This is the page for: Media English

(Course-related content will appear here in reverse chronological order: the newest things at the top of the page, and older posts toward the bottom.)

Grades Uploaded, and Next Semester

Hi there!

Grades for this class have been uploaded. If you have any inquiries about your grade, please first read this page for more information on the handling of grading disputes before contacting me.

Also, if you’re curious about courses I’ll be teaching next semester (Fall 2008), there’s a list on the front page of this site.  Have a look and see if anything appeals to you: there are several courses focused on creative work, as well as a literature course.

Have a good summer!

My Remixes

Someone asked me why I haven’t produced a remix for you guys to enjoy. Well, the fact is, I do a lot of this, but not in visual media. My preference has been to do it with music and in my writing.  Unfortunately, the recordings for a lot of my older musical “remixes” are gone… I lost them when I moved from Montreal to Korea.

My most recent fiction publication was, in fact, a remix of 1950s science fiction and 1940s jazz culture, especially the voice of Miles Davis as represented in his autobiography, “Miles.” But that’s not available for free online — it costs $3 to get an electronic copy of the issue of the July 2008 Asimov’s SF with my story in it, and even more to get a copy of the print edition — so I thought I’d pass some other things for you to enjoy for free.

Here are three musical “remixes” I’ve participated in:

So as you can see, I’m no stranger to remixing. In fact, I’d say every creative person in the world to some degree “remixes” what came before them… just as Lawrence Lessig argues in the book we’ve been reading!

I look forward to seeing your remixes soon! By the way, title them however you like… I’ll try collect the links and post them here after class tomorrow.

Announcement for Next Semester

Interested in Writing a Graphic Novel?

In Fall semester 2008, there will be a special course offered under the name Multimedia English Education and taught by Gord Sellar. In fact, this course will consist of planning, outlining, writing, and completely creating a graphic novel –  that is, a novel-length and novel-quality “comic book� which will subsequently be published online. (Print publication might be sought, depending on the outcome of the project.)

Students who are interested in a hands-on project in which they can creatively use and develop their English skills are encouraged to consider this course. You needn’t be an “artist,� although talented artists are certainly welcome.

For more information, please contact me.

Creative Commons Media Sources

I said I’d post a link to some resources for finding Creative Commons media. Since your homework is non-profit, you shouldn’t have any problems using media from the list of links here. (Just remember to attribute the creator of the media you use… that is, give credit to whoever wrote the music or made the film you sample from.)

Good luck!

Another Public Photography Crackdown

Here’s another strange photography crackdown: in this case, security told the reporter photography was not allowed right after the spokesman for the company that owns Union Station said there isn’t a law about photography!

For the Next Two Weeks

Here’s the promised discussion schedule for the next two weeks:

Public Photography in Britain

This video‘s worth watching and thinking about! Have a look, and we’ll discuss it next week, along with further reading of the Lessig text…

Clay Shirky on Cognitive Surplus

Imagine a world where everyone hates living in cities. Cities are crowded, noisy, smelly, and dangerous. People in that world don’t like it, but they have no choice.

So they get drunk all the time, until they realize one day that living in big groups could have some advantages: museums, entertainment, art, culture… But even then, many people don’t see the benefits that could come from not drinking every once in a while, and working on art, building a museum, volunteering at a library, practicing a song to sing for audiences, and so on.

Now, imagine living in that world that came just before people realized they didn’t have to get drunk every day to handle living so close to everyone else. Imagine being one of the first people who had a chance to participate in making cities a cool, interesting place to live.

Actually, it sounds a lot like London in the early 1800s, when people drank a hard alcohol called “gin”… they drank it like crazy, actually, and it caused a panic like the modern-day Drug War in America. But if you think about it, what’s the difference between getting drunk, and watching TV sitcoms for hours and hours every week?

That’s the question Clay Shirky wants you to think about, and the answer he offers is pretty interesting.

Here’s the video you should watch. There’s also a transcript of the video here, which you can read after watching the video and before watching it a second time. It should give you a better idea what Shirky is talking about.

We’ll be discussing it on Thursday, May 29th, so make sure you don’t just understand it: make sure you can explain it, and that you have an opinion about Shirky’s ideas. Love them or hate them — you should have an opinion of your own! (Just like the people in the comment section to this video have their own opinion! In fact, I’ll even give you a couple of bonus points on your final grade for posting an interesting opinion/response to the video, if you do it before our class discussion on the 29th!)

(Note#1: Clay Shirky is giving speeches like this to promote his new book, Here Comes Everybody. It’s just another example of creative people giving things away [for free!] to promote themselves. )

(Note #2: Remember, we’ll be discussing the first three chapters of Free Culture on Tuesday, May 27th; we probably won’t have much time then, so we’ll finish up with that Thursday before discussing Shirky. I’ll join in on the discussion of Shirky’s ideas, but I’m going to mostly keep out of the Lessig discussion. It’s a good idea toprepare some notes and outline the major points in those chapters before our class!)

More Mashups

Here are more mashups using Public Domain videos in the Prelinger Archives at the Internet Archive. Some are weird, some are funny, some are even brilliant.

Remix/Mashup Examples

Hi there. I promised some materials for you to explore the idea of remixes and mashups, to consider as examples for the kinds of things you can work on for your final project. Here are some examples of remixes or “mashups”:

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