Digital portfolio assignments.

At the end of the quarter, you will submit a digital portfolio that collects your work from this course. Your portfolio will be assessed on many criteria, all of which will illustrate your understanding of the concepts that make up the theoretical and practical frameworks of this class.  Your portfolio will include the following projects:

Nonfiction/digital media observations.  

You need to view/observe/attend/experience a variety of nonfiction/digital media texts or “events” that are not a part of the required reading/viewing for this class.  This part of the class is open for all kinds of interpretation, but its purpose is to have you “take in” as much work in the area as possible. This event could be watching a documentary film or attending a documentary photography show at a museum or online.  You could visit a digital media installation at a gallery. You could read a number of digital media political ads online.

Then, create a journal of your observations and experiences that combines description and response. You will need to turn in this journal in some kind of digital format;  the choice of that format is entirely up to you.  You could simply keep a running Word document and turn that in as a part of your portfolio.  You could start a blog and simply turn in its URL.  You could create an audio journal, where you record your observations.  You could create a multi-modal journal that combines many different formats.  The choice is entirely up to you. 

I hate to dictate any kind of “amount” for this assignment, but I would suggest that you create eight (8) entries in your journal by the end of the quarter.  I would also like you to document dates in your journal—viewing dates and/or composing dates. 

New media self-portrait.

Using a variety of digital media technologies, create a self-portrait that utilizes the dynamic, timed writing environment of Macromedia Flash MX.  Your new media self-portrait should combine image, text, and/or sound while conveying a narrow theme, message, story, or argument that identifies you in one way or another. 

Your self-portrait might be very short in length but should, at the same time, be rich in layers of material and, presumably, meaning.  You should begin collecting material for your self-portrait while you consider these layers of meaning. 

Nonfiction digital media project. 

This project asks you to invent and create a nonfiction project in a digital space.  This project will be about a subject of your choice, but it must seek to capture original material, giving your project an element of documentary work. You will conduct  "research" (fact finding, interviews, original photographs/audio/video, creation of “documentable” situations) that will enable you to create a short, nonfiction story that adopts an angle that is new, interesting, and refreshing to your audience.  Your project, when applicable, can also be reflective in nature, meaning that it can explore the intersection of documentary and personal narration/reflection. 

You should begin this assignment by considering the following requirements:

You can conduct archival work for this project, but you must also conduct "research" that consists of artifact finding, interviews, observation, and original photographs/audio/video.  This research will become the essence of your project.  Your goal is to end up with much more material than you will use in the final project.  

Your project must include “original” documented material.  I am looking for projects that include a significant number of original photographs, images, video, and/or audio files.  These texts would be incorporated extensively into your project.  This text should be carefully and purposefully crafted with an intentional mode of documentary representation. 

The final project must be in a form that can be “distributed” to an audience.  In most cases, I have imagined "fix media"--something, for example, that might be burned to a CD or DVD-- but there is no need to limit yourself to that.  Your project can also be multi-modal in nature, meaning that it might include separate audio files, still images, video files, etc., that would be collected in an web site, for example.  You do not need to think of seamless, unified texts. 

Collaborative projects (two students per team) are encouraged.  Except in extreme cases, both students will receive the same grades on all elements of the project.

Reflection.

You need to compose a reflective piece where you describe your process of working with nonfiction digital media texts.  I am interested in your overall experience with the course content, and I am interested in your process of creating digital media texts—your production work.  This piece should be created in such a way that it enhances your audience’s understanding of the project as well as my assessment of your project. Think “artist’s statement.” This, too, must be included in a digital format in your portfolio.  A Word file is completely acceptable.