Creative Laboratory

Born Digital Creative Practice

This unit asks: what is advertising practice in relation to new media and digital cultures? Advertising today is in an exciting and important juncture: we are seeing an emergence of new types of knowledge through the combinatorial and remix affordances of computational and networked technologies. The impact of this on the industry is seen in new ad products and services like 'creative data' and new jobs named 'creative technologist'. Beyond the hype and technological evangelizing lies a kernel of truth any ordinary user knows: the computer matters. And the proliferation of source material everywhere (data) means that everyone have the means to explore and play with it. Aspiring artists-creatives-professionals who want to make 'good' work in this historical moment should be asking: how can studying new media help us to re-think and re-fresh advertising practice? How do advanced networked and mobile communication systems enhance (or constrain) advertising practice? These are the questions that underpin Creative Laboratory. You may think of this laboratory as a safe, transmedia thought space in which you are to experiment, make content and engage in practice-research in an area that you find exciting or interesting. And to help your creative juices flow, we will draw from an interdisciplinary range of sources such as new media studies, internet theory, visual culture, aesthetics and their underpinning philosophies.

Welcome to LCCMAd Creative Lab.

Dr Cui Su, Course Leader
LCCMAd: MA Advertising 15/16
London College of Communication

Creative Lab Scheme of Work

Week 13 - 1. New Cultural Objects

Tuesday 19.1.16 T901

0930-1030 T901 Lecture - Creative Data as New Cultural Objects

Readings:
Lev Manovich, 2001 "What is New Media?" In Language of New Media, MIT Press, Chapter 1. [see Moodle].
Florian Cramer, 2015. "What is post-digital?" In Computational Aesthetics, Bloomsbury Press [See Moodle].

Further reading:
Lev Manovich New Media from Borges to HTML
Jorge Luis Borges's "The Garden of Forking Paths"
Janet Murray's "Inventing the Medium"
Podcast History of "The Web's First Banner Ad"

Additional Online Sources:
Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity's "Creative Data"
Antony Antonellis Impulse 101

1030-1130 T901 Workflow Training Session with John Jackson

What is Workflow? Workflow is a portfolio system which allows you to create custom web pages, and gives you complete control over page sharing. You will use Workflow for documenting your projects this term, collaborating, or sharing work in progress privately with friends or a tutor. You will also be submitting your final work for assessment via Workflow.

To do before attending this session: click on the workflow link above and sign up for an account.

1200-1330 T901 Seminar

Housekeeping: assessment briefs and submissions.
Getting into small groups and setting up your workflow spaces

Discuss the following:
1. After reading Manovich and Cramer, where would you put the advertising category of creative data on the spectrum between new media and post-digital?

Wednesday 20.1.16 T901

1300-1700 Tech Workshop: Introduction to Practice Research

See also Study Trip below.

Readings:Patricia Clough "The Philosophical Carpentry of the App: Criticism and Practice"
Ian Bogost's Alien Phenomenology Introduction Chapter

Thursday 21.1.16

Study trip to Big Bang Data exhibition

Homework: A creative data approach to the question 'what is creative data?' A print handout will be provided on the day. Be ready to take notes and take photos

Exhibition venue:

Week 15 - 2. Remix as Digital Data Controlled by Software

Tuesday 2.2.16

930-1030 Lecture T901 Remixing

Readings:
Monica Tavares's "Digital Poetics and Remix Culture" [See Moodle]
Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command, Chapter 1 and 2:

Google Remixes Four Classic Campaigns
Film screening of Google's Project Rebrief
Google's Art Copy & Code.

1200-1330 T901 Seminar

Wednesday 27.1.16

1300-1700 Tech workshop: PC App Practice Research 1

Week 14 - 3. Transmedia: Distribution and Platforms

Tuesday 26.1.16

0930-1030 Lecture - Transmedia and The Next Wave of Digital Storytelling

Readings:
Paul Grainge and Catherine Johnson. 2015. "Television: Transmedia Promotion and Second Screens" In Promotional Screen Industries. London: Routledge, pp.119-147.
Bryan Alexander, New Digital Storytelling. Chapter 2 and Chapter 9.
Ian Bogost and Nick Monfort's "Platform Studies: Frequently Questioned Answers"

1200-1330 T901 Seminar

Wednesday 27.1.16

1300-1700 Tech workshop: PC App Practice Research 2

Week 16 - 4. Mobile Media: Affordances and Constraints

Tuesday 9.2.16

930-1130 Lecture - Mobile Locative Narratives: The Story of Somebody App

Readings:
Ritchie, J. 2014. "The Affordances and Constraints of Mobile Locative Narratives". In Farman, J. The Mobile Story: Narrative Practices with Locative Technologies New York: Routledge, Part II, Chapter 4. [available as ebook in LCC library]
Sherry Turkle's Alone Together, Chapters 8 & 10.[Available as e-book in LCC library]

1200-1330 T901 Seminar

Wednesday 27.1.16

1300-1700 Tech Workshop: Independent studio time. No taught tech workshop this week.

Week 17 - 5. Personal Dynamic Media

Tuesday 16.2.16

930-1130 Lecture -

Readings:
Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg's "Personal Dynamic Media"
Hudson Moura's "Sharing Bites on Global Screens: The Emergence of Snack Culture"

Wednesday 17.2.16

1300-1800 Tech Workshop with Lab Mo Ky T901: Making Branded Short Film I

Introduction to course brief and Branded Content
Watch references
Refresher on filmmaking
Develop script ideas for film

Online resources and references:
Short of the Week's Branded Content
Jude Law for Southern Comfort
Sapeurs by Guinness.
Brand Perfect's 13 Films from Brands

Week 16 - 5. Digital Detournement

Tuesday 9.2.16

930-1130 Lecture - Digital Detournement and Adbusters

Readings:
Sadie Plant, 1992, "Now, The SI" In The Most Radical Gesture, London: Routledge [see Moodle].
Adbusters.org.

Further reading:
Guy Debord's Society of the Spectable

Wednesday 24.2.16

1300-1800 Tech Workshop with Lab Mo Ky T901: Making Branded Short Film II

Preproduction including: scheduling, hunting for location, production design
Finalize scripts and shoot as homework

Week 18 - 6. Playing and Trolling

930-1130 Lecture - Play

Readings:
Ian Bogost, 2010. Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames, Chapters 5-7. [See Moodle]
Mcgonigal J. 2011. “What exactly is a game?” In, Reality is Broken: Why Games Makes Us Better and How They Can Change the World. Penguin Press, Chapter One.
Mischief and Mayhem in Social Computing

Wednesday 2.3.16

1300-1800 Tech Workshop with Lab Mo Ky W212: Making Branded Short Film III

Edit Footage

Week 19 - 7. Gamification and Economics

Readings:
Juho Hamari, Kai Huotari & Juha Tolvanen. 2014. "Gamification and Economics" In The Gameful World: Approaches, Issues, Applications, MIT Press.[See Moodle]
Ian Bogost How to do things with videogames?Chapter 7.

1300-1700 Tech Workshop T901: Independent studio time. No taught tech workshop this week.

Week 22 - 8. Digital Detournement

Tuesday 9.2.16

930-1130 Lecture - Digital Detournement and Adbusters

Readings:
Sadie Plant, 1992, "Now, The SI" In The Most Radical Gesture, London: Routledge [see Moodle].
Adbusters.org

1200-1330 Seminar

Detourning the Political TV Ad Archive

Further reading:
Guy Debord's Society of the Spectable

Wednesday 24.2.16

1300-1800 Tech Workshop with Lab Mo Ky T901: Making Branded Short Film II

Preproduction including: scheduling, hunting for location, production design
Finalize scripts and shoot as homework

Assessment

1. Creative Data Practice-Research (50% of your final grade)

Working collaboratively in small groups, showcase your practice-research by creating and exhibiting a multi-media story or campaign that would include the use of a mobile app. Also, you should also produce a 'specification document' of no less than 3000 words, aimed for an audience of creative technologists and / or techie creatives. Imagine your viewer-readers are looking for interesting, exciting, not necessarily commercial-friendly, works and stories of creative data.

Mail: Cui Su

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