Selling Perspectives

As I was reading the Kohl et al article, I realized that I was reading a collaborative essay about collaboration.  I think that this was an appropriate choice on the authors' part, and it caused me to think 'behind the scenes' of this article as I kept reading.  I had to ask myself if my understanding of writing shifted at all with the knowledge that "collaborative processes of writing dissolve the central intention of the author" (174).  In short, my answer is no.  While collaboration can be useful during the 'bouncing ideas around' stage of writing, I think that writing goals are ultimately solitary, and therefore benefit from solitary pursuit.  However, I'm speaking purely about one stage of composition here, which is the actual writing of the draft.  I think collaboration is useful again when it comes to editing so that a more objective perspective is available.  With this in mind, I had to wonder what the writing process looked like for Kohl et al, since there were three authors.  The essay flows surprisingly well, which brings up another quote from page 174: "the authors only work on passages and never on the entire text."  Of course, this quote was in reference to Wikipedia, but I think that it's generally true for writing collaborations.  Obviously we read through our co-authors' sections, but in my experience it's often with far less scrutiny than we would read our own sections with.  Why is this?

 This goes back to my 'writing goals are solitary' statement.  When we complete our area of responsibility, we look at our co-authors' responsibilities as secondary because we already have a sense of accomplishment.  This is a dangerous attitude, because the finished product will have everyone's name attached to it, without indication of who wrote the 'better' sections.  Writing is work, and part of that work is understanding that different writing styles often clash, and knowing how to smooth the transitions between styles.  How does Wikipedia do this?  Well, the wiki pages ridicule each textual input for sources to ensure that all information is accurate and properly cited, but that doesn't smooth stylistic differences.  From what I've seen, 'correct' Wikipedia entries are concise sentences that are only concerned with the facts, and less concerned with cultural perspectives.  So how collaborative is it really, if all textual input is derived from a database of reliable sources instead of opinions?

This leads right into Johnson-Eilola's main question, which is "where does writing come from?"  Although I've stated that writing goals are often solitary, I agree with the point made here that "all texts are interdependent" (200).  Writers are not in isolated bubbles (except the filter bubble), generating completely original ideas out of thin air.  We can only generate content that draws from other sources, which means that solitary writing goals must draw from the societal collaborative experience.  In other words, we need to be aware of outside perspectives in order to form our own inside perspectives.

I'm finishing up this blog in class as we discuss these readings, and I came to an important question.  Doug summarized the concepts by saying that we have reached an age where we no longer build things, we build ideas, and sell them as goods or commodities.  I agree with this, but it begs the question...does this mean we are selling perspectives?

College Stress Infographic

Process Reflection

This infographic was not at all my first idea.  Originally I wanted to display the crazy depths of the ocean by comparing it to common landmarks that we're all familiar with, but after a quick search I found hundreds of those.  My next idea focused on mental health statistics among college students, but that quickly got out of hand and many of the pictures I planned on using were...let's say insensitive.  That failed idea brought me to the stress infographic you see here, which I think most of us can relate to.  These statistics were incredibly easy to pull up, but the time consuming part was finding the right clip art and spacing everything in an aesthetically pleasing way.  I used a template in Piktochart, but ultimately made it my own by adding slides and making it more complex.  All of the available backgrounds were either wood textures or busy patterns, but I discovered that by making wood textures more opaque, it resembled lined paper which gave me the appropriate space to build on.

I felt that it wasn't enough to just display how many students are affected by stress, so I made my infographic somewhat useful by offering suggestions to counteract stress.  I thought it was interesting that my statistics revolve around making excuses, and ultimately buying more time in order to feel more relaxed.  I'm not sure whether or not this points to our generation being lazy, our society making unrealistic demands, or a combination of both, but I don't think this system is working out too well.  This is getting pretty off topic, but I read that Sweden just switched to a 6 hour workday, and productivity shot through the roof.  Perhaps a comparison between Swedish/American workers would make an interesting infographic...Anyways, this project was not difficult, just time consuming.  If I had to do this again, I would spend a little more time finding an engaging topic instead of looking for pictures.  

CPE Proposal: Senioritis

In the interest of many of us in this class, I’ve decided to utilize a common affliction that we’ve all experienced (or are currently experiencing) and understand the cause and effects of ‘senioritis.’  Dwindling motivation is something that I’m plagued by this semester, so instead of letting it get the best of me I thought that it would be productive to analyze why this happens to so many of us, as well as shed some light on possible remedies.  The rhetorical approach I aim to take with this topic concerns the element of persuasion, since persuasion is a necessary counterpart for motivation.  I’d like to analyze the persuasive weight that accompanies both positive and negative reinforcement when it comes to completing a long-term task. 

     I’ve read a fair amount of peer reviewed articles concerning senioritis, all of which have varied opinions about the delineating factors that contribute to a lack of motivation.  What most studies fail to acknowledge is the fact that there are several instances of being a senior throughout life aside from the obvious college/high school titles.  5^th graders are the seniors of middle school, 8^th graders are the seniors of Jr. high school, and 64 year olds are seniors in the sense that they are about to graduate on to retirement.  From personal observation, I’ve noticed that each of these groups experience some form of senioritis.  One theory I have is that there is some decline in motivation once we near the end of a major life task because most of us get a premature sense of accomplishment before the task is actually finished.  Conversely, I think it’s possible that by the time we reach seniority, we have become so comfortable with our surroundings and routines that it seems impossible for our current situation to change whether we are motivated or not.  By this I mean that we take our positions in life/school for granted, and assume that we are fixed into an arbitrary system that will remain unaffected by our actions. 

I’d like this project to take the form of multiple camera interviews, ideally with one person from each section of seniors.  In my head, I imagine my video to be somewhat of a Barbara Walters spoof, so that it isn’t so stiff and dry.  I’ll come up with a specific set of questions for each age group, and try to make connections between them all in order to get the bigger picture into view.  Through conducting this research, I hope to better understand my own rhetorical situation in reference to education, and through this understanding, I hope to be able to condition myself to control my motivation a little better.    

Punctuation is Music

I wish I had read Solomon before conducting my A/V short.  The concepts laid out here are exactly what I knew to be true, but didn’t have the knowledge to articulate.  “Punctuation directs tempo, pitch, volume, and the separation of words” (Solomon, 282).  I think most of us are aware of this fact, however we tend to keep these literary tonalities in our heads, because we are too self-conscious to portray them out loud.  If we had to read the sentence, “Are you fuckin’ kidding me?!” in our heads, most of us would agree that the voice would be some combination of strained/shrill/disbelief, possibly yelling or whispering harshly.  However, if asked to read this aloud in front of the entire class, I bet more than 75% of us would read it fairly monotone, with only a slight vocal inflection at the end to identify it as a question.  If we are to become “Creative Composers” as Bernhardt puts it, shouldn’t we shed our vocal insecurities and embrace the tempo/pitch/volume that the page implies?  My band teacher always used to preach (mostly to the woodwinds, because they are modest folks) to PLAY IT AS IT’S WRITTEN.  You can’t play every note piano just because you’re afraid of honking every note that’s forte.  Similarly, reading blatant punctuation in monotone is…well…monotonous.   It completely bastardizes the composition that the composer intended.  I would even go so far as to say that those who lack the ability to properly vocalize texts shouldn’t be reading aloud at all.  None of us want to listen to “Bueller…Bueller…Bueller…”

I thought it was fascinating—albeit arbitrary—that Solomon designated certain punctuations to Major ? ! [ ], Intermediate : ; “ “ ( ) / and Minor - ‘ *.  I think these distinctions mean different things to each writer/reader, but I like where he’s going with this.  I agree with all the intermediate symbols, because they make you pause and ponder.  Minor and Major are something I struggle with in all areas, because often times (musically speaking) you can slip a Major into a dominantly Minor context, and it feels very much like a Minor.  Similarly, ?! feels abrupt/intrusive, so I can see that as Minor in some cases.  I really like the attempt at categorization though.  Maybe this can inform whatever question I develop for the Critical Photo Essay.

“The truth of actions is reached via the mode of writing, and the truth of how the world looks is reached via the mode of image” (Kress, 48). 

There is something about this quote that I can’t quite pick apart, but I think that it’s important (easy area for my group to comment on to help me out here).  The truth of actions…what the hell is that?  Are we not able to speak the truth of actions?  I may be too literal here, but I think that the truth of actions can be seen in their reactions, which doesn’t always involve writing.  If you watch me drop potassium into water, the reaction speaks for itself doesn’t it?  In fact, I think I could mime the results to someone and get the truth of action across, without speech or writing.  Perhaps this is what Kress means by saying that the truth of how the world looks is reached via the mode of image, that you have to observe something in order to see its truth.  This is completely “DUH.”  I think that Kress just wanted a powerful sentence to end this essay, but this one is pretty meh.  I’m guilty of doing this too, especially after being burnt out at the end of a paper, but seriously…am I missing something in this quote?  I don’t know.  Here’s a *true* butterfly. 

    

The Conventionally Beautiful Become Ghosts

More or less how I gloss over ads with pretty women.
We see she's attractive, but hollow. Form without core.

It was a strange coincidence that these readings were assigned a few days after my S/O and I had a discussion about whether or not we even notice 'conventionally' beautiful women anymore.  Women like the one in Wysocki's example completely oversaturate the majority of consumable media, to the point of desensitivity (not sure if that's a word, but it is now).  When I'm browsing a magazine, which is probably only in the doctor's office (so once every decade), of course I notice the ad with the partially clothed woman.  However, it's more like I am aware that it's there and what it contains, but don't ever bother to pay any real conscious attention.  I end up assuming that I know the form of the ad and have some sort of preconditioned template to produce a static image in my head, but there is no real stimulation or element of engagement involved.  Of course, I enjoy the female anatomy a great deal, and I've also seen enough of it to know what's realistic and what is wildly over exaggerated.  See the .GIF on Anjeli's blog post for reference.  This image alone made me realize that this isn't just a 'sticky embrace' of male dominant constructs vs. female realism, but it's an issue of age as well.  Unless the ad is for menopause supplements or Depends, models are airbrushed and distorted to look like girls instead of women.  Why could this be?  I think, at least partially, the juxtaposition of nudity against youth evokes a feeling of innocence in the viewer.  Innocence is perhaps more rare than beauty, so when our eye stumbles across it we can't help but marvel over it.  How does this look in conversation with Jamieson's point, in reference to only being taken seriously in public speech if it is in "manly" form?  How can we simultaneously value the aesthetic of innocence and the abandonment of (as Anjeli listed it:) "feelings, intuition, desire for intimacy, relationships, and peace."  Aren't these all constituents of what makes up innocence?  Perhaps this disconnect exists because we've been conditioned to separate what looks good and what sounds good.  Which seems strange, because ultimately to enjoy one of these things, you must ignore the other.

Returning back to my original thought process concerning how easy it is to overlook conventional beauty these days, I began to think about how and why styles/fashion shift to accommodate the ever-evolving perception of beauty.  It's easy to get bored of the same recycled perspective, so it becomes necessary to alter it here and there.  Take these trending high-waisted booty shorts all over campus for example.  Only a few years ago, the style was low rise 'just below the hip' with butt-cheeks fully covered.  Apparently we got bored of that, so designers decided we needed to see more cheek, and less belly.  There's nothing wrong with this, but it's interesting that style shifts are usually an effort to draw more attention to one's self, so that one can be noticed, and then pondered about whether or not they are conventionally beautiful.  

After reading both of these pieces, I had a tough time finding the relation to our class, but Brett's post summed it up pretty well by saying that the big picture is about visual hierarchy.  So what's important currently, visually speaking?  The soft curves of the female anatomy are certainly high on the list for advertising companies, but this image is partially a catalyst for what's really important universally: change and accommodation for socially shifting definitions of beauty, delivered in a time sensitive window.  Otherwise, we'd skim everything without pausing to notice anything at all.

    

 

 

           

The Rhythm of Speech

The concept for this video was to take various quotes and maxims about music, and make them musical.  If I had known how difficult this was going to be, I would have tried to come up with a different concept, but once I started it felt like I had to keep going.  Originally, I read the quotes along to a metronome, which made it a lot easier to groove along to, because it was in perfect time.  The trouble with that approach was that the speech was very unnatural sounding, and not an accurate representation of real speech.  Instead, I ended up reading each quote normally, and analyzing the wave form in Logic Pro X in order to pick out the transients and form a rhythm.  I laid down just a basic bass drum/snare hits to serve as the back bone for composing the piano around, and later added more to the drums.  I wanted to match my vocal inflections harmonically, so that it would seem that the piano was 'reading' along with me.
The most difficult part of this whole project was synchronizing the video to such a weird composition.  Aside from the intro and outro, which are a little more structured than the middle, I had to record 1-2 notes at a time instead of playing it from start to finish.  Because of this, most of the footage of me playing is not in tandem with what you're actually hearing.  Instead, it's the footage of me working out (and often failing) the parts.  I used GoPro studio to compile the video/titles/audio, but I composed all the audio in Logic.  Enjoy this hot avant-garde mess.