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02/26/2005 Archived Entry: "Tag/Elvis"

Tag/Elvis
David Weinberger writes about tags. The short piece is insightful and part of what I am understanding as not just a meme rising in popularity but instead a monumental shift in organization on par with the ideological shift of linearity brought on by print (McLuhan’s “extensions of man”).
That the Web began with the list is important. Netscape's "What's Cool" or Yahoo directories were initially print-directed and have/are yielding to more complex organizing structures left fairly open-ended (at least how Ong identifies the open nature of electronic media).

Weinberger writes:

Without trees, how would we organize college curricula, business org charts, the local library, and the order of species? How will we organize knowledge itself?

I have been thinking about this too lately (trying to write an essay which realigns tagging/linking/with university/writing organization; the rethinking of the legacy of Harvard’s English A). "Tagging systems are inherently ambiguous," Weinberger notes. This ambiguity (echo of Burke) is the heart of digital media and let us suggest, the new university. The test case: this week's reading in 7020, Greil Marcus’ Dead Elvis.
Elvis as tag. “Echoes, not facts,” Marcus writes. The multiple variations of references to Elvis collected speak to the nature of the tag as organizing principle for new media. Which Elvis do I use to label/name a given piece of found information? Depends. Let me dip into my collection of references. That ambiguous answer does not rely on audience-generated heuristics (KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE) but rather user-generated desire (NAME MY FETISH).
For tagging relies on fetishistic inclinations for organization, no?
“I have been thinking about this too lately…” Barthes, in Camera Lucida advises regarding his own media-directed practice: “Attach it to different class of fetish.” There’s no arguing against disciplinary practice as fetishistic regardless of its shape or flavor. But what if that practice switches from referentiality (you are now an English major) to open tag, the Dead Elvis model? You are now….this and this and this…depending on the day/moment/reflection/encounter’s desire. . . where do you want to reference today?
Ambiguity as disciplinary practice – the very knowledge work Alan Liu is so quick to reject in his latest book.

Posted by collin @ 02/28/2005 01:11 AM EST

Another very interesting article to read. . .probably this summer, when I'm not teaching. This is another article that will help me answer the question of what I'm doing in a digital classroom.

Posted by joanna @ 02/27/2005 03:18 PM EST