Well, this week has brought a whole new chapter to Noir106, as our agencies begin their investigations into a number of mysterious matters. Bond asked several of them to investigate the identity of some character named “Jack” and he pointed to an (accidentally recorded) phone call that I took early in the semester while making … Continue reading My Sweet Grandma

Below is my video for this week. I entreat everyone to watch and help me to understand the evidence that I unearthed this week. I’m also sharing the photos I revealed in the video, in case anyone wants to download them and do any additional analysis. First, these two pictures I was able to pull … Continue reading Burtis Files: Week Five

I decided to tackle a design assignment today: Create Your Own Business Card which was dreamed up by one Lauren Brumfield in a previous ds106 job. I wanted to develop a calling card for Bond, Black, Groom and me — we’re getting more and more informal requests for our services and it seemed like maybe it … Continue reading Card Play

I had to make this video pretty quickly in a secret locations at headquarters. I hope you can hear me okay. I responded to something that was released by one of my co-instructors today, but I also spent some time talking about how to improve your assignments posts, participation points, and weekly posts. I hope … Continue reading The Burtis Files: Week Four

Last night, I watched Killer’s Kiss which I had never seen before. I found the movie strangely compelling. It has a lot of flaws, and my reading/research after watching turned up that Stanley Kubrick was hardly proud of this effort and considered it basically on par with a student film. He produced it with no … Continue reading Killer’s Kiss: scenes of NYC, some classic noir shots, and a bit of animated giffery

Well, Groom inspired me to tackle this particular ds106 assignment: Graphic Gift, added to the Assignment Bank by the inimitable Michael Branson-Smith. A summary: Find or scan an old advertisement (high resolution) and create a piece of cool clip art by extracting and cleaning up a particular element. Be sure to use a PNG file … Continue reading Hat Attack

Just posting the latest from the Burtis Files. I tackle a pretty serious subject at the beginning, one that’s been troubling me for the last few days (Please let me know if you have any responses). Then I touch on some advice for students going forward and a few reminders.

For a long time, years, I didn’t think about it. I moved constantly, counting each year with a new city: Indianapolis, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia. I didn’t even notice that every year I was heading a little bit further east, until one day I was getting on a train in Philly and saw that in few hours … Continue reading After the Killers

It’s been a troubling 48 hours for me  — thinking through a response to Concerned Student. I made this short video last night, and I hope it allays any concerns. If not, please let me know.

As Week One of noir106 draws to a close, I wanted to offer some of my own impressions of Noir. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m not a Noir expert. I decided to teach this class late last fall, and by then Bond and Groom had already decided to use Noir as the lens … Continue reading Out of the War and Into Noir

I put together this video for my section of #ds106 #noir106, but others might also find it useful.

In the beginning were the howlers. Visitors wore their best clothes and most somber expressions, as if entering a great cathedral. My friend was there. This I find strange. It was the sublimest experience I ever witnessed, and I think the memory of it will remain with me always. This has been a Daily Create … Continue reading The Witness

Today isn’t just any day. It’s a day we may well remember for years, months, or even weeks to come. It’s a day that might someday be called “legendary.” Today is the day that we launch the Spring 2015 UMW edition of ds106: noir106. That’s right, my friends, this spring we’ll be taking ds106 in … Continue reading It all started on a Monday. . .

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