Browse the following websites ( HYPERLINK “http://www.pechakucha.org” www.pechakucha.org; HYPERLINK “http://www.ted.com/talks/list” www.ted.com/talks/list; and HYPERLINK “http://www.igniteshow.com” www.igniteshow.com) and watch at least three presentations (ideally one from each site) that spark your interest. As you watch these presentations, consider what tools the presenter is using to get his or her point across. Ask yourself, for example: What kind of graphics did the creator use to engage me visually? What other ways did this presentation engage me—did it incorporate audio? Video? Still images? A live speaker? Other means? What tools did they use to convey information and what tools did they use to engage or entertain the audience? What did the creator of the talk do to move the presentation along so that it could fit into such a very compressed amount of time?
Include the URLs to the presentations you watch in your Process Post. You do not have to include notes on the presentations, but be prepared to share your findings with the class.
After you have looked at some sample presentations, start thinking about topics and primary sources related to our course theme, Gender and Sexuality in Pop Culure, that you find interesting. Write a short (200-500 word) description of the types of primary sources you might want to work with this semester. You might want to consider the following questions, although you don’t need to respond to all of them:
What is most interesting to me about our course theme? How might this course theme relate to other topics I’m interested in?
Why is this course theme important? Where have I seen examples of this theme?
What kinds of sources am I most interested in working with (text, image, video, audio, etc.)? Where might I go to find these types of sources?
What kind of images may relate to the course theme and to my ideas about the primary sources I might work with?
Along with the written portion, include three to five embedded images and/or links to videos that you may wish to explore as a primary source this semester. A primary source can be a static image (a print advertisement, a movie poster, a book cover, a game box, a comic strip, etc.) or a video (a movie trailer, a commercial, a clip from a TV show, a music video, etc.), but the most fruitful primary sources will contain at least two of the following: audio, visual, and textual elements (for example, a print advertisement that contains a photograph (visual) and a caption (textual), or a music video (which employs audio and visual elements)). Be ready to discuss in class the process of finding images and/or videos about the topic(s) you’re considering working with in this course. How have these images and/or videos and the search for them affected your ideas about your potential project?
