Hypertext: Reading and Writing Online

Week 1 (January 11): Overview

• Thursday (Benson 133) - Course procedures and requirements

Week 2 (January 16-18): Taking a Critical Approach to the Web

• Tuesday (computer lab, Garland 119): Create initial web page.
• A Beginner's Guide to HTML (NCSA, University of Illinois, Nov. 4, 1998)
• Read the introductory material on VUspace and learn to use yourVUspace before class on Tuesday.
• Thursday (Benson 133):
  • Read Lawrence Lessig, "Four Puzzles from Cyberspace," from Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999), pp. 9-19. (On reserve)
  • Recommended: Julian Dibbell, "A Rape in Cyberspace"

 

Week 3 (January 23-25): Hyperfiction on the Web

• Tuesday (computer lab)
  • Read Ed Falco's hypertext shortstory for the Web, "Charmin' Cleary." (This story is presented by the Eastgate Web Reading Room.)
• Thursday (Benson 133)
• First paper due. Assignment.
• Recommended: Mark Bernstein, "Patterns of Hypertext" (Essay [1998] on varieties of ways to design hypertexts by the technical head at Eastgate Systems.)

Week 4 (January 30-February 1): Cyberculture: Bloggers and WebCams

• Tuesday (computer lab)
• View The Matrix (1999), directed by Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski - Rent the DVD or tape of the movie and watch it before class.
• Class field trip to see Antitrust (2001)
• Wednesday (conferences - Benson 319)
• Thursday (Benson 133)
• Reading: Visit Blogger.com and read several Blogs. Take notes on one that you like, including its address, and be prepared to describe it to the class.
• Friday (conferences - Benson 319)

Week 5 (February 6-8): Hyperfiction on a Stand Alone Platform

• Tuesday (computer lab)
• Second paper due. Assignment.
• In class: Create first collaborative websites based on your Lessig papers.
• Thursday (Benson 133)
• Deena Larsen, Samplers (Eastgate Systems disk.)

Week 6 (February 13-15): Gender in Cyberspace II

• Tuesday (computer lab)
  • Watch Timecode (2000) - Rent the DVD or tape of the movie and watch it before class.
  • Third paper due. Assignment.
• In class: Begin posting material to the collaborative web site "Virtually 21"
• Thursday (Benson 133)
• Deena Larsen, Samplers (Eastgate Systems disk.)

Week 7 (February 20-22): MOOing

• Tuesday (computer lab)
• Visit Romantic Circles MOO, Villa Diodati.
• In class: Web development--work on collective site for "Virtually 21."
• Thursday (Benson 133)
• Janet Murray, excerpt from Hamlet on the Holodeck, from erb7 (Summer, 1998), an online journal.

Week 8 (February 27 - March 1): Multimedia Narrative

• Tuesday (computer lab)
• Myst (1994)
• Thursday (Benson 133)
• Myst (1994)

Spring Break (March 3-11)

Week 9 (March 13-15): The Long Information Age

• Tuesday (computer lab)
• Tom Stoppard, Arcadia, Act I, pp. 1-52
• Thursday (Benson 133)
• Tom Stoppard, Arcadia, Act II, pp. 53-97
• First draft of paper on Myst due (8 lexias). Late papers will be marked down.
  

Week 10 (March 20-22): Experimental Films on the Web

• Tuesday (computer lab)
• In class: Begin posting material to the collaborative web site "Virtually 21."
• Final draft of paper on Myst due.
• Thursday (Benson 133)
• Watch short films from AtomFilms and ifilms.
  • A Letter from the Western Front (USA) 9:00. Director: Daniel M. Kanemoto
  • Full Feedback (Germany - English language)| 19:15. Director: Stephen Manuel
  • Little Man on Campus (USA) 11:15. Director: Morgan Lawley
  • 405 (USA) 2:58. Director: Bruce Branit and Jeremy Hunt
  • Can Man (USA) 1:54. Director: Henry Hills

Week 11 (March 27 - 29):

• Tuesday (computer lab)
• In class: Finish collaborative websites for first and second papers. Begin posting material to the collaborative web site "Virtually 21."
• Thursday (Benson 133)
• Reading: Borges's "Garden of the Forking Paths"
  • Recommended: A site on Borges's story designed by Vaios Papanagnou, October 1999, University College London, for an MA in Electronic Communication and Publishing.
• In class: Topics for Arcadia papers assigned.

Week 12 (April 3-5): Hackers

• Tuesday (computer lab)
• Watch Hackers (1995) - Rent the DVD or tape of the movie and watch it before class.
• In class: Continue posting material to the collaborative web site "Virtually 21."
  • Recommended: Browse Hackers Hall of Fame, a web site created by Michelle Slattela.
• Thursday (Benson 133)
• 2 page papers on individual topics for "The Arcadia Web."
• In class: demonstration of Patchwork Girl

Week 13 (April 10-12): Patchwork Girl

• Tuesday (computer lab)
• Shelley Jackson, Patchwork Girl (Eastgate Systems disk.)
• Thursday (computer lab)
• Shelley Jackson, Patchwork Girl, cont. (Eastgate Systems disk.)
• Recommended (critical work on Shelley Jackson):
• Raine Koskimaa, "Visual Structuring of Hyperfiction Narratives" (Article in the hypertext journal ebr6, Winter 97/98.  Contains discussions of Michael Joyce's Afternoon, a story, Stuart Moulthrop's Victory Garden, and Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl.)Transcript of a chatroom discussion with Shelley Jackson (In HotWired, the online magazine, 12 March 1996)
• George Landow, "Stitching Together Narrative, Sexuality, Self: Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl"(Short book review by one of the pioneers of hypertext theory.)
• Student comments and essays on Patchwork Girl (from George Landow's courses at Brown in 1996 and 1998)
• Maria Aline Salgueiro Seabra Ferreira, University of Aveiro, Portugal, "Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl and Angela Carter's The Passion of New Eve: A Comparative Reading" (On George Landow's Cyberspace and Critical Theory Web at Brown.)
• 2 page papers on individual topics for "The Arcadia Web."

Week 14 (April 17-19): Patchwork Girl, II

• Tuesday (computer lab)
• Shelley Jackson, Patchwork Girl, cont. (Eastgate Systems disk.)
• Thursday (computer lab)
• Shelley Jackson, Patchwork Girl, cont. (Eastgate Systems disk.)
• 2 page papers on individual topics for "The Arcadia Web."

Week 15 (April 24): Conclusion

• Tuesday (computer lab)