15-20 Minute Paper
Jon McKenzie
Director, DesignLab and Professor,
Department of English
University of Wisconsin
Rosemary Bodolay
Associate Director, DesignLab
University of Wisconsin
Biographies
Jon McKenzie is Director of DesignLab and Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-‐Madison, where he teaches courses in performance theory and new media.
Rosemary Bodolay is the Associate Director of DesignLab and coordinator of the Media Studios at the University of Wisconsin-‐Madison. Before working on DesignLab in 2011 she had been with the Art Department (UW-‐Madison) teaching courses in artist video and digital technologies since 1997.
Abstract
This multimedia presentation provides an overview of an innovation design consultancy at the University of Wisconsin-‐Madison and demonstrates several examples of emerging scholarly genres or “smart media” produced by its students. The presentation provides a frame for our proposed workshop on evaluating media projects and assessing learning.
DesignLab is a design consultancy whose mission is to democratize digitality, just as public education democratized literacy beginning in the 19th century. Located at the University of Wisconsin-‐Madison and drawing on its renown TAs, Writing Center, and Libraries, DesignLab helps students from any field produce smart media, digital forms of thought and expression that include video essays, theory comix, podcasts, and Pecha Kuchas. These emerging scholarly genres turn up the graphic, sonic, and performative dimensions of research and learning, and thus entail new modes of argumentation and expression, as well as new learning spaces, new types of practice, and new institutional networks.
DesignLab consultants meet with students one-‐on-‐one or in small groups, focusing on the conceptual, aesthetic, and technical dimensions of projects from courses and extra-‐curricular activities. Our design process helps students identify project goals, IT resources, and production processes while providing feedback on work-‐in-‐progress and supporting the presentation and sharing of work with diverse audiences. DesignLab also offers instructor workshops on assigning and evaluating smart media and helps organize the Digital Salon, an annual student media exhibition.