Assessment

GRFF Campaign (25%)
Kickstart Posters with Essay (15%)
Kickstart Remix Posters with Essay (30%)
Online Journal/Artist's book (10%)
Quizzes (10%)
Participation & Attendance (10%)
GRFF Campaign :: 25% :: campaign pitch Oct. 2 :: campaign launch Oct. 9 :: Essay Oct. 16
This project involves three components: 1) a web page that links to an event you will be advertising; 2) a viral campaign that uses various media to draw people to your site, and ultimately to the event site; 3) an essay documenting the genesis of your project. Your campaign, which will be designed on the principles outlined in course readings (including theoretical readings) and exercises, must lead the public to your web page. The web page itself will serve as a gateway onto the GRFF Web site. This technique is used so that we can keep track of the number of hits for GRFF generated by your site. You will be graded on the design and effectiveness of your campaign (15%), and the design of your web page (5%). In addition, each student will be responsible for submitting a 3-4-page essay that discusses the project's genesis (10%)
Kickstart Project :: 10% :: first draft Oct 23 :: final draft Oct. 30
Each student will be responsible for developing two advertising posters based on a single product “kickstarted” in class. To create the posters, you must draw on at least one of the techniques described in Mario Pricken's "Kickstart Catalogue." You must also draw on Alexander White's "elements of graphic design." You will discuss your use of Pricken and White's techniques to justify your posters in a 2-3-page essay that will accompany your posters.
Kickstart Remix with Essay :: 30% :: first draft Nov. 13 :: final draft with essay Nov 27
This project requires you to remix your kickstart posters by "subvertising" your product. Drawing on the strategies of the Situationiste Internationale, adbusters, and other advocates of resistance studied in class, you will turn your ad campaign into a vehicle for social justice or any ideology that might oppose your product. This exercise requires you to completely shift roles, from a marketing professional to a purveyor of propaganda. Begin by investigating how your chosen product might be critiqued by those who oppose it. What ideology would resist the product? How can you transform your current ads to reflect that ideology and to clearly convey your message? Visit adbusters.org for examples of subvertising and culture jamming projects. You will be graded on the design of your poster, as in the first assignment, but your essay (7-10 pages) must justify your remix based on the readings in cultural resistance studied in class. Put your own project in the context of Adbusters , the SI, and the events of May 1968 in Paris. You may also choose to undertake a more ambitious ad campaign (beyond the poster), and critique a product other than the subject of your kickstart project. This option requires approval from the professor by Tuesday, November 11.
Online Journal / Artist's Book :: 10%
Each group will be responsible for maintaining a blog in which you will discuss progress on individual and group projects, reactions to course readings, and anything else that you see as relevant to the course topic(s). You should try to post at least three times a week, even briefly,and make use of course readings in your discussions.
Quizzes :: 10%
There will be a brief quiz at the beginning of each class for which there is an assigned reading.
Participation / Attendance :: 10%
You will be graded on: participation in class discussions and on the e-mail list; effort put into inclass exercises; general performance in group work. Students will be responsible for providing a critique of group members, which will be used to calculate this grade.