HyperText project
Solstrand seminar: something borrowed, something . . .
Touch of Evil is the project recently undertaken with the M.A. in Screenwriting students in Bergen. We watched Welles' Touch of Evil, and then studied in some detail the famous opening sequence. This opening sequence was digitised and made available to students and they were required to draft work that contained academic references, external links, and the video. In addition students were encouraged to develop their critical responses around their own experiences and in terms that opened their academic writing to other discourses, much in the manner described by Greg Ulmer in "Teletheory" [Ulmer, Gregory. Teletheory: Grammatology in the Age of Video. New York: Routledge, 1989.]
This work was drafted in Storyspace and was then translated into HTML where more writing and design was undertaken. Storyspace was utilised to concentrate on writing, content, and the flow of links. Dreamweaver was then utilised to concentrate on adding visual content and to visually represent their content.
In general the projects have been excellent for their interpretations of the film and their use of the Web. The best work produced combined personal commentary with a critical voice, producing works that wind between critique and commentary. What is also of note is the high level of visual presentation that was produced, particularly as for most students this was their first Web project.
The major learning outcomes that were intended from this was for students to:
- relearn (or at least question) their assumptions about multilinear pattern and structure
- perceive the problems in sequence that multimedia poses
- experience the mixed and polyvalent media environment of Web writing
It needs to be stressed that the learning outcomes were not intended to explain or determine these, but to problematise assumptions so that they remained open questions.
In doing these projects students have also realised that closure is a rather problematic issue (most remain unfinished, and I suspect will remain unfinished).
However these projects are useful because they illustrate some of the ways in which 'work' and academic work needs to be reconceptualised in electronic environments.
touch of . . . [a link to the projects will be provided when available]
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