The real problem is the quality is so bad; I spend obviously hours 'n hours tuning the videos - then they screw up... -
Oh, yes... I warned students of this... and, since they are primarily film/video students, they can scopically compensate... I showed them some of the motion capture videos as well and they, as always, loved them! They never think of this sort of thing... My agenda at the moment is exposing practices that do not fall under tradiational film/video practices... and showing some "cultural practice" correlations between literature, film, video, and new media.... it is a tough sell at the moment, because they have been conditioned against these sorts of practices and connections... But, I look for breakthroughs (as a pedagogical method).... and remain hopeful that by exposing the students to work they are unfamiliar with they will make these connection, maybe not in class, but later, in their work...
My media history class covered everything from the magic lantern and perspective painting to optical toys( the phenakistoscope to the zoopraxiscope) and the advent of cinema, to vr, the jaquard loom, an array of 19th century technologies, to broader communication technologies -- including digital poetics / narrative / rhetoric, the misuse of tools, hacking and circuit bending, etc. A huge survey and a challenge to teach... But, I think they got a lot out of it and I loved teaching it... It is a lot to metabolize for undergrads... but, they have done quite well.
Since the program is pretty film/video heavy, I think it is important that they realize the impulses of perspective and motion graphics... I revealed things, histories, works, they have never encountered... Speaking of challenges, it was a challenge to develop such a course -- requiring substantial research, but so many gaps were filled for the students, and the history, the legacy of past "inventions" was revealed in a (hopefully) coherent way.... my hope is that they carry this forward.
t.
