Final Project

As the term progresses, you’ll want to think about what your final project will be. I am purposefully leaving this open, because I want you to invest in a creative critical project that makes sense to you, that sparks you, and that feels important to you. Projects can be done individually, in pairs, or in small groups. Use our #looking-for-a-group channel to pitch ideas and find folks to work with. I promise you you will learn something new by working with each other.

The only things I ask are that the project:

• demonstrates your creative activation of our course material in some way.
• clearly explains how your work intersects with or relates to the concepts/issues we’ve learned in class.
• directly cites at least 2 of our course readings, and at least 2 scholarly sources we haven’t read. “Course readings” also includes your teach-the-class presentations (slide are on Slack) and readings that are cited on our class slides—so if you want to use a concept but aren’t sure where it’s cited, DM me on Slack and I’ll point you to it. For finding other sources that we haven’t touched on yet, you might use Google Scholar to find articles and then, if not easily available, plug the title into an NU Library search. If you find something but can’t access it, let me know and I can try to help you get access. I have tactical methods. As you integrate other voices into your project, think carefully about how you will give credit where credit is due. Do so in a way that makes sense given the medium you are working in. If your project includes a medium post, you might say something like: Williams (2020: Page #) mentions that “quote.” Rather than having a works cited page, you could just link out to the book. If you have a podcast component, you might deliver this information verbally: “In her book Theme Park Fandom, Rebecca Williams suggests that…” If you’re doing a video, maybe you list your references in the end credits. How you choose to do this is up to you, but make sure you’re citing the work you are building on.
• asks us to participate in some way. We’ll dedicate the last week of class to showcasing your final projects, so you want your project to be “experiential.” While I don’t necessarily want you to charge an entry fee or surveil your fellow students (as we’ve learned many experiences do), I do want you to consider how you can present your work as a memorable, meaningful experience for your peers. Draw on everything we’ve learned about interactivity, immersion, liveness, eventfulness, fan cultures, strategies and tactics, transmedia, the experience economy (and so on) to create something we can all experience together. I’m asking you to be brave with your design, to try something new and to put trust in the learning community we’ve created this term! We’ll work out the details of timing once our projects start to take shape. Some of you might use more class time, some might use less. For instance, you might get up and present your work to the class for 10–15 minutes; or you might have us all read, watch, listen, or click around your work beforehand (asynchronously) and then facilitate a 5–10-minute Q&A discussion or activity in class; maybe you’ll have us watch your video essay together in class; or maybe you’ll stage a 20-minute “experience” live in the classroom.

Anytime before or by Tuesday, November 9th, you/your group will submit a 300-ish word “pitch” that describes what project you’ll be undertaking, why you’re doing it, and how it relates to our class. Submit the pitch by DM’ing me on Slack.

Anytime before or on Thursday, November 11th, you/your group will want to have met with me (either in person/remotely) to check-in and discuss so we can all be on the same page about what it is you’re hoping to accomplish. Together, we’ll form some parameters for the project.

I’ll provide just a few ideas here:

• Record a podcast that does some journalistic, investigative, or autoethnographic work into a media space. Use course concepts to frame your work. Tell an overlooked story. Interview somebody!
• Design an escape room or game using our course content as clues; have us all play.
• Create a digital placemaking project that somehow serves the public good. Check out a few examples. Sketch it or make a video explaining it to us.
• Create a map or location-based audio tour that “re-places” an area — campus? Chicago? your hometown? a tourist destination? Use the map to tell a “counter-narrative” that highlights overlooked histories about the place, or ways people use the space that contradict its dominant “strategies.” Or maybe it’s a deeply personal, reflective map that sees you re-placing yourself.
• Design an interactive map of noteworthy media tourism spots around Chicago. Go to the locations, take photos, talk to the people you come across.
• Analyze social media accounts or technologies of a particular tourist location. Look at hashtags, find patterns. Use course concepts to think about how meaningful experience is being constructed either by industries or audiences/users.
• Design your own place-based media experience based on a media property of your choosing. Draw up a blueprint; explain how and why fans are invited to engage with it; tell us why it isn’t evil.
• Develop and initiate a transmedia promotional campaign for a local business or a cause you care about. Reach out to them and hold an event. Invite us and tell us to spread the word.
• Head to a media experience in the greater Chicago area (or somewhere else) and make a TikTok video that documents your experience (again, autoethnography). Analyze the space.
• Submit a longer opinion piece for our Medium page that opens up an issue we’ve learned about while advocating for something good.
• Make a visual presentation that showcases a fandom or franchise that is up to something interesting; analyze it using some of the readings you read. Talk to us like we’re at a TEDx conference.
• Write a feature, make a short documentary or a video essay about a place that has been or is being materially changed by digital technology, media tourism, or participatory culture. Maybe it’s somewhere in your neighborhood, maybe not.

These are just ideas, and more than likely they aren’t exactly what you’ll end up doing. Again, pitch your own ideas on Slack #looking-for-a-group, brainstorm with your peers, and come up with something that excites you.