Assemblage Expression

praxis (— noun; plural: praxis or praxes)
1. practice, as distinguished from theory; application or use, as of knowledge or skills.

2. convention, habit, or custom.
3. a set of examples for practice.

(from syllabus)
Blog Entries (10 minimum; 200 words. Credit/no credit assigned.)

Every student will create and maintain a blog throughout the semester, beginning week 2 and due each Wednesday except when noted (e.g. project weeks). Entries are informal and ungraded, except for credit. This is an on-going “Research Journal, ” testing ideas and compiling “materials” for the projects: associative links and media, questions and hypotheses; observations and insights—particularly connections between media within and outside of class.

Elaborating upon this, “orientation” and specific suggestions about blogging below.
 

(update) Additional tip from Monday’s class in comment.
 

 
As established, the method of this course does not consist of “mastering” material (memorization and recitation) but indeed involves putting into practice theoretical ideas — those both proposed by Ulmer in the textbook as well as developed in our experiment throughout the term. The combined endeavor is our attempt to invent and practice a new discourse, as “applied theory.” Blogging serves as the immediate “practice” in two sense of the term: effort as “attempt” and “development” as well as the demonstration of the logic and expression (as in “cultural or academic practices”). This form of composition — precisely writing through media — is an important component of the course for numerous, noted here and in class.

 
On the note of our reflexive focus (gaining “self-knowledge”), your blog serves an important communicative function: your audience is not only the course participants, including “instructor” and “peers” (fellow bloggers), and the world wide community; a unique feature that we will also examine is the “self-address” (middle voice) of composing and reading your blog. In a simple yet informative way, your entries comprise a narrative of your semester and illustrate progress and insights during the experiment. Beyond simply “illustrating course work,” this narrative and process generates ideas:

Consider one analogy (of many): the creative moments that occur during “band practice,” in which one does not just refine old songs but also sparks creative impulses. “Practice” (blogging) in our experiment involves “warming-up” as well: “tuning” our composition and performance skills, and simultaneously becoming in tune or “attuned” to different frequencies than our daily thought patterns. (We’ll read about and discuss attunement in Ulmer’s chapter 2.)

 
 
One perspective is our scholarly examination of our “objects of study”; at minimum, your “research journal” entries will address (at least) one topic/issue from class readings, media, and discussions. This strategy helps generate ideas specifically for assignments. As “praxis” (applied theory), discuss a specific question or prompt from our particular reading in Internet Invention on the particular week; additionally, provide a specific example from your experience, especially media and culture — which can be presented and/or referenced digitally (“hypertextually”); see instructions below.

As I mentioned in class, students’ blog entries necessarily will supplement our limited selection of cultural examples — especially with neglected yet important forms, including songs, music videos, visual art (e.g. painting, photography), and digital media.

 
 
This strategy foregrounds and incorporates into our course the additional “frequencies” within your assemblage: document any observations and connections from your unique perspective and experiential knowledge. Specifically, explore insights through associations and connections between our texts or ideas and material “outside” of class: this deliberately includes your experience from the past and at present, as Ulmer demonstrates in the introduction — e.g. memory, anecdotes, courses, activities, media.

In short, composing an assemblage involves thinking and writing with your entire “three-dimensional” or “360°” perspective: personal / autobio.; career/discipline; community; entertainment / culture. (prompt: Try specifying and noticing which dimension emerges most prominent in your thinking and writing at first, through your entries.)

 
 
In both cases, an important and productive practice is posing new questions that our readings and discussions generate — not necessarily directed toward anyone, to be answered (unlike a Q. to an instructor), but to contemplate and to consider later. Finally, any and all reflexive knowledge is vitally important: e.g. what you are considering, or how you are thinking, newly or differently — as consequence, parallel with, or “thinking through” our method and objects. Blogging serves to document insights for yourself as reader, which feasibly will help us cultivate our skill of intuition.

Tags: attunement, blog, intuition, social media