class projects

final portfolio

web-ready project requirements

For each project completed by any student in any ACTLab/Convergent Media course, documentation must be provided in a web-ready version and on a CD-ROM (for archival purposes).

Include in the documentation:

1. A description of the project itself, as thorough as possible. You have your proposal, and you have your project--the description lies between them.
2. A discussion of why you chose to do this particular project, relating it to the semester's work, showing how it relates to the issues raised during the course. If you wish, you might also relate it to ongoing work in other Convergent Media classes.
3. Photographs of sketch models and/or preparatory work, scanned into JPEG form.
4. Storyboards, drawings, blueprints, plans, etc., scanned into JPEG format.
5. JPEG photos of the project as completed. Include photographs of your installation during exhibition and/or review.
6. If the project moves, include a QuickTime movie of it moving; if people or other things are involved with this movement (ie interaction), include them.
7. If the project makes sounds, include sound files as QuickTime, WAV, AIFF or some other web-compatible format.

Directions for uploading your website:

When you upload documentation of your work, you upload to a specific directory on the ACTLab server.

The location of your work on the ACTLab server will have a directory structure like this:

/home
  /httpd
    /instructorlastname
      /coursethreadsemesteryear
        /yourfirstnameyourlastname

For example:

/home/httpd/stone/sciencespring01/harrypotter

Your site online will have a URL that looks like:

actlab.us/stone/sciencespring01/harrypotter

hints:

• the threads are: vision, space, science, performance, sound, body, narrative
• the semesters are: fall, spring, sum
• years are represented by their last 2 digits
• File names for web servers should not have anything in them but alphanumeric characters (this includes the letters A-Z, the numbers 0-9, a dash or an underscore). No spaces should be in your file name.
• Case is important when naming your files and folders. We suggest you use all lower case.
• The documentation should run properly from the CD-ROM and from the server when the CD-ROM is uploaded. There are specific ways to name the links so that the project will still run when the CD-ROM is uploaded to the server.

Questions? Problems? Don't know how to burn a CD-ROM? Ask your TA.

portfolio requirements

During the last semester of your work, you are required to take a Portfolio Development course in which you develop a portfolio of the work you completed as a student in the program. You are to take this course with one member of the Program faculty, in the spirit of an independent study but with a specific goal. The purpose of the portfolio is to provide a substantive record of your progress in, and successful completion of, the ACTLab/Convergent Media program. The portfolio constitutes evidence of your competence in the field, and represents the equivalent of a production student's demo reel--your professional calling card in the commercial world and, should you wish, the academic world at the graduate level and beyond.

Since by its nature our program admits of a wide variety of work at the intersections of technology, theory, performance and the arts, and questions the impact of technology on our visual, spatial, corporeal and textual environments, there is some flexibility in the portfolio requirements.

Your portfolio, in its most basic form, should fully represent all five projects completed in your five required courses. The representation of these projects should extend the requirements already given to you for the CD-ROM and web documentation you completed for each course in which they were made. Because this documentation exists, you have the starting material in hand with which to work. By no means should your portfolio *only* consist of work done for these particular projects or courses. You are encouraged to document work that compliments, clarifies, strengthens and expands upon your work in the ACTLab/Convergent Media program.

Your portfolio should also include:

• An introductory essay that details the nature of your work, your interests and your next steps (imagined or real) in their continued development. The form of this essay is open--it can include multiple modes: poetic, visual, mathematical, architectural, cinematographic, performative, hypertextual... . Whatever modes you choose, your essay should demonstrate your awareness and facility with a range of historical and theoretical ideas and practices associated with our work.
• Your resume and contact information
• An indication that all documented work is your property and copyrighted ©

Lastly, your portfolio should fulfill a number of other functions.

• It should clearly demonstrate your process and approach. It should have a definitive style. And it should have a strong sense of overall design. Developing these aspects of your portfolio may be the most difficult challenge, and you should do a substantial amount of design research to conceive of a presentational mode that best shows off your work, personality and sensibilities as a maker of things in the ACTLab/Convergent Media tradition.
• It should demonstrate not only your technical expertise but your ability to express ideas utilizing digital tools. Content is more important than technical bravado. Your ability to synthesize and conceptualize your work and your choice of media is at stake here--you need to seriously consider how your work relates to that of others who are doing work in similar disciplines and you need to distinguish and identify a space for your own work in that field.
• It should be evidence of your development within the program and at the University.
• It should show off both the domain (wide parameters) and range (specific parameters) of your abilities and talents. A very specific portfolio that is polished in only one direction will be less interesting than one that has a number of idiosyncracies and surprises. Think breadth and depth, think landscape and detail. Among the many possibilities for inclusion:

  Drawing/Painting
  2-D/3-D/4D Design
  Architecture/TranSpace
  Photography/Imaging
  Film/Video/Animation
  Performance
  Music/Sound/Audio Environments
  Creative/Expository Writing/Interactive Narrative
  

YOUR PORTFOLIO MUST EXIST IN WEBSITE AND CD-ROM FORM, no matter what other forms it takes.

The completed portfolio should be submitted to your sponsoring Program faculty member no later than five weeks prior to the end of the semester in which you intend to graduate. The choice of delivery medium is contingent and subject to the availability of media most suitable for the representation of your work. Once submitted, the faculty member will review your portfolio , which will be graded on a pass/no pass basis within two weeks of its receipt. In event of a no pass, you will be required to take either additional courses in the curriculum or, at the option of the Program faculty, specific courses that will strengthen your portfolio so it may fulfill the portfolio requirement. Once your portfolio is passed, the last step is to upload its contents to the ACTLab server where it will be listed on the "alumni" link of the ACTLab website. ACTLab TAs will help you with this process should you need assistance.