Exercise 4

4 Comments

1. 

   GHink

   November 16, 2014 at 2:22 pm

   Exer­cise 4 tips:

   » Task:
   Present your insights that result from your cog­ni­tive map­ping, about the sit­u­a­tion, through con­crete details and par­tic­u­lar exam­ples. Rather than describe the process (sequence), use the exam­ples as sup­port­ive illus­tra­tions of your new ideas, pre­sented in Ulmer’s terms and perspective.

    

   First, the main objec­tive is to present a straight­for­ward dis­cus­sion (rational/analytic dis­course, “aca­d­e­mic orga­ni­za­tion”) of your insights that result from the cog­ni­tive map­ping strat­egy.
   So, it is the result of your attempt­ing this per­spec­tive, not a descrip­tion of the process or of the sit­u­a­tion.
   On the last point, the spe­cific exam­ples cited should illus­trate your analy­sis — rather than sim­ply iden­ti­fy­ing.
   You will likely have one key idea that you real­ize through the process, which is what you should dis­cuss mostly in the response — with illus­tra­tive examples.

    
   — the “Pop­cy­cle data­bases” (see pp. 20–1): Auto­bio & Fam­ily; School, Field Dis­ci­pline (major/career); Com­mu­nity (pos­si­bly includ­ing “street” and/or “church”); Enter­tain­ment, Pop Cul­ture, Media
   → for this inven­tion strat­egy (unlike Exer­cise 5), we’re using con­crete details (“mate­r­ial sig­ni­fiers”) from one data­base.
   Also impor­tant to keep in mind (review): each of these has dis­tinct dis­course & logic/mode, inform­ing and medi­at­ing our think­ing the issue (social prob­lem, net­work witness)…

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2. 

   GHink

   November 16, 2014 at 2:26 pm

   » Goal:
   Ulmer states that it is “impor­tant to find or com­pose the shape of the egent’s sit­u­a­tion in order to move from MEmo­r­ial to tes­tiomy” (94). This response uses a story/event (from any Pop­cy­cle dimen­sion) in order to chart one’s own sit­u­a­tion via “cog­ni­tive map­ping” — iden­ti­fy­ing aspects of the sit­u­a­tion (val­ues, ideas, forces, “blind spots”?) pre­vi­ously “unseen” or under-theorized.

    

   → To this end, you need to select a story (event), from any Pop­cy­cle dimension/database; Ulmer has exam­ples of all three types in chap­ters 3 & 4 (especially).

   The idea is that the story helps you rec­og­nize (“locate and fore­ground”) par­tic­u­lar instances, which are rep­re­sen­ta­tions of abstract ideas — “val­ues, ideas, forces” man­i­fested usu­ally through insti­tu­tions and per­sonal rela­tions.
   The film dis­cussed shows us both types, espe­cially through Jameson’s two key strate­gies of cog­ni­tive map­ping:
   1) look­ing at the background/setting;
   2) “dis­place­ment” of focus from the pri­mary role to exam­in­ing “sec­ondary char­ac­ter” (ficelle).

   We have the ques­tions, “what is going on around me? how can I ‘grasp my posi­tion’ in this sit­u­a­tion of ‘invis­i­ble’ forces and val­ues?”
   We need “vis­i­ble” signs in order to com­pre­hend the “unseen” (under-theorized, unthought, ignored) aspects of the sit­u­a­tion — recall dis­cus­sion (Wed-Fri) about Chp 2.

   All events/stories, seen in films par­tic­u­larly, have “back­ground” char­ac­ters: in the main event these “back­ground” or sec­ondary actions and insti­tu­tions make intel­li­gi­ble the “unthink­able” aspects (val­ues, forces, desires) dif­fi­cult oth­er­wise to process; the lat­ter is often illus­trated (“dra­ma­tized”) in the main character/s.
   We typ­i­cally iden­tify with this main char­ac­ter; but, with assem­blage tes­ti­mony & net­work wit­ness, I am “in the back­ground…“
   (review “con­cetto”: fold­ing of col­lec­tive val­ues into indi­vid­ual experience).

   → In order to sit­u­ate myself within this “matrix” of unseen/unthought forces and val­ues, I need a story/event with vis­i­ble “char­ac­ters” (even if non­fic­tion) and actions.
   This need not be a dis­as­ter, though (the later objec­tive of the final project); more impor­tant at present are the insights such an event yields —
   as in the case of the Titanic dis­as­ter, which illus­trates the 1910s dom­i­nant val­ues in Anglo-American upper-class soci­ety (end of Chp 4).
   On a more imme­di­ate (“local”) level, I need to rec­og­nize what values/beliefs and ideas are cir­cu­lat­ing around me (Popcycle; memesphere) in var­i­ous insti­tu­tions and col­lec­tive expe­ri­ence (behav­iors, ideas, val­ues, atti­tudes) of my sit­u­a­tion.
   A spe­cific story, with its concrete/particular details (“mate­r­ial sig­ni­fiers” sen­sory, ren­der­ing per­cep­ti­ble)
   helps me think this com­plex sit­u­a­tion on a per­sonal level. This is the exer­cise, as thought experiment.

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3. 

   GHink

   November 16, 2014 at 2:28 pm

   email reply to ques­tion about Exer­cise 4

   — focus­ing on issue, at least ten­ta­tively cho­sen, yes.
   “Cog­ni­tive map” strat­egy is means to per­ceive this dif­fer­ently, to under­stand my posi­tion sit­u­ated in com­plex net­work of col­lec­tive iden­tity with abstract val­ues (not nec­es­sar­ily my own; e.g. I’m part of the Amer­i­can soci­ety that includes Zim­mer­man and Travon — what is my posi­tion or per­spec­tive as bystander-witness?). The exer­cise mainly (just) presents your insights result­ing from the strat­egy, think­ing the col­lec­tive and recognizing/understanding abstract ideas like val­ues, desires, processes, power, iden­tity, etc.
   (Jameson’s exam­ple rec­og­nizes global cap­i­tal­ism and decen­tral­ized power in the fig­ures of the FBI Agent and bank employ­ees in the film. Usu­ally we “iden­tify” with the hero/villain of the story; in this case, I am a bystander — thus think­ing issue by means of “secondary/background characters”).

   A thought exper­i­ment: start with a ten­ta­tive issue; select story from “per­sonal data­base” (school, com­mu­nity, pop cul­ture — not expe­ri­enced but wit­nessed); iden­tify the par­tic­u­lar details, includ­ing char­ac­ters; “zoom out” to general/collective level — see what you rec­og­nize and think newly/differently. Dis­cuss these insights in/as the exer­cise, under­stand­ing your­self as posi­tioned within this “col­lec­tive sys­tem of meaning.”

   ---

   
   reply to ques­tion about source of story/event:

   the story/event could be from any “Pop­cy­cle” data­base — school, com­mu­nity, entertainment/pop cul­ture (likely).
   We’re using these spe­cific details to “map” our posi­tion — “in rela­tion to our topic/issue” as you say — and think the issue newly, con­cern­ing the col­lec­tive (abstract val­ues, like global cap­i­tal­ism in Jameson’s exam­ple using the film characters).

   The exer­cise presents the ideas that result, your new/different under­stand­ing or per­spec­tive (being sit­u­ated within col­lec­tive). Like the quote from Ben­jamin about photo-aura cre­at­ing our “access to his­tory” — think­ing collective/abstract by means of par­tic­u­lar details in story.

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   • 

     GHink

     November 16, 2014 at 2:30 pm

     reply to student’s email about cog. map­ping via chora logic (choragraphy)

      
     For instance, you men­tion Africa and cog­ni­tive map­ping: how can I think my posi­tion in the global sys­tem that includes chil­dren dying there from insufficient/unhealthy water?
     The snowmelt in our area — snow I can imagine/perceive board­ing, and runoff water I see in town here — pro­vides as one of sev­eral sources water to California’s drink­ing sup­ply (to over­sim­plify, in my lim­ited under­stand­ing).
      
     The Col­orado River (which I’ve seen nearly dry in Albu­querque) is a more con­crete fig­ure — one that links the Amer­i­can imag­i­nary (or, the iden­tity of Amer­ica), par­tic­u­larly to “Hol­ly­wood”: SoCal (alarm­ing drought) + enter­tain­ment indus­try, our main global export.
      
     (do African chil­dren watch Hol­ly­wood films before dying of unclean water or thirst? maybe films with car washes, golf course, water­parks, lush green Amer­i­can lawns…? exaggerating/dramatic but you get the idea)
      
     We could sim­i­larly “map” using a plas­tic dis­pos­able water bot­tle, going from indi­vid­ual ($1 16oz) to link
     source (springs? tap? plus pol­lu­tion to make the plas­tic, includ­ing petro­leum and paraxy­lene)
     and des­ti­na­tion (land­fill? melt­ing sites?) that are both some­place else,
     which we don’t think or worry about indi­vid­u­ally in our moment of thirst quench­ing.…
      

     

      

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