DMRS WORKSHOPS

Class Workshops

• 🤖 Flea Market Archaeology Workshop
  Students will collect example media archaeological “dead media” objects to present, drawing from sources such as flea markets, thrift stores, etc. Part of the research in determining where to find objects will be used in the Media Archaeological Site List assignment.
• 🤖 Telephone Trick Picture Workshop
  Students will produce stop motion videos of mobile phone assembly by disassembling mobile phones in a manner analogous to the early Western Electric telephone stop motion film.
• 🤖 Betamax Broadcast Studio Workshop
  Students will give a short presentation on a vernacular dead media / media archaeology video channel recorded on a Betamovie camera for streaming on the Dead Media Streaming Service.
• 🤖 Warcraft Adventures Workshop
  Students will conduct a media archaeological examination of “Warcraft Adventures,” the unreleased adventure game developed by Blizzard and canceled in 1998.
• 🤖 Soldering Workshop
  Students will complete an introductory soldering activity to gain a basic comprehension of techniques for soldering and desoldering.
• 🤖 Glitch Art Workshop
  Students will explore techniques for producing glitch art in a variety of digital and analog formats.
• 🤖 Software Defined Radio Workshop
  Students will explore obsolete radio spectrum frequencies, discuss NTSC and PAL television standards, and deliver a live VHF broadcast.
• 🤖 Floppy Photography Workshop
  Student groups will conduct an ethnographic examination of a site dedicated to the production, curation, or commerce in the obsolete. Students will be outfitted with digital cameras that record to floppy disk and will share their ethnographies entirely over floppy disk. This means that additional materials, presentations, documents, etc. must be on 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Disks.
• 🤖 Software Archaeology Workshop
  Through emulation or vintage hardware, students will conduct an examination of an obsolete software object or software system.
• 🤖 Programming in Applesoft Basic Workshop
  Students will develop a simple program in Basic intended to run on Apple II hardware. The source for the program will be drawn (initially) from Nibbler magazine, though students are expected to make some modifications to the original source.
• 🤖 Typing Pool Workshop
  Students will explore typing technologies, learning typing skills and producing typewritten art on a variety of mediums.
• 🤖 Mimeograph Workshop
  Students will prepare documents for mimeograph reproduction on an Edison Mimeograph machine, using stencils with typewriter and stylus.
• 🤖 Zine Production Workshop
  Students will gather and assemble materials gathered over the course, completing their linked list and site list assignments, and compiling the results of their workshops into a zine which will be presented as part of the Dead Media Symposium.

While most of the workshops will require a little bit of preparation, a few of the workshops (the Flea Market Archaeology, the Betamax Broadcast Studio, the Floppy Photography workshop, and the Software Archaeology Workshop) will require some additional consideration in advance of the class session. This is noted as an “assignment” on your syllabus.

For each workshop students are asked to provide a short abstract and folio of materials.

Assignments

There are a few additional assignments which you will participate in throughout the course:

• ⏲ Assignment: Dead Media Linked List
  Students will compile a linked list of sites relevant to media archaeological research on pinboard, organized under the tag zombiemediastudio.
• ⏲ Assignment: Dead Media Streaming Program
  Student teams will program a 2 or 3 movie block around a particular theme to be screened on the Dead Media Streaming Service. Students can draw from our library of films, or provide their own, but only obsolete media formats will be accepted. In most cases newer formats like DVDs are not acceptable.
• ⏲ Assignment: Begin Media Archaeology Site List
  Students will compile a list of potential sites for media archaeological ethnographic work, including flea markets, thrift stores, repair shops, junk yards, auction houses, museums, etc.
• ⏲ Assignment: Artifact Archiving
  Throughout the course students will make use of obsolete technologies (Sony Mavica, Betacam, Mimeograph, Gameboy Camera, and Dot Matrix Printers, etc..) to collectively document artifacts and assignments they have produced in class.
• ⏲ Assignment: VHF Signal Mapping
  Student teams will explore the city with Sony Watchmans and other tools to collaboratively map rogue VHF and Radio signals.
• ⏲ Final Project
  In addition to the production of a collaborative zine, each student will develop a specialized project for the course that works to restore, revive, or otherwise zombify a dead media artifact or practrice.