To be fair, this is the first Kress and VanLeeuwen that we have read this semester. I am trying to think, though, if I have been in this program a semester without reading them? It seems as though they have been omnipresent in my phd work...
Multimodal Discourse, however, is by far my favorite. I don't know why. Perhaps this is actually easier to read, or perhaps I am finally getting used to the way they right.
Regardless, I will never see home dec magazines the same way again. I never thought about they way they shape the way we see our homes. I am sure that television programs do the same thing. We have a house that was built in the the early 20th century. It was certainly built before 1936 (a city directory lists an inhabitant here then). When we moved in, it had three bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, a tiny laundry room (that probably used to be a back porch), a living/dining room. We think the bathroom was likely carved out of the middle bedroom. The attic, which we use as storage, at one time was used as a bedroom, judging from the phone and cable hook-ups. We interpret this house differently from the previous inhabitants. And we chose an old house, in an old part of town, whereas most of my friends live in newer homes in "better" parts of town. When I moved in my house, it had carpet in the living room, bedrooms, and attic, with cheap lino in the kitchen, dining, laundry, and bath. Underneath the carpet was hardwood floors.
How do we decide what is important in a house? Or even where the television goes? A lot of magazines I see do not even show televisions in their living spaces, but I know most households in America have several. Where are their computers? We have a computer for each person, here. Those do not "fit" into a decorating scheme. At all.
I can compare this to my friend Cindy's house. Granted, her home is bigger. There are still fundamental ways that her house is different. Each bedroom has its own bathroom. These were purpose built and integrated into the home. The laundry room was intended to be there. You do not go through it to get to the back door. Different kinds of flooring are used for different functions of the house. She has ceramic tile in the kitchen/dining/breakfast/laundry area, carpet in the bedrooms, and hardwood in the living rooms.
I say all of this to say this: we participate in many ways of making meaning. And we are not even aware that we do this. Similar conceptualizations of making meaning exist in other contexts besides our homes. Clothing is another area. This year, I intentionally upgraded my wardrobe to see what would happen. (I wear mostly skirts now, instead of slacks). A thought experiment, if you will. Student treat me more professionally and with more distance. When I wore mostly "business casual" they told me more about their personal lives. There is a grammar, evidently, of how you talk to people based on how they dress. I don't think I am any less approachable, personally. The only thing that has really changed has been my clothing.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Life after Vista?
The next Windows operating system, the one that will ultimately replace Vista (assuming that IT departments eventually pry XP out of users' cold, dead hands), will be available in parts. While this has potential, if there is a price discount, for people who know what in the heck they are doing, I can imagine this in the hands of the people who really only understand their computer to the degree that they understand their microwave.
Why am I still using Microsoft? One reason is that the camera software that lets me take these nifty classes only works on Windows. Another is Adobe. If Adobe could manage a linux distribution, I think I could go without turning back. (And Gimp does not come close, I am sorry.)
A singular yet highly modular OS could give Microsoft the best of all possible worlds: OSes that can be highly customized for deployment but developed monolithically. One modular OS to rule them all, let's say.
Why am I still using Microsoft? One reason is that the camera software that lets me take these nifty classes only works on Windows. Another is Adobe. If Adobe could manage a linux distribution, I think I could go without turning back. (And Gimp does not come close, I am sorry.)
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Cyborgs and Goddesses
We are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism; in short, we are cyborgs (Haraway, 516).
I read a piece with my Comp II students last spring about cyborgs. I can't recall the man's name off the top of my head, but he has chosen to live a computer-mediated life. If effect, he is a cyborg. And cyborg is how he identifies himself. And when I look around campus and see students with blue-tooth devices in their ears, I want to look on the other side of their heads to see if the cybermen have taken over. They certainly do seem to be talking to people who aren't there...
Electric Media and Tribalization
The reading assignment for today was a bit confusing. We had readings scheduled for both 3/11 and 3/18, even though 3/18 is spring break.
So I have decided to pick and choose what to read. I am beginning with McLuhan. I was introduced to McLuhan nearly two years ago by Dr. Whithaus. And it was good. McLuhan resonates with me for some reason. Perhaps it is this:
The idea that contemporary artifacts, not just art were worthy of study is important to me (as it is to many post-modern rhetoricians). And if McLuhan did not originate that idea with his "idea that advertisements have artistic merits" (193), he certainly contributed to its popularity.
I like McLuhan's term "electric" media. It does not invite the multiplicity of meanings that "new" media does (the most obvious, "new in relation to what?"). If the media uses electricity, it is electric. Thus television (and I suppose radio), digital media, second life, etc. are all in a single category. But where it has simplicity and elegance in the definition, can we really throw all those pieces together in one box? Is television really the same as an interactive game, where you buy accessories for your avatar with US dollars?
McLuhan, though, does see changes in society being based upon (or determined by) changes in technology. I.e., the printing press causes literacy, which caused societal changes, etc.
Raymond Williams, in "The Technology and Society" presents a different picture. As far as the television changing society, he says that the society and the social conditions of that society led to the invention of television (295). In a similar way, perhaps the growth of literacy allowed the printing press to become so integral. Without growing literacy rates, the invention of movable type could have come and gone without anyone noticing.
There are, of course, limits. Currently, I would hazard to guess, sufficient market exists for a Star Trek type transporter. We are a very mobile society. We would like, generally, to eliminate the "wasted" time at airports. So we could really buy into a teleportation device. But, as of now, the platform for that technology to be built does not exist (this is a vast oversimplification of Williams' argument, which he presents on pages 295-97).
Deleuze & Guattari-- Well, I liked the rhizome metaphor. I am not quite sure what it means, but it liked it. Which is more than I can say about the rest of the article.
So I have decided to pick and choose what to read. I am beginning with McLuhan. I was introduced to McLuhan nearly two years ago by Dr. Whithaus. And it was good. McLuhan resonates with me for some reason. Perhaps it is this:
In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message (203).
The idea that contemporary artifacts, not just art were worthy of study is important to me (as it is to many post-modern rhetoricians). And if McLuhan did not originate that idea with his "idea that advertisements have artistic merits" (193), he certainly contributed to its popularity.
I like McLuhan's term "electric" media. It does not invite the multiplicity of meanings that "new" media does (the most obvious, "new in relation to what?"). If the media uses electricity, it is electric. Thus television (and I suppose radio), digital media, second life, etc. are all in a single category. But where it has simplicity and elegance in the definition, can we really throw all those pieces together in one box? Is television really the same as an interactive game, where you buy accessories for your avatar with US dollars?
McLuhan, though, does see changes in society being based upon (or determined by) changes in technology. I.e., the printing press causes literacy, which caused societal changes, etc.
Raymond Williams, in "The Technology and Society" presents a different picture. As far as the television changing society, he says that the society and the social conditions of that society led to the invention of television (295). In a similar way, perhaps the growth of literacy allowed the printing press to become so integral. Without growing literacy rates, the invention of movable type could have come and gone without anyone noticing.
There are, of course, limits. Currently, I would hazard to guess, sufficient market exists for a Star Trek type transporter. We are a very mobile society. We would like, generally, to eliminate the "wasted" time at airports. So we could really buy into a teleportation device. But, as of now, the platform for that technology to be built does not exist (this is a vast oversimplification of Williams' argument, which he presents on pages 295-97).
Deleuze & Guattari-- Well, I liked the rhizome metaphor. I am not quite sure what it means, but it liked it. Which is more than I can say about the rest of the article.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Insert your own Windows pun here...
Why falling Flash prices threaten Microsoft
200 quid laptops? And the only "drawback" is that it runs linux and open office? I ran my home pc for a year with only open office. I only added office because I had to do some desktop publishing--- professional level stuff. Not what most home users need. Not even what I need 95% of the time. The vast majority of the time, I can survive with Google apps and a web browser. And openoffice is just a bonus. I don't do design work (usually) on a laptop, simply because it is cumbersome. (And my desktop is faster, with more memory, a bigger hard drive, and a dvd burner. And since I built it, I can upgrade it pretty easily.)
But a laptop the price of an ipod? And the size of a book? That I could use as a pda, ipod, _and_ a computer. I think I could get used to that.
200 quid laptops? And the only "drawback" is that it runs linux and open office? I ran my home pc for a year with only open office. I only added office because I had to do some desktop publishing--- professional level stuff. Not what most home users need. Not even what I need 95% of the time. The vast majority of the time, I can survive with Google apps and a web browser. And openoffice is just a bonus. I don't do design work (usually) on a laptop, simply because it is cumbersome. (And my desktop is faster, with more memory, a bigger hard drive, and a dvd burner. And since I built it, I can upgrade it pretty easily.)
But a laptop the price of an ipod? And the size of a book? That I could use as a pda, ipod, _and_ a computer. I think I could get used to that.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
My Audio Essay
I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning of this assignment. I believe passionately that people should write and tell their stories. Or just tell their stories. I draw heavily on my past and on my cultural heritage to make meaning of my life and experiences. So it was very important for me to try to pull in someone from my hometown.
I have some video of my grandmother, who passed away in 2005. She was our next door neighbor, and was consequently very important in my life. She often talked about her past, but of course, she never considered herself to be a writer, and she never wrote. Rarely did she even write letters, as the telephone was so much more immediate. My video, however, would not import (after about eight hours of trying), so I did not get to use my grandmother's voice.
Something that I did have, though, was an interview that my daughter did for her history day project with Mrs. Marshall, a friend of my mother's. Mrs. Marshall and my mother ended up talking about the stories they knew from childhood, and how telling stories made it easier to cope with the death of loved ones. So after 14 hours of attempting, I finally re-imported Mrs. Marshall's interview into Adobe Premiere Elements, which allowed me to extract the audio.
My audio essay was originally a lecture that I gave to our Honors College freshmen class about writing memoir. It was based heavily on a piece by Patricia Hampl that we all read. So I removed most of what came from the reading, except one little piece that I quoted.
I also went looking to see if I could find Donald Murray talking about writing. He has been the most influential theorist on my teaching. And I love the way he approaches writing, especially if I trying to encourage someone to write. And I did find an audio interview with him by Chip Scanlon.
I used Mediaevel Baebes' Veni Veni as a background track.
I am really pleased with how this turned out, except for the fact that I was not able to edit the track with Mrs. Marshall as carefully as I would have liked as I was only finally able to pull it in just before class.
I was really surprised by how many problems that I had with the technology. I usually have way more problems with the concepts than with the tools, but this time the concept came pretty easily and the tools nearly killed me.
Edited to add: I was able to edit the file the way I wanted. I am afraid that the volume is not even throughout. That was hard to get right because the Murray clip was posted online, and he was on a telephone. The interview footage with Mrs. Marshall was from a video camera without a separate microphone. The difference in inputs makes it hard to get the volume right. If I only had a mixing board.
Audio Essay: Writing Your Self
I have some video of my grandmother, who passed away in 2005. She was our next door neighbor, and was consequently very important in my life. She often talked about her past, but of course, she never considered herself to be a writer, and she never wrote. Rarely did she even write letters, as the telephone was so much more immediate. My video, however, would not import (after about eight hours of trying), so I did not get to use my grandmother's voice.
Something that I did have, though, was an interview that my daughter did for her history day project with Mrs. Marshall, a friend of my mother's. Mrs. Marshall and my mother ended up talking about the stories they knew from childhood, and how telling stories made it easier to cope with the death of loved ones. So after 14 hours of attempting, I finally re-imported Mrs. Marshall's interview into Adobe Premiere Elements, which allowed me to extract the audio.
My audio essay was originally a lecture that I gave to our Honors College freshmen class about writing memoir. It was based heavily on a piece by Patricia Hampl that we all read. So I removed most of what came from the reading, except one little piece that I quoted.
I also went looking to see if I could find Donald Murray talking about writing. He has been the most influential theorist on my teaching. And I love the way he approaches writing, especially if I trying to encourage someone to write. And I did find an audio interview with him by Chip Scanlon.
I used Mediaevel Baebes' Veni Veni as a background track.
I am really pleased with how this turned out, except for the fact that I was not able to edit the track with Mrs. Marshall as carefully as I would have liked as I was only finally able to pull it in just before class.
I was really surprised by how many problems that I had with the technology. I usually have way more problems with the concepts than with the tools, but this time the concept came pretty easily and the tools nearly killed me.
Edited to add: I was able to edit the file the way I wanted. I am afraid that the volume is not even throughout. That was hard to get right because the Murray clip was posted online, and he was on a telephone. The interview footage with Mrs. Marshall was from a video camera without a separate microphone. The difference in inputs makes it hard to get the volume right. If I only had a mixing board.
Audio Essay: Writing Your Self
Tech topic
From Wired. "Dear Hollywood Studios: Let My Video Go"
Access to instant audio and visual files continues to be an issue. With the proliferation of YouTube, we have come to expect video on demand. Many people are willing to pay rental fees to download movies instantly and watch on portable devices, but the restrictions that come with downloads to "prevent piracy" are burdensome for consumers. Who wants to have to go to multiple sites to download material for our different devices? Especially since I like to watch movies on, well, television.
Several of my posts have been about digital files and the best way to distribute them. But it continues to be a huge issue. With copyright laws getting so insane (really, how long does Snow White need to be under copyright? Walt Disney is dead).
Some kind of sane policy needs to be made, preferably informed by people who understand the issues, not just the record companies and the movie companies.
And really, I am all about sticking it to movie studies after reading about the creator of the Cheetah Girls. If these people can't figure out how to make a net profit on the Cheetah Girls, they don't deserve to survive. Downloads or no downloads
Access to instant audio and visual files continues to be an issue. With the proliferation of YouTube, we have come to expect video on demand. Many people are willing to pay rental fees to download movies instantly and watch on portable devices, but the restrictions that come with downloads to "prevent piracy" are burdensome for consumers. Who wants to have to go to multiple sites to download material for our different devices? Especially since I like to watch movies on, well, television.
Several of my posts have been about digital files and the best way to distribute them. But it continues to be a huge issue. With copyright laws getting so insane (really, how long does Snow White need to be under copyright? Walt Disney is dead).
Some kind of sane policy needs to be made, preferably informed by people who understand the issues, not just the record companies and the movie companies.
And really, I am all about sticking it to movie studies after reading about the creator of the Cheetah Girls. If these people can't figure out how to make a net profit on the Cheetah Girls, they don't deserve to survive. Downloads or no downloads
Bingo!
Here is the problem for me:
I am an auditory learner. That has confused people who have tested me, when I can relate large chunks of information from texts that I read. The answer is that I look through texts. I don't visualize words. I look through the text to the words. And often I talk about what I am reading so that I understand it (much to the chagrin of my children. My eldest daughter came home from school telling me that they had finally got to rhetoric in her 9th grade class, and that they were working on the classical appeals. She also has more than a passing acquaintance with the idea of the social construction of reality.)
These new media texts, like Samuel Beckett's work, force the reader to slow down and acknowledge the visualness of the words. These kinds of texts prevent the invisibility of text. I cannot look through these texts to hear what the author is saying... I have to look at the texts and construct my own meaning.
I just saw the doll box assignment-- if I had seen that in an undergraduate class, I would have dropped the class. Dropped it. If it appeared in one of my graduate classes, I would of course, grit my teeth and do it, hoping that completion earned me something. I am pretty sure that my product would not manage to get me very far.
Not that I am above pushing my students. This semester, I made my comp students contribute to Wikipedia. I did this for a couple of reasons. One is that they are writing for a real audience. And for real editors. If their edits were rejected, I offered feedback that I thought would help them be successful with their editors. Several were successful on the first try. Others made it on the second. Several, of course, are still trying. Midterm grades are tomorrow, and I have warned them that if their article is not up on Wikipedia, it will be reflected in their midterm (unless of course, their editor is just unreasonable, in which case, they must write a narrative explaining why it didn't work, and the steps they took to try to work with the system). But in essence, this is a research assignment. They know the form, having read it all their school career. Only the delivery system is new for them.
Richard Lanham, in The Electronic Word, makes the distinction between looking 'at' a text, versus looking 'through' a text. I've come to realize that traditionally visual artists have leaned towards the former, while writers have been more prone towards the later.Joseph in Mind the Gap
I am an auditory learner. That has confused people who have tested me, when I can relate large chunks of information from texts that I read. The answer is that I look through texts. I don't visualize words. I look through the text to the words. And often I talk about what I am reading so that I understand it (much to the chagrin of my children. My eldest daughter came home from school telling me that they had finally got to rhetoric in her 9th grade class, and that they were working on the classical appeals. She also has more than a passing acquaintance with the idea of the social construction of reality.)
These new media texts, like Samuel Beckett's work, force the reader to slow down and acknowledge the visualness of the words. These kinds of texts prevent the invisibility of text. I cannot look through these texts to hear what the author is saying... I have to look at the texts and construct my own meaning.
I just saw the doll box assignment-- if I had seen that in an undergraduate class, I would have dropped the class. Dropped it. If it appeared in one of my graduate classes, I would of course, grit my teeth and do it, hoping that completion earned me something. I am pretty sure that my product would not manage to get me very far.
Not that I am above pushing my students. This semester, I made my comp students contribute to Wikipedia. I did this for a couple of reasons. One is that they are writing for a real audience. And for real editors. If their edits were rejected, I offered feedback that I thought would help them be successful with their editors. Several were successful on the first try. Others made it on the second. Several, of course, are still trying. Midterm grades are tomorrow, and I have warned them that if their article is not up on Wikipedia, it will be reflected in their midterm (unless of course, their editor is just unreasonable, in which case, they must write a narrative explaining why it didn't work, and the steps they took to try to work with the system). But in essence, this is a research assignment. They know the form, having read it all their school career. Only the delivery system is new for them.
Readings
As a digital immigrant, I hated the experience of reading Walker's Hyper:Acivity, although truthfully, that is probably more about my dyslexia than about the digitalness.
I rely on the structural cues that a page offers in order to read. In fact, I print everything that I read for all of my classes, always. New media texts, such as this one, can't really be printed. Which means that I have a hell of a time reading them. I can read individual words over and over again, but they don't fit together to make meaning for me. Really, other than pod casts (because, frankly, I am an auditory learner), I hate having to obtain information from mixed media texts. Even podcasts, and videos, though make information harder to get. I am skilled at using print texts. I understand the format. I know where the important information is supposed to be. I can skim and get a fairly decent understand of what is going on. I have no idea how to begin to skim a video. Or a podcast.
And I am not even sure how to read this piece. I am reading it one column at a time, but I feel like I am missing something. I keep thinking that the texts are supposed to relate to one another.
Ah! I found instructions. I am not sure how I feel about needing instructions to read a webpage. Or any page for that matter. I am so immersed in literacy (print literacy) that this is really, really hard.
And, as I read on, I see that the authors agree with me:
Well, not that this is very hard to read, but that the material conditions of the piece affect its "ability to make meaning."
Oh,and here I am again in slide 10:
I don't know what it is about my background (maybe the stint writing training material), but I tend to focus on making my writing clear and understandable for the audience. New media texts that explore new materialities are deliberately not audience centered. They want to force reaction/interaction from the audience in a different way from the one that a "typical" audience expects.
I rely on the structural cues that a page offers in order to read. In fact, I print everything that I read for all of my classes, always. New media texts, such as this one, can't really be printed. Which means that I have a hell of a time reading them. I can read individual words over and over again, but they don't fit together to make meaning for me. Really, other than pod casts (because, frankly, I am an auditory learner), I hate having to obtain information from mixed media texts. Even podcasts, and videos, though make information harder to get. I am skilled at using print texts. I understand the format. I know where the important information is supposed to be. I can skim and get a fairly decent understand of what is going on. I have no idea how to begin to skim a video. Or a podcast.
And I am not even sure how to read this piece. I am reading it one column at a time, but I feel like I am missing something. I keep thinking that the texts are supposed to relate to one another.
Ah! I found instructions. I am not sure how I feel about needing instructions to read a webpage. Or any page for that matter. I am so immersed in literacy (print literacy) that this is really, really hard.
And, as I read on, I see that the authors agree with me:
Where am I coming from?
1. Material Rhetoric: The concept that physical contexts affect the rhetorical power of a text and its ability to make meaning.
2. Activity Theory: The effort to understand human interactions with physical/spatial/cognitive/time components in the production of a specific text.
3. Multimodal Theory: The concept that meaning-making is altered and shaped both by the tools of composition (pen, computer, crayon, piano) and by the symbol systems that are used to produce a text (alphabetic text, images, movies, spoken words, music). (slide 5)
Well, not that this is very hard to read, but that the material conditions of the piece affect its "ability to make meaning."
Oh,and here I am again in slide 10:
The reader may experience a sense of alienation from the text.
I don't know what it is about my background (maybe the stint writing training material), but I tend to focus on making my writing clear and understandable for the audience. New media texts that explore new materialities are deliberately not audience centered. They want to force reaction/interaction from the audience in a different way from the one that a "typical" audience expects.
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