COM 369 | Digital Poetry
C.T. Funkhouser | NJIT
funkhouser@adm.njit.edu
Spring 2012
Office hours: Wed. 2-5 p.m., Cullimore 425
In this course students will study, discuss, and also make digital poems. Technology has changed the writing, reading, and analysis of poetry. Through explorations in digital poetry—a craft featuring literary, visual, and sonic attributes—students will be introduced to the wide-range of approaches used by artists who integrate language and programmable media. Students will deliberate on the creative potential of this new modality of writing, where poems including algorithmic programming, graphical artistry, videography, hypermedia, and sonic design elements have become commonplace. Applying theoretical knowledge to multimedia composition, each student will create a poetic artifact and evaluate its literary construction, design, and audio-visual strategies.
Course resources
Prehistoric Digital Poetry [.pdf posted in course Moodle News forum ]
New Directions in Digital Poetry [.pdf posted in course Moodle News forum ]
Ed Sanders: "Creativity and the Fully Developed Bard" [ .pdf posted in course Moodle News forum ]
All links contained on syllabus
Course work:
Participation (20 points):
Course participation marks will be determined mainly by assessing student engagement during classroom discussions. Following our first class meeting meeting, I have also decided to add an optional discussion board component to the course (as part of the Moodle News Forum section), in which students may initiate and partake in free-form, open discussion about selected topics (if you would like to suggest a topic, send an email to me); participation in this forum is not required, but doing so will boost your participation mark. Further, taking the initiative to prepare material for Newark Review 3.0 &/or project coursework beyond the classroom (as in starting a blog or WordPress site to display work and/or processes involved with the experience of what you encounter in the course), would signal an excellent level of participation.
Assignments (50 points):
6 assignments, each worth 5 or 10 points, will be issued; these exercises are designed to help you prepare for your Project. Students will be instructed on how to post files to the WWW and will upload assignments to the NJIT AFS server (or another site, e.g. WordPress as mentioned above).
Project (30 points):
During the final weeks of the course each student will prepare a creative project, which may be modeled (somehow) on Sander's notion of a "Multi-Decade Research Project". I encourage using the WWW (including social networking sites) for project. Projects could include (but are not limited to) making hypertext poems, animations, videos (relevant to course materials), or other types of coded works (PowerPoint projects will not be accepted). Proposals are due 3/5 (or before).
S C H E D U L E
Week of January 23 Introduction to course material; student introduction(s); Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries; mIEKAL aND; IBM Poetry
READING: C.T. Funkhouser:; "IBM POETRY: Exploring Restriction in Computer Poems" (http://web.njit.edu/~funkhous/2008/machine); download and read the lecture--follow along with the slides on the website. Optional: You can also hear me deliver this lecture online via http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Funkhouser-IBM-Poetry.html. A PDF of Emmet Williams' introduction to IBM will be distributed via Moodle; read it.
ASSIGNMENT 1 (5 Points): Use the IBM Poem template and make three different IBM poems using the process. Bring hard-copy of your favorite one, along with a summary discussing your impressions of the exercise to class next week.
Week of January 30 Sanders; set up AFS server space; introduction to Generators; Charles O. Hartman, PyProse (download program here)
READING: C.T. Funkhouser: Foreword, Chronology, Introduction (i.e., read up to p. 30 of the book) to Prehistoric Digital Poetry; Francisco J. Ricardo: Introduction to New Directions in Digital Poetry.
ASSIGNMENT 2 (5 Points): (A) Make a serial poem, one line per day, using output from PyProse; (B) craft PyProse compositions using any strategy--bring hard-copy of your favorite one, along with a summary discussing your impressions of these exercise(s) to class next week.
Book launch for New Directions in Digital Poetry will be held at Bowery Poetry Club, February 5, 2 p.m.
Week of February 6 PyProse; Sanders; Dr. David Jhave Johnston (see http://glia.ca/) will present and discuss his works and perspectives on digital poetry
READING: C.T. Funkhouser: Chapters 1 and 2 (i.e., read pp. 31-149) to Prehistoric Digital Poetry; Nick Montfort: Taroko Gorge; Scott Rettberg: Tokyo Garage.
Week of February 13 Digital Poetry's forms; Sanders; editing code
READING: C.T. Funkhouser: Chapters 3 and 4 (pp. 150-255), Prehistoric Digital Poetry; also pp. 91-106 in New Directions in Digital Poetry; Alan Sondheim: Tao; Dawn; Internet Text; works in Second Life (see http://harp.njit.edu/~newrev/3.0/sondheim.html for one examples; others t.b.a.)
ASSIGNMENT 3 (10 points): Use Taroka Gorge (or another "open source" title) as a model for your own online generated poem
Week of February 20 Sanders; Alan Sondheim will present and discuss his works and perspectives on digital poetry
READING: Ch. 5 (pp. 221-255), Prehistoric Digital Poetry; Chs. 1 and 2 (pp. 1-35), New Directions in Digital Poetry; Jason Nelson: Wittenoom; Deena Larsen, Carving in Possibilities; Mez, ID_Xor-cism; Kerry Lawrynovicz, Girl's Day Out
Week of February 27 Sanders; Sondheim; GTR Language Workbench; last week's READING
READING: http://vispo.com/ (see, particularly, works linked to http://vispo.com/A/index.html, http://vispo.com/E/index.html, http://vispo.com/I/index.html, and http://vispo.com/O/index.html; pp. 71-78 (Larsen), 157-164 (Breeze), 211-248 (Ch. 6) New Directions in Digital Poetry
ASSIGNMENT 4 (10 Points): Using any software (& your own instincts), create a series of visual poems (2-3 minimum); post to Web
Project proposals due March 5 (please submit via moodle)
Week of March 5 Sanders; Visual Poetry
READING: Angela Ferraiolo, Map of a Future War and The End of Capitalism; pp. 131-148 in New Directions in Digital Poetry
Week of March 12 SPRING BREAK
Week of March 19 Jason Nelson, i made this. you play this. we are enemies; discuss Project
READING: Serge Bouchardon, Touch and Loss of Grasp; pp. 107-121 (Bouchardon), pp. 164-172 in New Directions in Digital Poetry
ASSIGNMENT 5 (10 points): Create a small interactive poem of any type (animation, hypertext, or other); post to Web
Week of March 26 Stephanie Strickland/Cynthia Jaramillo/Paul Ryan, slippingglimpse; J.R. Carpenter, The Cape;
READING: Jim Andrews, Stir Fry Texts & Arteroids; pp. 47-61 in New Directions in Digital Poetry
in-class progress reports
ASSIGNMENT 6 (10 points): Create short video poems (1-2 minimum); post to YouTube
Week of April 2 Eugenio Tisselli, synonymovie and dada newsfeed
READING: pp. 194-201 in New Directions in Digital Poetry
Week of April 9 Conclusions & studio / workshop
in-class progress reports
Week of April 16 Studio / workshop
Week of April 23 Studio / workshop
in-class progress reports
Week of April 30 Project presentations; all work for the course is due on May 2
Future Assignments:
ASSIGNMENT 6 (10 points): Create short video poems (1-2 minimum); post to YouTube (March 26)
All work for this course is due by noon on May 2
Note: the NJIT Honor Code will be upheld in this course, and any violations will be brought to the immediate attention of the Dean of Students.