Phonar ended 2012 like a supertanker trying to stop at traffic lights. Messily and with significant momentum. So much momentum in fact that the same students who you’ve seen submit to the will-of-open in both phonar2012 and picbod have demanded that their next class be open too. But better; designed by them, for them and supported by those people formally referred to as ‘teachers’.
So what does this mean? It means that most of the projects you’ve seen grow in #phonar2012 will evolve (in some cases mutate) into Final Major Projects in 2013. These are the final major investments of our students and what they come out with will constitute their exit portfolios, as well as a significant chunk of their final degree “grade” ( incidentally thank you very much for contributing in every way to phonar2012 – the result of all our input and hard work were the highest marks awarded in the history of the course #FTW ).
Phonar for Us By Us (#Phubu) will run in Google communities and has been designed by the students. The program is structured to be a live and open workshop which everyone can take part in. They’ve ditched one onsite member of staff in favour of re-allocating those resources to hire three off-site mentors and a series of guest speakers (which you can book one-on-one time with). The Google community/website is to act as a pinboard and support network for us all – which means we’d love for you to come along with us on this next leg of the journey.
So, if that sounds interesting, then we suggest that you take a moment to secure any loose items before clicking just here, because if our calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour… you’re gonna see some serious #phubu
jw
ps. tattoos definitely are an appropriate signifier.
In preparation for next week’s final screening and to whet their audiences appetite somewhat, #phonar students have recorded short pitches that you can listen in to by clicking on their faces below. (more to follow)
If you want to record your own pitch and add it in, do so in the comments section below
I visited Vancouver recently to speak about another open project I run called the Photobook Club. While I was there I managed to meet up with Julie Andreyev who runs one of the most interesting courses I have come across at the well respected and beautifully situated Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Julie’s students have created some cracking soundscapes at various locations on Granville Island, Vancouver in response to the ‘Life in the Day’ task which can be listened to via the links on the #phonar world map.
For our sound project on this #phonar world map, students explored ideas about real space location, histories of site, locative sound practices, mapping and social media tools. They researched a location on Granville Island and responded to this location by creating a locative soundscape. The soundscape is intended to be listened to on location at Granville Island.
ISMA 200 is an introductory course to the Interactive and Social Media major, focusing on contemporary media and interactive practices. The course allows students to explore diverse fields of digital art production including video, social media and interactive art projects.
In preparation for Jon Levy’s talk we are spending the first part of the session reviewing Robert Knoth and Antoinette de Jong’s work “Poppy”. You can read the same review and movie clips here on FOTO8 .
Then it’s into Jon’s talk – please tweet your notes using the #phonar hashtag and we’ll storify them into an Open Class version. You can curate your own version by using a Twitter search on Phonar and then the Storify site.
My audio is rubbish at the beginning – it gets better – luckily you’re here to listen to Jon, not me and to be honest I don’t really say much of consequence.
They think it’s all over ….. As #Phonar2012 comes to a tumultuous climax there are a bunch of anxious second years waiting to jump onto the stage and assume their rightful place in the history of OUCHs (Open Undergraduate Class Hybrids) at Coventry Uni. If you’d like to come along for the ride in the New Year, hear the lectures, share your notes, contribute your images and book time with the guest speakers then head over to the join page of #picbod or just drop by the blog and say hello after Christmas.
After near revolution in the #phonar class this week we’ve redesigned the schedule. A fire alarm being sprung in the building meant our brilliant guest speaker (Jon Levy aka FOTO8) was cut off and also led to us not being able to get back in to #phonar HQ in time to regroup. AND SO… due to ominous class pressure and the pursuasive effects of an outstanding break for cake aka #phonarFood care ofHelen Kuchta – Matt and I have decided to give everyone an extra week to complete the class.
This means that next week will be a taster of the final presentations – it means everyone will “pitch” their project for their appropriate platform/outlet/publication and we’ll (all of us) will chip in support and feedback. Final screening will be December 12th.
If you have a project that you’d like us to feature then please prepare a pitch for next week and we’ll feature it.
#TopTipThink movie-trailer rather than treatise. Keep it snappy – teach us something, draw us in, surprise us with tension but don’t resolve it. Remember you need us to want more.
Over 50,000 people have dropped by the #phonar class since it’s launch 2 years ago, and we are keen to locate as many of you as we possibly can via the #phonar world map which also aims to serve as a resource for the work produced throughout any of the iterations of #phonar.
Following on from Spencer Murphy’s fantastic lecture on the ‘Four looks of photography‘ the students entered into 1 on 1 tutorials with Jonathan. While these discussion are kept to the classroom, the class of 2012 have begun to upload their final project thoughts and ideas onto their blogs, these links can be found via the ‘Life in the Day’ comments.
Below are a few links directly to students projects. If you would like to have a tutorial with Jonathan via the £20 for 20 format, just get in touch.
Thanks to Spencer Murphy, Lecturer in Media and Communication at Coventry University for a brilliant talk this morning concerning the four looks of photography/film and the male gaze. To see the short extract from ‘Carrie’ featured in this talk please see the video embeded below the lecture when prompted (NSFW).
Hopefully some of the themes in Pete’s article will sound familiar to us over here on #phonar – if we’d had this back at the start of term I’d of played it straight after the first lecture. This is one not to be missed and brought to you by the Director of VII Agency no less
Photographs Are No Longer Things, They’re Experiences
[Stephen Mayes] argues that the rise of digital changed the very nature of photography by moving it from a fixed image to a fluid one. The swift pace at which we create images is only matched by the pace at which we discard them and yet, paradoxically, we’ve never been more engaged with images. Photography is less about document or evidence and more about community and experience … and that’s not a bad thing.
“The way we relate to imagery is changing,” says Mayes, who thinks the pace of change is astonishing. Fortune magazine reported in September 2012 that “10% of all photos ever taken were shot in 2011.” That same month, Mark Zuckerberg said Instagram, just shy of two-years in existence, passed the 100 million users. Instagram users, who are signing up a rate of one per second, have taken over one . . . → Read More: Phonar collaborators Pete Brook and Stephen Mayes in conversation for Wired.
Phonar - [fo-'när] is a free and open undergraduate photography class run by Jonathan Worth and Matt Johnston from the photography team at Coventry University in the UK
You can download the Phonar class app for iPhone by clicking the image above
This is a JISC funded project which seeks to give access to networks and communities of subject specialists, professional practitioners and wider learning communities.
Material from this class is open for use and re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
