The Psychology of Visual Communications

Goal:

To increase your understanding and effective utilization of visually-based communications.

Specific Objectives:

To increase visual awareness and creativity.

To critically analyze the cognitive and affective dimensions of visually-based communications.

To acquire the basic skills necessary to produce, deliver and evaluate visually-based persuasive educational

communications, with an emphasis on photographic and computer-generated images.

Texts:

ZAKIA R, PERCEPTION IMAGING 2ND ED

PATTERSON, FR, PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE ART OF SEEING

WRIGHT, MICHA DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Adobe Photoshop Elements 4

Keynote for Mac

Bring your camera to class for the first 2 sessions.
There will be a required special technical "camera operating" session on Sunday night, January 27th from 7:30 to 9:30 pm

Assignments:

Every week you will have an assignment to shoot and prepare for class presentation. All assignments are due on a jump drive with your name on it no later than noon each Wednesday in the box on Prof. Maas' office door, 211C Uris Hall. All assignments must be presented on time; late projects receive an automatic "0".

Grading: (subject to change)

Weekly Projects 30%

Spring Vacation Presentation 20%

Final Mega-Presentation 50%

Office Hours:

Prof. Maas: Thursday afternoons, by appointment only. I try to be available by e-mail (jbm1@cornell.edu), or by phone (255-6302 durng the day) and 347-4590 (night emergency).

Katie or Alissa, Tuesday evenings 205 Uris Hall 7pm to 9pm by appointment with them.

The course demands hard work, time management, critical thinking and creativity.

What you get out of this seminar/practicum will be a direct result of your investment and commitment.

Regarding homework assignments…

Homework assignments will be assigned weekly and include specified readings and extensive photography.

Homework assignments must be completed and turned in by NOON every Wednesday in the basket on the door of Prof. Maas’ office, 211C Uris Hall. This will enable us to compile jump drives on the course computer in time to be viewed in class on Thursdays. Late homework is not accepted.

Turning in homework assignments… Psych 347 is Mac based! Macs are available in Uris 205 (24/7).

1. Jump Drives (a.k.a. memory sticks)

Every student must have a Psych 347 dedicated jump drive with at least 1GB of memory. This will be the only accepted vehicle for turning in assignments. Your jump drive must be clearly labeled with your first and last name, your net ID and “Psych347- Spring08.”

Jump drives are available at the campus store, Best Buy, etc., and will be all yours at the end of the semester, at which point you may use them for whatever you want. If you so choose to use a jump drive that you already own, it must be free of ALL other files before the semester begins.

Again, the ONLY files that are to be on your Psych347 jump drive for the duration of the semester are Psych 347 files!

2. Labeling Picture Files

Each week, you will all make a number of captivating, riveting, spiritually moving and/or just really sweet photos. Each week, your fellow classmates will get to see most if not all of said photos, and each week we will all have the chance to talk about the photo-making journey(s) you went on that week…. IF you follow these instructions!

Place all your photos in iPhoto (on Mac) or Picassa 2 (on PC). (Picassa 2 is a free download).

In order to view photos in a timely and orderly manner during class, they must be labeled consistently and accurately. If the file names are not consistent within your assignment and among the class’ assignments, we will be forced to view a jumbled mess o’ pictures. Eek!

Your photos should be saved as .JPEG files. These JPEGs must be labeled using the following format:

LastName.Wk##.Pic##. For example, Maas.Wk02.Pic01.

Pictures should be numbered in order (as listed on the homework assignment sheet).

Once you have your picture files labeled, create a spankin’ new folder and label it

LastName.WEEK##. For example,Maas.Week02.

Then, take all your pictures for that week, which should already be labeled per the instructions above, and put them in the folder for that week. Get it? I know it’s a little odd… putting pictures for a given week in the folder for that week, but… this IS a Psych class.

3. Synopsis

Let’s review. You make pictures. You upload pictures on to your computer into iPhoto or Picassa2. You fix, tweak, yadda yadda and are ready to be done with your assignment. You save each individual picture as a .JPEG file, labeling it accurately (the first picture assigned in the homework is to be labeled [you guessed it] Maas.Wk01.Pic01… so that the file name reads “LastName.Wk##.Pic##.”). If you were assigned 10 pictures that week, you should have 10 picture files. You open a blank folder and copy all your pictures for that week in to that blank folder. You make SURE all your pictures for that week are in that folder. You name that folder with your last name and then week number (“LastName.Week##.”).

THEN…. You copy that ENTIRE FOLDER on to your Psych347 jump drive (which is already labeled with your name, RIGHT?).

Last but not least, you drop your jump drive in the box on the door of Prof. Maas’ office, 211C Uris Hall, by NOON each Wednesday.