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introductions
- Getting to know each other.
Are you sure you are in
the right class?
Are you sure I am? One of us should probably leave.
Some questions:
a) why are you in the program, what are your expectations?
b) why are you in this course, what are your expectations?
c) tell me about you 5 years ago.
d) tell me about you 5 years from now.
Let's watch:
Alan Watts channeled by South Park
How to be creative
Le Grand Content
assignments

Due ASAP:
Introducing our Ning site: http://sequentialvisualization.ning.com/
You gotta be invited to play, so you must send me an email with your address
and with a subject line: [sv] email address & name.
send it to me now:
my email address is sean.r.cohen@gmail.com
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Due Next Week:
Watch "Do
Schools Kill Creativity?" By
Ken Robinson
Ken asks and attempts to answer in a witty 20 minutes, "Why isn't
readin, writing and rithmatic enough? Why
would a multimedia approach to conveying, distributing, and absorbing knowledge
be important or essential?"

Due Next Week:
The diagram is incomplete: The
Story of Stuff (20 minutes long, a
30 mb download, but you'll survive)
A compelling visualization in which a simplistic chart is elaborated upon until
a point of view is established. Note that any kind of simplification
often requires the establishing of a viewpoint. Whether or not you care
or agree with her viewpoint it is valuable to see how she takes 1 chart and
spends a whole movie expanding and dissecting it.

Read for Next Week:
Understanding Comics: Chapter 6, starting on page 138. Know
it.
Do yourself a favor, read every assignment in this comic twice, once quickly
and easily, the second time more slowly and intently. Notice the visual
techniques Scott McCloud uses to persuade, reassure, and further clarify. Notice
that his primary technique seems to be the use of examples.

Due Next Week:
Build/Create: A Day-In-The-Life Report
Due next week, an annual report-ish Day in the Life. Produce a "day in the life" report for next Tuesday.
How many smiles? How many times did you go to the bathroom? How many hours did you sleep? How much time did you spend accounting for how much time you spent? What music did you listen to? How many miles did you drive? How many topics, documents or folders did you open? How much money did you spend? on what? (hint, a way to tabulate some of this is to install google desktop, it will record all of the activities you took on your computer for the day.)
Example: Every year Nicholas Feltron makes an annual report on what he has done in the past year. They are always fun and often beautiful as well as informative. And from my perspective, a wonderful way to live a documented life.
http://feltron.com/
Note: this is your first assignment. That means it bears with it all the preconceptions, misconceptions and expectations that burden the beginning of any relationship. So to answer your questions: yes, I will judge you based on this assignment. yes, I will judge the class as a whole based on this assignment. Yes, you will judge each other based on this assignment. There is a good bit of forbearance and mercy in grad school, and so if you foul up this first assignment, there is still hope for you - but you won't get a second chance to make a first impression. Spend this week well.
A little side assignment I did to irritate myself.