Making Alternative Media

Hey class, the Blogger template I’m strongly encouraging you to use for your CSS experiments is at this URI:
http://www.bricolog.org/altmedia/readings/RTF319Template.html

For Friday, I’d like everyone to hand in 1.5-2 pages about their experiences making ‘zines. Here’s what I’m looking for.

I’d like you to describe your role in the production of the ‘zine. Tell me which pages you created, and, if your group divided up labor, tell me if you did the layout, the cover [...]

Allright, next week’s readings are online, so no one has an excuse not to read them. First, I’d like you to read Tim O’Reilly’s essay “What is Web 2.0,” which introduced the concept to the world. Then, check out this meta-post that lists a variety of explanations of Web 2.0, and pick two to look [...]

Sorry for switching back and forth between email and the blog for class communications. Since we discussed resolution and printing on Friday, I thought I would point you to this handy guide for minimum resolutions and photo-quality printing.
If you weren’t in class Friday, I moved back the due date for the ‘zine project to next [...]

For Wednesday, I’d like you to read Weblogs: a history and perspective by Rebecca Blood. I’m sure you’ll find it a little dated since it was published in 2000, when blogs were first starting to gain momentum. It is, however, interesting because it provides a nice bridge between the world of blogs and the ‘zine [...]

In class tomorrow, we’ll have a guest speaker, Leslie Dreyer, who will be speaking about her experiences curating the Parallax View sidebar to the Cinematexas film festival. She’ll also be discussing some of her favorite alternative media texts and techniques.
Don’t forget to read Chapter 3 of Dan Gillmor’s We The Media, which you can [...]

Today in class I’ll go over basic page layout in Microsoft Word before I do an introductory tutorial in Illustrator. For the tutorial (and your own use) I’ve created a very basic Word template for creating ‘zines.

In case anyone wants to check it out, you can download the first two issues of Boing Boing here.

The reading for next week’s class is a chapter from Dan Gillmor’s book We The Media, and it’s available free online under a Creative Commons license. (We’ll talk more about licenses later.) Read Chapter 3 “The Gates Come Down,” and I think I’ll assign Chapter 2 down the road. Yeah, I’m bucking the system by [...]

As you know, today we’re working on ‘zine projects in our lab day. I told you to bring cardstock, markers, gluesticks, stuff to cut up, and scissors. I got a rather large package of cardstock last night, so if you’re freaking out about finding some cardstock, I’ve got plenty to share. See you at one!