Information as Art and Entertainment

[Thom Gillespie]

Phone: 812-855-3254 (voice) 812-855-6166 email: thom@indiana.edu
web: http://www.indiana.edu/~slizzard/courses/prog1.html
Office hours: Monday and Friday 2-4 pm
Special arrangements via email

Perspective:

Information today seems to be about more than just data structures and complete and accurate retrieval of information. A trend is obvious with multimedia whether on CD-ROM or on the web toward aesthetic design and information as an entertaining product. For example Microsoft's Home CD-ROM products, computer games, and many of the evolving web sites which include tools such as shockwave, Java and vrml do not seem to be focusing upon information or even education so much as aesthetics, entertainment and fun.

Objectives:

Introduce students to the idea of information as an art and entertaining experience through readings and multimedia experiences.
Introduce students to the basic tools of multimedia design: lingo programming, photoshop, and 3-D software.
Provide an environment for students to design and test their own multimedia products.
To introduce some of the voluminous historical, aesthetic, and cognitive theoretical basis of visual information/multimedia systems.
Provide an introductory course for students to develop media and skills for the Visualizing Information course.

Grading:

Reading responses posted to thom_infoart@indiana.edu discussion list. Responses must be posted before the class in which they are due, no credit for any late postings. (10%)
2 in class media evaluations of CD-ROM and web products. (10%)
Weekly concept idea with story boards and market analysis (audience, competition, difference, and selling points), in design notebook -- handed in at mid-term (5%) and the end of the term (5%). (total = 10%)
8 concept idea with story boards and market analysis (audience, competition, difference, and selling points), webbed. 4 by mid-term (5%) and 4 by final(5%). (total = 10%)
Weekly design assignments as needed: text, graphics, video, sound. Assignments must be received at the class in which they are due, no credit for any late assignments.(10%)
Complete paper storyboard handed in and discussed with Thom two weeks before mid-term timeline of your life-to-date.(10%)
Mid-term: Studio critique of timeline of your life-to-date utilizing text, graphics, video, and/or sound as appropriate in Director(10%)
Complete paper storyboard handed in and discussed with Thom two weeks before final public presentation. (10%)
Studio critique of final design project utilizing text, graphics, video, and/or sound as appropriate to discuss the issues of information as art and entertainment read and discussed in class throughout the term. Must be done in Director. (20%)

No passing grade will be given if the mid-term, final projects, complete with storyboards, and in class presentations are not completed and handed in.

Assignments

below is a partial list of readings and activities we will do during the term. Additional readings and activities will be added as the class develops. These additions will be based upon needs and interests of the class and the instructor.

Sept 3
Read: in designing web graphics:
- Browser Hell
- Cross-platform Hell
- Making Low-Memory Graphics
Read: Chapter one in Computers as Theater, post 1-2 screen reaction to thom_infoart@indiana.edu
In class: Photoshop Example
Hand in: nothing
Sept 10
Read: in designing web graphics:
- Color Palette Hell Hell
- Making Background Patterns
- Making Irregularly Shaped Artwork using Background Colors in designing web graphics
- Making Irregularly Shaped Artwork using Transparency in designing web graphics
Read: Chapter Two in Computers as Theater, post 1-2 screen reaction to thom_infoart@indiana.edu
In class: Illustrator Example
Hand in: Photoshop color portrait on paper
Sept 17
Read: in designing web graphics:
- Typography for the Web-impaired
- Fun with Alignment
- Horizontal Rules
Read: Chapter Three in Computers as Theater, post 1-2 screen reaction to thom_infoart@indiana.edu
In class: StrataVision 3D
Hand in: 1 webbed concept idea with story boards and market analysis (audience, competition, difference, and selling points), done in Illustrator
Sept 24
Read: in designing web graphics:
- Bullets-o-rama
- Hot Spots
- Table Manners
- Dynamic Documents
Read: Chapter Four in Computers as Theater, post 1-2 screen reaction to thom_infoart@indiana.edu
In class: Hand in: Webbed display space image map done in StrataVision
Oct 1
Read: in designing web graphics:
- Toons and Tunes
- Pre-visualizing Web Pages
- HTML Templates for Designers
- HTML for Visual Designers
Read: Chapter Five in Computers as Theater, post 1-2 screen reaction to thom_infoart@indiana.edu
Hand in:
Oct 8
Read: Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 in Learning Lingo
Read: Chapter Six in Computers as Theater, post 1-2 screen reaction to thom_infoart@indiana.edu
Hand in:
Oct 15
Read: http://www.atg.apple.com/personal/Tom_Erickson/Storytelling.html
Look at: Joseph Campbell and the power of myth. Program 3, The first storytellers LOCATION: CALL NUMBER STATUS: Blgtn MEDIA/RESERVE BL304 .C362 1988 no.3
Combine these two things in your minds and tell me what they mean in terms of media design, send your thoughts to the list
Read: Chapter 3 & Chapter 4 in Learning Lingo
Read: Chapter 1 & 2 in Amusing ourselves to Death, post 1-2 screen reaction to thom_infoart@indiana.edu
Hand in:
Oct 22
In class demo of Premier
Read: Chapter 5 & Chapter 6 in Learning Lingo
read: Unified Field Theory of Design &
post reaction to thom_infoart@indiana.edu
Hand in: Paper storyboard of timeline of your life-to-date
Oct 29
Read: Chapter 7 & Chapter 8 in Learning Lingo
Read: Chapter 1 & 2 in Amusing ourselves to Death &
View: Welcome to the Jungle: Visions of heaven and hell [videorecording] : information technology and the future Blgtn MEDIA/RESERVE T58.5 .V58 1995 &
post reaction to both to thom_infoart@indiana.edu
Hand in: Paper design spec for timeline design.
The Designer Who Made the Mac Smile By LAURENCE ZUCKERMAN
Begin WaveFront and 3-D design.
Nov 5
Read: Chapter 9 & Chapter 10 in Learning Lingo
Read: Chapter 3 & 4 in Amusing ourselves to Death, post 1-2 screen reaction to thom_infoart@indiana.edu &
View: The Virtual Wasteland: Visions of heaven and hell [videorecording] : information technology and the future Blgtn MEDIA/RESERVE T58.5 .V58 1995 &
post reaction to both to thom_infoart@indiana.edu
Hand in:
Nov 12
Read: Chapter 11 & Chapter 12 in Learning Lingo
Read: Chapter 5 & 6 in Amusing ourselves to Death &
View: Selling the Future: Visions of heaven and hell [videorecording] : information technology and the future Blgtn MEDIA/RESERVE T58.5 .V58 1995 &
post reaction to both to thom_infoart@indiana.edu
Hand in:
Nov 19
Read: Chapter 13 & Chapter 14 in Learning Lingo
Read: Chapter 7 & 8 in Amusing ourselves to Death, post 1-2 screen reaction to thom_infoart@indiana.edu
Hand in:
Nov 26
Read: Chapter 15 & Chapter 16 in Learning Lingo
Read: The rest of Amusing ourselves to Death, post 1-2 screen reaction to thom_infoart@indiana.edu
Hand in: Storyboard of final design project
Dec 3
Read:
Hand in:
Dec 10
Due: Studio critique of final design project utilizing text, graphics, video, and/or sound as appropriate to discuss the issues of information as art and entertainment read and discussed in class throughout the term. Must be done in Director. (20%)

Media

Required Books:

Callery, Michael. Learning Lingo, the Art and Science of Programming with Macromedia Director. Reading, Addison-Wesley. c 1996.
Laurel, Brenda. (1991) Computers as Theatre. Addison-Wesley.
Postman, Neil. Amusing ourselves to death : public discourse in the age of show business New York : Viking, 1985.
Weinman, Lynda."How to Prepare Images and Media for the Web" c1996.

Required web information:

Recommended Books:

Design

Advanced Adobe Photoshop. Adobe Press. c1994.
Dair, Carl. Design with Type. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1952, 1967.
Dholakia, Ruby Roy. New Infotainment technologies in the home : demand. Mahwah, N.J. : Lawrence Erlbaum, 1996.
Druin, Allison, and Cynthia Solomon. desiging Multimedia Environments for Children. New York, Wiley. c1996.
Greenbaum, Joan and Morten Kyng. Design at Work. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1991.
Heckel, Paul. Elements of Friendly Software Design. Berkeley, CA: Sybex, 1994.
Jones, Chris. Essays in Design. London: Wiley, 1984.
Kristof, Ray, and Satran, Amy. Interactivity by design. Adobe Press. c1995.
Marcus, Aaron. Graphic Design for Electronic Documents and User Interfaces. New York: ACM/Addison-Wesley, 1992.
Moggridge, Bill. Design for the information revolution. Design DK 4 (1992), Copenhagen: Danish Design Centre
Mountford, S. Joy. Tools and techniques for creative design. In Brenda Laurel (ed). The Art of Human-Computer Interaction. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. 1990, 17-30.
Mullet, Kevin, and Darrell Sano. Designing Visual Interfaces: Communication Oriented Techniques. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall/SunSoft, 1995.
Rand, Paul. Thoughts on Design. Van Nostrand Reinhold. 1970.

Schone Donald. The design process, In V Howard (ed). Varieties of Thinking. New York: Routledge, 1990.
Winograd, Terry. Bringing Design to Software. New York, ACM Press. c1996.
Wurman, Richard Saul. Information Architects. New York, Graphis Press. c1996.
Yanagi, Soetsu. The Unknown Craftsman: A Japanese Insight into Beauty. Tokyo and New York: Kodansha, 1972, 1989.

Games

Carroll, J.M., and Thomas, J.C. (1988) "Fun." In SIGCHI Bulletin, January 1988, volume 19, number 3.
Moringstar, C., and Farmer, F.R. (1991) "The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat" in CyberSpace: First Steps. Benedikt, M. (ed.) Boston: MIT Press. pp. 272 - 301.
Neal, L. Implications of Computer Games for System Design. Interact '90. pp. 93-99.
Pantuso, Joe et al. The Complete Internet Gamer. Wiley. c1996.
Greenblat, Cathy Stein. Desiging Games and Simulations, an illustrated handbook. Sage. c1988.
Malone, T.W. (1983) "What Makes Things Fun To Learn?" In Video Games and Human Development, Monroe C. Gutman Library, Cambridge, May 22-24.
Bran Ferren. "Interactive Fiction." Interactivity vol. 1, No. 1 Nov/Dec. 1994.
Dominic Milano. "Case Study: Myst." Interactivity vol. 1, No. 1 Nov/Dec. 1994
Guy Wright. "Burning Down the House." Interactivity vol. 1, No. 1 Nov/Dec. 1994
Laurie Flynn. "Thrills and Chills of Marketing a CD-ROM Adventure." NYT, Sunday, Nov. 27th 1994.
William Owen. "Design in the Age of Digital Reproduction." Eye no. 14 vol.4 Autumn 1994.
William Owen. "History of Interactivity." Eye no. 14 vol. 4 Autumn 1994.
"The Making of Encarta 95" video.
Edward Rothstein. "A New Art Form May Arise From the 'Myst'." NYT, Sunday, Dec 4th 1994.
How the Nintendo Generation Learns. Communications of the ACM Sept 1991. vol. 34, pp. 23-95
Craig, James. Desiging with Type. New York:Watson-Guptill. c1992.

Color

Albers, J. (1963) Interaction of color. New Haven, Yale University Press.
Marcus, A. The Ten Commandments of Color. In Graphic Design for Electronic Documents and User Interfaces. ACM. 1992. pp. 77-91.

Audio

Gaver & Smith. Auditory Icons in Large-Scale Collaborative Environments. Interact '90. pp. 735-740.
Gaver. The Sonic Finder: An Interface That Uses Auditory Icons.Human- Computer Interaction, 1989. Vol. 4. pp. 67-94.

Icons

Ota, Y. History of Pictograms. In Pictogram Design. pp. 50-78
Ossner, Jakob. "Transnational Symbols, The Role of Pictograms and Models in the Learning Process". In Designing User Interfaces for International Use. Nielsen, Jakob (Ed.) Elsevier:Amsterdam. 1990. pp. 11- 38

Maps

Levin, M. (1982). "Cognitive maps and you-are-here maps." Paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC,August, 1982.
Levin, M. (1982) "You-are-here maps: Psychological considerations." Environment and Behavior, volume 14, pp. 221-237.
Levin, M., Marchon, I., and Hanley, G. (1984). "The placement and misplacement of you-are-here maps." Environment and Behavior, 16, 139-157.

Metaphor

User Interface: A Personal View by Alan Kay in the Art of Human Computer Interface Design pp. 191 - 205.
Hammond & Allinson. The Travel Metaphor as Design Principle and Training Aid for Navigating around Complex Systems. In People and Computers III. Cambridge U Press. 1987. pp. 75-90.
Carroll & Mack. Metaphor, Computing systems, and active learning. Int. J. Man-machine Studies (1985) 22, 39-57.

Space

de Sausmarez, Maurice. The Dynamics of Visual Form. London: Studio Vista, 1964.
Earnshaw, Rae and John Vince (eds). Interacting with Virtual Worlds. London: John Wiley, 1994.
Laurel, Brenda. Computers as theatre Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley Pub., c1991.
Mitchell, William J., City of bits : space, place, and the infobahn Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c1995.
Mitchell, William J. The Reconfigured Eye. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1992.

Art

Richards, Dick. Artful Work. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1995.
Stafford, Barbara Maria, Artful science : enlightenment, entertainment, and the eclipse of visual education Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c1994.

Entrepreneurship

Dollinger, Marc J. Entrepreneurship : strategies and resources. c1995.

Various

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding media; the extensions of man. 2d ed. New York, New American Library. c1995.
McLuhan, Marshall. The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962.
Gelernter, David . "The Muse in the Machine, computerizing the Poetry of Human Thought". c1994
Nass, Clifford and Byron Reeves. Primitive Brains, Modern Media: Social Responses to Computers, Televisions, and Interfaces. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/CSLI, (in press).
Arnheim, R. (1969) Visual thinking. Berkeley, University of California Press .
Bruner, J. Toward a theory of instruction . Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1966.
Downs, R.M., and Stea, D. Maps in Minds, Reflection on Cognitive Mapping. Harper and Row: New York. 1977.
Tufte, E. (1990) Envisioning information. Cheshire, Conn. : Graphics Press. p. 33
Apple human interface guidelines: the Apple Desktop Interface. Reading,Mass.: Addison- Wesley Pub. Co.1987.

Magazines:

Wired
NewMedia
Interactivity

Software

Lingo programming with Director on the Mac
Strata Vision 3-D
Photoshop 3.0
Wavefront on the SGI's
Microsoft CD-ROM Home Products