Andy's MTD Notes

Andy's Syllabus

My version of the syllabus has slightly changed assignments and course schedule. Andy's Syllabus

Week 1 Resources

1. Go over Syllabus, introductions (1 hour)
2. Introduce Second Life, Middle East postal history exhibit on I Am Columbia sim, etc (30 min)
3. Assign: Project 1, Read Chaps 1-3 Berger (15 min)
4. Field Trip: Center for Book and Paper Arts, Book and Paper Arts Triennial, Discuss artists' books as media, what is a book? (1 hour)

Week 2 Resources

1. Discuss Alphabet Assignment (students will present their findings on non-western alphabets)(45 min)
2. Discuss Berger Chaps 1-3 (30 min)
   1. Saussure: Semiology or Semiotics
      1. Write on screen "I went to a book sale and all I bought was a semicolon." Discuss what makes this funny? Illustrates: Saussure's assertion that language is a system of signs in which the meaning of a term is based on its relations to othr terms in the system. i.e. we would have expected to have purchased a book, not a small piece of punctuation (hey comedy is hard)
      2. signifier: sound object image
      3. signified: concept generated
      4. signs are identified in terms of oppositions, uniqueness
      5. The notion the liguistics might be useful in studying other cultural phenomena is based on two fundamental insights:
         1. first that social and cultural phenomena are mot simply material objects or events but objects and events with meaning, and hence signs;
         2. second that they do not have essences but are defined by a network of relations
   2. Barthes (Myth)
      1. semiology can be applied to history, culture;
      2. sees problems with normativity (mythmaking)
      3. cultural feedback loop: this is the way mass media works: if a "meme" gets picked up and widely distributed, it becomes the norm (Lots of parallels with Cool Hunting)
   3. Lakoff and Johnson (Metaphor and Metanymy)
      1. Semiology (semiotics) can have layers of meaning, impacting logic
      2. Love is war (metaphor works by similarity); Rolls Royce = wealth (metonymy works by association)
   4. James W. Carey's Two Models of Communication
3. Watch Edison's Miracle of Light. Videorecording (VHS). Elevator Pictures, Inc. for the American Experience. WGBH Boston. Matthew Collins, producer/writer. John Walter, director/writer. 1995. (1 hour)
4. Assign Project 2, McCloud 1-3 (15 min)

Week 3 Resources

1. Chicago Postal History (15 min)
2. Present assignment 2 (1 hour)
3. McCloud Chaps 1 - 3 (30 min)
4. Telegraph
   1. OMD Telegraph (OMG!) (3 min)
   2. Get a Job (10 min)
   3. Telegraph (1 min)
   4. More on Telegraphy (20 min)

under development

etc...