Works in progress, playing the process...ShareRiff CommonsPreacher aka Professor Trey Conner hereby ventures out and into ENC 1101 to find more and more ways to wyrd in common. Click edit and shred it!
bringing that "old school multi-modal nuggetry" to USFSP since 2006
The Netsilingmint Eskimo Orpringalik said “songs are thoughts sung out with the breath when people are moved by great forces and ordinary speech no longer suffices," and perhaps we could say the same for our persuasive speaking and writing when we enjoin pathos in our thinking and writing. Pathos appeals create movement--they "move" readers to tears of sorrow or joy, but they first must move the writer who then put these feelings into words. Orpringalik fashions a metaphor from the natural materials of his immediate ecology to explain how, under the spell of such forces, we (as readers or writers) are "moved just like the ice flow sailing here and there out in the current...thoughts are driven by a flowing force when we feel joy, when we feel sorrow. Thoughts can wash over us like a flood, making our blood come in gasps, and our hearts throb." It's no small wonder, then, that if we choose to work with pathos we will at times, "fear to use words," says Orpringalik, but this tension will beget release, and "it will happen that the words we need will come of themselves (emphasis added). When the words we want to use shoot up by themselves—we get a new song.” Orpringalik's teachings about songcraft instruct rhetoricians in the ways of pathos, as well.
Chat in wiki! This function could further streamline cluster composing
Here we have a Don Knotts mii icon. Although I don't have a wii (and so cannot tune in to the mii channel), I can be grateful for miiware, which let's me create iconic avatars for free. Because, hey, sometimes shareriff is in a deputy sort of mood. Can a Barney Fife icon, deployed as an "avatar," alter the balance and eq (the "tone") of a communication effort? It would seem that the particular nature of any such Barney Fifean iconography could only be known by it's use--symbols get made, resemblances are grown, and the standard "icons" of technical communication ($%+=?!) emerge in communities of practice. I realize that, on the one hand, I'm being sort of literal about McCloud's typology of icons, but, on the other hand, for me, McCloud's Understanding Comics text does the most work when I when I think McCloud's rap in terms of the wider multimedia contexts of the web, where amplification through simplification happens all the time. Sarah wrote that "when we abstract ideas, we are not just eliminating details," but in fact also selecting a specific set of details and calling for readers/listens to pay careful attention to them. Her well-stated claim instantly made me think about the many ways we compress information in many media. It's a "commons"place of multimedia composition! At the same time, no, I don't think life is one big comic strip. Even if it was, we would still need more than one tool in our toolbox, more than one scale in our repertoire, to find a compositional rhythm. And, yes, I do notice the wayit has become a lot easier to make claims than to articulate the reasons (and reasoning) supporting them. So, I think "amplification via simplification" is rhetorically important, but it's equally important to know when to "require greater levels of perception," of ourselves and our readers (Understanding Comics 49). The web is pretty loud, wouldn't you say? As we blog about "because" claims--and immerse in the art and science of causal rhetoric--let's try to "amp up" our blog "volume" by "simplifying" our game. When we go to the wiki, let's both a) make causal claims (or find and post them) and b) find and write up the reasons and reasoning supporting those claims. And if you find an icon--reflect on the effects it's intending to be causing, yo!
discreet music diagram, Brian Eno
Brian Eno's signal-flow diagram narrates the modifications he makes, using tape technology, of found and carefully selected sounds. This "troping" of sound is akin to the treatments we bring to bear on language when we take the time to reflect on the ideas , poems, arguments, and stories we deem important, and then proceed to deliberately revise and remix them with a particular person or group of people in mind. If you were to draw a picture of the rhetorical process you are inventing to create your capstone remix, what would it look like?
The "Freesound exercise" encourages the overlay of tracks that will "work on their own." But sound editors like Audacity let us focus on acts of troping and bringing sounds together in particular ways--we can "tune" or selections to our understanding of our audiences assumptions, beliefs, and knowledge. Put another way, Freesound provides no effects menus, nor does it provide the control over the real-time patterning like faders and toggle switches in the turntable-mixer assemblages Grandmaster Flash, Kool Herc, and Grand Wizard Theodore designed on the technological templates coming out of Jamaican dance halls in the 1960s and 1970s. However, even if we have no experience or with the "tropological" controls and functions of mixers , turtables and casssette players, we can cultivate ingenuity in the fine art of mixing tropes, idioms, and forms in our writing/unwriting. Sarah, Ian, and Josh are getting into this analogy between music and prose already. I agree with Josh when he reflects on the sameness/difference gradient so easy to grok in sonic texts, and ventures that "the same method can be used when reading and trying to find a style of writing that grabs us. We should dissect the writings just as Pandora disects the elements of music. It could be the certain tone of a paper, or a writing style such as it being in first person, having excessive uses of symbolism, irony, or imagery" (Josh's blog on Pandora) Wyrd to the Wiki!
Blog of the Week
mode: icaro
mood: Cicero
Today, I am feeling the acausal connections all day long. For example, consider this snail-mail synchronicity: today, I was thinking of a good friend I'd like to see more of, my good friend Eric up in New York, when, at precisely that moment, the mailman stuffed a package through the mail slot in my front door. The package was from Eric! I believe that wiki has taught me both a) how to notice an always already uncanniness, and b) how not to get too terribly riled up about the intertwingularity of everything, now that it seems to still be here, there, and everywhere. We talked about "getting recursive on our writing" in class, yesterday, and in that spirit I try and bring what wiki shows me back to the wiki, of course, and all this really means is that I am committed to practicing and learning new modes of reading--and listening. When we blog, we're not under scrutiny, we're participating in the formation of a rehearsal space, a space for learning how to learn--by reading, and listening.
Anyhow, I found the very same resonance that I found when Eric's timely (or Untimely) package arrived when I opened up Josh's blog post from this afternoon. Josh brings a mix of personal testimony, hypothesis, pathos, and a strong, bold claim--creating the conditions for more logos. I propose--nay, I mandate--that each week, each of us shall select (vote) and make an argument for the "blog of the week." What's your favorite blog of the week? Why is this blog your favorite? I will add a button to the front page of our wiki that will lead to a blog-of-the-week voting booth, of sorts. This, way, using this button, any of us can link to any blog on this wiki, at any time in this wiki unfoldment.
The End 'O January Synoptic Table of Contents, a bloggy compression/rarefaction and 1101 digest
Greetings from Baltimore! I'm still in transit, but heading your way, fellow wikidelians. Please read and blog about Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham jail--the kairos is now for this expemplary piece. Notice the different recipes Dr. King cooks up--mixtures of ethos, logos, and pathos create different moods appropriate to different sections of Dr. King's argument. Keep working on those narratives, and FreeSound.
I spent MLK day with family and friends at a fantastic museum here in Baltimore called the American Visionary Art Museum. Artists and teachers like Abu the Flutemaker gave demonstrations and shared narrative. Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech reverberated throughout the space; meanwhile, Alex Grey paintings also reminded us of the larger patterns weaving us all together.
1. Today, having more fun in the GIMP....I first made a postage stamp sized cc logo, just to have fun, but soon, as is always the case when I harness my attention with the GIMP interface, the "tuning in" on the form of an image organizes attention by becoming something else . Perhaps I could use this description-image and icon to direct attention to the commons-logic of copyleft? Writing on a commons-medium like wiki, yes, perhaps, perhaps I can. Wiki (verb) early and often, almost like punctuation? Through repetition, a simple form of attention management? This is what wiki teaches us about attention even better than playing alone GIMP can: because when we pay attention in common, we begin to notice how the very act of "tuning in" organizes attention by becoming something else. An animal puts its face into the water to get a drink and little ripples flow from the spot pushing a pebble off the bank and into the water. "Energy can neither be created nor destroyed."
Rhetoric today still entails finding what Aristotle called "the available means of persuasion," but rhetoric today has also become an art and science of attention management in communication ecologies marked by a surfeit of information : this is the major-premise and primary assumption supporting my rationale for selecting a copyleft license when I write in wiki.
The Creative Commons site features the work of legions of artists working across a diverse mix of media. All of this creative practice takes place “just in time” and, as such, is rhythmic, not metered. Crucially, for this creative practice to even have a chance, the patterns, again, must be available. Open not closed. In a recent article, "Citation Advantage of Open Access Articles," Gunther Eysenbach (2006) quantifies and explains how "articles published as an immediate OA article on the journal site have higher impact than self-archived or otherwise openly accessible OA articles. We found strong evidence that, even in a journal that is widely available in research libraries, OA articles are more immediately recognized and cited by peers than non-OA articles published in the same journal. OA is likely to benefit science by accelerating dissemination and uptake of research findings" click here to read Eysenback's article in full. Put simply, it is easier, or “more compressed” to create timely and persuasive patterns with actually available means (Aristotle), than to try to work with compositional units (ideas) encrypted under lock and key. With creative commons licensing (and therefore no longer as concerned with the copyright status of "files"), students and teachers are free to write with all the available means, with the rhetorical practices and content that the the digital commons generates continuously. In this way, the art of sampling, as evolved by African American poets and musicians, once again appears as the fundamental gesture of the peer-to-peer rhetor. Those who seek to define sampling simply as promiscuity and piracy risk recapitualating the deleterious effects that stem from the historical tendency in the West to privilege the visual over the aural; namely, the unfortunate effect of not listening, and therefore not noticing all the rest of what happens when we try to communicate, in the flesh or online. Hail the Commons! Wyrd to the Wiki!
Jan 11
On this day, shareriff will blog in the form of a proposal. shareriff will likely propose that we, as a class, reckon with the versification Drew is already dropping at his home page, deeroo. Check it out.
Jan 10
I'm looking forward to today's meeting. Because we meet twice per week, it will take us 2 class periods to gain wiki entry. Today, we'll find computers on campus so I can work one-on-one with each of you. Once you're in, it's smooth sailing, friends. My other class, ENC 4260, meets ONCE a week for three hours, so we had enough time to do individual troubleshooting.
Jan 8
Spring 2008, and it's already feelin' great! I enjoyed meeting you all today. I'm just going to get things started by reflecting a little bit on the mindfulness practice of patience. Sometimes, when working in wiki, the changes come fast and furious. Indeed, according to Ward Cunningham, who programmed (in Perl) the first wiki, "wiki wiki" means "to hasten" or "to quicken" in Hawaiian. So wiki is a dynamic medium, 4 ever changin'--it's so easy to change and rearrange wiki space. Although panic and confusion may arise, it will dissolve. Remember today when we heard from Drew, and discussed the importance of locating our texts in a context? This holds true for old-school, sustained argumentation (let's say "writing"), but also for the interactive texts we weave whenever we communicate in person or online (let's say "unwriting"). Wiki amplifies the correlation we made today: paying attention to context has to do with kairos, or "good timing." Our immediate wiki context, ENC 1101, provides ample time and space to SLOW DOWN and stretch out the rapid-fire dynamics of real-time interaction. If we are patient with the wiki's initial "alien" feel, these initial informal writing actions will accumulate, giving us much to mix and remix again, and our writing will grow. Thrice weekly, we shall blog!
Thinking about Linking
Hey, rather than steal the lock Katie aka Ksaun has on the help page at the moment, I will address the JanTen prompt that asks us to make links between each others' writing on the wiki. Very, very, soon you will make and break links willy nilly. Getting started is the only tricky part, I promise. Don't worry too much about the "meaning" of the connection you seek to make by linking one page to another. Just do as I just did, above, when I mentioned Ksaun. Or click edit right on this page, and take not of the linking methods I have deployed:
I heard from Katie aka Ksaun on the I.M., and since our convo yielded information likely to be helpful (directly or indirectly), I am going to C&P here, on our wiki. I ask you to do the same. You may of course edit the conversations if necessary.
This is so weird, a professor using AIM. Hi, it's Katie from your Comp I class --figured I'd be the first to add you to my buddy list as a panic button.
Fantastic!
great
IM is good for helping everybody get "on board" during the first week, that's for sure
have you been able to find the class roster page?
Mind if I just clear up a few details with you on the assignment page?
6:40 PM
You left the chat by logging out or being disconnected.
Reconnecting to orangeautumnlust…
no problem
let's do this though: let's post our discussion on the help page, so others can learn from our chat
cool?
I added a question there.
ah, there it is! Nice
I emailed you shortly before you made the edit to the side bar though. You could possibly quote it into the Wiki and answer those as well.
Or would you like me to C&P the email?
Sorry for the fast replies, I'm a pretty quick typer. Kind of have to be when someone is hunting you with a sniper rifle in game and that one keystroke could be a win/lose situation in a game. Lol
yes, aye
you are fast, indeed!
Okay, I'll go C&P them.
I"m ssssssllllloooooowwww but that's ok
Hey, any teacher who actually takes the time to hop on AIM gets a +10 in cool points.
C&P is nice shorthand.....we must spread this shorthand around
I only know of two who did. You and my other English teacher.
6:45 PM
Oh trust me, I run on short hand. Well, only when it's logical.
ok, I responded to your query regarding textbooks on the help page
Thanks. The only down side, is they don't give a ISBN or anything. It just says "Composition"
Well, in Oasis.
ah, yeah, OASIS is reporting what it knows,
and the textbook shops tend to ask for textbook info at the wrong time, when other deadlines are at hand....plus I like to slow-cook the course prep as much as I can, to make sure I keep what works and carefully consider new ideas for texts--because they cost dough, yo.
Plus, one time, they burned me and ditched an order I had in fact placed, way early...
I think they threw my order in the spam heap cuz I emailed from my gmail account, and not my .stpt.usf account
Lame.
So do you know the name of the actual composition book so I can go hunt it down somewhere? Or are we only going to be using the Comics/Style ones for now?
just those two
Weston's Rulebook for Arguments, but I've decided just to scan and upload sections when necessary
so don't worry about weston
Ah, that clears things up. I'm sure I could find them in Haslems' (spelling is probably off on that. )
PROFESSOR whats up man. I can't figure out the GIMP i tried downloading it but I don't know where to start. Maybe we can just talk about it in class tomorrow. and can you just double check to make sure i've completed everything for unit 1? thanks man peace out.
-Erex(p.s. thats my new name instead of EMILYYYY)
hey i tried emailing you but i guess my email is down for some reason... when is a good time to call you i have a few questions.. thanks alyssa
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