Unit III: Experience – Affect – Electracy
Project 3: Screen Self Portrait
- » Due (09-Apr) Exercise 4: Sensory Experience Quantified & Unclassifiable
Week 13
M 11-Apr read to discuss: “The Genealogy of Electracy (An Interview with Gregory L. Ulmer)” Reconstruction 9.2 (2009) PDF option
- focus: apparatus theory, inventing electracy, affective-aesthetic paradigm… (Unit 3 inquiry)
- discuss: ideas from Exercise 4 Part 2
→ implications for experience & identity; aesthetic potential in Electracy
(connect with Rettberg & Knight readings?)
- helpful review / rewatch: “Ulmer Tapes” videos (2010) 2.04 | 2.05 | 2.06
- Sarah Arroyo, “Growing Up with Electracy” (2015)
W 13-Apr hybrid work :
- review Ulmer interview and videos (see above)
- Watch Reid: “Virtual Community, Virtual Immanence, Virtual Exposure”
- Watch Arroyo & Alaei: “The Dancing Floor” (2012)
+ Arroyo, “Growing Up with Electracy”
- Discuss: Reid & Arroyo videos; invention (digital rhetoric), mediated experience, and expression
→ Comment and Reply in thread below (see prompts)
F 15-Apr activity: “personal database” sampling for invention & multimodal composing (warm-up to project 3)
» Due: Blog entry 5 — prompt below
- also below, instructions for optional blog entry — for bonus participation credit
- Project 3 Workshops next week
- Optional Exercise for Extra Credit
looking ahead:
» Blog entry 5: “personal database” sampling (warm-up to project 3)
- As a first attempt of sampling from “personal databases,” post at least one selection from each:
- — autobiography / family
— school / career (discipline)
— community / social
— entertainment / culture - No need to explain/discuss your selections! (This is not a written entry.) Just post — as media in any form, or references/quotes in text fragments — these signifiers/mediators of your identity.
In addition to sampling: add a caption (or epigraph) to the entry, selected from any personal database (or composed/remixed on your own).
- think about how we mediate experience through certain avatars/icons and “frames of reference” — and how we express ourselves, particularly digital identity, through these as “readymade” or objective mediations. Your selections should be “legible” (if not “tangible”) in this regard, sensory/empirical images or references that you feel a strong sense of “identification” with: avatars/characters (people), places, objects, quotes/phrases, references, materials, gestures/actions (protip: GIPHY — or make a GIF from YouTube)…
→ This is the first warm-up to project 3, exploring how we think with/through images and “frames of reference” that mediate our sense of self (and sensation of identity) — including the subjective dimensions (affect) that are not necessarily represented / visible “publicly.” Thus making the “samples” potential material to compose with when making the ScreenSelfPortrait…
- The video below illustrates (as simulation) the process of exploring by association/intuition and sampling from my 4 “personal databases”.
(these all are mediations of experience, signifiers/references I think with/through…)
— note: you do not need to create one composite image! (like in the video) The entry can/should be separate samples (1 each minimum) from the 4 personal databases.
— Also potentially helpful to consult video “Growing Up with Electracy” (Arroyo 2015)
Preparation / guide for sampling:
» Optional Blog Entry (bonus participation credit)
- Speculate in discussion (100−200 words) the implications and potential for Project 3 approach or techniques (poetics of praxis) — considering your warm-up sampling, not to explain connection but to consider as way of working unique to Electracy (unlike Orality & Literacy). In other words, the mode of creating via Invention + Discovery, to compose the Screen Self Portrait.
Be sure to include at least one reference/idea from Ulmer interview (or optional reading) — and discuss your first attempt, perhaps in relation to one of the videos viewed this week.
How might “personal database” sampling, or avatars (mediating), or choragraphy work uniquely as a way of composing-communicating mediated experience? How has this activity (blog entry), using intuition & association, differed from other modes (belief-story, information-argument) — perhaps as “paradigm rhetoric” for experience…?
Helpful resources:
— along with any videos from “The Ulmer Tapes”
Ulmer — “ELECTRACY: Writing to Avatar” from DWRL on Vimeo
(Ulmer talk begins @ 5:30)
» Apparatus Theory Chart
» “Are You Literally What You Post?” Idea Channel (2015)
→ social convention in/of Electracy, cultural expressions online: “me rn,” “literally me,” “same,” “^^^ this”…
» W 13-Apr Online Discussion:
1. Comment: discuss 2 videos (1−2 sentences each),
1 by Reid and 1 by Arroyo —
note briefly a specific idea (or scene), which helps you further understand Electracy and/or the digital apparatus (institutions; technology & social conventions; identity experience)
2. Classmate Reply (1−2 sentences): identify example, in video(s) or from other observations (or experience), that relates to your classmate’s point
— or, connect with your post, especially in relation to other video or Ulmer reading
*Be sure to extend the discussion by addressing topics like invention (digital rhetoric) and expression; mediated experience & digital identity; aesthetic-affective paradigm
→ for optional second reply (bonus credit), try addressing any of these topics — in context of Unit 3 inquiry: digital identity & mediated experience, aesthetic expression (avatar) in Electracy apparatus
1.) Reid: I found it particularly interesting that we sort of “outsource” our memories and knowledge today, with the conception that the knowledge exists already on the internet, and it is only a few clicks away.
2.) Arroyo: This video I found to be incredibly vague and purposeless. I did not capture any sense of an argument or point to be made, other than esoteric rambling about things I don’t understand. I felt that Reid did a good job of making a point. I did not feel that Arroyo did that; it was more like, “here’s some food for thought,” which I didn’t find particularly helpful in terms of this class.
“Nation state and the online community have something in common, its that they are imaginary.” This concept of a global world being very closely related to the online community is something very interesting to me. The internet at times can feel so real that its this tangible thing right in front of you, but in reality it is a virtual construct, it doesn’t exist but it is out there. This idea that every electronic creates a sort of world in its own, when we pick up our laptop, phone or even a game consol controller you are entering that same virtual world. The idea that our generation wants to free this information, we don’t even consider how much our generation puts out onto the internet with very little thought the malicious intent others could have with this new information. the idea that we need to be aware of our critical literacy, our exposure to the imaginary community that can be created by the internet. We have the ability to create identity as well as reshape our current one.
I believe that the constant availability of these electronics, and of these alternate worlds, is only going to continue as we step into the future. It is becoming a cultural norm to live with these electronics and therefore we are beginning to see an integration of a new kind of living where we are the creators and are able to virtually create whatever our minds can imagine.
From the Ried Video, I liked the idea of one vision, the belief that all of our virtual communication is seen in one vision almost by one entity like a god. You mention ” step into the future ” I am interested in the future knowledge and belief of this “All seeing eye”.
I agree with Emily and Karl, I think that as this alternate worlds are created and visited it can deepen a persons identity. But I think that it as progress it important to look at because some people hide these identities from others, I think it also can become a form of bad information, which is why, you say, that we need to be aware of out critical literacy, essentially our digital identities and how we present and interpret that information.
I really liked this quote. It was one of the ones in this video that immediately popped out to me as, “Yes. I agree. It’s a fictitious realm.” Unfortunately, we generally live vicariously in that realm through pieces of glass getting lost in the illusion of reality.
In light of all that people do on social media today, the hermit who does not advertise his or her life on the internet may be the one who truly “exposes” their identity; that is, do we really “expose” our identities on the internet? Or do we take refuge in the absence of physical interaction, like the person who is too afraid to call and texts instead? I know many people who bloom behind the veil of internet communication, but in person they are truly shallow people. I can display only the “good” pictures of myself, the well thought words I’d like to post, and the experiences in my life I’d like other people to know about. But when someone talks to me in person and I look nothing like my pictures, my speech is far from eloquent, and the worldly details of my life are bare for everyone to see and hear, only then am I “exposed” in the truest sense of the word. Pardon my philosophical rambling, but I do not buy-in to the theory of “constructing our own identities,” via the ultra impersonal mode of digital communication. I think this theory is believable only insofar that one wants it to be true.
After watching “Growing Up With Electracy” and “The Dancing Floor” I gained insight on how electracy is becoming a new cultural norm such as writing and reading. While the dancing floor introduced me to the idea that pictures and words are used when we cannot express certain emotions in words.
I totally agree with this, what a great way to simply break down these two videos to their core essence.
In the Reid video one man mentions imaginary communities in the digital world existing on social media versus existing our real lives; near the end of Arroyo’s video, a passage stuck out to me…
“Reflecting on how your Digital Rhetoric course has influenced my teaching has turned out to be a difficult thing for me to do, because I realize those influences are not a separately, identifiable part of me. Instead, they are totally integrated into the way I think, the way I teach, I mean, it’s not like there are a specific set of strategies that I apply on top of some other foundational knowledge for teaching composition. I guess I created my own knowledge out of the ideas that resonated with me, and that now they are me”
This makes me think more about Electracy in the terms of social conventions and identity experience, as we have created these “imaginary communities and identities” that aren’t something that we present in our daily lives, but something that we connect with on a more personal and deeper level, or something that we would aspire to be.
I really like the idea of “creating your own knowledge” as in today’s society, perhaps knowledge is not only attained through information but rather a collection of separate and different things–just because information isn’t present, it doesn’t mean that we still can’t obtain some sort of new and formed knowledege
Good catch seeing that we create our identities ourselves even though we don’t realize we are doing so. In a way we confine ourselves to the limits of our electracy and there is no negative to leaning the advantage of new sources of digital media.
“I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even try to remember things; I just Google it. It’s easier to do that. And we kind of object at first saying, “Oh that’s aweful,” but if we think about the dependency we have on this other technology called the alphabet and writing, we’re totally dependent on it. It’s transformed culture. We cannot imagine ourselves without the alphabet and writing.”
This quote is from one of the speaker in the Reid video. It kind of exemplifies the ideology of the current generation which echoes back to the idea from earlier in the semester of “knowing” and “knowing how to look things up.” The Internet has indeed become a centralized machine connected to virtually every screen in the world.
In “The Dancing Floor” video, the idea of interconnectivity through social media interaction is highlighted. A concept known as Chora is discussed and how it influenced the presenter in her academic studies and teaching career. Weaving this idea with that of the interactions available through the Internet, the presenter explains, “The Brat Pack [inaudible] mean, with its complex layers remix and re-appropriation shows how media that resists definition can influence not only participation but worldwide collaboration, interaction, and communication.”
This point of Reid’s I also found particularly interesting. I think we all do the same thing: we don’t worry about “knowing” things, only how to find those things on the internet. This revolution of outsourcing our memories, in my opinion, gives gravitas to the employer who says, “what you know is all well and good, with your degree and all… but what can you DO?”
In the Reid video, a man said “community doesn’t have a common being, a common substance, but consist of being in common, that is the from the starting point, sharing nothing, sharing the space between” which I found interesting as it’s something I’ve never bothered to think about. The fact that you’re in a community doesn’t mean you have something in common, but rather than you share the space between you and other community members. This can relate to the idea of electracy because you are putting yourself to the world, through portals and screens, with the idea of “self surveillance” in which young people don’t think about putting their lives out to the public with very little thought. I feel as if this idea of self surveillance can relate to “The Dancing Floor” where it states that “in any and all attempts to control, construct models in the name of language, we will witness language turning against the models”, meaning that we, as the models, construct the language, yet the language is turning against us. This parallel is very unique to (I think) the youth in present times, as it never seemed like a problem in the generations above ours.
In the Ried video, I saw expressions on peoples face’s of confusion. This confusion demonstrates both the infancy of virtual community and inexplicable nature of the virtual community.From ” Growing up With Electracy” makes me think of odyssey and journey. One of my favorite ideas or feelings, the completely free unrestricted joinery into an infinite universe both in size and composition. It brings me to one of my favorite things: ” Buy The Ticket Take The Ride” We are here now because where else could we possibly be?
I think it is fascinating to recognize that we are in the same place for electrical media that medieval monks occupied for literature. There is so much to learn that is hindered by our present technology, and I can only look forward to the advent of the next printing press or steam technology to streamline our capabilities for production and communication. There is much to learn, and much to invent in order to learn it.
“Electracy encompasses the cultural, institituional, pedagogical, and idealogical implications inherent in the transition from print literature to one primarily dominated by electrical media” I find it interesting that we assume there is an inherent difference between print and online media. Obviously there are some enhanced means of communication for both that the other does not possess, but I think at the core there is a central ideological concept that both seek to communicate. Our reactions to such will only differ in strength of reaction to power of communication, which resides less in the power of the media, but more in the capability of a creator.
“electracy is to digital media what literacy is to print” This quote shows Ulmer’s concept of the importance of being able to communicate and operate multiple sources of digital media. “I realize those influences are not a seperatly, identifiable part of me. Instead, they are totally integrated into the way I think, the way I teach” This quote shows how your relationship to media becomes a part of who you are, how you communicate and the more electracy you have the more resources you have at your disposal to broaden your abilities as a person. “The Dancing Floor” covers inner-connectivity and how you are more likely to connect and relate to people that use and understand the same sources of digital media. The idea that in the modern world it is becoming more and more important to be able to find knowledge efficiently on the web rather than being efficient learning and storing information