Postcards Post-Sandy: A Public Memory Social Engagement Project

NCOM 3010 (CRN 8575)

w/ Kathleen Sweeney

5 weeks (1 Credit)

Mondays, 12:10 -2:50 p.m. (NOTE: it is mandatory for students to attend the first class, even if not officially registered.)

Room: you will receive the class location once you are on the list.*

On-campus & Online

*To reserve your seat and begin registration please email AllanacN@newschool.edu

This course will explore ways social media is currently being used and leveraged in the crisis situation that is the Superstorm Sandy. How is social media enabling us to share significant experiences, organize recovery logistics for those in need, and serve as a historical archive for this ongoing example of public engagement?

In this five-week, 1-credit, online/on-site course, students will not only use social media to photograph, film, and interview the disaster’s effects, but will also create an ongoing digital memory site that will record and archive stories from our community.

The instructor:  Kathleen Sweeney, a multimedia writer, artist and activist explores the intersections of video, social media and social change. The author of Maiden USA: Girl Icons Come of Age (2008), she blogs and has published articles on media, pop culture, and technology and collaborative online nonfiction at Cowbird (http://bit.ly/UFO7cU). Her video art has screened internationally, with the recent “Eyesland” (http://bit.ly/SyhxvY) debuting at the Beacon Theatre, Beacon, NY in March 2013. An artist in residence at many youth media venues including Dia:Beacon,  Reel Girls (2001, 2004, 2006, funded by the NEA), she has received grants from New York State Council for the Arts, Putnam Arts Council and Media Alliance. She is the founder and director of theviralmedialab.org, a site intersecting innovation, online curation, and social change featured in #SearchUnderOccupy (http://bit.ly/SD4K7e) a 2012 exhibition at Aronson Gallery, New York and a living archive online at The Parsons School of Design. The vmlab hosted a #StreetArt #Fest pop up curation event in Summer 2012 using live tweets, Instagram, Flicker (http://bit.ly/OuP6d7), Vimeo (http://bit.ly/O5A0zu) and blogging (http://bit.ly/QQ2GNo).  She is currently producing a video portrait series of eco-artists with funding from EcoArtspace.org. An Adjunct Professor at The New York School, New York, she has served on the Advisory Board of GirlsWriteNow.org since 2008.