Project Hyperessay

By: Randall Packer |

Overview of the Project Hyperessay

The Project Hyperessay is intended to provide a step by step method to help catalyze the process of creating the final project. Using the form of the hyperessay, integrate a textual description with relevant graphics, video, sound, and links drawn from micro-projects, readings, discussion, workshops, updates and other research to develop the final project. Gather together media and links to related readings and/or artworks that support your project hyperessay. The project hyperessay will be developed in three sections over the course of the semester. Each section will be created as a unique WordPress post, and revised throughout the semester as your project evolves. The project hyperessay should take full advantage of the multimedia capabilities of WordPress: with embedded images, video, links, sound, etc. Be sure and pay special attention to grammar, layout, and media so that the hyperessay is clear, visually interesting, well-written and conveys the ideas in your project.

The following are the three sections of the project hyperessay, including due dates for each:

NOTE: Use a unique post for each section, applying the category “Project Hyperessay” to each post. Also, remember to always use tags and the featured image.

Project Hyperessay #1: Concept Statement / Narrative Overview (Due: Thursday, March 10)

For the first installment of the Project Hyperessay, write a concept statement and narrative overview that articulates your envisioning of the final project based on what we have learned and created in class so far this semester. At the mid-point in the semester, we now need to reflect on and synthesize the ideas we have been exploring and harvest their creative possibilities. From this harvest, each of you will gather  together ideas and formulate your own personal version of our final project: Touch.

In your concept statement / narrative overview, describe how you think the idea of the “virtual embrace in the third space” will unfold in time and space. There is no right or wrong answer, but your concept statement / narrative overview needs to describe how you would translate the idea of the “virtual embrace in the third space” into dance movement, costume, wearables, audio-visual media and interaction between performers across the spatial divide.

Use your imagination: students will be performing in a studio at ADM, Angeline will be performing on stage at Arizona State University. Your images and movement will be joined in the third space. You will all be wearing costumes and electronic wearables, and as you move, the wearables will respond to your movement and that of others. The students will reach across the divide of the third space and explore touch, intimacy, and emotion despite physical separation. How do you see the performance beginning, developing, and concluding? How do you imagine the costumes? What kind of movement do you see? Do you hear sound? How will your images collage and collide in the third space? How might the accidents of glitch be incorporated into the composition of your movement in video space? Take a look at the video in Migration into the Digital Hinterland and you will see some of the possibilities.

In your concept statement / narrative overview, choose from among the topics, issues and artistic approaches related to media and performance, including: biomimicry, collective narrative, collaboration, open source, textile materiality, interactivity, the third space, glitch aesthetics, dance movement and narrative, dreams and movement, and the Critical Response Process of Liz Lehrman. Drawing from any number of these influences, your concept of Touch and how it will unfold narratively should be concise, engaging, and should clearly describe what the performance is about, how it engages and has been influenced by our discussion of media, the Internet, wearables, fashion, dance, and net culture.

Writeup your conceptual statement / narrative overview as an approximately 500 word hyperessay with media and hyperlinks that illustrate your ideas. Reference at least one essay and one artwork we have discussed that supports your hyperessay. You may reuse material you have written in previous posts.

To help you get started, here are some references so you can better understand how we envision the performance of Touch:

Project Hyperessay #2 – Technical Realization (Due: Thursday, April 7)

Technical Realization: Provide a technical description with any sketches, drawings, photographs you have done, which help articulate the technical elements of your work on the final project, as well as any specific software and/or hardware that is required at this stage of the project. Also include a technical description of how your project will be incorporated into the performance based on the series of workshops held between weeks 8-11.

Some of the questions you might want to answer: How does your work utilize the physical and/or third space? What software and hardware is involved? What kinds of construction and technical processes are you using: materials, sensors, real-time manipulation, etc. Describe the interaction between the performers and how it works. By this stage of the process, it is important to have examples of specific work you are working on that demonstrate the techniques you are using and how they are be implemented technologically.

Project Hyperessay #3 / Conclusion (Due: Monday, April 25)

Conclusion: The concluding installment of the Project Hyperessay will give you an opportunity to synthesize the elements of your work and the overall final performance. Now that the project is completed, provide a concise overview/description. Discuss the evolution of your process and how you arrived at the final work you produced for the performance. What ideas and concepts, readings and artworks, discussed in the course were incorporated into your work, as well as the overall final project? What aspects of internet art, media, performance, wearables, fashion, etc.,  does the project address? How did the live Internet performance impact your work and what have you learned about Internet streaming as an artistic form? How did the project bridge your practice with Internet concepts and ideas? What were some of the key ideas that were new to your experience that influenced your work? What issues from the course were examined in the performance? And finally, how did your work evolve as a result of the Web practices you learned using WordPress (OSS) as a medium for critical writing, research and artistic production?

Begin your hyperessay with a concise description of the final performance, your contribution to project, and conclude it with the most important point you learned in the process of making the piece.

I would suggest you review your research critiques, project updates and project hyperessays to extract important points you made during the course that reflect on the final outcome of your final project.

NOTE: All grading will be finalized on Tuesday the 26th, so late assignments will not be accepted.

General Rubrics

The project hyperessay is a living, changing document, a work-in-progress, throughout the semester. The three sections/posts will be updated as the final project progresses. The project hyperessay is very useful to tracking the artistic process, allowing you to examine the progress of your work, and to ask questions such as: Have you been able to achieve the intent of the work? Have you been able to fully realize the work’s potential? Have you fully challenged and thought through the ideas presented in Media & Performance? Does your project hyperessay show that you have incorporated concepts we have addressed? Is their ample documentation using images, video, graphics, and hyperlinks? Is the writing clear and without typos and spelling mistakes, the images good resolution and quality, the layout carefully done? These are important considerations for a successful hyperessay and final project. The project hyperessay is not intended to be entirely faithful to the original idea of the work, rather, it allows you to track, alter, change, revise, and reconsider your ideas through the course of the semester. Since the document can be updated, you can revise accordingly as you refine your concept, find new technical solutions, or incorporate entirely new influences.

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