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Alchemists and Mad Scientists: from Faust to Dr. Strangelove
Stephen Brophy, Lecturer, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Curiosity is perhaps the defining characteristic of scientists in the popular mind, but a popular belief asserts that "curiosity killed the cat." In the popular imagination scientists challenge the boundaries of human knowledge, frequently paying a dire price for their audacity, and sometimes bringing that price down on the population around them. In this activity we will consider how science and scientists have been depicted in popular culture, starting with one manifestation of the widely celebrated Faust legend. We will trace the development in mass media of the evolution of alchemists into mad scientists, using the films "Faust," "Metropolis," "The Bride of Frankenstein," and "Dr. Strangelove" as our texts. Our goal will be a deeper understanding of the history of representations of science and scientists in Western narrative media.
Advance sign-up isn't required, but please email Stephen Brophy (stephbr@mit.edu) if you plan to attend so he can give you access to the activity's Stellar site.
Sponsor(s): Science, Technology, and Society, Comparative Media Studies
Contact: Stephen Brophy, stephbr@mit.edu
| Jan/10 | Thu | 07:00PM-10:00PM | 3-133 |
What do you do when you have it all and it isn't enough? Faust was the most highly respected philosopher, theologian, and physician of his time, but because he wasn't satisfied with all that he sold his soul to the Devil. And then what happened?
Stephen Brophy - Lecturer, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies
| Jan/17 | Thu | 07:00PM-10:00PM | 3-133 |
Back in the good old days, when you built a city that had sunshine and sport for the 1%, but endless drudgery for the 99% who kept it going, you needed a mad scientist to run it all. And no scientist has ever been madder than Rotwang, the genius behind Metropolis!
Nicole Labruto - PhD Student in History, Anthropology, and STS (HASTS), Stephen Brophy - Lecturer, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies
| Jan/24 | Thu | 07:00PM-10:00PM | 3-133 |
What happens when you build a creature with parts collected from graveyards and gallows, but neglect to provide him with a companion? He becomes monstrous in his loneliness. But maybe building a companion from the same materials isn't the best solution¿
Stephen Brophy - Lecturer, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, Marie Burks - PhD Student in History, Anthropology, and STS (HASTS)
| Jan/31 | Thu | 07:00PM-10:00PM | 3-133 |
Mad scientists don't only haunt medieval castles - they also ply their wares in the most up to date War Rooms. What happens when a modern mad scientist builds a Doomsday Machine for the Pentagon? See this movie to learn how to stop worrying and love the Bomb!
Stephen Brophy - Lecturer, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, Benjamin Wilson - PhD Student in History, Anthropology, and STS (HASTS)
Annotation Studio Workshop
Kurt Fendt
| Jan/31 | Thu | 03:00PM-06:00PM | 56-180 |
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/25
Limited to 20 participants
Have you ever wondered how to annotate online texts with your thoughts, comments, or associations? Does an image better express what you are imagining while reading a literary text? How about sharing your comments with friends, fellow students, or colleagues? How can you integrate digital text annotation in your teaching? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, please join us during IAP for HyperStudio's workshop on digital annotation tools designed for humanities students, scholars, and educators.
In this hands-on workshop you'll learn how to create, tag, link, and share annotations in web-based environments. The workshop will include:
Introduction to digital text annotation - evaluate various online text annotation tools
Hands-on sessions - work with your own text using Annotation Studio
Text annotation for teaching and scholarship - Discuss how to best apply these tools in your research and scholarship.
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies
Contact: Gabriella Horvath, ghorvath@mit.edu
Best of the 2012 European Short Film Festival at MIT
Kurt Fendt, Generoso Fierro
| Jan/23 | Wed | 07:00PM-09:00PM | 3-133 |
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Watch a rarely seen selection of the best European short films from MIT's 2012 European Short Film Festival. These films give you a glimpse into contemporary short film productions from European film schools, young and established independent filmmakers, and European festivals. 15 films - many of them US premiers - that reflect the most compelling fiction, animation, documentary and experimental film from the 3-day festival in April 2012. A brief introduction will precede the screening.
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies
Contact: Gabriella Horvath, ghorvath@mit.edu
Building Story Worlds: Space, Time, Rules, and Narrative in Game Design
Guilherme Marcondes, MIT Visiting Artists Program, Philip Tan, Creative Director, Game Lab, Sonny Sidhu, Comparative Media Studies, Rosalind Williams, Bern Dibner Prof of the History of Sci & Tech (STS)
| Jan/14 | Mon | 10:00AM-05:00PM | 56-180 | |
| Jan/15 | Tue | 10:00AM-05:00PM | 56-180 | |
| Jan/16 | Wed | 10:00AM-05:00PM | 56-180 | |
| Jan/17 | Thu | 10:00AM-05:00PM | 56-180 | |
| Jan/18 | Fri | 10:00AM-05:00PM | 56-180 |
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/09
Limited to 20 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Visiting Artist Guilherme Marcondes, in conjunction with researchers from the MIT Game Lab and the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, will lead a workshop exploring the role of space in storytelling. The workshop will focus on exploring how artists can use the tools of game design—including space, time, and rule sets—to construct complex narratives that are deeply embedded in the settings in which they unfold. Participants will learn how to design and refine a game prototype through playtesting and observation; produce, gather, organize, and use concept art, music, sounds, and other source materials to establish the mood of a narrative setting; and evaluate their own and others’ creations in a critique-based studio environment.
No prior programming experience is required. Participants will review examples of stories that deal with spatial exploration; explore in and around MIT on foot; and work in teams to create tabletop game prototypes. Students who want to advance their projects may continue working with the researchers Jan. 21-24 & may exhibit and demonstrate these prototypes at a public event on Jan. 24 at the MIT Museum. There is also opportunity in the second week for exploratory visits with faculty and labs.
The MIT Visiting Artists Program will host filmmaker, animator, and mixed-media artist Guilherme Marcondes for a two-week residency. For more information visit http://arts.mit.edu/va/artist/marcondes/.
To register, email Meg Rotzel at mrotzel@mit.edu.
Sponsor(s): Science, Technology, and Society, Game Lab, Comparative Media Studies
Contact: Meg Rotzel, 617-253-2372, mrotzel@mit.edu
Create a Web Series!
Sarah Coe
Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Are you interesting in storytelling or filmmaking? Are you a fan of creative web series such as Dr. Horrible, The Guild, or The Lizzie Bennet Diaries? Would you like to work with other energetic story-lovers? Then you’re invited to get in on the ground floor of developing an MIT-themed web series for debut in 2014! Comedy or drama, sci-fi or mystery, wacky or serious—your creative vision will help shape the show. Together, we’ll acheive our nefarious master plan: to create something so interesting, so entertaining, and so well-made that it will ensnare every procrastinator on campus!
From Jan 7th-13th, we'll be having our very first department meeting to lay the groundwork for the upcoming weeks. Feel free to stop by at meetings for the area(s) you are interested in! Also, if you are interested in helping out but not sure how yet, be sure to attend the General Meeting on Saturday the 12th, where we'll be coming together to share our progress and make plans.
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies
Contact: Sarah Coe, coesa@mit.edu
h4ckademic jam session: best apps for managing your academic workflows
Carol Kentner
| Jan/31 | Thu | 04:00PM-07:00PM | 14N-132, DIRC, Bring your mobile tablet. |
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
h4ckademic, a project of the Harvard Library Lab, is exploring & developing academic workflows using apps on mobile tablets. You're invited to join a jam session at MIT!
A h4ckademic jam session is a blend of many things–part app-athon, part design squad, part discovery zone–but essentially it’s hanging out to riff on mutual app experiences to create something new & cool. So that's the idea–bring together students who use tablets and develop cool workflows using apps to get their academic stuff done. Anything from capturing, collecting & organizing electronic academic content to reading, annotating & note-taking.
These jam sessions will surface the best of the best in academic workflows & will contribute to a baseline of options that will be showcased in an online app gallery. The online app gallery will be a tool for new students, new mobile users or anyone who wants to expand their app use to see apps that are being used, how they are being used & what might work best for them.
What will you do at the MIT jam session?
Can’t make the session, but want to share your h4ck? Use the form to give us a list of the apps you use to manage your academic workflow.
Sponsor(s): Libraries, Comparative Media Studies
Contact: Carol Kentner, 617-496-4799, carol_kentner@gse.harvard.edu
Integrating Communication Instruction in CI Subjects: A Writing Across the Curriculum IAP Workshop
Louise Harrison Lepera and Dr. Jessie Stickgold-Sarah, Lecturers, Writing Across the Curriculum
| Jan/28 | Mon | 10:00AM-11:30AM | 12-134 |
Enrollment: Limited: First come, first served (no advance sign-up)
Instructors of CI subjects often ask how they can more effectively connect writing and speaking instruction with the course content, so that communication assignments are not just additional requirements, but instead help students more deeply engage with the concepts of the course. How can we design instructional and assignment sequences that are organic to each subject, and that help students approach writing and speaking as the space for developing conceptual thinking? Working with some examples from CI-M and CI-H classes, we'll explore how instructors can break down assignments to demystify research, writing, and presentation in their fields. Improved sequencing will help students experience a more productive writing experience.
Bring examples of assignments from your classes to share.
All WAC workshops are open to faculty and teaching assistants who are interested in integrating writing and speaking into their subjects.
Sponsor(s): Teaching and Learning Lab, Comparative Media Studies
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, 617 253-0650, ACAVAL@MIT.EDU
Learn to Knit!
Ayse Gursoy
| Jan/28 | Mon | 01:00PM-04:00PM | E15-335 |
Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/25
Do you want to be able to knit your own cold-weather gear? Participants will learn the basic stitches, knit and purl, and other skills to make their first project: casting on, reading patterns, and understanding yarn and needles. Please bring materials (contact activity leader if you have any questions).
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies
Contact: Ayse Gursoy, agursoy@MIT.EDU
ModIT workshop: online HTML game engine/creation tool
Sara Verrilli
| Jan/17 | Thu | 01:00PM-04:00PM | 32-124 |
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/16
Limited to 30 participants
Prereq: see description
Introduction to a set of tools for creating games. Modit is currently in private beta but in this workshop, we will showcase our HTML5 game development. ModitTM seeks to transform HTML5 games into a new medium for self-expression by turning players into game creators. By bringing a full development environment into the browser, players will be empowered to modify the games they play and instantly publish and share those creations with the world.
Required of attendees: 1) Familiarity with JavaScript is ideal, but basic understanding of any programming language should be sufficient. 2) Laptop with Google Chrome, or Firefox, and Internet connectability. 3) Gmail account to log into the ModIt platform.
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies, Game Lab
Contact: Sara Verrilli, akiru@mit.edu
Oral Presentations and the Academic Conversation: A Writing Across the Curriculum IAP Workshop
Atissa Banuazizi and Nora Jackson, Lecturers, Writing Across the Curriculum
| Jan/31 | Thu | 10:00AM-11:30AM | 12-134 |
Enrollment: Limited: First come, first served (no advance sign-up)
This interactive workshop is geared to instructors across the disciplines who are interested in integrating oral presentation into their classes. We will discuss effective strategies to teach the oral component in CI classes as an act of critical thinking. Together, we will define goals for a variety of speaking genres in science and humanities classes. Participants will collaborate in sharing good practices from their own experience. Finally, we will explore some practical templates to teach oral presentation that encourage students to practice the following skills: (1) communicating complex ideas in accessible language; (2) creating presentations that clearly define goals and argument or hypothesis; (3) organizing presentations in the service of developing ideas in the broader context of the field.
All WAC workshops are open to faculty and teaching assistants who are interested in integrating writing and speaking into their subjects.
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies, Teaching and Learning Lab
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, 617 253-0650, ACAVAL@MIT.EDU
Powerful Feedback: Strategies for Responding to Student Writing: A Writing Across the Curriculum IAP Workshop
Dr. Karen Boiko and Susan Carlisle, Lecturers, Writing Across the Curriculum
| Jan/29 | Tue | 10:00AM-11:30AM | 12-134 |
Enrollment: Limited: First come, first served (no advance sign-up)
What kind of feedback will help students understand how to revise their essays, reports or articles, or to write their next assignment more effectively? This workshop will help faculty and TA's to articulate their criteria for student writing and to develop powerful feedback practices, from written comments to ribrucs to peer review to individual conferences. By considering feedback in relation to other forms of instruction, participants will learn to provide the kinds of comments and strategies that will help students understand how to improve their skills as writers.
All WAC workshops are open to faculty and teaching assistants who are interested in integrating writing and speaking into their subjects.
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies, Teaching and Learning Lab
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, 617 253-0650, ACAVAL@MIT.EDU
Reading Programming Code as a Cultural Object
Patsy Baudoin, Liaison to the Media Lab + Art, Culture & Technology program
| Jan/09 | Wed | 04:00PM-05:00PM | 14E-311 |
Enrollment: Limited: First come, first served (no advance sign-up)
Prereq: None
So much around us is driven by programs and written in code, in one or several computer languages. We use algorithms to visualize data, interpret behaviors, read trends, and drive decisions. Programs and algorithms are culturally determined objects, often observable as aesthetic works or philosophical gestures. It's time to think more about the cultural aspects of code and what goes on "under the hood" of digital manifestations. How is code written and by whom? Under what conditions? How does code circulate? Where do the creative aspects of programming lie? What do porting code and natural language translation have in common? How do we understand the obsolescence of computer languages? Let's talk about what it means to start reading code differently, as cultural objects and statements. Let's raise the questions that need to be raised.
Sponsor(s): Libraries, Comparative Media Studies
Contact: Patsy Baudoin, 14S-230, 617 253-4979, PATSY@MIT.EDU
Teaching Students to Write with (and Cite) Sources: A Writing Across the Curriculum IAP Workshop
Dr. Suzanne Lane, Acting Director, Writing Across the Curriculum
| Jan/30 | Wed | 10:00AM-11:30AM | 12-134 |
Enrollment: Limited: First come, first served (no advance sign-up)
Using evidence and writing with sources are central features of academic work. Students often struggle with these aspects of academic writing; they find the differing requirements for source use, the practices of citation, and the relationships between claim and evidence hard to navigate as they move from one discipline to another throughout their undergraduate career. Drawing from recent research in writing pedagogy, this workshop will discuss how to teach students to write with sources in ways that help them both to understand the methods of argument in different disciplines, and to better understand the requirements of academic integrity.
All WAC workshops are open to faculty and teaching assistants who are interested in integrating writing and speaking into their subjects.
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies, Teaching and Learning Lab
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, 617 253-0650, ACAVAL@MIT.EDU
The Complete Films of Corneliu Porumboiu
Generoso Fierro, Communications Director, MIT Game Lab
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
One of the driving forces behind the Romanian New Wave, director Corneliu Porumboiu (b. 1975) is the focus of my "Complete Works" series for 2013 . His first full-length feature film, 12:08 East of Bucharest, was awarded the Camera d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. His second feature, Police, Adjective (Poliţist, Adjectiv) won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard at the 2009 Cannes FIlm Festival. On January 12th and 13th I will be showing both feature films and adding his earlier short films to the program before the features each night. Please join us for a look at this unique director.
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies
Contact: Generoso Fierro, 26-147, 617 253-5038, GENEROSO@MIT.EDU
| Jan/12 | Sat | 07:00PM-10:00PM | 6-120 |
The full English title refers to the setting of the film and the time of day at which Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceau¿escu fled after the revolution, 12:08 pm on December 22, 1989. The Romanian title roughly translates to "Was There or Wasn't There?", referring to the film's central issue: did Vaslui have any part in the 1989 revolution? Screens w short "Gone With The Wine"
View The Trailer (w English Subtitles)
Generoso Fierro - Communications Director, MIT Game Lab
| Jan/13 | Sun | 07:00PM-10:00PM | 6-120 |
The movie focuses on policeman Cristi, who is investigating a teenage boy who has been smoking hashish. Over time, Cristi begins to question the ethical ramifications of his task. Director Porumboiu has great patience in allowing moments like these to draw your attention with quiet reflections, small gestures and very well placed words. Screens w shorts "A Trip To The City" and "Liviu's Dream"
Generoso Fierro - Communications Director, MIT Game Lab
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