Melissa Chan IML 555 Portfolio

Sample Assignment

In Jerome McGann’s “The Rationale of Hypertext” he connects the practice of critical editions to hypermedia. We are no longer simply bound by pages of books or of physical archives located in hard to reach spaces, but research and scholarship can be “hyper.” As Mcgann says, “An edition is ‘hyper’ exactly because its structure is such that it seeks to preserve the authority of all the units that comprise its documentary arrays. In this respect a hyperedition resembles a fabulous circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” In other words, hypereditions make it possible for texts to be networked in different ways. There is no longer a singular text with all the authority, but all texts are multiple and open to critical examination. Thinking about hypertexts and media, this assignment requires you to reflect critically on how you engage with media daily.
 
Part One: Writing and Reflection
For the first part of this assignment, you will be examining your own media literacy and digital interactions. Explore the ways in which different forms of media permeate your life. How do you see hypertexts or hypermedia in your day to day interactions? In what ways do you interact with media in a critical way? How have you linked out through your social media production? Look back over your different media archives, what kinds of themes emerge over time? Critically reflect on what you’ve presented and create a broadly themed architecture to address issues that you see persist in your digital presence(s). (BONUS POINTS, but not required, if you engage with things related to how we have discussed the concept and place, Asia, in class.) Please do not exceed 500 words.
 
Part Two: Curate Yourself
Hypermedia is not only the proliferation of information, but it is about curating your presence in the digital world and thinking about how you link yourself to information. You can construct hypertexts in various ways including linking to different points in an internal system or linking out to external sites. For this portion of the assignment, create a media-rich way gather and present the information from your critical reflection. First, from your writing, choose a few themes or topics that you would like to highlight. You can pull content from all of your social media platforms. Do not limit yourself!

Next, consider the social media platform you'd like to use to present your information. Think carefully about how each platform has its advantages and disadvantages in presenting your themes and information. For example, if you have more images, Instagram may be a way to create an image archive. The platform in which you present your information (Twitter or Instagram feed, FaceBook posts, Scalar Book, Wordpress, Weebly, Prezi, YouTube video, etc…) is open, but I encourage you to use stable forms of media (ie: not Snapchat). Also, be aware of how each platform has its own rhetoric and use that to your advantage. A site like LinkedIn presents information in a different way than Twitter, and so think of the type of rhetoric and tone you want to convey in your own digital archive. 

Finally, after you've thought about your themes and information and considered the way you want to convey your themes and topics, structure the information according to the topics. You are welcome to use a variety of ways to present your information, including images, collages, text, maps, or a combination of different forms. Your topics may connect to other topics or stand alone. Each topic should be populated with your selected media production. 
 
Part Three: Scalar Book (group discussion and project)
We will be creating a Scalar book as a class that aggregates your critical reflections and media-rich presentations. We will first discuss as a class the type of informational architecture to structure the group’s writing and media. After our discussion, we will construct different pathing systems through Scalar. You must create your own pages and populate it with the content you have written and constructed in the first and second parts of this assignment.   
 
 

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