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ARIN1010 –
Elements of Digital Cultures
Semester 1, 2024
Week 2:
Gadgets
"Super Low-Tech Apple Watches" by hine is licensed under
CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
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Getting into Gadgets
– This week explores how our relationship with the world is increasingly mediated
through gadgets.
– Gadgets have impacted our culture, behaviour, and communication. This week, you
are introduced to the concept of affordances, which refers to the inherent qualities
and potential uses of a technology.
– To apply this concept, today in class you will be completing a hands-on exercise
using the design platform Canva. You will create a diagram of the affordances of a
chosen gadget. This exercise will help you to think critically about the ways in which
a technology shapes our understanding of its potential uses and limitations.
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1. Key Assessment Information
– Video Essay - Roster and allocations
– Video Submission Requirements
– Weekly Quiz
– Portfolio – Lock in a theme!
2. Part A – Tutorial: Critical Discussion
1. Exercise 1 – Gadgets Research
2. Exercise 2 – Readings Discussion
3. Part B – Workshop: Gadget Diagram
1. Exercise 1 – Analyse Affordances
2. Exercise 2 – Gadgets & Unintended Uses
3. Exercise 3 – Prepare & Present your Gadget (Diagram on Canva)
Key Deliverable:
• Create a gadget diagram/s. Don't just label the components: identify what they do for users.
Include a title at the top of the image.
• Post on Canvas.
Portfolio:
• Refine the image. Make sure it fits the style of the rest of your portfolio.
• Include it in Microsoft Sway with a caption.
AGENDA
Electronic Gadget by Oleg Toka Art -
Created by Billie Wilcox in Canva
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Week 2: Gadgets (your video will be shown next week – Week 3)
Week 3: Bodies (show your video in Week 4)
Week 4: Sound (show your video in Week 5)
Week 5: Moving image (show your video in Week 6)
Week 6: Text (show your video in Week 7)
Week 7: Images (show your video in Week 8)
Week 8: Algorithms (show your video in Week 9)
Week 9: Artificial Intelligence (show your video in Week 10)
Week 10: Games (show your video in Week 11)
Week 11: Platforms (show your video in Week 12)
Week 12: Metaverse (show your video in Week 13)
Key Assessment Information –
Video Essay Roster & Allocations
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Produce a 3-minute video essay that offers a creative and critical response to the
element of digital cultures in your assigned week. Draw on the required reading,
recommended readings, lecture and your own research to illustrate, explain, narrativise
and dramatise the media and cultural dimensions of the element.
Must be submitted on Canvas before your tutorial.
– Submission should include:
• An opening title with the name of the element.
• The following text: ARIN1010 Elements of Digital Cultures, The University of Sydney
2024.
• At least one quote from the required reading!
• Themes and concepts from the lecture and your own research.
Key Assessment Information –
Video Essay Requirements
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Exegesis
You must include a written exegesis (200 words) which addresses:
• What tools did you use in creating the video?
• Justify your choice of images, sound and moving images in your video
• What theoretical themes did you want to explore (with references)
• References do not count towards the word count. Use APA v6 (in-text references and a
reference list).
Shotlist and Transcript
Please help your marker by providing a shot list of each sequence and edit, including the script.
Key Assessment Information –
Video Essay Requirements
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Shot List
Outline each sequence and edits
made.
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Examples – Transcript / Scripts
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• Save your video as an MP4 file
• Upload the video to an online service (such as YouTube or TikTok)
• Then, copy the embed code
• Embed your video as a reply on Canvas here
• In the Insert menu, choose Embed.
• More on how to do this here
• Post your reply
Key Assessment Information –
Video Essay Submission
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Key Assessment Information –
Weekly Quiz – Starts this week!
– Your first weekly quiz will be made available from Friday 1st March 4pm.
– Please complete this quiz before Sunday 3rd March 4pm.
Week 2 quiz is an early feedback task (no marks will be recorded for this entry).
– 5 multiple choice questions which will include questions about Week 1 & Week 2
lectures and readings.
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Key Assessment Information –
Portfolio Assessment – Lock in a theme!
– Last week, we spent some time researching potential portfolio themes.
– If you haven’t already – please do start giving some thought to your chosen theme.
Your theme is a unifying concept or idea that ties your various elements together. It is a central
motif that helps to convey style, interests and messages.
It is important to consider your portfolio theme early, as it will inform choices you make as part
of your weekly elements workshops.
– Coherence – elements will feel cohesive and unified, rather than a random collection of
works;
– Identity – the theme should reflect your interests, aesthetic preferences or artistic vision;
– Narrative – create a narrative or story within your portfolio; and
– Impact – ensure your portfolio is memorable and impactful.
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– Work in groups of 2 or 3.
– Find a recently released/announced gadget from the Las Vegas
Consumer Electronics Show from from one of these articles: Spiceworks,
Forbes, Mashable, Mashable again, Rolling Stone, AP News, or do your
own search.
– Find out as much about the gadget as you can about it.
– Find at least one image you can use for Part B) Gadgets Workshop.
Part A) - Tutorial Exercise 1. Gadgets Research
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• In what way does your chosen gadget extend or transform human faculties
(sight, hearing, touch, voice)? (Bollmer/Goggin)
• What forms of agency does the gadget afford?
• What rituals does it participate in? (Bollmer)
• In what technoscapes does it belong? (Goggin)
– Group discussion:
What do these technology trends tell us about today's digital cultures?
Which affordances often co-occur?
Which ones appear in gadgets separately, and why?
Part A) - Tutorial Exercise 2. Gadgets Discussion
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• An affordance can be revealed easily when you consider the relationship a
part has to its function. For example, take the old school wind up wristwatch.
• Interrelation of the gadget’s own parts:
The cog on the side of the watch has a relationship to the inner workings.
The cog being pulled outward shifts the inner workings to a state where it can
be manipulated. The rod has mechanical affordances that allows the cogs on
the inside to turn and change the position of the hands of the watch.
Part B) - Workshop Exercise 1. Analyse Affordances
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• The relationship of the parts to the human:
The cog is designed to be turned by a person. The cog is rippled to provide
grip for the person to grasp with their fingers. The cog is on the side of the
watch, making it easier to turn whilst wearing.
• The relationship of the parts to the world:
This can sometimes be harder to see, however consider the materiality of the
watch - the cog is of the earth and maintains properties that are in relation to
itself, giving it durability and other relationships to worldly principles - like
gravity, movement of electrons etc.
All of the above to consider just for the cog to change the time - there are
many other parts that make up the affordances of the wristwatch, like the
band, the clasp, the shape and contour of the watch face or the weight of the
watch.
Part B) - Workshop Exercise 1. Analyse Affordances
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Create other use cases from the affordances you have recognised in your gadget
A traditional perspective of design would be to say that there is a certain level of
intention set by a designer when they make a gadget. However, an object does not
always behave in the way the designer intends, nor do people need to use a gadget
in its intended way.
Now that you understand the affordances of your chosen gadget, can you present
some creative ways it can be used in unintended ways?
Part B) – Workshop Exercise 2. Gadgets & Unintended Uses
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• Your tutor will now facilitate the Workshop Activity.
• Please follow the step-by-step instructions found here
Part B) - Workshop Exercise 3. Prepare & Present your Gadget
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Next week – W3 Bodies
Required Reading:
William Farr SP. An Introduction to
Embodiment and Digital Technology
Research: Interdisciplinary Themes and
Perspectives. National Centre for
Research Methods; 2012.
https://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/id/eprint/22
57/4/NCRM_workingpaper_0212.pdf
Recommended:
Introduction: Who is the built world built
for? In: What Can a Body Do? : How
We Meet the Built World. Riverhead
Books; 2020:1-32.
Donath J, Dragulescu A, Zinman A,
Viégas F, Xiong R. Data Portraits.
Leonardo (Oxford). 2010;43(4):375-
383. doi:10.1162/LEON_a_00011 “AI Inputs and Outputs” by Creative Commons
Made from details from two images generated by the DALL-E 2 AI platform with
the text prompts “A Hieronymus Bosch triptych showing inputs to artificial
intelligence as a Rube Goldberg machine; oil painting” and “a robot painting its
own self portrait in the style of Artemisia Gentileschi.” CC dedicates any rights it
holds to the image to the public domain via CC0.