1. comment on a classmate’s blog
2. take quiz
3. Typography activity (see previous post)
4. Poster activity (see below for materials)

We will practice using Robin Williams design principles by redesigning a poster that I found in the Eddy Building. You will do this activity in groups and use whatever software program the group is most comfortable with—Word, Illustrator, Photoshop, Publisher, etc. Here are the materials you will need.

the original poster

Lyons photo

Arigo photo

CSU logo

ASCSU logo

more CSU logos

• I corrected the due date information on the Manifesto assignment. The draft is due Thursday, 2/18.
• For class Tuesday, 2/16 please read the Non-Designer’s Type Book. This is the second volume in our two volume design textbook by Robin Williams. Make sure to bring the book to class with you on Tuesday.
• If you were absent from class today, make sure to check out the changes I made to the course assignments and look at the additional information on the daily schedule—the schedule is available through spring break.
• Finally, I created a wiki in the Writing Studio where you can provide me with your blog information. A wiki is an online document that groups of people can edit. To add your blog information to our wiki, log into the Writing Studio and go to our class page. Choose “Class Wikis” from the menu on the right. Next, choose the “Blog List” wiki (this is the only wiki our class has!). You should now see a table where you can add your information: click “Manage” and then “Manage wiki.” Add your information to the table and click “update.” You should now see your information in the table. If you have any trouble with the wiki, you can email me your blog information.

1. Complete “About” pages of your blogs (20 minutes)
2. Group activity: Develop your own revision of copyright law for the digital age using stasis theory as your method of invention (30 minutes)
3. Discussion of manifestos (20 minutes)

As part of our discussion of manifestos, we will watch this performance of the Declaration of Independence as it is the United States’s most famous example of a manifesto.

My point that there is no separation between the physical and the virtual world is backed up by Julian Dibbbell who researched the connection between the economies of online video games and the “real world” economy. In his radio interview on Focus 580, Digital Media and Virtual Worlds, Dibbell explains that in video games such as World of Warcraft players earn game money that they can use to buy items needed in the game such as swords, potions, etc. Apparently there are people who play these games in order to gain enough points that they can buy a bunch of stuff in the game and then sell this stuff to other players for real money on sites like Ebay. In fact, in China there are whole factories in which people sit around and play these games all day to accumulate things that the owners then sell online for real money. Essentially, the “pretend” economies of these games have created real world sweat shops.

While I do think we need to take our online activities seriously precisely because they have real world effects, we also need our cultural critics to use humor to point out where the online world crosses the line into the absurd. In the video clip below Stephen Colbert uses his usual satire to critique two bizarre uses of web 2.0 technologies: a website that displays all your credit card purchases for the world to see and a site where people can tag a map with the last place they had sex.

In a similar way Jon Stewart calls to task the hyperbole of many bloggers who use violent language to describe his comedic critique of the news. While it is easy to dismiss these blogs as silly, I think that this sort of war-like language is a sign of and a catalyst for the hateful tone of our current political rhetoric. Again, online activity with real world consequences.

And to conclude, I leave you with a link to another Focus 580 interview with Robert McChesney, a communications professor at the University of Illinois. In the interview, titled  The Death and Life of American Journalism McChesney discusses the effect blogs are having on traditional print journalism such as newspapers. He also makes a good argument for why blogs are not a substitute for traditional forms of journalism.