Creative Writing and New Media
Unit code: HAM422
| Credit points | 12.5 Credit Points |
| Duration | 1 Semester |
| Contact hours | 3 Hours per Week |
| Campus | Hawthorn |
| Prerequisites | Students must have completed HAM410 Electronic Writing (or have equivalent expertise in HTML/web production). |
| Corequisites | Nil |
Related course(s)
An elective unit in the Graduate Diploma of Multimedia, Master of Multimedia, Master of Multimedia Technology, Master of Multimedia (Honours), Graduate Certificate of Arts (Applied Media). Graduate Diploma of Arts (Applied Media), Master of Arts (Applied Media), Master of Arts (Communications) and Bachelor of Arts (Honours).
NB: This unit will not be offered from 2008 onwards.
Aims and objectives
As new electronic modes of writing develop, new opportunities for creativity and expression also arise. In the context and framework of cultural convergence, this unit allows students to experiment with possible paradigms for writing in a hybrid environment that incorporates online and fixed, distributable media (CDROM/DVD), installation and traditional print publishing. In this unit students will be introduced to the possibilities for creative writing and expression associated with new media technologies. Students will gain experience in writing and publishing in a range of media.Generic skills outcomes
Students are expected to develop a number of graduate attributes, resulting in graduates who are:
- capable in their chosen professional areas
- entrepreneurial in contributing to innovation and development within their business, workplace or community
- operate effectively and ethically in work and community situations
- adaptable and manage change
- aware of local and international environments.
Students are expected to develop the following generic skills:
- Research skills
- Logical and critical thinking skills
- Thinking in theoretical terms
- Appreciation of the history of ideas
- Awareness of personal and ethical values
- Written communication skills
- Attention to detail
- Competence to use library and other information sources
- Public speaking skills
- Teamwork skills
- Ability to elicit information from others
- Planning skills
- Time management skills
- Ability to use computers
- Preparation for thesis work
Content
This unit explores the following areas of practice in new and emerging creative forms of writing associated with new media: hypertext as a creative medium, the writer as publisher, hypertext fiction and hypertext poetry, Webzines and animated text, understanding and designing interactive texts, audio, video and animation in hypertext, online collaboration, generated texts – the limits of literature?Reading materials
Aarseth, EJ, 'Nonlinearity and Literary Theory', in Landow, GP (ed), Hyper/Text Theory, Johns Hopkins UP, Baltimore and London, 1994.Bonime, A, Writing for new media: the essential guide to writing for interactive media, CD-ROMs & the Web, J. Wiley, New York, 1998.
Yellowlees, DJ, The end of books -- or books without end?: reading interactive narratives, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2000.
Hocks, M & Kendrick, M (eds), Eloquent images: word and image in the age of new media, Cambridge, MIT Press, Mass, 2003.
Joyce, M, 'New Stories for New Readers: Contour, Coherence and Constructive Hypertext,' in Snyder, I (ed.), From Page to Screen, Routledge, Londong, 1988.
Ulmer, G, Heuretics: The Logic of Invention, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1994.
Wardrip-Fruin, N & Harrigan, P (eds), First person: new media as story, performance, and game, Cambridge, MIT Press, Mass., 2004.
Montfort, N, Toward a Theory of Interactive Fiction, http://nickm.com/if/toward.html in The Electronic Literature Directory, http://directory.eliterature.org/ The Electronic Writing Research Ensemble, http://ensemble.va.com.au/
