My Archives: January 2006
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Wiki
I can't speak for the students in the first year writing course I'm teaching, but I'm really loving working with the Wiki. Besides Mediawiki's fine aesthetic appeal (I just don't like the way PBWiki looks or the way other "flavors" look like the ones assembled in my del.icio.us), I'm grooving on the open-ness, the interlinking starting to form, the rising mix of personal and contextual, the watching of writing happen.
That last point comes with the "recent changes" feature which shows who's done what for the day and how many times. While this could be used to "monitor" or to explore some kind of Janet Emig approach to understanding writing process, I'm more interested in how writing is taking place among different kinds of writers engaging with the material in different ways. The cognitive has no appeal to me since I don’t want to replicate any kind of process for positivist purposes. I’m just interested, as in a rhetorical ecologies kind of way.
In the wiki, some folks are paying attention to others' work, some are moving out of simple linear approaches, some are. . . well, it's really way too early to assess. But, at the least, I feel more involved with what is happening. That gives me a better understanding of the work going on, and hopefully it is giving the students better understandings as well, and further opportunities to do more than they might otherwise.
More as I think about this throughout the semester.
Posted by jrice @ 09:50 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Lil Movie
Thanks to Spencer for this idea and link.
Posted by jrice @ 11:31 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Comp Mafia
For those of you wondering....the saga of Comp Mafia (whose name we know and should reveal) ends with her sounding like she is threatening us in an email. So here is an open letter to you:
Don't threaten us. Do as you like, but don't threaten us. Nobody knows what your problem is. If you are upset with us, fine. Nobody did anything wrong to you, but I can't control you being upset. Before your exchange on our websites and your emails, we didn't even know (or at least I didn't know) your name or who you are or what gender you are or whatever. You send emails to me as if I know you, when I don't. I still don't know who you are - except I know your name since you told me (assuming that is your real name). You weren't invited here. You came here, got upset over who knows what, got kicked out for bad behavior, and now sound like you are threatening us. No problem. I will post here your email and pdf. Ok?
Child, please. We really don't care. We moved on. Life moves on. If we're such bad people, stop trying to contact us. We didn't search you out. You searched us out.
But if you threaten us....I consider that harassment. In fact, one more email from you, and I consider that harassment.
Posted by jrice @ 01:27 PM EST [Link]
Friday, January 27, 2006
Methods of Writing
From the lost notebooks of Dr. Fabulous: Methods of Writing. Titled: "Steps towards Invention. Notes on Writing." Scraps of papers and incomplete notebooks. Drawings left out for now. Profanity limited or cleaned up.
Reproduced from barely legible handwriting:
I hate Bic pens.
Overheard remark at department water cooler about "critical thinking." I'll teach them.
The feeling of being funky.
Wondered what would happen if Elements of Style was mixed with A Thousand Plateaus
Wrote angry letter to editor as part of beginning campaign against new traffic sign at end of street.
"How to Be Deleuze." Early pages of instructional manual. Find writer no one reads seriously anymore. Make writer central to argument. Possible candidates: John Steinbeck.
The Fabulous Task of Unnerving. To be a book length manuscript on the methods and stylings of Dr. Fabulous.
Damn cats.
Angry letter half-composed to Hunter S. Thompson. "Give me back my gun!"
Park car in neighbor's yard.
"What Ever Happened to Plezure?" Short article on missing rap singer.
Pedagogical Melancholy: Lawns, Weeds, Texas, and Rhetoric.. Study of Jim Corder's sadness.
Posted by jrice @ 07:46 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, January 26, 2006
2:00 PM Detroit, Michigan
Detroit Beer, Co. Sitting at the bar. Drinking Dwarf Ale. Light taste of Belgian style (not as good as the Dragonmead Absolution I have in the fridge). The lunch crowd is thinning out. This street feels different with all the new construction. Almost as if it is coming back to life. Marback asks:
"So is composition really still what we mean? Maybe we need a new term?"
I agree. McLuhan wrote (on a similar note):
The age of writing has passed.
We must invent a new metaphor, restructure our thoughts and feelings.
I have since proposed (elsewhere) the network as metaphor (troping on Collin, of course - the blog itself is part of this network) for this work we do. Nevertheless, the time has come to stop talking about "composing." We are talking about more now.
Posted by jrice @ 07:36 PM EST [Link]
Subtle Memories II
Take that!
PUNCH!
Posted by jrice @ 10:39 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Subtle Memories
Lawton, Oklahoma. Circa 1974 or 5.
Parking lot of some place.
Age: about the same as the year: 5 or 6.
Me: "Hey old man, ever ride in a jeep before? I have!"
Posted by jrice @ 05:53 PM EST [Link]
Plagiary
Via Scott McLemee, Plagiary, a journal devoted to plagiarism. Holy moly.
There are these moments regarding what matters in higher education when one wishes the enterprise of teaching could finally get over the crap it is obsessed with and start worrying about things of substance. Yet, items like plagiarism still occupy our thoughts. All this attention, and nothing changes. But don't let that stop the editorial board! Let's see. What's upcoming in this new publication:
Textual Re-Use in Journalistic Domains
Plagiarism, Power and Tactics Automatic Plagiarism Detection The Paper Mill Industry and "Research Services" The Da Vinci Code as Borrowed Text The Cut and Paste Plagiarist Culture Plagiarism and the Problems of the Deaf and Deaf ESL Learners Plagiarism and Identity TheftThere is great value in epideictic rhetoric. But isn't this the extreme? How many articles can one read about how awful plagiarism is and how teachers should punish plagiarists completely? Without entering into the typical counter-argument (digital culture, history of copying in our arts and letters, etc.), there is always a nagging point: Why must our work be reduced to "moral" issues, as the journal's editor has argued previously? Education is not religion. It is not a moral institution by any means. Why pretend otherwise? Morality in education? Right. Look to hiring practices and stop right there. Why is writing, for that matter, a moral act? Ya'allah. Let's move on to more important issues already.
Posted by jrice @ 10:27 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Language Games
Lyotard tells us that in the computer-age, the language games we play change according to the logic of the database. We are accustomed to certain games within certain kinds of institutions (like a university, or a seminar, or a hallway greeting). But a network (as an ever growing database of information) may alter those rules and conditions of the game. The blog (itself a database) is not immune from this process. Often, those who visit blogs think that the same rules that apply in an article or a seminar apply on the blog as well. The rules may apply...but maybe not on all blogs at all times. Blogs as part of the network (and as contributors to the network) continuously morph and change (following László Barabási's notion of growth). The result for some participants can be frustration. How do I enter this game (this conversation) when the old rules do not apply? We hear the various responses: I get angry. I get hostile. I keep trying to use the same old rules. I condemn those who made the new rules. I storm out.
Institutions, Lyotard notes, pose constraints for the games they support. "There are things that should be said; and there are ways of saying them." The relevance to an emerging institution of the Web and its sub-areas like weblogging is to acknowledge this point. There are things that should be said. There are ways of saying them. Argument may not always be the way to say something. Debate neither. Proving someone's point as "wrong" may also fail. Why? Because in many cases, this is not the game being played.
Posted by jrice @ 12:26 PM EST [Link]
Monday, January 23, 2006
More From the World of Education and the Net
Clueless Watch: Again from The Chronicle. This time the topic is Facebook:
Some less-drastic measures include clauses in syllabi warning against using Facebook or other nonassigned Internet sites during class. Some professors punish students who violate such rules and reward those who visit the library. Still others have stopped using technology in the classroom, forcing students to listen, debate, and otherwise hone their interpersonal skills.
Right. Library is not a piece of technology too. And it is holy! Worship in it! It has. . . .BOOKS! Books can do no wrong! They develop interpersonal skills! Huh? The thing that invented privacy and individual reading? Huh?
And more wonderful bits of wisdom:
My preference is not to block content but to instill in students what I call "interpersonal intelligence," or the ability to discern when, where, and for what purpose technology may be appropriate or inappropriate.
That, alas, requires critical thinking and suggests that we have reached a point where we must make hard decisions about our investment in technology and our tradition of high standards. Because the students already have. .
Commonsense! Teach commensense! Dang. Revolutionary conclusions again. Now back to that critical thinking thing...oh dear Iowa State Professor of Journalism and Communication: Are you sure this little piece of yours is chock full of critical thinking? Are you really sure? Look again.
Posted by jrice @ 11:07 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Brainstorming: Southeast Michigan Style
Notes from early morning brainstorming session between the girl and Dr. Fabulous. Such sessions held every so often as need demands or when the girl is in town. At some point, my pencil broke and I stopped taking notes. So much material has been lost. Also, I have bad handwriting, so my transcription may not be accurate.
TV Show starring Ira Glass. This American Wife. Ira Glass marries and divorces women from across the nation.
Reality Blogs. Like reality TV, but without the fast-paced editing. Like The Real World, could be place specific. Like Temptation Island, could involve people falling in love in less than a day and then having their hearts broke in less than two days.
Spaghetti O's in a bag.
Arrange and hold a national conference, but book no speakers and accept no papers.
Beer!
The Return of Shelly Long. A half hour sitcom which features Shelly Long trying to make a come back. Each episode hilariously documents her failed efforts.
Booby Trapped (we secretly want to produce TV shows, as you see): A young Harvard MBA returns to his native Detroit to take over his father's ailing strip joint on Eight Mile. After handling his father's funeral, our hero listens to the girls (a young idealist, an old curmudgeon, a girl named "Sparkle," and a book worm) beg him to stay and turn the place around. The guy from the Sprite commercial plays the son. Filmed on location without a laugh track.
The Handbook of Impossible Assignments. Actually, this was not part of the session but an idea I pitched several years ago to a textbook publisher. Writing assignments no one could possibly do. I was turned down. I place it here in order to get interest from any publishers who might stop by from time to time.
Posted by jrice @ 10:14 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Technorati Top Blogs as of Saturday January 20, 2005.
Spank the Monkey. A blog which looks at, er, that is, well... 15,043 links from 567 sources.
Movealiciious Thai Style! Thai blogger Jaruwan Jarasa notes how much he loves new Queen Latifa flick, Last Holiday: "She B Smokin! Four Chili Peppers!" 12, 432 links from 754 sources.
All Your Code Belong to Us. Uzbek hacking club weblog. 11, 222 links from 654 sources.
Lord of the Flings. New group weblog for swinging, '70s style. 22, 456 links from 45 sources.
Crying Rug. Failed blog which has been revitalized due to latest posts from Boy George. 13,002 links from eight sources.
The Ethel Merman Web Ring. Not really a web ring in the traditional sense. A series of posts on tap dancing as proven to be controversial enough to put this blog in the top twenty. 23,782 links from 3,452 sources.
The Official Blogger Watch. Concerned netziens who feel Blogger is taking over the world. 33,222 links from 2 sources.
Spencer for Hire, the Blog. The popular Robert Urich TV show has made a quite a return via this fan fiction weblog. Crazy stories! Car chases! 8,565 links from 439 sources.
The Daily Truth. Liberal views on the war in Iraq, capitalism, and Intellectual Property. Al Franken runs a guest column from time to time. 22,998 links from 110 sources.
Cyncial Cooks. A new weblog by Cook's Tour genius Tony Bourdain. Tony laments the failure of the sitcom based on his work, his love of cigarettes, and the ins and outs of cold storage shenanigans. 3,454 links from 812 sources.
Posted by jrice @ 03:36 PM EST [Link]
Friday, January 20, 2006
Forgotten Academic Biographies
Random Weathers. Holton Professor of Handwriting and Demonstrative Learning. 1910-1911. Harvard University. Fired over improper usage of school stationery.
Dean Sally Johlongson. Dean of Bankwater Community College. 1955-1964. First all womens community college in Montana. Taught swimming on the side.
"Stormin" Jack Swanson. Popular Holy Cross writing instructor. 1973-1988. Taught well attended course for first year students entitled "Makin' It!" Fired for writing letters to the editor that complained about school president's hygiene.
Colonel Morgan Haswell. President, Naval Academy, Sioux Falls campus. Ran experimental college for Navy officers, 1956-1961. Resigned for unknown reasons and later opened beauty parlor. College closed shortly thereafter.
Jade Longfellow. Only non-doctoral candidate to be granted Ph.D. at Princeton, 1981. Clerical error made her a Doctor of Philosophy. Applied for, and received, appointment as Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Washington University, St. Louis. Currently made tenure.
Stone Robinson. Adjunct Professor of Journalism and Foreign Languages. Missouri East State College, 1972-1975. Wrote famous textbook for first year writing: The World is But a Moment for Civil Discourse. Currently serves on College Board.
Posted by jrice @ 10:19 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, January 19, 2006
The Searchers
As You're It! notes, Jacob Nielsen calls for a liberation from search engines. Nielsen's reasoning is based on an economic analysis that implies that search engines suck off of websites. Odd reasoning and one which, as You're It's contributor Jon Lebkowsky writes, fails to realize how "we’re moving away from “site” and “page” as controlling metaphors" in favor of information. We are the culture of the search. There is no liberation from it; and the desire to be liberated from it would result in what Lyotard calls "terrorism."
I am reminded of a conversation Jenny and I had the other day about the age of the web page being over; dynamic sites have taken its place. PHP is the new HTML in many ways. My own "website" feels dead to me. I don't visit it (except for once a semester updates). And who should? Only someone interested in the courses I've taught or are teaching (and maybe CV). The real action is here, on the weblog, or on one of the other dynamic sites I teach from within (the wiki or the weblog right now). The server which houses our department does not have PHP or MYSQL, so information posted there feels dead as well; it is static, dependent on an FTP user opening an FTP client, finding the public_html folder, uploading the document, etc. No wonder it is never updated and its members (the faculty) don’t run sites from it (if at all). The site I arranged to be set up (really mirrored for now), englishweb.clas.wayne.edu does have the elements of dynamic web writing, so there we install Drupal, wikis, weblog software, etc. It can generate traffic and content in much faster ways (the importance of "speed" to technological innovation, as many critics note) and keep our attention in ways the static website cannot.
And the search issue? Another moment of failed recognition. What You’re It! Notes about searching we can generalize to web presences overall. For a university or department, hat means re-evaluating our models for presence.
Posted by jrice @ 12:51 PM EST [Link]
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Today's Quote
From The Chronicle of Higher Education, "Higher Education in the High-Tech Age":
But Richard A. Detweiler, president of the Great Lakes Colleges Association and president emeritus of Hartwick College, argued: "The digital age can enhance liberal education. It can do so if we make appropriate use of digital opportunities. Part of the answer, of course, is to use technology to heighten the learning experience."
Dang. That's some smart thinking. To heighten the learning experience. And here I been doing the plumb opposite. What was I thinking of! Man, The Higher Education Leadership Forum does some great work. The blind leading the blind, as my dad likes to say.
Put Detweiler's quote in the "family values" file of meaningless catch phrases. Right next to "critical thinking."
Posted by jrice @ 11:34 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Ten Things the Girl Has Said to Me
I threw my crying rug out, remember?
You don't have to end every joke by saying it should be on Saturday Night Live.
STOP MOCKING ME!
I do not have a big head.
Do you like Modest Mouse?
Pee-ew.
I gave you a shout out!
Buy some more beer.
Why don't you blog about me?
A bum jumped on me!
Posted by jrice @ 07:23 PM EST [Link]
Chocolate City
Mayor Nagin of N'Orleans calls for the city to be a Chocolate City. He he. And when they come to march on you, tell them tto bring their James Brown passes!
Celebritacy again. Parliament informs urban planning. Tear the roof off the sucka? Already done, thanks Katrina (or Kat-Z, the dopest of the hurricanze, boyeeeee!). But it's a concept worth further thought. The Funky City.
A chocolate city is no dream
It's my piece of the rock and I dig you, CC
Detroit already is Chocolate City. Nothing wrong with that. CNN this morning seems a bit confused over the name. That's because the global news network is not on the ONE. Everything is on the one, y'all. So hit it and quit.
Posted by jrice @ 08:27 AM EST [Link]
Monday, January 16, 2006
10 Things I Know About Jenny
She lives in State College next to a pizza place where you can buy six packs of Dogfish Head.
She's working on "Weird Stupid Banal Neighborhoods," some kind of article on rhetorical something or other.
She once thought she could get me to listen to Modest Mouse.
She owns a monkey cat.
She owns a crying rug.
She has about a hundred CDs in the trunk of her car. Not one is in a case.
She has about a hundred CD cases in her house. Not one has a CD in it.
She can't drink barley wines. She will drink Belgians. But she'll also drink Shiner. Go figure.
She likes to pretend she has a Russian accent.
She started blogging (with Greymatter, no less!) after I told her she should (after hearing her NPR-ish takes on life: "It was like reaching into the refridgerator for the last pudding pop...").
Posted by jrice @ 04:14 PM EST [Link]
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Chili Paste
Much thanks to Tenured Radical for a few guest posts. I haven't seen the comments section this active in quite some time.
Meanwhile, I stopped off at Chinatown market in Madison Heights today and, as usual, was drawn to the chili paste section (after passing over the live crabs in a cardboard box and the endless amount of jars of pickled shrimps).
I settled on this number, "Spicy Pot Sauce."
Product of Cina Ning-Chi Foods in Taiwan. Tastes like....soybean oil and chili?
Posted by jrice @ 04:12 PM EST [Link]
Guest Post
I have enjoyed reading the very thoughtful comments on my previous post. This kind of exchange makes me want to set up my own weblog as well.
I’d like to allow myself one more opportunity to write in this space before a very busy week ahead of me. Perhaps, I have focused too strongly on the question of anonymity. As many of you note, this is a problematic issue for many reasons. But I am also very moved by our need for security, as Clancy writes, in a time period where we are constantly feeling anxious about our securities. As a former colleague of mine once noted to me in private conversation, academia may be the most insecure of the professions.
Perhaps, the 21st century will be marked by national security concerns as well as personal security concerns, as well as, of course, Internet security. Indeed, this is a project I am just beginning to conceptualize, an overview of securities and professional lives, the way we project insecurities into public and private spaces. So I very much appreciate all the wonderful comments I've received so far.
I hope to be able to post again here soon. Or, when my own blog is set up, I will make that site available to you all so that we can continue these types of conversations.
The Tenured Radical
Posted by Tenured Radical @ 11:49 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Guest Post
Because of some of the discussion here (and elsewhere) regarding anonymous blogging, I've asked Jeff to let me do a guest post or two on the subject.
No, I'm not Carey Nelson. But I take my name from his book Manifesto of a Tenured Radical. I've been in the field for quite some time, have held positions at more than one university, and published a book that was well received by members of my field . Since I've known him for a few years and since I read this space every so often, I asked Jeff to let me post here as Tenured Radical, and he was hesitant at first. After all, he has been critiquing the whole issue of anonymous blogging. But I wanted to state some support for the issue, and to even show that someone like me, with really little to lose, prefers to blog anonymously.
Somewhat as comp mafia noted in the comments section of this blog, hostility, poor judgment, jumping to conclusions and other such things mark our field in distinctive ways. Even more blogging became popular we saw such activities and their unfortunate consequences. I post as an anonymous figure because, even with tenure, I realize that colleagues may respond in non-productive ways to my thoughts: turn down my proposals for grants (if they sit on the respective university committees), deny my access to committees that set policy, deny me raises and the next promotion (if indeed, I am not a full professor). I think you get my point.
Still, as I offer that acknowledgement, I feel odd posting as an anonymous figure. This is the best way I can explain what I am thinking: My desire is to remain "known" for my academic work and to remain "unknown" for any posts like this (maybe I will follow comp mafia's lead and start my own private anonymous space). But as I say that, I have conflicted feelings. I reread every sentence, hoping to avoid any revelation of my identity. Simultaneously, I wonder if I should sneak in references to who I am. Indeed, this is how I've felt posting on a few other blogs (but only in the comments sections so far) under anonymous identities. How can I join in the conversations which are exciting and challenging without posing a risk to what I do professionally?
What is my point, you may ask? I wanted to note that even when some of us use the mask of anonymity, we do so with mixed feelings. We don't always hide behind these "silly" names, as Jeff calls, them for the mere sake of cowardice or silliness. We have reasons that we may not entirely understand ourselves.
Thanks for hearing me out on this borrowed space.
The Tenured Radical
Posted by Tenured Radical @ 08:52 AM EST [Link]
Friday, January 13, 2006
In Progress: Buildings
(Draft of the introduction to an essay I'm working on that is supposed to be in a collection about buildings and Detroit, unless the editor thinks it's crap and drops it. . .)
Building Interfaces: The Maccabees
The English Department at Wayne State University, in Detroit, Michigan, is housed at 5057 Woodward Avenue in the Maccabees Building, a 1927 building designed by the famed Detroit architect Albert Khan. The Maccabees were a secret order whose origins are traced to both the Masons and the Jewish fighters whose revolt against the Seleucids has been historically and religiously remembered in the holiday of Hanukkah. The Maccabees building was founded by the group of the same name, but it later became the hub for the Detroit Public Schools system. In The Rise and Fall of an Urban School System, Jeffrey Mirel traces the history of Detroit’s public school system in excruciating detail as a series of political and economic struggles among various state and city constituencies. The school system, Mirel argues, fell into disorder as the result of longstanding labor and political conflicts which crippled the schools' educational mission. Missing from Mirel’s history, however, is any mention of the Maccabees building. Taken over in 1960 by the Detroit Public School System (DPS), the Maccabees building signifies an educational presence in the heart of the city even as that presence engages in a long standing conflict over the role of education in the Motor City. In more recent years, the conflict surrounding urban education has led to the establishment and eventual abandonment of a CEO position to head the DPS (instead of "superintendent"), the mass firings of teachers and closings of schools, and the premature declaration by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to take over the school system himself.
If I were to map the Maccabees and its relationship to Detroit and education, I might begin with such observations. The map I construct would note the Maccabees’ absence in a popular conceptual map like Mirel’s (one which is based on timelines, and not physical space) and its central presence in the geographic locale known as New Center. This map would also extend to me and my office on the 10th floor of the Maccabees. In that space, I work on the Department of English’s "Digital Literacy" initiative, an attempt to integrate technology into the teaching of writing. The rise and fall of Detroit education, I note, can be mapped to include my office space even if that connection seems only superficial at first. The connection on this map that I imagine is one which joins technology to space. Maps, Katharine Harmon writes, "find their essence in some other goal than just taking us from point A to point B. They are a vehicle for the imagination" (10). I want to imagine, then, my connection to Detroit as a technological one. The focus of contemporary work on technology and space, and one which fuels my imagination, is the network. Networks draw expected (A to B) and unexpected connections (imaginative). In his work on intellectual and social networks, Randall Collins writes that in networks, "ideas are created out of the distribution of symbols already available at a moment in time, by being reshaped for anticipated audiences" (190). The Maccabees, a symbol of secrecy, institutional foundation, education, and now technology, is being reshaped as the city itself stands to be reshaped conceptually. The Maccabees, I want to show, can be shaped as the hub of a different kind of network than one we currently imagine.
In the age of the network, William Mitchell writes regarding his concept of "recombinant architecture," education and buildings become digitalized in profound ways. "The idea of a virtual campus," Mitchell notes, "paralleling or perhaps replacing the physical one – seems increasingly plausible" (70). Virtual education seems plausible to Mitchell because of the proliferation of communicative technologies which reshape pedagogy like online chat, networked computers, and large virtual library holdings. And while a considerable amount of Mitchell’s argument is devoted to innovations in software and hardware, he draws specific attention to how individuals imagine digital spaces, educational and otherwise.
The most crucial task before us is not one of putting in place the digital plumbing of broadband communications links and associated electronic appliances (which we will certainly get anyway), nor even of producing electronically deliverable "content," but rather one of imagining and creating digitally mediated environments for the kinds of lives that we will want to lead and the sorts of communities that we will want to have. (5)
Perhaps Mitchell’s focus on the importance of imagining digital space is itself a pedagogical gesture meant to demonstrate how virtuality is often actualized through very physical locations. By that, I mean that in order to imagine a digital reality, one may not have to look farther than one’s own physical location. To imagine a digital education (whether that education is within the Liberal Arts, architecture, science or otherwise), one could begin in a very physical educational space. One such location which intrigues me is the Maccabees, for it is the site of two educational missions: the DPS and Wayne State University. That duality prompts me to think of space, technology, and pedagogy in ways not yet imagined. What is the relationship between my physical location and technology, I ask? I first have to imagine it. Thus, not just any building will do for any kind of educational mission or any kind of imaginative gesture. One begins with a specific building interface. In the age of the network, Mitchell claims, "Buildings will become computer interfaces, and computer interfaces will become buildings" (105). The obvious response to Mitchell, and a test case for the relationship between buildings and new media, would be to ask what kind of interface my location, the Maccabees, produces. If the Maccabees is a computer interface, and if we are, indeed, in the age of the network (as Mitchell also argues), how do we enact that interface to conceptualize the city as network?
Posted by jrice @ 10:17 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, January 12, 2006
The Girl:: I don't know what the hell you are talking about on your blog. Sometimes you just start yelling at someone for no reason.
Me: I'm creating a character.
The Girl: Who?
Me: Grumpy guy.
The Girl: Isn't that already you?
Me: Maybe. McLuhan writes that in the age of media, we no longer want jobs. We want roles. I'm living out some roles in cyberspace.
The Girl: Whatever.
Me: Remember when Case is seeing through Molly's eyes in Neuromancer? Isn't the weblog, to some degree, like that?
The Girl: Ok. I've got stuff to do.
Me: I read somewhere that the New Yorker's well known cartoon, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog," makes more money for the magazine than any other cartoon. Entertainment reveals current attitudes, McLuhan also notes. The metaphoric "dog" is what we all find ourselves becoming as we create these spaces. This is why I find anonymous blogging silly. It resists allowing an attitude to form, one which is shaped through cyberspace by, let's say, entertainment, but obviously by other cultural forces as well. In the end, all the anonymous blogs sound the same. The only identity that they've played with is a homogenous one. I'm not calling for some kind of Philip Roth style of blogging, but an inquiry into the roles we play, but often fear assuming when we cling too dearly to literate values.
The Girl: Keep being Grumpy guy. I'm sure your readership will drop to zero. And why are you making me sound so unsupportive???
Me: It's a character I created for you as well.
Posted by jrice @ 09:41 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
I'm bored. Somebody blog something interesting.
Posted by jrice @ 07:33 PM EST [Link]
The Book of Complaints
After yesterday's post, no surprise that The Book of Complaints should be inserted as a feature at dear old Yellow Dog. Today's complaint (gripe, pet peeve, angry letter to the editor, shoe pounding on desk) is strictly academic (yo, I'm droppin' science): the term multimodal.
Derived (copied?) mostly from the London Group's take on media theory, multimodal has become the word of choice among both the users (the in-crowd) and non-users of technology and teaching. But what does it mean to be "multimodal?" The W3C group has its ideas. What do academics mean, particularly as the rise in essays/articles/conference presentations which use this word grows yearly?
Point 1: It's hybrid writing. Oral, visual, textual and then some. Which prompts the question: was there a time when oral, visual, and textual work didn't exist, or didn't exist simultaneously? When was that exactly?
Point 2: It's related to the other popular word "multiliteracies." Like its cousin, multimodal, multiliteracy depends on the idea that suddenly the world is pushed into a situation where there are multiple ways of communicating, here we go again: orality, visuality, and textuality. Thus, there are multiple "literacies," multiple "modes" of communication. That there is even a concept like “literacy” is troubling enough. That we make it “multi” is silly. But I’ll leave that point aside for now cause the dj is getting restless.
Break: Scratcha sratacha scratcha (the dj hits the turntables)
Ok. Now what? Now that we got these oh so great terms to throw around from article to article, what did we learn? What do we do?
Well, here is where The Book of Complaints gets a nice beefy entry. Cool, folks. Great point (clap clap clap). Now, show us the money! Get out them there multimodal/multiliterate examples and practices for us to work with and develop. Bring out the Web, new media, advertising, music, art, etc. practices that got you thinking about all this in the first place! What kind of theoretical speculation is going on outside writing instruction and educational thinking? What’s the meta-task here? How can you put your own multiliterate experiences to work (i.e., let’s see you be multimodal too!).
Uh.....Nope. Nothing. But it is a really cool catch phrase. Right up there with all the wonderful catch phrases circulated in the political arena (family values), teaching (critical thinking), or in the university (excellence, diversity) which, in the end, never lead us anywhere. Usually, after all the talk about students being "multiliterate" and what not, the endorsed practice looks anything but multiliterate (it is, of course, "literate," print based in form and structure, but also by other attributes: logic, organization, task). It gets people all excited and, as usual, serves as a good old Frankfurt-styled “distraction” so that the real work never gets done and everything stays safely the same.
More later as The Book of Complaints expands this entry and goes after teachers of writing who refuse to write (or be, GASP, multimodal!)
Posted by jrice @ 11:02 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
My Motto
Posted by jrice @ 09:37 AM EST [Link]
Monday, January 9, 2006
Academic Lives
A Day In the Life or I Read the News Today Oh Boy!
Four A.M.: Sleeping
Five A.M.: Still Sleeping
Six Thirty A.M.: Woke up. Rememberd moment in The Archeology of Knowledge. Snickered to self.
Seven Thirty A.M.: Early breakfast of coffee, reading the Barbados Times both online and in print, admiring Ziggy. Notice kids outside throwing trash in other neighbor's lawn. Call cops. Pretend I didn't call them.
Eleven Thirty Five A.M.: Remembered joke about penguin, rabbi, priest, and two dogs. Wrote it down for future blog post.
Noon: Tacos.
Twelve Fifteen P.M.: While listening to reggae version of "The Tide is High," come to amazing conclusion about network theory, pizza, Woody Allen, and blogging. But the girl calls, and when conversation ends, idea is forgotten. I drink a beer instead.
Two P.M.: Article on Tranformative Identity Locales as Classroom Practice for the Insane is finished. I design a new Pedagog-T to print for friends or at least list at CafePress.
Two Ten P.M.: Read blogs. Find out that someone in Belize is linking to Yellow Dog. Hola!
Three Eighteen P.M.: Pretend I'm Batman for nine or ten minutes. Knocked lamp over by accident.
Four P.M.: Compose angry letter to the editor.
Four Seventeen P.M.: Receive angry letter from former grade school acquaintance who demands I remove her name from my blog. I refuse.
Five Forty Eight P.M.: Compose a 75 Things About Me to put on blog. Then decide it's too dirty.
Six P.M.: Around the Horn
Six Thirty P.M.: Wonder what life might be like on Venus. Then I eat an apple.
Seven Fifty Five P.M.: Start wondering why I am keeping a log of daily activities. Get paranoid. Start composing more angry letters to the editor. Then abandon everything to play video games. Put on socks. Jump up and down. Wonder what Madlib is up to. Think about calling him. Decide not to. Read all kinds of crazy academic blogs where folks won't say who they are. Play guessing game where I make believe I know who they are. Call girl to tell her of new game and convince her to play too.
Posted by jrice @ 11:14 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, January 8, 2006
Lost Lyrics
A reader in Sioux Falls, South Dakota writes me:
Dear Dr. Fabulous:
I think I read somewhere that you once wrote lyrics for Madlib. Did they ever appear on any of his albums?
It is true. I wrote for Madvillian. But Madlib discarded my rhymes. Here's a taste of what ended up on the cutting room floor:
Sat down for one of my all time beers
Tuned into my favorite All in the Family
Yo! Norman Lear.
That's one high cat
Some Blue Note on the box
Old Yeller, Lou Donaldson, Dingbat!
Kicking it like Grover stomping on Big Bird
While eating some cream cheese and lox
Yo. Drinkin' it real: Dogfish and Bell's
See you later Alligator
Like Meatloaf
I'm kickin' it like a bat out of hell.
Posted by jrice @ 04:56 PM EST [Link]
Friday, January 6, 2006
Point of New Media Critique: Or Why I Still Can't Consider The "Left" a Viable Option
A Washington Monthly piece I found via Arts & Letters Daily led me to the blog I never read, the Daily Kos, and this thread which shows little interest in condemning Chavez's anti-Semitism. If anything, we see how the leftist bloggers who comment here revise traditional tropes of anti-Semitism themselves (with the exception of a few voices who make that point as well).
Meanwhile, I begin the semester's task of re-reading (for 7020), and start with McLuhan's observation that the information overload we experience via new media does not necessarily lead to expanded perceptions in terms of awareness, but rather foregrounds tension, conflict, i.e., the global village. Technology re-tribalizes, McLuhan writes.
No better example than this thread. In the age of information technology and information overload, political blogs claim that they bring greater awareness to the "people." This awareness assumes either a democratic move or, at the very least, a move to increase awareness (what big media fails to tell you, we tell you). But the effort feels fruitless in that sense. What we experience instead is not awareness ("now we know more about others so we can get along better, so we can understand geo-conflict better, so we can better prevent injustice") but retribalization of fear, prejudice, hate, and the ignorance of the other which prevailed pre-Internet.
This is not a condemnation of my lovely Internet (nor of the Daily Kos). I find McLuhan very useful here in understanding how the increased exposure to texts, ideas, others, etc. which the Internet generates does little to alter specific kinds of perceptions, notably the tribal fears which prejudice rests upon. I also am reminded of the failure of political argument to bring awareness, particularly as online work makes political argument more pronounced. Even with the various outlets of ideas available for making connections (for crossing boundaries, as McLuhan also writes), few connections seem to be made; the same positions are maintained as is. Is this awareness? Or confirmation of already held "tribal" belief systems?
And my remarks are really directed towards the comments section of a blog (though one can say the same about the individual or group which maintains a given blog).
When a political topic hits Metafilter, for instance, I see similiar patterns occur. A typical ad campaign for Microsoft (or any other clone) might ask "Where do you want to go today?" On the political weblog, do we go anywhere? Just inward. Back into ourselves.
Posted by jrice @ 05:41 PM EST [Link]
Thursday, January 5, 2006
Intellectual Trajectories
Posted by jrice @ 08:52 PM EST [Link]
Tuesday, January 3, 2006
7020
Almost finished syllabus for ENG 7020: Theories of the Digital, the graduate course I will teach this semester. Might make a few changes/additions to the intro/description.
Posted by jrice @ 04:27 PM EST [Link]
Sunday, January 1, 2006
2006
A reader in Boone, NC writes me:
Dear Dr. Fabulous: How about some dope 2006 predicts? Double true. Make it real, don't just keep it real. Love your best of 2005 music list!
To which I must reply: Word. So here ya go, what will be will be in the '06:
Meatloaf will enjoy his third comeback album and his best to date: An all-star affair which will feature Cyndi Lauper, Jay-Z, Cher, B.B. King, Yo-Yo Ma, and Elton John joining in classic Meatloaf songs.
Hip T-shirt manufacturer American Apparel will introduce a new line of clothing called Rags. The line will include $40-50 t-shirts and hoodies ripped up.
Blogging will meet heavy competition from something called shlogging.
The Gators will win the National Championship (actually, that's a 2007 predict. D'oh!)
Swedish Nursery Orchestra will finally win a Grammy.
A new Disney animated movie about the adventures of a character and his sidekick and which features either/or the voices of Eddie Murphy, Gilbert Gottfried, and Robin Williams (and maybe Jennifer Aniston) will make $50 million.
"Snap!" will be the hippest saying.
Wanting to continue the success of his sampled "I Got a Woman," Kanye West will release a new sampled version of The Chordettes "Mr. Sandman."
I don't mean make me a dream
But girl you know you gonna scream
Yo Mr Sandman doing your thing
Don't want no woman to call me her own
The new MTV channel, MTV Kids! will fail.
A new web-technology, wyper-text, will allow you to erase any page from the Web with the swipe of your mouse. Look out Inside Higher Ed!
Posted by jrice @ 09:42 AM EST [Link]
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