

Welcome to Composing Digital Media! Your first writing assignment is to post an introduction to yourself, here on this "Issue Queue." What is an Issue Queue? Later, we may get into some more advanced features, but for now, you can think of it as a discussion forum: it allows anyone to post and respond.

You can also add images and some other files (though not playable sound files, alas) directly into your posts here: it's as simple as drag and drop. You can also format text with bold, hyperlinks, headings, and so on. Click the buttons on your edit screen and the appropriate Markdown syntax will appear – which can be a good way to learn Markdown syntax.

Before the end of lesson 2 (or your second class, if you're joining after lesson 1), please respond to this Issue with a few words about yourself, and a picture. (Note: this is a public site. If you're not comfortable using your real identity, please choose a username and some avatar image other than a photo of yourself. Just... let me know offline or by email which post is yours, so I can give you full credit for participating.)

Final Portfolios

By the end of our final exam slot, please reply to this thread with a single post containing the following:

1. a prose reflection of at least 800-1200 words (1200-1800 recommended), reflecting on the course and framing the portfolio’s contents in terms of your learning and goals;
   • NB: please refer to lesson 26 and/or the handout for guidelines and prompts
2. representative thumbnail images, hyperlinked to final rendered versions of your four unit projects, i.e. Soundscape Narrative (.mp3), Visual Argument (.png or .jpg), Website Portfolio (live url or index.html), and Consolidation/Integration (ymmv);
3. links to your repositories for each of those pieces; and
4. a thumbnail of at least one specific prior draft, allowing you to talk about your revision skills. I feel like it might help to link this thumbnail to a specific commit in the revision history, but it's probably not essential.

PS: In addition to the portfolio, or as preparation for it, please do take the end-of-term version of the Tech Comfort Survey – among other things, it will give you a space to officially let me know whether and how I can use your work as an example for students in future semesters.