Digital StudiesDigital Studiesororcreatingcreatingtomorrow’s global leaderstomorrow’s global leadersHolly WillisHolly WillisDirector of academic ProgramsDirector of academic Programs

INSTITUTE FOR MULTIMEDIA LITERACY

Our best thinkers are telling us the world is changing.Our best thinkers are telling us the world is changing.

We are caught up in a social and We are caught up in a social and economic economic revolution.revolution.To survive it, To survive it, we need a new conception of human we need a new conception of human resources.resources.To develop these resources, To develop these resources, we need radically new we need radically new strategies.strategies.

Ken RobinsonKen RobinsonOut of Our Minds: Learning to be Out of Our Minds: Learning to be CreativeCreative

Conditions in the world are changing Conditions in the world are changing significantly…significantly…The world of the future will demand capacities that The world of the future will demand capacities that

until now have been mere options.until now have been mere options.To meet that new world on its own To meet that new world on its own terms, we should begin to terms, we should begin to cultivate these new cultivate these new capacities now. capacities now.

Howard GardnerHoward Gardner5 Minds for the Future5 Minds for the Future

Mission

Mission• The IML empowers students through media to be critical and competent citizens and scholars for the 21st century.

MissionClive Thompson recently in Wired:“I think we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization," [Karen Lunsford] says. For Lunsford, technology isn't killing our ability to write. It's reviving it – and pushing our literacy in bold new directions.”

Mission• The IML is unique in being housed within a School of Cinematic Arts: we know how to think through media.

MissionFour Ways Technology Is Changing Scholarship• Computation• Visualization• Technology-enabled Collaboration• Simulation

New literacies21st century literacy is the set of abilities and skills where aural, visual and digital literacy overlap.

These include the ability to understand the power of images and sounds, to recognize and use that power, to manipulate and transform digital media, to distribute them pervasively, and to easily adapt them to new forms. 

“A Global Imperative,” 21st Century Literacy Summit, report and recommendations following the 21st Century Literacy Summit, April 26-28, 2005, San Jose, California.

Doug Aitken’s multi-screen video installation titled Sleepwalkers was installed on six facades of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in January, 2007 as an example of what the artist dubs a “broken screen narrative.” The project chronicles the lives of five characters as they move through the city at night, and it is rich with metaphors – the city as body, the city as screen, the city as spectacle – but more significantly, it points to the desperate attempts of museums to engage viewers as their role, once central to the very identity of a city, diminishes. Indeed, Sleepwalkers was accompanied by a massive PR campaign that involved even Mayor Bloomberg, who praised the project for being “fun, fascinating and, best of all, free.” For Bloomberg, Sleepwalkers contributed to a larger mandate designed to attract tourists to the city.

In this clip, a rapid sequence of close-ups on faces introduces the five characters. What is most important, however, is the scale of the images. With its immense, dazzling close-ups, as well as its spare yet fashionable aesthetic, along with the presence of carefully chosen iconic figures – Cat Powers, Donald Sutherland and Tilda Swinton – Sleepwalkers connects the museum with notions of stardom, design and fashion. The immensity of the images then embodies power and helps to brand the museum. Unlike the work of Raphael Lozano-Hemmer, the buildings in Sleepwalkers in no way engage the public; instead, they represent money, and Aitken’s imagery underscores the tension between the material and digital forms of that capital.

The City Becomes a Screen

IML 140 // Earth Sciences

IML 140 // Linguistics

IML 140 // African-American Pop Culture

IML 140 // Near Eastern and Mediterranean Archeology

Pierson Clair, senior thesis (IR) , Building a Better National Security Budget

Sonia Seetharaman, senior thesis (Biophysics), To Be or Not To Be

Leanne Joyce, senior thesis (Cinematic Arts), Whitees

Matt Lee, senior thesis (Engineering / Theater), Rivenscyr

Institute for multimedia literacy

DIGITAL STUDIES MINOR

• 20 units• diverse electives• no thesis project• no prior media experience• open to all

Honors in multimedia Scholarship program

• 16 units• “Honors” designation on transcript• research-based thesis project• no prior media experience• open to all

IML 140: workshop in multimedia authoring

• 2 units• aligned with other course topics• can be taken twice• no prior media experience• open to all

IML electives

• 2 – 4 units• Web design, video, typography• hands-on• no prior media experience• open to all

AwardsDiscovery Scholar: Highest USC Honor / Rachel KerryUndergraduate Research Symposium / Lydia GreenUndergraduate Research Symposium / Leanne JoyceUndergraduate Research Symposium / Joseph HendererUndergraduate Research Symposium / Nicole HummelUndergraduate Research Symposium / Ari LevinsonHASTAC Scholar / Amanda WaddellIBC Panelist, Amsterdam / Sean Miura

Awards + Grants

Provost’s Prize for Teaching With Technology / Virginia KuhnProvost’s Prize for Teaching With Technology / Steve AndersonInnovative Undergraduate Teaching Award /

Virginia Kuhn + DJ JohnsonTeaching With Technology: Mobile Commons / Steve AndersonZumberg Award: Open Source ScholarshipVisions + Voices Arts and Humanities Initiative Grants (6!)TEL-DL Grant: The Virtual CampusMacArthur Digital Media and Learning Grant (2)National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute Grant (2) Robert Wood Johnson GrantMellon Grant: Sophie Development

StructureTEACHINGPROJECTSINFRASTRUCTURE

StructureTEACHING

IML 101: The Languages of New MediaIML 140: Workshop in Multimedia Authoring • seven sectionsIML 340: The Praxis of MediaIML 346: Methods in Scholarly MultimediaIML 400: Web-Based MultimediaIML 440: Multimedia Thesis, IIML 444: Multimedia Thesis, IIIML 466: Digital Studies SymposiumIML 499: Media for Social ChangeIML 501: Digital Media Workshop (for Graduate Students)

StructurePROJECTS

NEW TOOLS • Sophie • Critical Commons –> Mobile Commons • Mobile Voices: Linking Immigrant Workers and USC Students • Mobile IML

StructurePROJECTS

K-12 INITIATIVES • Junior AV Club: Pre-K Multimedia Production • Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships • New Mexico K-12 Collaborative

StructurePROJECTS

NEW COLLABORATIONS • Shoah Foundation Archive Teacher Innovation Network • Visual Anthropology Progressive Masters Degree • Annenberg Arts Journalism Collaboration • Gender StudiesThe Gendered Curriculum: Enhancing the Integrative Learning of the Gender Studies Interdisciplinary Program Through Multimedia • Keck School of Medicine: 21st Century Medical Education

Our best thinkers are telling us the world is changing.Our best thinkers are telling us the world is changing.

Let’s change along with it…Let’s change along with it…

Holly Willishwillis@cinema.usc.eduhttp://iml.usc.edu213-743-2937