1. COM 327 January 15 Quiz! Housekeeping Group presentation
Critical making overview & discussion

2. QUiz

3. Question 1
Jenkins refers to Pierre Levy's notion of "collective ______" to characterize the ways online communities produce knowledge.
a) collectivism b) firepower c) standardization d) intelligence

4. Question 2
2. In his discussion about the need to rethink intellectual property rights, Jenkins references copyright debates around which popular book series & media franchise?
a) Fifty Shades of Grey b) Twilight c) Harry Potter d) Persepolis

5. Question 3
3. Ratto refers to critical making as a way to connect _____ and goal-based physical work, two engagement modes that are usually considered separate.
a) politics
b) education
c) artistic design
d) critical thinking

6. Question 4
4. What book does Ratto quote throughout his article to emphasize the importance of care and investment in relation to critical making?
a) The Little Prince
b) The Old Testament
c) Where the Wild Things Are
d) The Hunger Games

7. Housekeeping Sign up for group presentations!!
“COM 327: Group Presentation sign-up”
“Go Meta” assignments are due next Tuesday.
Find 2 journal articles, from the list of journals provided on the syllabus, that discuss the same (multi)media franchise.
Create a 4 page write-up, in 3 sections:
Introduction
Chart comparing the 2 articles
Discussion of the differences between the two critical approaches

8. Critical Making - Roots - Examples - Limitations

9. The DIY movement Zines Culture Jamming Fandom
Cultural & technological roots of “critical making”:
The DIY movement
Zines
Culture Jamming
Fandom

10. The DIY movement Roots in home repair and renovation
Now refers to any/all of the following:
Environmental sustainability
Self-published books / podcasts / zines
Indie music labels
Crafts
Indie game development
“Life-hacking”

11. The DIY movement

12. The DIY movement “REMIX CULTURE”

13. ZINES Date as far back as 1930’s-1960’s grassroots sci-fi publishing
1970’s & 80’s: British punk scene
1990’s: “riot grrrl” scene

14. ZINES Usually unpolished & ‘raw’
Typically an outlet for marginal & activist subcultures

15. Culture Jamming
Form of media activism dating back to 1970’s billboard defacing campaigns
Popularized in the 1990’s by Adbusters
‘Hacking’ advertising imagery and techniques to form anti-globalization, anti-marketing, anti-consumerist messages

16. Culture Jamming

17. Culture Jamming “Banksy”, English graffiti artist
“You owe the companies nothing. You especially don't owe them any courtesy. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs.” 
“Banksy”, English graffiti artist

18. Culture Jamming
“Co-optation”

19. Fandom Fan-made ‘remixes’ of popular culture franchises
Brought to light in 1990’s by Henry Jenkins (same dude)
Very multi-media: visual art, written fiction, movies

20. Fandom

21. Fandom

22. Fandom

23. So what is Critical making?
“a practice-based engagement with pragmatic and theoretical issues”
“it seems that when one uses technologies he or she remains aware of their nuanced relationship to society, while when one theorizes about them they seem much more “brittle” and inflexible”

24. 3 steps to critical making
Do research: Which theories are you going to ‘enact’, and how?
Build prototype
Reiterate and refine
(Ratto, p. 253)
What’s missing here? (what comes before Step 1?)

25. RAINBOW
FLAMETHROWER
(Alex Leitch, 2012)

26. Spray it forward (Pagee, 2012)

27. FREEDOM BRIDGE (Magnuson, 2011)

28. What are the limitations of critical making?

30. For next class: Stuart Hall reading is D E N S E
Wikipedia entry on “Encoding / Decoding” is helpful.
Question: How does his model of mass communication modify the TRANSMISSION model?