Assignment Overview
- Students will work individually
- Submitted for 5/11 labs in the class
- ~500-750 words apiece
- Submitted via Canvas
- Due within 7 days of the given lab
Assignment Details
As the semester progresses, you will use our readings, class discussions, archival visits, labs, and other activities to develop an understanding of the book as a synecdoche for larger structures of information and media.
Our “lab reports” aim to bring the history and theory in our readings into active dialogue with the hands-on activities in our labs. There are 11 labs in total this semester, and you should complete 5 reports: at least three before spring break, and then all 5 by the end of the semester. Reports are due within 7 days of the given lab; holidays and breaks—such as spring break—should not be counted when calculating due dates.
These reports are short, and you should not strive to write full-fledged academic essays in each. Think instead of smart, critical writing you might encounter in a scholarly blog post or a sharp opinion piece. Cumulatively they might add up to a full paper, but individually they focus on one specific lab and the readings from its week, and should center around answering these questions:
- What idea or concept from our readings did the lab illustrate for you? What did you see in practice that you remember reading about?
- What idea or concept from the readings did the lab clarify for you? What’s something you understand better after our hands-on activities than you did from reading alone?
- How did the lab complicate the readings? What new questions or uncertainties did our hands-on activities raise that did not occur to you from the readings?
- How did the lab extend your thinking about the book as a material or intellectual artifact?
You should not spend words summarizing readings or recounting discussions from class at length, but instead choose specific, salient details that help you answer those questions and illustrate your own ideas. You might cite a specific idea raised by one of your colleagues as evidence, and you absolutely should quote and cite specific insights from our readings. You certainly may also connect some of our readings, activities, and course themes to texts and ideas you encounter in other classes and contexts.