General course information

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Grading

• 40%  final project/presentation (written projects due Mar 7)
• 20%  class participation
• 40%  projects and assignments
• contribute to the new edition of Introduction to Imaging
• T-Shirt Image Database Assignment (re-doing Howard's T-Shirt Image Database)
• create multimedia photoessays using material from Howard's recent Brazil trips and September 01 Italy trip
• Work with Rick Prelinger on the Internet Archive's Moving Image Archive (see background description)

Possible Readings

General Readings

• class textbook: Howard Besser's Introduction to Imaging (please compare both online and print editions but primarily use print edition)
• Howard's Image/Multimedia Database links
• Procedures and Practices for Scanning, by Howard Besser, for Canadian Heritage Information Network, 1997
•  D-Lib Magazine
• Digital Photos: Easy to Take, Tough to Take Care Of, New York Times, January 4, 2001
• Reality Bites, but on TV It's Always Attractive, New York Times, January 11, 2001
• 'Lord of the Rings' Taps the Net to Build Excitement for Film, New York Times, January 11, 2001
• A Comeback for Short Films Is Linked to the Web, New York Times, January 15, 2001

Events to Check out:

• Design Department's Lecture series

 

Tentative Weekly Schedule

Jan 10--Multimedia & oft-forgotten elements (Metadata & Standards, Longevity)

Introduction--what is this class about?

Newspaper articles

• Instant Culture for Sale; Bankruptcy has meant an uncertain fate for the huge Polaroid collection of images capturing a nation and an art form in flux, Los Angeles Times, January 6, 2002
• Potter,' 'Rings,' 'Shrek' among producing guild nominees, San Francisco Chronicle (Associated Press) January 10, 2002

Tues Jan 15, 6PM, 1437 Dickson Art Center, as part of the campus EDA Lecture series, see Don Norman (from the Nielsen Norman Group which we'll be studying) talk on campus

Jan 17--Scanning and Metadata for Still Images

Review of Scanning procedures and best practices
Look at a multimedia project (Office Clippy)
Introduction to T-Shirt Image Database project

Assignment due: Before class read:

• Howard Besser's Introduction to Imaging (please compare both online and print editions but primarily use print edition)
• next week you will be asked to hand in comments about aspects of this
• Seriously explore the AMICO website and the Getty's website, as well as the Online Archive of California (particularly the California Heritage Collection) paying particular attention to how they present information, what they allow users to do, etc.
• review Howard's T-Shirt Image Database
• Be prepared to discuss the database in class
• Introduction of T-Shirt Image Database Project (scanning due Feb 14, metadata due Feb 28)

Jan 24--Multiple Narratives, Editing, and Repurposing;

Issues in Good Design

Introduction of Photoessay assignments (incl Lab instruction)
Choosing T-Shirt boxes and groups

• Current Events
• Studios Spur Measures to Thwart Piracy; Joining forces with high-tech and consumer-electronics firms, they pushfor technology to block video swapping, Los Angeles Times, January 18, 2002
• Copyright Wars: The Kings Strike Back; The family is not censoring history, it's protecting its rights, Los Angeles Times, January 20, 2002
• Info on recent efforts to eliminate access to government documents/records on Society of American Archivists site
• Assignment due:  Bring intelligent suggestions to class on how to revise the T-Shirt DB fields
• Assignment due:  Before class, read the following on Good Design
• The Butterfly Ballot: Anatomy of a Disaster, Bruce Tognazzini, Ask Tog, January 2001
• Make It Usable, by Jakob Nielsen, Kara Pernice Coyne, and Marie Tahir, PC Magazine, January 16, 2001
• Web-Site Usability: Usability On The Web Isn't A Luxury, by Jakob Nielsen and Donald A. Norman, Information Week, January 14, 2000
• review Jakob Nielsen's Website
• Lou Rosenfeld's columns (A Closer Look: Critical Reviews of Corporate Websites) in CIO.com -- Take my main page...Please!, February 21, 2000 and Going global the centralized way, March 23, 2000
• Lou Rosenfeld's interview with Bonnie Nardi on ethnographic methods, ubiquitous computing devices, and balancing technology and privacy, Argus Center for Information Architecture, November 17, 2001
• Look over the UCLA/Pacbell Iniative for 21st Century Literacies list of resources for Facilitating Access for Information Seekers
• Introduction of 2 photoessay assignments:  Re-edit a selection of photos and text from Howard's recent Brazil trips and September 01 Italy trip to create two different narratives: one that involves some research and attempts to be "truthful" and "accurate" (due Feb 28), and another that could be either "truthful" or fictional (due sooner -- Feb 14).  Each narrative should include at least 40 photographs and several hundred words of text.  You can include text or photographs from other sources, but your primary source for photos should be the one provided by the instructor.

 

Jan 31--The Museum Educational Site Licensing Project and what we've learned

 
Discussion of the MESL Project & implications
Review of Introduction to Imaging (assignment due)
Discussion of application of Dublin Core to T-Shirt Image Database

• Assignment due:  Turn in written comments on revisions needed to Introduction to Imaging
• Assignment due: Before class read:
• Christie Stephenson, The Evolution of the MESL Project, in Christie Stephenson and Particia McClung (eds.), Delivering Digital Images: Cultural Heritage Resources for Education, Los Angeles: Getty Information Institute, 1998, pages 1-8
• The Museum Educational Site Licensing Project: Technical Issues in the Distribution of Museum Images and Textual Data to Universities by Howard Besser and Christie Stephenson  in James Hemsley (ed.) E.V.A. '96 London (Electronic Imaging and the Visual Arts), Thursday 25th July 1996 (vol 2), Hampshire, UK: Vasari Ltd, 1996, pages 5-1 - 5-15
• and read 2 of the following:
• MESL Implementation at the Universities by Howard Besser, from Christie Stephenson and Patricia McClung (eds.), Delivering Digital Images: Cultural Heritage Resources for Education, volume 1, Los Angeles: Getty Information Institute, 1998, pages 70-84
•  Comparing Five Implementations of the Museum Educational Site Licensing Project: 'If the museum data's the same, why's it look so different?'  by Howard Besser, Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums, (Paris France, 3-5 September 1997), Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, pages 317-325
• the Executive Summary (front matter) and conclusion  (Part V) from The Social and Economic Implications of the Production, Distribution, and Useage of Image Data (final report to the Mellon Foundation, 1999)

Feb 7--Project work day (no formal class)

Feb 14--Museum Information Products

Discuss final project (have a proposed idea ready)
 

Assignment due:  All T-Shirt Images should be scanned by class time.  Also, be prepared to discuss  how the user interface to the T-Shirt Image Database should be revised

Assignment due:  before class read at least 4 articles on museum information products (on reserve in MIT Lab)

Feb 21--Evaluation & catch-up

More discussion on Dublin Core for T-Shirt DB (and Howard's Dublin Core presentation) and Howard's Australia paper
Discussion on Internet Moving Images Archive
Presentation of First Brazil/Italy Photoessays
Eldred Copyright Case
 
• Assignment due:  first Brazil/Italy photoessay due

 
• Assignment due:  read at least 4 of the Multimedia Reviews from past classes that Howard has taught

 Feb 28--Deconstruction of Social Phenomena

Presentation/discussion of First Brazil/Italy Photoessays, Discussion of T-Shirt cataloging consistency, Discuss readings on multimedia reviews and good design practice

The Internet and changing social structures
How is Digitization Changing libraries, museums, & archives?
Making Thumbnails and derivative images
 

Assignment due:  be prepared to discuss mapping from the T-Shirt Data Dictionary to Dublin Core

Assignment due:  Metadata due --all T-Shirts should be cataloged by now (but we might let this slip 1 week)

Assignment due: Before class read these:

Besser, Howard. (1997).  The Transformation of the Museum and the way it's Perceived in Katherine Jones-Garmil (ed.), The Wired Museum: Emerging Technology and Changing Paradigms, Washington: American Association of Museums, pages 115-127

Besser, Howard. (1997).  The Changing Role of Photographic Collections with the Advent of Digitization in Katherine Jones-Garmil (ed.),The Wired Museum: Emerging Technology and Changing Paradigms, Washington: American Association of Museums, pages 153-169

and read at least 2 of the following:

• Besser, Howard. (1998). The Shape of the 21st Century Library, in Milton Wolf et. al. (eds.), Information Imagineering: Meeting at the Interface, Chicago: American Library Association, pages 133-146
• Besser, Howard. (1995). The Information SuperHighway: Social and Cultural Impact Chapter from Resisting the Virtual Life: The Culture and Politics of Information, edited by Jim Brook and Iain Boal, City Lights Books, 1995
•  Besser, Howard. (1994). Fast Forward: The Future of Moving Image Collections, in Gary Handman (ed.), Video Collection Management and Development: A Multi-type Library Perspective, Westport, CT: Greenwood,

pages 411-426
• Besser, Howard. (1994). Movies-on-demand May Significantly Change the Internet appeared in the October 1994 ASIS Bulletin theme issue on Entertainment Technology and Information Services

Mar 7--Digital Longevity

Presentation of Second Brazil Photoessays
Discussion of Final Projects
Discussion of Digital Longevity
 
• Assignment due:  second Brazil photoessay due
• Assignment due:  thumbnails and smaller screen-display derivative images of T-Shirts due now
• Assignment due: Before Class read:
• Besser, Howard.  Digital longevity, in Maxine Sitts (ed.) Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access, Andover MA: Northeast Document Conservation Center, 2000, pages 155-166
• Besser, Howard.  Longevity of Electronic Art,  International Cultural Heritage Informatics Meeting, 2001
• Besser, Howard.  Digital Preservation of Moving Image Material?, submitted to The Moving Image, Fall 2001  (posted while under review)
• Assignment due: Before Class review:
• Howard's Longevity website
• Lyman, Peter and Howard Besser (1998). Defining the Problem of our Vanishing Memory: Background, Current Status, Models for Resoltuion, in Margaret MacLean and Ben H. Davis (eds.) Time and Bits: Managing Digital Continuity (website | book), Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 1999
• Electronic Café International website
• Spring 1999 UCLA/Berkeley course on preservation of various art forms

Mar 14--Final Presentations

Final Projects presented in class.  html versions (or html + better Word versions) due Monday early evening
Discussion of differences btwn Web and print versions of Intro to Imaging
Finish PhotoEssays
 

Assignment due:  Turn in list of all problems with the T-Shirt database, and fix problems in the T-Shirts you scanned

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