ABSTRACT
This chapter presents participants what conceptual models they have found helpful for extending and applying media theory as they move between making, writing, and teaching. It seeks to recognize that different bodies are addressed differently by these different technologies and media objects in the world. Applied media studies projects are often conceptualized as object-based entities. Media formations are complex assemblages that cohere in a specific way, determined in part by historically specific influences but also by design, chance, and serendipity. Applied media studies can be a force to resist these trends, but there is no guarantee that practices of making will help democratize the university further. The methods of critical making and iterative design pair well with participatory design, in which the end users of a medium are involved with the creation of that medium from the very beginning.
