This module explores the impact of digital media technologies on traditional video, film, and audio-visual presentation forms. Through practical group production work students develop projects which explore the new temporal opportunities opened up by interactive multimedia technologies, such as digital television, streaming media, and video on demand.

Aims

To develop an understanding of the relationship of digital media products to traditional temporal media forms, through practical production work. Allow students to explore the relationship of traditional forms to emergent interactive media forms.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of a module the learner will be expected to be able to:

• 1: Demonstrate professional practical, experimental, creative skills within the focused context of time- based media.
• 2: Demonstrate a coherent and developed individual critical exploration of digital media on video, film, multimedia, or audio-visual presentation.
• 3: Produce coherent interactive time based multimedia presentations/projects that explore, through experimental and speculative development, an individual and personal critical agenda.

Indicative Syllabus

Techniques for the planning, design and production (technical and creative) of interactive digital time-based media
Student generated proposals including, visualisations, scripts and storyboards.
Directorial and production roles.
Storyboarding, planning and presentation.
Appropriate techniques in practical production and editing of new media time-based forms.
Group and individual production skills.

Brief

"And Tralfmadorians don’t see human beings as two-legged creatures, either. They see them as great millipedes- ‘with babies’ legs at one end and old people’s legs at the other…".
(Kurt Vonnegut, 1970).

“Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange.”
The Tempest, ACT I, SCENE I. William Shakespeare.

The notion of trans·for·ma·tion ((trnsfr-mshn, -fôr-) n. in and through emergent (digital) ‘media’, ('a. The act or an instance of transforming. b. The state of being transformed’) enabling an evolution of form, a transformation from solid to the immaterial, the object to the process and the script to the algorithm.

The projects generated for this brief should exhibit ‘symptoms’ of the transformative qualities of digital media whilst retaining critical references to traditional contexts.

“Idly, he wondered what these geometric forms really represented - he knew that only a few seconds earlier they had constituted an immediately familiar part of his everyday existence - but however he rearranged them spatially in his mind, or sought their associations, they still remained a random assembly of geometric forms.”
JG Ballard, The Overloaded Man, 1967.

Individual project work should be informed by a critical/theoretical discourse and demonstrate an awareness of a cultural/technical context. A variety of case studies will be presented in the lecture/screening programme. It is important that your project addresses issues raised within the lectures and is adequately negotiated through tutorial session.

Work will be carried out individually although you may work with small production groups to realize aspects of your projects. A peer assessment form will be used to allocate marks in order to distinguish between individuals within a group production project.

Practical Project: You are required to experiment with digital media to address the issues raised within the lectures and specifically the theme of: ‘Transformation’

Using video cameras, non-linear editing, dome environments, data, mobile phones, locative media, streaming media and other digital facilities available, you are required to explore and innovate the field of digital time-based audio/visual media with consideration of:

• the historical conventions of film and television production
• experimental innovative approaches to these forms by artists/producers over the century
• the opportunities offered by new media forms, synchronous/asynchronous media, multi-location, telematics, etc. You may, for instance, wish to critically consider 'video' in terms of interactive tv, surveillance, documentary, entertainment, and communication/information systems or as a combination of the above.
  It is the intention of this module that you experiment and explore the transformative properties of the 'digital'. Take risks, be innovative...
  Working as individuals you are required to develop your ideas through a process of small time-based experiments, which should ultimately be resolved through a significant final project. You can realise this experimental work and the project through a number of the possible digital forms such as web based video, interactive video, live video (real time tele-presence) as well as the more conventional recorded video formats/explorations.

Proposal

You are required to submit an individual or group proposal that outlines the directions in which you see the process of experimentation developing and the methods (practical and critical) by which you will carry this out. This may include diagrams, sketches, linear/story boards etc, and should be completed and submitted to your blog by:

Friday 10th October.

These ideas will form the basis of negotiations and are not expected to be definitive.

To realise your project you can use any available software and hardware. Assessment will focus on imaginative, creative and critical aspects of your project. Working individually, you are required to set the problem and provide a solution. Projects are to be negotiated with your tutor through the initial proposal and your workbook.

Tutorials and technical workshops will be run on a weekly basis (specific workshops by student request if required). You should attend all timetabled sessions and be ready to present your workbook for discussion at any time. Negotiation will only take place if your workbook is present. During these tutorials; you will be set specific sub-deadlines; staff/student expectations will be negotiated; your progress will be monitored; your work critiqued. Failure to participate in the tutorial process will severely limit your chances of success.

Proposal: (minimum requirements)

The proposal should conform to this structure, and should be a minimum of 3 sides of A4 + a range of visual support material.

The proposal should be posted to your blog.

4D: Project Proposal.

• 1: Title
• 2: Project Summary: A project title and a 100-word summary of the project.
• 3: Development: A description of how you intend to develop the ideas behind your project, and how this development will draw on the context of the module '4D'.
• 4: Plan of Work: Production Timetable: A plan of work and time scale for developing and completing the project.
• 5: Output: An indication of the anticipated outcome of the project, and an assessment of its significance as a '4D' product, in relation to both critical theory and practice.
• 6: Criteria: How the project matches up to the module assessment criteria.
• 7: References: Useful references to help contextualise your project.
• 8: Visual Material: A range of support material, diagrams, images, etc.

Assessment

Assessment will be through a combination of presentations (formative), documentation (workbook) included in the final portfolio of work.

Portfolio: 100%