Calendar

[Week 1]
January 11

Why Visual Communication

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Syllabus and course review.

Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2008). Introduction. In Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture (Second Edition edition, pp. 1–9). New York: Oxford University Press.

Lester, P. M. (2014). Visual Communication. In Visual Communication: Images with Messages (6 edition, pp. 2–12). Boston: Wadsworth Publishing.

Mitchell, W. J. T. (2005). There Are No Visual Media. Journal of Visual Culture, 4(2), 257–266.

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Additional suggested reading:

Mirzoeff, N. (2006). On Visuality. Journal of Visual Culture, 5(1), 53–79.

[Week 2]
January 18

Human Perception and Visual Cognition

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Lester, P. M. (2014). Visual Cues. In Visual Communication: Images with Messages (6 edition, pp. 14–41). Boston: Wadsworth Publishing.

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Additional suggested reading:

Ware, C. (2000). The Environment, Optics, Resolutions, and the Display [Excerpt]. In Information visualization: Perception for design (pp. 31–63). San Francisco : Morgan Kaufmann, c2000 (Norwood, Mass.).

Ware, C. (2000). Color [Excerpt]. In Information visualization: Perception for design (pp. 95–117). San Francisco : Morgan Kaufmann, c2000 (Norwood, Mass.).

Ware, C. (2000). Visual Attention and Information that Pops Out [Excerpt]. In Information visualization: Perception for design (pp. 139–162). San Francisco : Morgan Kaufmann, c2000 (Norwood, Mass.).

Ware, C. (2000). Static and Moving Patterns [Excerpt]. In Information visualization: Perception for design (pp. 179–191). San Francisco : Morgan Kaufmann, c2000 (Norwood, Mass.).

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Extras

Optical Illusions (examples)
Preattentive Processing Applet
Selective Attention Tests: Did you see the gorilla?
Change Blindness Test: Can you spot what changed?
Colour Blindness Test (Sample)

[Week 3]
January 25

Mass Media: Simulation and Politics *

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Baudrillard, J. (1983). Simulations [Excerpt]. (pp. 1–30). Semiotex(e).

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Additional suggested reading:

Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2008). Images, Power, and Politics. In Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture (Second Edition edition, pp. 10-44). New York: Oxford University Press.

Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2008). The Mass Media and the Public Sphere. In Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture (Second Edition edition, pp. 151-188). New York: Oxford University Press.

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Extras

NBC’s Colgate Comedy hour
The biggest media companies
Examples of massive persuasion:
– Nazi’s movie Triumph of the Will (1939)
– Advertisement: Mad Men
Baudrillard’s Simulation: The Matrix (1999)

Group Presentation[wm_divider appearance=”dashed/dotted/double-line/line/whitespace” space_before=”” space_after=”” /]

Anna Larovaia
Riley Simons
Serena Mira Desaulniers
Teodora Mitu

[Week 4]
February 1

(in)Visibility and Surveillance *

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Foucault, M. (1995). The means of correct training. In Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison (REP edition, pp. 170–194). New York: Vintage

Fuster, G. G., Bellanova, R., & Gellert, R. (2015). Nurturing Ob-Scene Politics: Surveillance Between In/Visibility and Dis-Appearance. Surveillance & Society, 13(3/4), 512–527.

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Additional suggested reading:

Foucault, M. (1995). Panopticism. In Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison (REP edition, pp. 195–228). New York: Vintage.

Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2008). Spectatorship, Power, and Knowledge. In Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture (Second Edition edition, pp. 72-108). New York: Oxford University Press.

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Extras

Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936)
Webcams around the world
AI and Image recognition:
– Robot
– NeuralTalk and Walk
Applied computer vision: Van Gogh Museum
What Facebook thinks of you
Data points Facebook knows about you.
Google knows where you have been.
Pro Publica: Machine Bias
Big Data and Trump: Psycometrics, Surveillance and Elections
Smart Cities: CityOS
Snowden – CitizenFour (2014)

Group Presentation[wm_divider appearance=”dashed/dotted/double-line/line/whitespace” space_before=”” space_after=”” /]

Andréanne Dupéré
Francesca Fernandez
Melissa Arauz
Samuel Delaney-Sheppard

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[Week 5]
February 8

Semiotic, Space, and Maps *

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De Certeau, M. (2002). Walking in the city. In The Practice of Everyday Life (2nd ed., pp. 91–110). Berkeley, CA, USA; Los Angeles, CA, USA; London, UK: University of California Press.

Shields, R. (1989). Social spatialization and the built environment: the West Edmonton Mall. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 7(2), 147 – 164.

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Additional suggested reading:

Harpold, T. (1999). Dark continents: A critique of Internet meta geographies. Postmodern Culture, 9(2).

Afzal, S., Maciejewski, R., Jang, Y., Elmqvist, N., & Ebert, D. S. (2012). Spatial Text Visualization Using Automatic Typographic Maps. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 18(12), 2556–2564

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Extras

The true size of (Mercator Projection distortion)

Examples of Counter-Mapping:
Map Surveillance Cameras 
Compare subway systems
Native Land
Visualize your mobility patterns

Group Presentation[wm_divider appearance=”dashed/dotted/double-line/line/whitespace” space_before=”” space_after=”” /]

Amanda Marika Usypchuk
Emily Martinez
Katie Barroso
Mishkat Hafiz
Sara Mestiri

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[Week 6]
February 15

Images in Advertising *

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CRITICAL VISUAL REFLECTION DUE
Deadline Extended: February 19 @ 11:59 pm.

Barthes, R. (1977). The Rhetoric of the Image. Image-Music-Text, 151-163.

Soar, M. (Ed.). (2003). The advertising photography of Richard Avedon and Sebastião Salgado. In Image ethics in the digital age (pp. 269–294). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

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Additional suggested reading:

Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2008). Consumer and the Manufacturing of Desire. In Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture (Second Edition edition, pp. 189-236). New York: Oxford University Press.

Group Presentation[wm_divider appearance=”dashed/dotted/double-line/line/whitespace” space_before=”” space_after=”” /]

Arianna Samira Randjbar
Audrée-Anne Prieur
Dario Ace Rivera
Erin Jade Walker

[Week 7]
February 22

Reading Week

[Week 8]
March 1

Visual (re)production*

 

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Benjamin, W. (2008). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. In M. W. Jennings, B. Doherty, & T. Y. Levin (Eds.), The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media (1st ed., pp. 19–55). Cambridge, Mass.; London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

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Additional suggested reading:

Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2008). Reproduction and Visual Technologies. In Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture (Second Edition edition, pp. 109-150). New York: Oxford University Press.

Group Presentation[wm_divider appearance=”dashed/dotted/double-line/line/whitespace” space_before=”” space_after=”” /]

Emilie Anna Kral
Ryan Michael O’Connor
Victoria Jean-Francois

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[Week 9]
March 8

Gendered Gazes *

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Mulvey, L. (1989). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. In Visual and other pleasures (pp. 14–26). Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan.

Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing (pp. 45–64). New York: Penguin Books and British Broadcasting.

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Additional suggested reading:

Fron, J., Fullerton, T., Morie, J. F., & Pearce, C. (2007). The hegemony of play. In Situated Play: Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association 2007 Conference. Tokyo, Japan (pp. 1–10).

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Extras

Pride & Prejudice (2005) [last scene].
Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954) [clip1] [clip2]
Manet’s Olympia
Female gaze vs. Male gaze (animated gif in Portuguese)
Diet Coke ad
Gender inequality in movies dialogue (visualization)
International press description of women during the last Olympics (Multilingual, mostly Portuguese).
“What’s up with chicks and science?” (??????) – Neil Degrasse Tyson on being Black, and Women in Science.

Group Presentation[wm_divider appearance=”dashed/dotted/double-line/line/whitespace” space_before=”” space_after=”” /]

Cassidy Charette
Eugènie Bertrand
Louise Choueka
Olivia-Gail Squires

March 15

Snow Storm: Class Cancelled

[Week 10]
March 22

Race and Representation *

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Roth, L. (2009). Looking at Shirley, the ultimate norm: Colour balance, image technologies, and cognitive equity. Canadian Journal of Communication, 34(1), 111–136.

Dyer, R. (2005). On the manner of whiteness. In White privileges: Essential readings to the other site of racism (pp. 9–14). Paula Rothenberg.

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Additional suggested reading:

Lester, P. M. (2014). Visual Stereotypes. In Visual Communication: Images with Messages (6 edition, pp. 98-127). Boston: Wadsworth Publishing.

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Extras

– More on Critical Race Theory: Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical race theory: an introduction. New York: New York University Press.
– A beauty contest was judged by AI and the robots didn’t like dark skin.
– HP Computers Don’t Recognize Black People.
– The day Beyonce turned black.
– Unkelbach, C. et al., The turban effect: The influence of Muslim headgear and induced affect on aggressive responses in the shooter bias paradigm, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (2008), doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2008.04.003
– Nike hijab
– Kill Bill Vol 1 — Gogo – Asian stereotype
– Mad Men on women
– Mass Effect: Female animation based on a male character.
– Putin (Russia) and Temer (Brazil) visions of the role of women in society:
http://time.com/4699510/john-oliver-on-international-womens-day/
– Dove Real Beauty Sketches
– Brokeback Mountain (2005): Trailer

Group Presentation[wm_divider appearance=”dashed/dotted/double-line/line/whitespace” space_before=”” space_after=”” /]

Justin Mah
Laurence Dessureault
Nadia Obas-Bolduc
Sophie MacArthur

[Week 11]
March 29

Digital Culture and Social Media *

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Manovich, L. (2016). Instagrammism and contemporary cultural identity. In Instagram and Contemporary Image (pp. 1–25).

Tifentale, A. (2016). The Networked Camera at Work: Why Every Self-portrait Is Not a Selfie, but Every Selfie is a Photograph. In Riga Photography Biennial 2016 (pp. 74–83). Latvia: Riga Photography Biennial.

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Additional suggested reading:

Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2008). Post-modernism and Popular Culture. In Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture (Second Edition edition, pp. 237-278). New York: Oxford University Press.

Manovich, L. (2001). The Interface [Excerpt]. In The Language of New Media (pp. 62–88). MIT Press.

Extras

– Selfcity
– Blade Runner (1982): Trailer
– Apple 1984 ad
– Artificial Life Example
– Chabot to build website: Weps, Rightclick
– Google AI Dilemma

Group Presentation[wm_divider appearance=”dashed/dotted/double-line/line/whitespace” space_before=”” space_after=”” /]

Grace Duern
Hannah Gemma Ewen
Harrison Palmer
Rosa Eleanor Addario

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Selfies


[Week 12]
April 5

Virtual worlds and Avatars *

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Ducheneaut, N., Wen, M.-H., Yee, N., & Wadley, G. (2009). Body and mind: a study of avatar personalization in three virtual worlds. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1151–1160). ACM.

Neustaedter, C., & Fedorovskaya, E. (2009). Presenting Identity in a Virtual World Through Avatar Appearances. In Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2009 (pp. 183–190). Toronto, Ont., Canada, Canada: Canadian Information Processing Society.

Turkle, S. (1994). Constructions and reconstructions of self in virtual reality: Playing in the MUDs. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 1(3), 158–167.

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Additional suggested reading:

Manovich, L. (2001). The form [Excerpt]. In The Language of New Media (pp. 244–285). MIT Press.

Dibbell, J. (1993, December). A Rape in Cyberspace. The Village Voice. 16p.

Tools to create avatars

Make Human: http://www.makehuman.org
Lego: http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mini/
Marvel: http://www.marvelkids.com/create-your-own-super-hero
Gaia online: http://www.gaiaonline.com/quickreg/
Picasso Head: http://www.picassohead.com/
Avatar Maker: http://avatarmaker.com
Doppelme: http://doppelme.com/create/

Extras

– Early Cyberspaces: Aspen Movie Map (1978), Legible City (1988-91), Osmose (1995)
– MUD – Multi-User Dungeons: LambdaMoo
– IRC – Internet Relay Chat – mIRC/Chat rooms
– RPG – Role-Play Game – Dungeons & Dragons
– MMO – Massive Multiplayer Online – Second Life
– MMORPG – Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Play Game – World of Warcraft
– LBMG – Location-based Mobile Games – Foursquare
– VRG – Virtual Reality Game – Adr1ft
– ARG – Augmented Reality Game- Pokemon Go
– 360 Video – New York Times
– Uncanny Valey examples
– Post-Uncanny Valey?

Group Presentation[wm_divider appearance=”dashed/dotted/double-line/line/whitespace” space_before=”” space_after=”” /]

Andrew George Melki
Denise Mylonakis
Helena Panagiota Tsitouras
Samantha Marie Hanley

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Avatars


[Week 13]
April 12

Visualizations *

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Munzner, T. (2014). What’s vis, and why do it? In Visualization Analysis and Design (1 edition, pp. 1–19). Boca Raton: A K Peters/CRC Press.

Tufte, E. R. (1990). Escaping Flatland. In Envisioning Information (1st edition, pp. 12–35). Graphics Press.

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Additional suggested reading:

Ware, C. (2000). Visual Objects and Data Objects. In Information visualization: Perception for design (pp. 293–324). San Francisco : Morgan Kaufmann, c2000 (Norwood, Mass.).

 

Extras

– The Potential for the Most Liberal Supreme Court in Decades (NYT)
– The Countries Where Women Won More Medals Than Men in Rio (NYT)
– Michael Phelps vs. Himself (NYT)
– Election maps are telling you big lies about small things (Washington Post)
– The Two Americas of 2016 (NYT)
– Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years
 – Todas las mentiras de Trump y Clinton frente a frente y en un vistazo (Univision)
– Bible Cross-References
– Bike share mapping creates beautiful portraits of London, NYC and Berlin (The Guardian)
– FedEx SoundTrack
– Gun Deaths in America
– Montreal is 375 years old, but how old are its buildings?
– Human Spatial Movement
– Selfiecity
– fallen.io
– An experiment in visualizing notes from music scores
– Immersive digital waves to visualize nature
– Visualizing Dance Movements
– Spurious Correlation

More: Flowing Data

Group Presentation[wm_divider appearance=”dashed/dotted/double-line/line/whitespace” space_before=”” space_after=”” /]

Rodrigo Luna

[Week 14]
April 19

No Class

FINAL PAPER DUE