The Yes Men Movie

The entire movie is available for viewing on Google Video. LINK.
The Yes Men website
RTMark website
gatt.org, the site that led The Yes Men to go to Tampere, Finland to give a talk about slavery

your photo-romans are now on YouTube!

HERE'S THE LINK, they are the first 4 videos. Enjoy!

Internet Art assignment

You will choose a PLACE with a web presence on-line. The subject could be a city, a tourist destination, a company, a natural site, a business, or a non-profit organization. How is the web site used to market and promote the physical/ideological site? How are the values and/or concrete attributes of the place represented on the web? Is it an accurate portrayal of the place? What is impossible to translate on-line? What kind of information is revealed and what is hidden?

Choose something that is relatively well-known. For example the National Mint would be a better choice than your local credit union. However, local places are ok, as long as they are known by your audience: the community here at the college and/or in Southern Maryland. Using the place's website as your starting point, you will create a response to the site. (The only site that's not allowed as a subject is the one for the college).

To create your response site: In Dreamweaver, you will create a 4-8 page website that reveals comical, unexpected or biased information about this place. Think about how the site will allow the viewer to access this information in a way that is visual and unique to a website, ie LINKING, ROLLOVERS, and the use of TEXT+IMAGE.

Do research to find interesting information and keep it simple.

SITES FROM LAST SEMESTER'S CLASS (the assignment was a little different, but the results are similar):
Adventures on Route 235 - Liz Lawrence
Biological Non-Fiction - Sean Glynn
Menchusita - Veronica Lopez
Wal-Smart - YaHaddy Njie
Exotic Vacations - Jess Porter

OTHER ARTIST SITES:
Mejor Vida Corporation
blackness for sale on e-bay
Dot Store
Rent-a-Negro
Cyborg Web Shop
Google Will Eat Itself
the first human male pregnancy
Preparing for Emergencies
Black People Love Us!

IMPORTANT DATES FOR THE PROJECT:
M/Tu 9/10 April: TUTORIAL: THE BASICS + LINKING
MON: DW demo with FT
TUES: intro to net art

Wed/Thurs 11/12 April: TUTORIAL: TYPOGRAPHY + TABLES
-post a list of 5 website links for project ideas to your blog
WED: Melissa Dean
THURS: DW demo with FT

M/Tu 16/17 April: TUTORIAL: LAYOUT + CSS
-post a collection of images (collage them in photoshop) & a word association of at least 10 terms about your site's subject to your blog. Click here for an example of what your collage might look like, that I made about the subject of "video".
-in class: what is a site map? and more net art examples

W/Th 18/19 April:
-Post a hand-drawn site map, in color, to your blog. In your flow chart, indicate whether the architecture is linear, hierarchical, hub&spokes, or hypertext. Include arrows to indicate the direction of links. KEEP IT SIMPLE. These should be legible enough that you could hand them off to someone else and they would be able to make the site template (without content) for you. These sketches should show that you have taken into consideration the visual DESIGN of your site. Bring your sketches to class.
Check out these sites for more info on the principles of design:
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/principles_of_design/
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/elements_of_design/
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/principles_and_elements_of_design/

M/Tu 23/24 April: TUTORIAL: ROLLOVERS
instructor evaluations and in-class work day

W/Th 25/26 April: TUTORIAL: INSERTING MEDIA OBJECTS
LAST CLASS SESSION!
- ROUGH DRAFT of project due for feedback. This means at least 3 of your pages should be designed and uploaded for viewing on the WWW.

MONDAY MAY 7 by 5 pm: FINAL PROJECT DUE!
-Your complete website must be uploaded and you must send me a link to it by email as well as placing a CD-R with all your files in my mailbox. This deadline is firm: broken links, incomplete sites, or no CD submission will not receive extensions, no matter what the technical catasrophe.

4-12 April schedule

W/Th 4/5 April: STERLING/MANDIBERG READING-POST TO BLOG
WED: intro to net art
THURS: Melissa Dean

M/Tu 9/10 April: TUTORIAL: THE BASICS + LINKING
MON: DW demo with FT
TUES: intro to net art

Tu/Wed 11/12 April: TUTORIAL: TYPOGRAPHY + TABLES
WED: Melissa Dean
THURS: DW demo with FT

Bruce Sterling in the news

For those of you who like a little more info, Bruce Sterling (author of the reading for homework) just gave a talk at a conference, with some interesting insights about the networked technology, such as:
Do i want to interact with my toothbrush? What's the toothbrush of the future? A toothbrush that advertises that if you upgrade it you'll get 20% more of the plaque removed. Nah! That's boring. How about the new Apple iBrush? It takes pictures of the holes in my teeth and sends the images online. Do we want toothbloggers?
This is not required, just an extra something if you're interested. The reading homework is below. Here's a link to a summary of the talk:
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/009443.php

reading homework for 4-5 April

Please post your response by the start of class to be counted on time.

Read the article:
Short History of the Internet by Bruce Sterling
Then, check out this internet art site:
Real Costs by Michael Mandiberg
investigate it, and talk about how it uses the internet as an art medium. Explain why it uses it to best advantage, and why the piece could not be made in any other way.

Finally, answer this question:
HOW DOES THIS WORK FIT in the history of the internet that Sterling describes? What are the features of this art work that reflect the time in which it was made (2006)?