The Specifics 

• Worth 50 points out of your final grade

• The presentation should take between 15 and 20 minutes

• Plan beforehand who will say what so the content is divided evenly

• Connect your media choice to the questions and content we’ve explored in class

• End with 1-2 discussion questions relevant to the course

 

Throughout the semester we will touch on technologies and media that we won’t have time to cover fully in class. The media presentations are an opportunity to explore the threads that interest you. There are two options for these presentations. First, you can look into a piece of software or a platform that you are considering using for your projects this semester (anything from virtual reality to Garage Band), and take time in your presentation to explain the choices that this technology offers. Or you could explore an additional piece of media (a videogame, film, social media campaign, etc.) and speak to a unique compositional choice that stands out to you. In this case, you will spend time discussing the composition process behind this piece of media, connecting it to potential choices that you or your classmates might consider in your own work. Either way, you’ll work in groups of two to research and present to your classmates.

 

Tool Option

If you choose to explore a compositional tool, which can range from software, to technology, to a craft, or method, then you should first give the class an overview of the tool and why you chose it. Choose a tool that you think will be potentially useful for the major projects that we’ll complete in this class. Choose something that you yourself are interested in using, or have used before in the past and plan to draw on further. You are welcome to but not restricted to digital tools here. You could explore crafts, for instance, like bookbinding or cross-stitching, that don’t rely on modern digital tools.

 

During the presentation you should explore the affordances and constraints of this tool. What kinds of compositional choices and options does it lead you to take? What does it make more difficult, or what options does it foreclose? Take advantage of the multimodal lens by considering which modes this tool focuses on, as well as the rhetorical principles that we’ve discussed. 

 

Walk the class through a brief activity or exercise connected with this tool. The other students don’t have to use it directly, particularly if it takes time to download. But you might have students brainstorm ways to use the tool, or prepare to work with the tool in some way. You should end your presentation by opening up 1-2 discussion questions related to your chosen tool and the course as a whole.

 

Media Example Option

Your second option is to choose to explore an additional piece of media, perhaps in a genre that we’ve already explored, or in a new genre. This could be a video, film, videogame, podcast...anything that is drawing on multiple modes to communicate. I recommend that you choose a piece of media that you find admirable and compositionally complex--if you think the choices being made in that piece of media are more or less straightforward and don’t lead you to further commentary, it probably won’t yield as much material for the presentation. Feel free to speak to the shortcomings of this piece of media, but choose something that you see as a helpful model for the ideas we’re exploring in this course.

 

During the presentation you should highlight key compositional choices that are being made in your chosen piece of media. For instance, are you drawn to the way a piece of media “tells” you how to interact with it without relying on text? Does the spatial positioning in a film scene catch your eye? Walk us through the multimodality of this piece of media and how you think it impacts the exigence and audience of the work. Consider how you can use clips, visuals, or demonstrations from the piece of media to support your points within the presentation.

 

Then discuss how this piece of media relates to the larger categories that it fits within and the modes that it represents. For instance, if you chose a videogame, how does the game build on the player’s knowledge of the language of videogames? What makes it stand out from the other videogames in the same genre, and where does it rely on that legacy? What unwritten “rules” does it follow, and which does it break? You should end your presentation by opening up 1-2 discussion questions related to your chosen piece of media and the course as a whole.