Projects/Assignments

In addition to daily responses to readings (which may be presented in oral, written, visual, or multimedia form), participants will complete three projects:

1. Study of a campus memorial. Stanford University is itself a memorial—founded in the memory of Leland Stanford, Jr. In addition, the campus is home to a number of additional memorials. For this project, each participant will choose a campus memorial to study and observe. One goal of this project is for you to present the memorial to our class, providing full information about its history and analyzing the way in which the medium in which the memorial is cast affects your understanding and experience of it. Due September 6 in class.

2. An exploration of one particular memory. For this project, participants will select an instantiation of memory (various song lyrics describing or remembering a particular event or person; competing historical accounts of an event or person; one or more rememberings in the visual arts; the remembered portrayal of an event, person, or object in film/video and in print or another medium) and analyze just how the particular medium/media through which the memory is transmitted influences and shapes public and individual memory. This project may be presented in writing or in mixed media. Due September 11 in class.

3. Multimedia memoir. The seminar will culminate with presentation of your multimedia memoirs, in which you attempt to capture or render a vivid memory of an important event or person or scene in your life, using at least two media. You might, for example, begin by writing about a vividly-remembered event in your life; then recording the piece of writing in your own or multiple voices; then illustrating it with visual images; then adding a sound track and producing the entire piece in a CD. You will have 20 minutes during the last day/s of class to make a presentation based on this memoir. Due September 16/17 in class.