ENSP 481: Theory and Practice of Hypertext

Syllabus

John Unsworth
F 12 - 2:30
Wil 308
/courses/ensp481/

Office Hours:
9-11 a.m. Friday (304B Bryan Hall)
jmu2m@virginia.edu

Members of the seminar will work in small groups over the course of the semester to construct hypertext sites in cooperation with local non-profits, arts organizations, schools, or neighborhood associations. The World-Wide Web will be the medium for e xchanging information related to the seminar, and all required readings and projects will be presented through the Web.

Project groups will be divided by role, with each member choosing to play the part of a systems engineer/project manager, a graphic designer, or a markup specialist. Students with programming skills may be assigned to work on an as-needed basis with m ore than one project group, and each group will also enlist a partner/trainee from the organization whose site is being designed. Project groups will hold several meetings during the semester with members of the community organization, and sites will be constructed on Monticello Ave. Organizations may be chosen from Monticello Avenue Information Providers, the Monticello Ave list of Community Organizations, or the United Way list of Agencies.

Some classes will be held in the IATH MOO, a text-based virtual reality facility.

8/30: Introduction

Goals and Structure of the Seminar
Concepts of Hypertext
Basics of the Web (Demonstration)

Recommended:

• Please consider signing up for either the basic or advanced HTML short course offered by the Library. More information is available at: http://poe.acc.virginia.edu/~libinstr/

9/6: Tools

Hands-on introduction to the World-Wide Web and MOO; demonstrations of Storyspace, Shockwave, Director, Java

Required:

• Michael Sperberg-McQueen and Lou Burnard, "A Gentle Introduction to SGML"
• Hypertext Terminology
• Hypertext Systems
• NCSA's HTML Primer
• Shockwave
• Rayme Jernigan, "Java Executive Summary"

Suggested:

• A Beginner's Guide to URLs
• Netscape Extensions to HTML 2.0

9/13: History

Historical backgrounds of hypertext

Required:

• Plato, Phaedrus
• Vannevar Bush, "As We May Think" (July, 1945)
• A Hypermedia Timeline
• John Tolva, Hypertext Before Computers
• Jones Multimedia Encyclopedia, History of Printing
• "Literary Formats from Manuscripts to Electronic Texts" from The Electronic Labyrinth

Suggested:

• Bolter, Jay David. Writing space. Chapters 1-2.
• ---. Writing Space (Storyspace disk).
• Richard Oliver, "As We Might Learn"

9/20: Theory 1

Re-thinking the Book (MOO)

Required

• "Re-Thinking the Book" from The Electronic Labyrinth
• Greg Ulmer, "Grammatology Hypermedia"
• K. Eric Drexler, "Hypertext Publishing and the Evolution of Knowledge"
• Guyer, Joyce, Stein, Birkerts, "From Page to Pixel" (FEED Magazine Dialogue)--please read parts 1-4.
• Scott Bukatman, Virtual Textuality

Suggested

• Taylor and Saarinen, Imagologies.
• Landow, Hypertext.

9/27: Hypertext Design

Technics of hypertext, techniques of writing

Required:

• "Writing and Reading Electronic Hypertexts" from The Electronic Labyrinth
• Jay Bolter, "Some Thoughts on Web Design"
• Mike Kuniavsky, "Browser Beatings: Design with Browsers that Suck
• Stuart Moulthrop, "Traveling in the Breakdown Lane: A Principle of Resistance for Hypertext" (Jonathan Chiu)
• Alan Eyzaguirre, Webcraft ("Communications Components" and "Choosing the Right Medium for the Message") (Dan Entin)

Suggested:

• The rest of Webcraft
• A Manifesto for Hyperauthors
• P.M.E. De Bra, "Hypermedia structures and systems"
• Nathan Shedroff, information interaction design
• Gaines and Shaw, "Concept Maps as Hypermedia Components"

10/4: Creative Hypertext 1

Non-linear narratives, hypertext poetry, hyperdrama.

Required:

• "The Non-Linear Tradition in Literature" from The Electronic Labyrinth (Kirsten Smith)
• Stuart Moulthrop, Victory Garden
• Jurgen Fauth, The Promises and Pitfalls of Hyperfiction"
• Charles Deemer, The New Hyperdrama
• Loss Glazier, "E" (Alison Wellford)

Suggested

• Suspect
• Carolyn Guyer, Written on the Web (Kevin Troy)
• Gareth Rees, "Tree Fiction"
• Moulthrop, Victory Garden (Storyspace disk).
• Douglas, "How Do I Stop This Thing?" in Landow, Hyper/Text/Theory
• Harpold, "Conclusions," in Landow, Hyper/Text/Theory

10/11 Class Projects

Each group will present functional specifications for the final project, including participants' roles, theoretical basis, outline of contents and user interface, sample html pages.

10/18: Midterm Exam

In-class written exam on the reading

10/25: Theory 2

Hypertext Editions (MOO)

• John Lavagnino, Reading, Scholarship, and Hypertext Editions (Chesney Floyd)
• Hoyt Duggan, Some Un-Revolutionary Aspects of Computer Editing
• Peter Robinson et al., "The Canterbury Tales Project"
• Jerome McGann, "The Rationale of HyperText" (Sarah Roche)

Suggested:

• Landow and Delany, The Digital Word.
• Landow, Hypermedia and Literary Studies.

11/1: Critical Hypertext

The Hypertext Essay.

• Stuart Moulthrop, "The Shadow of an Informand"
  • or see this alternate site
• Jerome McGann, "Radiant Textuality" (Ansley Murphy)
• Nancy Kaplan, "One Beginning -- E-literacies: Politexts, Hypertexts, and Other Cultural Formations in the Late Age of Print" (Paola Sanmiguel)
• Greg Ulmer, "Metaphoric Rocks: A Psychogeography of Tourism"

Suggested:

• Lanham, The Electronic Word.
• Landow, Hypertext.

11/8: Theory 3

Hyperculture (MOO)

• Oliver Hockenhull, "Writing of a Butterfly"
• Diane Greco, Hypertext with Consequences.
• Hakim Bey, T.A.Z., "The Net and the Web" (Todd Pontius)
• Kroker and Weinstein, "The Hyper-Texted Body, Or Nietzsche Gets A Modem" (Thejender Prasad)
• Marie-Laure Ryan, "Immersion vs. Interactivity: Virtual Reality and Literary Theory (Bob Solfanelli)

Suggested:

• Oliver Hockenhull, Towards a Furious Philosophy of the Discrete
• Steve Shaviro, Doom Patrol, Ch. 12 (Bill Gates)
• Taylor and Saarinen, Imagologies.

11/15: Creative Hypertext 2

Web-based fiction

• Mark Bernstein, "Conversations with Friends: Hypertexts With Characters" (Mark Manley)
• Judy Malloy, Love One
• Edmond Chibeau, The Meaning of "The Desert"
• Stuart Moulthrop, "Hegirascope"
• WaxWeb (Andrew Smith)
• Martha Conway, Girl Birth Water Death

11/22: Class Projects

Final Draft Critiques: Each student is responsible for putting up a page of substantive critique of each group project other than his/her own.

11/29: Thanksgiving Recess

12/6: Class Projects

Final Presentations: Each group will present final projects, compare final product to midterm specifications, and respond to final draft critiques.