CDME2008: Research for Digital Media

Module weekly notices

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Welcome to CDME2008, Research for Digital Media!

As the demands of technological realization become more complex, the process of researching, reviewing and developing creative practice takes on greater significance.

This module explores idea generation, research techniques and project planning relevant to developing an independent and advanced major project in digital media. It develops skills in research processes, including the analysis of existing digital media, and evaluating its cultural importance. It looks further at concept generation, project planning and their role in the generation of original creative work as well as its impact on the viewing audience.

What is this module about?

This module, currently named 'Research for Digital Media', is to be renamed Concept Origination, Research and Project Planning, as this is what it is really about. During this module, you will engage in coming up with an original idea, undertaking research on its scope and potential and then developing it into a workable concept and will form the foundation for a major project – your Independent Study. Often, it is the Independent Study that is the showpiece in a new graduate's portfolio.

This process of original idea generation, research and planning is one that you will undertake in the professional field. This process is not only the key to a successful practice but essential if you are to win clients and commissions. A project without research is like a house without foundations. As you are aware, the media arena is an intensely competitive one; it is not knowledge of software that will win you the jobs and commissions but the ability to show an original approach and creative solutions.

The weekly timetable

Please note that weekly attendance is essential if you are to engage effectively with the learning outcomes of this module. Missing more than three sessions without notifying your tutor might result in automatic failure of the module.

Note that this schedule is indicative only.

Week 01, beginning 30.01.12

Introduction to the module. How important is research for the digital media practitioner? How is it used?

Week 02, beginning 06.02.12

Generating your idea. What makes a good idea? How to think creatively! Edward de Bono.

Week 03, beginning 13.02.12

Information problem-solving: The Big Six. How to use information effectively. Origination of your topics.

Week 04, beginning 20.02.12

Top tips for research! By this week: choose a practitioner to interview. The use of Library material (Alison Taylor, Library). Meet in your usual room. We will then go over to the designated rooms, which are:

Tuesday 21st: EEG169
Wednesday 22nd: EE1101
Thursday 23rd: PL1002
Friday 24th: PL1002

Week 05, beginning 27.02.12

Understanding the character of practice in the digital domain. We are postmodernists. What is postmodernism?

Publish Post

Week 06, beginning 05.03.12
Directed Study Week: no set session but tutor will be in usual room: an opportunity to catch up and ask advice; students to arrange tutorials as required.

Week 07, beginning 12.03.12

Presentation of Independent Study proposal (and research to date): Group 1.

Week 08, beginning 19.03.12
Presentation of Independent Study proposal (and research to date): Group 2

Week 09, beginning 26.03.12
Individual tutorials 1 – students to be given tutorial times beforehand

Week beginning 02.04.12
Easter break

Week beginning 09.04.12
Easter break

Week 10, beginning 16.04.12
Individual tutorials 2 – students to be given tutorial times beforehand

Week 11, beginning 23.04.12
Peer assessment

Week 12, beginning 30.04.12
Open tutorial session, following peer assessment. An opportunity to seek advice before submission. Students to book tutorial, as required.

Week 13, beginning 07.05.12
Submission of finished assignment (interview and illustrated critical statement). Hand in day is the same day as the module session.

Week 14, beginning14.05.12

Assessment and feedback

This is the assignment

1) Submit an illustrated critical statement (80%) of 1,500 words, founded on a body of research material (evidenced by a folder of research material, that you do not submit but show to your module tutor) that defines your concept origination, pathway through the different methodologies and sources of collecting and evaluating information, how theory and cultural contextualization underpins your practice, and which demonstrates a clear production plan for your Independent Study. This should form the foundation for your Independent Study.

The illustrations could be sketches, photographs, concept drawings, storyboards, examples from publications or links to sound files – whatever you feel is appropriate. Embed these into your Word document (see below).

2) Interview a practitioner (20%) in the digital arts, designing your line of questioning in such a way as to reveal effectively and accurately their creative, professional and practical approach to their work and practice. This is a feedback report of 500 words, together with the questions you posed and a précis of the interviewee's responses. The specialist you interview does not have to practice within your own field.

Notes

The critical statement is your response to the research question you proposed and the learning outcomes developed as a result of your investigation. It includes a summary of your justification for your concept, research, and practical and cognitive thinking about ideas that you will have recorded in your research folder.

The critical statement should reflect the issues, concepts and context surrounding the research question, how it impacts on your practice, and how you will develop these in your Independent Study at level six.

The statement should be illustrated with visual material (character designs, storyboard, photographs, sketches, layouts, web links to sound files, or similar material) to demonstrate your project planning for the Independent Study. The visuals (or aural links) may form part of the Critical Statement document or submitted as separate files. embed the illustrations into your Critical Statement Word document.

At your module tutorials, you will provide a research folder. The research folder supports the critical statement by providing evidence of your thinking and overall learning experience over the module and is an integral part of the final assignment. The research folder also provides evidence of your professional development throughout the module and enables you to plan your learning to fit the needs of your final project.

The interview need not be with a specialist within your field but should be a professional practitioner in the media industries. You may conduct this face-to-face, by audio file, or remotely, by e-mail.

Your questions, and your response, will indicate your understanding of primary research and the most effective strategies of obtaining essential information. If you conduct your interview by audio file, you need not transcribe the responses but should supply an accurate précis.

Please ensure that your disk, and files, can be opened on a Digital Arts Centre computer. If we cannot open your file, you will score an automatic fail!

Hand in is:

Tuesday session: 8th May
Wednesday session: 9th May
Thursday session: 10th May
Friday session: 11th May

Do not hand your assignment CD/DVD to the module tutor on the day of submission. Instead, place your disk in a plastic sleeve with the cover sheet with the bar code (download this from SOLE). Seal it and submit it to the drop in point at Bredon. In this way, you will have proof of hand in. Note that assignments that miss the submission deadline will score only a maximum of D-. After five days, late submissions will score an automatic fail! You will then have to re-take the entire module.

Mitigating circumstances:

If, for good reason, you think you will not be able to submit in time, let the module tutor know immediately. You might be eligible for mitigating circumstances.

Some notes to help you with your topic

Assignment:

By week 3, you should have decided on your major project (Independent Study module) for level six. Around week 7 (depending on the time slot allocated), you will present your idea to your colleagues.

This is the project for which you are undertaking the research and planning for in this module.

Type of project:

This is for you to decide, according to your area of specialism. You are advised not to undertake a project in a field for which you have not taken any preparatory modules. It may be a video production, a piece of animation, a portfolio of creative digital prints, photographs, illustrations, a motion graphics sequence, a website, interactive media, sound applied to visuals – or a combination of some of these. It may be in traditional materials, or a conceptual work, but should involve some elements of digital media, even if this is simply by recording an event.

Collaboration:

You may collaborate with a colleague on your Independent Study, provided that it is clear as to what your area of responsibility and contribution is. This should be stated in the Proposal Form (see below).

Scope of project:

The project must have the scope for you to engage with it as a major project over one semester, as a ‘short, fat’ module, or two semesters, as a ‘long, thin’ one, as 30-credits. It might well be your showpiece to show a prospective employer or client. However, it should be manageable within the time. Your tutor will advise you.

If you change your mind about your independent study project after completing this module, you may do so but ensure that your supervising tutor is aware of the change.

This is your showpiece. It should incorporate all of the creative, critical and practical skills that you have acquired over your course. Try to be original in your concept! Remember, this might be what you show in your portfolio, or on your showreel to a prospective client or employer. It should be distinctive as a competently-realised, original concept. Think of something original that will really stand out as memorable, and on which you will enjoy working.

Proposal form:

During this module, you will be asked to complete a Proposal Form (download this from your SOLE page). We will tell you when to do this. At this stage, you must also identify a lecturer who will be your tutor for your Independent Study and ask them if they can fulfil this role. You will give a copy of the Proposal Form to the tutor for this Research module (once your Independent Study tutor has approved your topic) and one to Helen Holmes, who is our Independent Study Coordinator. Without submission of the form, you will not be allowed to take the Independent Study!

Presentation:

You will be required to present your idea to your colleagues – just as you will be to a prospective employer. No need to be apprehensive: this may only be an informal, brief talk of around five minutes. During the course of your career in the media, you will almost certainly be required to give similar presentations in order to win a commission – often in competition against other practitioners or studios. This is called a pitch.

The purpose of the session presentations is to give you initial confidence in presenting to a group and to share the ideas of colleagues in the group. Your colleagues will be required to give you constructive feedback, to help you develop your idea further.

Finally, enjoy your project!

Finally,

Notes on your Independent Study

The Independent Study Guide

Please refer to the Independent Study Guide for Digital Arts. This gives you all the information you need in order to undertake and submit your Study. This will have been sent to you, as an e-mail attachment, by Helen Holmes. If you have not received it, please contact her (h.holmes@worc.ac.uk) or David James (d.james@worc.ac.uk).

Devising a topic

The first stage in your Independent Study is to identify the general topic you want to investigate and the particular approach you want to adopt in order to realise it it. In this module, you should develop workable ideas and then discuss them with one of your lecturers who you think will be able to help you as your tutor for your Independent Study. The tutor does not need to have taught you but should be qualified (in terms of their area of expertise) to supervise you. The formal allocation of a supervisor comes later. You should collect an Independent Study Proposal Form from Registry (or download from SOLE), and arrange to meet the tutor. It is your responsibility to arrange this meeting.

Getting support for your Proposal

Do this no later than semester 2, prior to entering your final year. It usually occurs in this module.

The Independent Study Proposal Form requires a tutor’s signature to indicate that you have discussed your ideas with her or him and that she/he thinks the topic is realistic. These are the matters you should discuss with the tutor when you meet. You should also complete the ethics checklist, and discuss any ethical issues or health and safety requirements that your topic may raise at this meeting. The tutor will then sign the Proposal Form and the checklist, and you can submit them. (If the ethics checklist raises any concerns, it will be forwarded to the appropriate department for their consideration).

Submitting the Independent Study Proposal Form

As you must do this by week 10 of semester 2, prior to entering your final year, you must bring your Independent Study proposal form to your tutorial in this module in week 9 or 10 (you will be advised of this in the sessions). Your module tutor in CDME2008 can then review it with you.

You must ensure that your supervisor has signed your form. It must then be handed to Helen Holmes, who is the Independent Study Tutor for Digital Arts.

How you should approach the Independent Study

Remember, you are undertaking an investigation into an aspect of your specialist subject. Therefore, your proposal should be in the form of a question. For example, ‘What are the elements of a successful motion graphics sequence in the context of a television series?’ or ‘How is the postmodernist condition defined in an image that appears on a screen, as opposed to the same image that is mounted as a print, in a gallery?’ Your final artefact, as a competent piece of design, animation, motion graphics, photography, or whatever, demonstrates your assertions and your Independent Study 3,000 word reflective learning report provides your contextual and theoretical arguments.

It is this question (the “why?”) that you should be investigating, and researching, in this module, not how it was done.

Learning outcomes for this module

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

generate visual ideas appropriate for the proposed major project;

discuss, contextualise and justify your research with others in your learning group and the module cohort, and provide your colleagues with useful feedback;

develop a production schedule and appropriate time management techniques;

identify, research, document and evaluate a range of written and visual resources, synthesise with prior knowledge;

develop and apply an understanding of the uses of appropriate research methodologies;

research, analyse and identify a target audience for product development;

demonstrate an ability to plan and implement actions, identify targets and deadlines and organise resources;

demonstrate an ability to employ a variety of approaches to research that demonstrates the development of an appropriate range of skills.