Notes from the field

Presentation Notes - 4/27/10

2010-04-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

Dan A. - Exploring the Correlation Between Video Games and Virtual Communities

"Learning principles of video games are enhanced in online environments"

- Using James Paul Gee's Learning Principles of Games

- Statistical Information (xbox live)

- Opposition (common misconceptions)

Comment: Sounds like you have it together. Interesting topic. One suggestion would be to make sure you stay focused on your argument.

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Mike P. - Cybercrimes: Real vs Virtual

Types of crimes (real vs virtual)

How information is used (real vs virtual)

What cybercrimes are...

How to protect yourself.

What happened to Mike personally.

Comment: I'd tailor your argument to something along these lines "Cybercrimes make us more vulnerable to criminal activity and here's why: blah blah blah" Interesting topic.

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Lee - YouTube's Unique Roles: political activism and perpetuation of hate

Thesis: YouTube has revolutionized political activism and, in doing so, it has uniquely contributed to the perpetuation of hate, however inadvertently.

Why/How

Comment: Make your argument a little clearer by making it more precise. For example: "YouTube has revolutionized political activism and perpetuates hate." Stick to one or the other.

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Angela - Bridging the digital divide by using concepts of video games in education

To bridge the digital devide, students to be become actively involved in video games.

Gee's learning principles
Digital Youth Network - Results
First Lego League

Great material and argument.

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Derek N. - Bridging the Digital Divide (mobile phones)

"mobile technologies (cellular phones) are positively affecting the digital divide"

Statistics
Problem
Solution

Content is king
E. Silva
Barriers: Education
McCann - mobile internet solving lack of book problem
Conclusion

Comment: Good argument, thesis, and content.

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Kristin D. - HOPE

Argument for K-7 program "Healthy Online Presence Education"
Teach kids not to bully and learn how to prevent being bullied.

Purpose and Goals
Implementation
Conclusion

Comment: Works for me.

Presentation Notes - 4/22/10

2010-04-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

Dena - Legal Eagle and the Case of the Social

- Who is responsible for content?
- How to enforce laws?
- DMCA section 512 - takedown notices
- There is no one single governing body to protect users and ISP from legal action.

Comments: I would recommend that you focus in on a single law or idea and use that as the basis for your argument. For example, "Here's a law designed to prevent blah blah blah, and it works (or doesn't) because..."

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Michelle - Human Computer Interaction

"Computer UI creating seamless transition from real to virtual."

- Our attachment to machines is aiding this transition (human-like qualities assigned to them)
- Examples of interface design (madotate, 2nd life, etc)
- In the future, computers will be designed to meet the needs of the users
- Interfaces more real like.

Comments: Make your thesis clear on how you intend to argue this and then back up your thesis with proof from the reading materials. Fascinating topic!

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Brittany -

"Mobile Location Based Advertising"

FEAR and ISSUES
- tracking issues and privacty
- spam

Advantages to Buyers vs Businesses

Comments: Narrow the scope of the essay by looking at mobile advertising. Tell us why and how it works. Use plenty of examples from your research to back up your essay. Very interesting idea.

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Mark - The Cost of Access "World of Warcraft"
- Describes what WoW is

"Blizzard's changes to WoW have fractured their user base"

Blizzard implemented new quest system
Removal of challenges
Thriving alone

Comment: I think you need to take a stand and say outright in your thesis, what Blizzard is doing (right or wrong) and what it is they are or not doing to fix this.

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Chris - A Growing Digital Divide

Even if everyone moves online, we'll still have a fragmented society... the digital divide will still exist, just in a different form.

- fragmented identities
- communities begin to fragment due to fragmented identities
- infrastructure / internet

Nice argument and content to back it up. I definitely think you're on the right track.

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Presentations

2010-04-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

Katie S. - Proposal - "How to bridge the digital divide in low income schools"

Pre implementation
- Teachers need to be on board.
- Students and families on board.
- School needs to implement chart of computer and technology use in school

Phase 1 - Bridge the Knowledge Divide
- provide specific examples of how to do this

Phase 2 - Bridge the Access Divide
- provide specific examples of how to do this

Post implementation
- School need to re-evaluate progress

Comments: I really like concept and it's sorely needed in the education system if we want to have a society that doesn't leave people out. Nice work. nJulie is good to go with it, so... what else can I say...

Beau Y. - Video Games

- Video games are bad for you.
- What people don't know.
- Games have changed our culture

Argument - gaming in a necessity / not a past-time

Comments: I love the topic and couldn't agree more. However, if I were you, I'd make sure you make a very specific argument (one liner) and then proceed to prove your point.

James - Video Games

Comment: I think there's a lot of information here and this is VERY IMPORTANT. One suggestion would be to make a very specific argument and then prove your point.

Hans W. - Social networks bridging the chasm

Connection
Content
Create

Comment: Narrow it down to a specific argument and then prove your point.

Spencer T.- Do Games Generate Better Soldiers?

Presentation Notes

2010-04-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

-Lorena-
I think there's a lot of good ideas here. However, I think this (China / freedom) is a very broad subject and I'd make sure I tied this into reading material we've used over the semester. No sense having to find all new material to cite your paper with. Make sure you clearly state your argument and think about what it is that you are going to argue. I wasn't entirely clear on what you were going to be arguing.

-Sheila-
I think you're on to something here. I would have to agree with Julie's state about sticking with Club Penguin. You base your entire paper on how they try hard not to propogate gender identities, but the users end up doing it anyways. I think your on the money.

-Corrinda -
Education through gaming is a fantastic topic to explore. Since you're not doing a traditional paper, I can't give you too much feedback on how to write a lesson plan (I've never done it), but I'd make sure that it's as specific as possible. There's a lot of material that could throw it off, so focus, focus, focus would be my advice.

-Kathy- -
Loved the concept, and I was onto something similar but Julie advised me that it was way too broad. My recommendation would be to pick a single event and then use material from class to back it up. It could be really easy to get tripped up and go on tangents. Make sure you make an argument, and prove your point in the essay. Stay specific and on target.

Technopolitics in Open Source Software

2010-04-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

In the conclusion or Technolopolitics and Oppositional Media, Richard Kahn and Douglas Kellner propose that "It is up to oppositional groups that utilize the Internet to develop the forms of technopolitics that can produce a freer and happier world and which can liberate humanity and nature from the tyrannical and oppressive forces that currently constitute much of our global and local reality."

In looking at this concluding statement, I can't help but think about how the open source software (OSS) movement has helped change the world and the internet one program at a time. Far too many people fail to understand what it is that the OSS movement has done to improve all of our online lives.

To start, I'd like to look at one of the most successful OSS movements in recent history, called SAMBA. Headed by Andrew Tridgell (one of my personal heroes), SAMBA is an open source software project aimed at allowing non-Microsoft operating systems (pick one) to share files and printers with computers running Microsoft operating systems such as Windows XP, Vista, and even 7.

While that might sound trivial in 2010, it has dramatically changed the politics of operating systems over the last ten years by helping to eliminate vendor lock-in. Vendor lock-in, for purposes of this discussion is the complete and total dependence on a single company to provide for and sell you everything you might need because no other alternative is available. In the case of Microsoft, they made it virtually impossible for any other computer to connect to their computers without purchasing either a licensed API from Microsoft, or buying a Microsoft product to facilitate the connection.

The only problem with this solution, was that for many years, Microsoft did not provide any licensing to do this, which left all other computer operating systems incompatible with Microsoft operating systems. In short, users of alternative operating systems could not share files or printers directly with Microsoft operating systems.

Putting this into context, Microsoft had a 95% market share of computer operating systems and did not allow any other operating systems to connect to it. If you wanted to share files or printers with Microsoft's operating system, your only solution was to purchase a computer with Microsoft's operating system. From a business point of view, Microsoft had a very lucrative model. By eliminating the ability to connect with other non-Microsoft computers, users were forced into purchasing more Microsoft products. Pure genius... or evil? I'll let you decide.

Recognizing this limitation and vendor lock-in to Microsoft products, Tridgell and a team of hackers set out to solve what Microsoft would not. They created software that mimicked Microsoft's networking protocols, allowing them to connect non-Microsoft operating systems to Microsoft operating systems by pretending to be Microsoft operating systems.

Problem solved? Not by a long-shot. In fact the battle had just began. Once Microsoft found out what the SAMBA team was up to, they modified their operating system to be incompatible with it. Every time Microsoft modified their software, the SAMBA team had to go back to the drawing board and fix their software to work again. This back and forth went on for almost 7 years.

Microsoft, being found guilty of various other vendor lock-in and monopolistic practices was eventually forced to release their networking code to the SAMBA team in a landmark European court ruling. Finally, after many years, the SAMBA team was allowed to actually view Microsoft's networking code and write open source (free) software that would allow anyone with any computer to share files and printers with Microsoft operating systems.

Why does this matter? Thanks to hackers like Tridgell, any computer operating system running SAMBA can freely connect to Microsoft computers. Who uses it? Every single computer operating system that isn't a Microsoft windows computer, that's who. Have an Apple Macintosh and share files and printers with a Microsoft computer? Thank SAMBA.

It's hackers like Tridgell that exemplify what Kahn and Kellner were trying to say. Thanks to their efforts, the computer world is free from the grips of at least one tyrannical, monopolistic, techno-power.

Amen.

Final Project: Abstract

2010-03-26T14:26:00.000-07:00

The digital divide, in any form, is essentially a lack of access to digital tools and technology. While the reasons for the existence of this divide are numerous, this essay will focus specifically on how mobile phone technology is helping to narrow the divide within rural america.

Mobile phones are no longer devices used exclusively for voice communications between one or more parties. Instead, mobile phones are hardwired to cyberspace in various manifestations that make them far more than the simple communications devices they were certainly originally intended to be.

Drawing inspiration from Howard Rheingold's article, "Mobile Phones, Ritual Interaction and Social Capital", I will argue that modern cell phones, with their digital connection to cyberspace, are not only helping to close the divide's gap within rural agricultural areas in the U.S., but changing how they go about planting, watering, fertilizing, and harvesting their crops.

Works Cited:

Benedikt, Michael. “Cyberspace: First steps.” David Bell and Barbara Kennedy. The Cybercultures Reader 2nd Ed. New York: Routledge, 2007. 19-33

de Souza e Silva, Adriana. “From Cyberspace to Hybrid: Mobile Technologies as Interfaces of Hybrid Spaces.”The Cybercultures Reader 2nd Ed. New York: Routledge, 2007. 757-772

"NWS National Digital Forecast Database" National Weather Service 9 May 2007. http://www.weather.gov/ndfd

Rheingold, Howard. "Mobile Phones, Ritual Interaction, and Social Capital." TheFeature.com Archives. 21 Apr 2005. http://www.thefeaturearchives.com/topic/Culture/Mobile_Phones__Ritual_Interaction_and_Social_Capital.html

Shirky, Clay. "Here Comes Everybody." New York: Penguin, 2008.

Uncapher, Willard. "Electronic Homesteading on the Rural Frontier: Big Sky Telegraph and It's Community." The Cybercultures Reader 2nd Ed. New York: Routledge, 2007. 191-212

Topic Proposal: Digital Rights?

2010-03-12T15:41:00.000-08:00

I'd like to write about how the conveniences of cyberspace, such as information at our fingertips, social networking, and digital media (to name a few) actually allow us to do things that have never been done before. However, the price of this convenience is the shrinking of our rights. For example, owning a copyrighted work is no longer a cut and dry matter. If you own a digital copy of something, you can no longer legally (at least in the U.S.) do with it what you want. You can't sell it, lend it out, or even back it up without being in violation of someone's EULA or government law. Contrast this with owning a physical copy of something. You can lend it out, sell it, or do with it what you will (as long as you keep within the copyright laws).

To summarize, I'd like to argue that we are losing rights in almost as fast a manner as we're gaining new "convenient" technologies (saying nothing about privacy, which is another paper altogether). I will base this argument against current copyright law, the "Fair Use Doctrine" and the DMCA. In doing so, I will contrast these laws with EULA's and what the EFF argues is not fair use.

Information as Aesthetic Events

2010-02-19T16:35:00.001-08:00

In his essay, Information as Aesthetic Events, Lev Manovich explores the history of aesthetics in the design of information technology devices such as the iPhone, Mac OS X, and the LG Chocolate phone. In doing so, Manovich theorizes there has been a shift from trying to hide the interface within the device, to making the device (as a whole), part of the interface. In other words, the device and its interfaces are being built as an "orchestrated experience".

In making his argument, Manovich looks at computer operating systems and cell phones over the last 10 years and notes that as these technologies evolve, they not only grow more powerful, but they become more and more integrated aesthetically.

For example, where you once had a cell phone that was essentially a monochromatic brick with push buttons that allowed you to make calls. The aesthetic design of the phone was a separate consideration in the functionality of the phone.

Now, modern cell phones have all the functionality wrapped up into a singular unit where aesthetics are now (arguably) of equal consideration. In the case of the iphone, we see the functionality of the phone entirely wrapped up in it's user interface. There simply is no separation of functionality and aesthetics when it comes to the user experience.

In a previous blog post (also about Manovich) I talked about the separate agendas of art and science and the necessity for art to meet science. That is, it's up to artists to bring science to people in a useful manner. To be clear:

It takes an artist to make something beautiful.
It takes a special kind of artist to make cutting edge technology useful for the masses,
It takes absolute artistic genius to make cutting edge technology useful and beautiful at the same time.

It is those artists in that last definition that change the world. If you don't agree with Manovich (or myself), I'd like to point you to Apple computer. While I'm certainly not a fanboy (yes I do have an iPhone), it is almost impossible to look at the computer or cell phone market without getting a glimpse of their genius in every similar product on the market.

In the world of computer technology, they are the absolute quintessential artistic geniuses of our time. No other company in the world has done as much for the aesthetic evolution and integration of form and function than Apple Computer.

Does your cell phone have a touch screen? Thank Apple. Does your computer have icons on it? Thank Apple (ok, maybe Xerox...). Does your computer look as cool as your car? Thank Apple.

Thanks Apple!

Caprica and "Mojo"

2010-02-12T16:04:00.000-08:00

In her essay, "The Social Optics of Race", Lisa Nakamura makes the point that the use of black and white in science fiction films such as "The Matrix" serves the role of legitimizing white technology by using black "mojo" to essentially sell it as "cool". In doing so, it often takes the form of white mastery and black subservience to said technology. In a nutshell, black helps back up the claims, but can't actually be in control of white technology (pg 109).

To illustrate Nakamura's point, I'd like to examine the science fiction show "Caprica", or at least the first few episodes that have been aired to date. In "Caprica", we bear witness to a technologically advanced Earth-like world, far, far, away. On Caprica, the technology being used includes virtual reality, robots, and flying cars, with some older technology sprinkled in to give it an authentic look (after all, it can't ALL be high tech, right?).

Setting the stage for Nakamura's argument are two opposing classes of people and technology. The Graystone's, representing the rich, elite, and white technology owners and the Adama's, which are essentially a group of non-white, lower class, organized crime types who have the "mojo".

The deaths of family members from a terrorist bombing brings both Daniel Graystone and Joseph Adama together in a chance encounter. Soon afterwards, Daniel convinces Joseph to try his technology to see a virtual copy of his dead daughter in a effort to convince him to steal technology from another company. After viewing a virtual copy of his dead daughter, Adama agrees to steal this technology for Daniel.

Here, we see the point Nakamura was trying to make. While Adama isn't black, he does represent the "black". Adama, with his down-to-earth, gritty, gangster family "mojo", legitimizes white technology, while at the same time, remaining subservient to it. His agreement to steal technology for Adama, in the belief that it can bring his family back to life, underscores Nakamura's argument.

"Rough" Abstract: Rethinking Literacy - DTC375

2010-02-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

Notes from peer review....

Start looking at video and how it's transforming literacy. Investigate how technology is converging oral and written cultures and argue that video convergence and technology are possibly on a collision course to redefine our definition of literacy. Can someone who has never learned to "read" and "write" actually be considered literate?

Key points to consider:

In looking at the history of oral and literate cultures, Ong has shown how humans have evolved from oral communication (synchronous) to become a written / text based (asynchronous) culture and our definition of literacy has hinged around this very concept. As technology continues to improve, we're seeing asynchronous communications technologies, such as email and text messaging becoming more and more prevalent among literate cultures.

In addition to the process of asynchronous communications methods, we're beginning to see hybrid forms of media emerging that are remediating communications technology's. Video is fast replacing voice, and many researchers are looking for ways new ways to provide input technologies bypassing traditional computer input mechanisms. For example, voice recognition technology that allows users to command computers without having to actually type or point using traditional (keyboard and mouse) input methods.

However, with this increased technology, we're also seeing an interesting development with aboriginal and oral based cultures (Nakamura) who are finding ways of using video technology to communicate, thus bypassing the traditional model associated with what we would consider to be a crucial step towards literacy.

Given that technology is allowing both oral and written based cultures an opportunity to expand their ability to communicate, the fundamental question is: With advances in computer technology that allow people to communicate with voice and video, should we reconsider our definition of literacy? In short, the answer is yes.

Abstact - Video Essay: Transformation of the Cellular Communications

2010-02-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

In this video essay, I will take a look at the history of the cellular phone and it's usage over the years, focusing on the transformation of a voice communications tool, to that of hand held miniature computer. Specifically, I will look into how voice communications, while important, are now taking a secondary, if not tertiary role to facilitate communications.

To examine this issue in depth, I will conduct interviews with three separate generations of users: 1) Teenagers, 13-19 years old, 2) Adults, 20 - 40, and 3) Older adults, 40+. By performing interviews, I hope to shed light on how various age groups view the cellular phone and gain an understanding of how the technology is being used and where the technology might be headed.

Understanding Hybrid Spaces

2010-02-05T15:07:00.000-08:00

In his essay, "Understanding Hybrid Spaces", Lev Manovich looks at the use of hybrid spaces in media by looking at the history of various pioneers in media hybridization.

Early hybrid media began with the fusion of text and video and as video technology improved, artists began to "remix" variations of what had already been. Over time, software innovations have allowed us to explore completely new ways of representing media.

Summing up his essay, Manovich concludes that the next step in all of this is to find ways to provide this hybridized media in aesthetically pleasing ways. That is, it's fine to be able to do "something", but does it make it worth watching?

What Manovich doesn't come out and say is that Art and Science often coexists in parallel. That is, they seem to be headed in the same direction, but rarely intersect. I don't mean to imply that they "never" intersect, but they very often go about acheiving their own goals without consulting each other.

Perhaps the biggest reason is due to the challenges of understanding technology and how to use it. Most artists, after all, aren't scientists. It takes awhile for art to catch up to science and what we see in the interim is art attempting to get to the next level, or catch up to science.

So what does all of this mean? Bottom line is that it's up to artists to take an active role in understanding and making use of technology. Technology, in and of itself, is rarely beautiful. It is artists who make technology useful, and in the realm of digital media, it's artists who make it worth watching.

A Better Pencil - Part 2

2010-02-04T14:14:00.000-08:00

The remaining chapters of the book serve as a history lesson on how we've gotten to where we are today in terms of writing technologies. The funny thing is, I have been apart of the revolution in technology since around the era of the typewriter.

I witnessed the advent of the personal computer and saw first-hand how it slowly took over the roll of typewriter. I say slowly, because for many years, even after the computer was firmly entrenched in offices, there was still a typewriter which was used to type out pre-maid forms. Early days indeed.

This goes hand in hand with the idea that we're very mistrustful of new technologies as they're invented. This is analogous to Thoreau dismissing the idea of wired communications and Plato lamenting about how writing couldn't be trusted. However, in today's era, I see that technology is catching on at a much faster pace. New communications mediums are being adopted and institutionalized at impressive rates.

A question I'd like to pose to the class is: In the eve of video communications technology and voice recognition, is writing on it's way out?

A Better Pencil - Part 1

2010-02-01T18:53:00.000-08:00

After reading chapters 1, 3, and 5 of Dennis Barron's "A Better Pencil", it's becoming clear that we have a predisposition to distrust new technologies. While it didn't take reading his book to understand or internalize this, it did bring to light some interesting positions on writing technologies.

For starters, I found the history of the pencil to be extremely interesting.  Who knew that Thoreau was a pencil baron?  I certainly didn't.  What was even more interesting was how pencil technology evolved from early graphite deposits to complicated processes involving mixing of elements to create a variety of pencil styles.  

Having said that, I think the major point Barron's was trying to emphasize is that all writing tools are essentially technological inventions vying for a place in human history to help spread the written word. As technology improves, we see time after time, a group of people (luddites?) who can't seem to come to terms with the newer technology and often take on the role of critic.

While I'm certainly reasonably skeptical about all new technologies, I often take a measured "let's just see how this plays out" stance. As we've seen time and time again, just because it's new and improved doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be the next best thing (betamax anyone?).

For purposes of class discussion, I'd like to talk about how technology has affected various people in their academic careers. Among the older (yes, that's me), has technology been an asset or a detractor? Among the younger, do you remember NOT using a computer?

... I wish there were more fonts to play with...

"Webs as Pegs" Hits the Bullseye

2010-01-29T16:31:00.000-08:00

In concluding his essay "Webs as Pegs", David Bell states that he is inclined to believe that attempts to define community should not be limited to what others say it is (pg 261). That is, everyone has their own definition and experience of what community means to them, virtual or not, and attempts to segregate, integrate, or castigate these meanings are essentially a waste of time.

I, for one, wholeheartedly agree with Bell's conclusion. Everyone has their own definition of community and what works for one person, simply doesn't work for another. Their are too many variables involved, such as cultural identity and literacy, (digital or otherwise) to lay claim to any single definition.

To illustrate this point, I'd like to use my loving wife, Brenda, as an example. Having been married for a few years, and sharing the same socio-economic background, one would think that we'd have similar views on this subject. After all, living in the same household and having unfettered access to the same technologies, wouldn't it stand to reason? The truth is, we couldn't have different definitions of community if we had come from different planets.

Brenda feels that community, or at least her understanding of community, has everything to do with emotion and physicality. That is, the physical emotion of human beings engaged in social interaction, in the flesh. Tools of communication such as phones, email, and facebook are a means to the ends of communication. They enable her to engage with her community, but they are not part of her community. No one she doesn't know in meet space would ever be welcomed into her definition of community. I'm just saying...

Myself, on the other hand, have a vastly different definition of community. For me, virtual and meet space are one in the same. I see technology as a tool to augment my ability to communicate in my communities. Foursquare? New community? Nope. It's a new tool to interact with people in a different manner. Put another way, my definition of community is essentially any relationships I have. I may engage in them using different tools and technology, or none at all. I have friends that I see in person and those that I have never met in the flesh. They are all part of my community.

If the definition and understanding is so different in one household, where all things are essentially equal (literacy, social standing, economics etc.), it stands to reason that this is just the tip of iceberg. Do women view community differently that men? Do hunter-gathers in Africa feel the same way about community as I do? What about Eskimos living in igloos? How about the person sitting next to you in class?

I think that community has always been a matter of perspective. You make of it what you will, and technology, for better or worse, will either change that perspective or it won't. Bell has the right idea when he says "Stop worring! Get over it!."

Things Fall Apart - Part 2

2010-01-28T10:04:00.000-08:00

Looking at how the native Africans and the English dealt with each other, I couldn't help but start to think about the "digital divide". Isn't this really an example of what we deal with today in terms of how there are those of us who have literacy and those that do not?

Those that possess the information, wield the power and control those who do not. In "Things Fall Apart", it was the English that possessed the ability to read and write, build weapons, and sail across the world. This knowledge allowed them to overcome the Africans with ease. It wasn't called a "digital divide", but it's really the same thing. In the world of colonialism and globalization, literacy trumps illiteracy every single time.

In today's world, we still deal with the same concepts. We call it the "digital divide", because we assume that everyone at this point is literate. Now that we have literacy (yes I know there are many who aren't literate), the playing field still isn't level. With digital technology, we're seeing a brand new type of literacy... a digital one.

Those that understand, use, and even control digital technology have infinitely more power over those that don't. To underscore this point, just look at the music industry. At one time, it was all about records and CD's. As technology progressed, music was digitized and became a cheap commodity, leading to a world of digital music that is owned and controlled by technology companies (Apple anyone?). Record companies failed to embrace technology and were eventually "owned" by technologically superior people.

So, in a nutshell, the gap between those who are literate and those who are not has always existed. We coin the terms in any way we want, but it still comes down to literacy.

Things Fall Apart - Part 1

2010-01-26T12:08:00.000-08:00

It's hard to read "Things Fall Apart" and not talk about colonialism. However, the story is ripe with examples of how an orally based society communicates not only with each other individually, but collectively as a society including it's unique social structure and hierarchy.

In revisiting this story with a lens on the language only, it's evident that they place a lot of emphasis on the elders of their community to interpret law and maintain order within the community. They have strong customs and rules that are relayed through the elders and oracles of their communities.

This suggests that tribal knowledge is passed down from the elders to the younger members of the community. As younger members grow older they participate in tribal affairs (assuming they are worthy of course) and the community perpetuates it laws and traditions.

The interesting thing about this is how they convey this knowledge to the people of the tribe. By wearing costumes and portraying the role of gods, they act as conduits from the spirit world to the real world. This allows their leaders to pass judgment and make rulings with an "air" of officialness. Since they are conduits for the gods to speak, they in essence are the gods.

All in all, a pretty good example of how non-writing societies maintain order and peace while passing on the history and tradition of the tribe.

Virtual Communities

2010-01-22T17:46:00.001-08:00

For the sake of this blog post, I'd like to suggest that there are ostensibly two types of virtual communities, open and closed. Closed communities are those that require an invitation of some sort to be able to participate as an active member. Open communities are those that allow everyone to participate (at least on some level) provided they act accordingly within the scope of the community's standards.

I'm a member of many closed virtual communities, such as Facebook (recent privacy issues notwithstanding), and various Instant Messaging services (both public and private). The barriers to entry into these communities by and large are the simple fact that you must be invited or given permission to enter the community. For example, within my company's internal Jabber IM service, everyone who wishes to participate must request authorization to first use the service (gain initial admission into the community). Subsequently, once given permission to join the community, you must ask individuals within the community for permission to establish a direct relationship (add someone to your buddy list).

Similarly, Facebook, email, and even text messaging all require, to some extent, permission from others to be allowed into the community. Sure, you can text or email anyone you want if you know their address or phone number, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they'll answer you, or allow you to join their community. You must be given express permission, usually in the form of a return "like" communication, for membership to be activated. We can generally assume that if someone lets you "friend" them in Facebook, you have been invited into their community (and likewise). Subsequently, if you text someone and they reply back, engaging in conversation, then you have effectively been invited into their community.

Open communities don't necessarily require permission to join. Instead, these communities are largely established for the purposes of getting like-minded individuals to share information about various subject matter. In these open communities, there are generally two categories of membership. Those who actively engage and participate within the community (established members) and those that wish to simply observe and occasionally engage in conversation (such as ask a question). Membership within these communities typically only requires that individuals agree to and abide by the rules of the community. Non members, who can still participate within the community are usually restricted in their level of participation. For example, members of a community are allowed to post comments, files, and images to the community, while non-members are allowed to lurk and post limited information.

One open virtual community that I've been associated with for a long time (10+ years), is Slashdot. The Slashdot community is devoted to all types of technology discussions. Article submissions are posted by established members, moderated, and then, if deemed "worthy" of appropriateness are posted to the community pages. Fellow members of the community are allowed to post comments, participate in moderating, and even rank fellow member posts for relativeness (distinguishing useful comments from others). Individuals who aren't members of the community are allowed to read articles and post comments in an anonymous fashion. That is, all community members can distinguish with ease, who is an active participant and who isn't. In the case of Slashdot, all non-member contributions to subject matter are relegated to the status of "anonymous coward".

In a nutshell, closed communities require direct invitations or allowance from peers to be invited into their virtual community. Open communities generally allow access to everyone to read and comment in limited fashions. Within these open communities, there are typically two types of members, those who actively participate and those that don't. Active participants are given usernames and allowed higher levels of interaction within the community, such as post moderation, file submission, and in some cases, community management responsibilities. Non-active participants, are given limited membership in the sense that they are usually allowed to read comments and ask questions only.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the extreme. Within any of these virtual communities, open or closed, it's possible and even likely that there are a subset of members who, for whatever reason, exist and participate within these communities in a manner very different from how they'd interact in real space. Others simply can't relate their virtual communities to their real communities and have a hard time understanding the difference. They live in two different worlds.

Is this good or bad? Who knows... I suppose that if it allows you to express yourself and interact with others on some level, that it might actually be beneficial. If, however, you find yourself constantly sitting in front of a computer (phones included), haven't showered and slept in days, and live and breathe by the discussion board's next posting or Justin Timberlake's tweet, you might need professional help.

Written vs Oral Language - Part 2

2010-01-20T22:08:00.000-08:00

I'd like to start out by saying this is definitely on the "heavy" reading side of things. After sifting through the extremely long sentence-paragraphs, it's clear that Ong is able to draw a (clear?) picture of what writing has done for humanity. It made language "personal" and intimate.

While the world owes a huge debt to the semitic languages that first invented writing, it was the Greeks who kicked it up a notch by adding vowels, making reading and writing much more phonetic. This invention or adaptation of writing paved the way for everything since. Although I disagree with his concept of democratizing language (just ask the peasants in the middle ages), it did indeed take us, as a world, to the next level.

Ong discusses how written language has allowed us to privatize language and make it our own. Over time, we shifted from reading aloud to reading alone. What was once a communal language shifted to an individual language that was shared through writing.

Fast forward to modern society today. Ong writes about the benefits, which are many, including this blog post. However, I believe that writing might actually have a few downsides. If the saying, "ignorance is bliss" has any truthful connotations, is it possible that we're actually moving towards information overload? What about how, as a society, people feel more distanced and isolated than ever before? Let me explain.

First, with our constant technological advances, we find ourselves (at least those with the means to do so) barraged with information. Newspapers, text messages, chatrooms, web pages, television, radio... it goes on and on. It is almost impossible in today's technologically oriented world to not be fully inundated from morning until night. Is it possible to get too much? Is it possible that in our constant struggle to improve our efficiency in communication, that we've overexposed ourselves?

Second, if, information and communications are at an all-time high (and they are), then how can people, with technology that allows anyone to connect to anyone else in at least 5 different ways instantly, feel so isolated and lonely?

I don't have the answers, and in fact, the more I think about it, the more questions I have. Perhaps we'll delve into this in class at some point.

Written vs. Oral Language

2010-01-19T14:38:00.000-08:00

So far, this reading has blown my mind to an extent. That is to say that I hadn't given a single CPU cycle to the concept of what it is to recall information in an oral society versus what we take for granted in a written language society.

This gives me quite a bit of food for thought and has actually raised more questions (to be answered later in class?) than I have answers for. For example, if oral tradition relies on patterns of stories and memorization to recontruct history, and we learned that they often never tell the same story the same way twice, how is it even remotely possibly for their history to be true?

This is troubling to me in many ways because we tend to have an idea of ancient history which comes from these primarily oral societies. Since we know that they often change the story or omit details that no longer suit their audience, are we to understand that what we currently know (or think we know) is merely the story that best fit the circumstances of their telling at the time written language was first introduced?

Cyberspace

2010-01-13T18:29:00.000-08:00

I had originally posted a blog entry prior to the class which amounted to what now seems to be complete gibberish. So... away it went. With that said, I think today's class gave me a bit more ammunition for being able to succinctly sum up what I think of Cyberspace.

Having been around long enough to witness the (r)evolution of Cyberspace and computer technology in general, I would have say that Benedikt was right on target in every description he provided. Cyberspace is a constantly evolving set of technologies that mash themselves together in order to facilitate human communication in all of its various forms.

To that end, Cyberspace is a metaphorical digital highway made up of coaxial, fiber, and wireless communications networks upon which all modern communication technologies strive to hitch a ride on. It is Cyberspace that allows individual communications "vehicles" such as email, instant messaging, and even cellular phones to deliver their content payloads.

As our technology improves, we strive to increase the amount of information we can deliver in various vehicles (email, IM, etc) requiring larger and larger network infrastructure to support the amount of traffic from these "vehicles" riding on it.

What Benedikt was saying (at least I think so), is that humans have always had an idea of Cyberspace, although it wasn't always digital or even thought of the same way it is today. The invention of writing, arguably the first component of Cyberspace, gave rise to the need to transmit that information. Since digital technology didn't exist at that time, the original information highway was on the feet of men and the backs of animals. Over time, collections of written documents gave rise to the necessity of storing these documents, leading to the creation of libraries.

As technology evolved, humans have simply continued their quest to communicate and store information in faster ways. Digital technology has facilitated this in an amazing array of ways, but the concept has remained the same. Instead of building libraries to store documents, we use databases. Instead of using hand written documents to deliver messages, we use phones, email, and IM.

The only real difference in Cyberspace since the dawn of written language is what we humans invent to speed up and increase our capacity for communicating and storing information.

This is what Cyberspace is.

DTC 475 Introduction

2010-01-13T17:58:00.000-08:00

Hello all, I'm Maurice Smiley.

With 9 classes left to own my DTC degree, I guess I'm somewhere between a Junior and Senior here as WSU. I own a small business in Richland, have a wonderful wife and 3 awesome kids. My oldest is enrolled at CBC and we have contests to see who has the highest GPA. I haven't been beat yet ;-)

As a veteran of Julie's ENG373 class, I'm excited to take DTC475 and have little doubt I'll learn a ton of information. Last semester, I started this blog with the intent of keeping track of various readings, and of course, posting blog assignments from ENG373. I didn't make as much use of it as I could have and hope to improve upon that this semester.

I look forward to blogging with you throughout the semester.

Cheers!

Thoughts on "The Diamond Age"

2009-12-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

As I first started reading "The Diamond Age", I had a hard time getting through the techno-babble. Stephenson goes to great lengths early in the story to provide technical detail to various technologies that are talked about throughout the book. However, after trudging through, I realized that it was a necessary ingredient to the story and made further reading easier to understand.

The underlying theme of the story, world globalization, was a good place to end our reading of colonialism and gave me a lot to think about. In fact, what's still rumbling around in my pea-brain is the idea of philes / tribes replacing governments in the future. This led to me start thinking (yes critically) about how we're already well on our way towards that reality.

If you buy into the idea that companies have HUGE influence on the world's economy, and that companies have a HUGE influence on politics and government, is it really that much of stretch to think that they don't already control the world? While there might not be a country called "IBM" or "Oracle", how far are we from seeing such a reality?

This led to me imagining a time in the near future, when some huge conglomerate (let's say Futuretech, Inc.) buys out a large chunk of it's competitors and now becomes the leading manufacturer of nano technology. Futuretech, Inc. then decides that it would be in its best interests to buy up a large section of land in Africa (the size of a small country) by buying off leaders and making them ceremonial high ranking company officials, and place its headquarters and all manufacturing there. They relocate all of their research and manufacturing to this new Futuretech, Inc capital and begin terraforming the landscape to meet their agricultural and biotechnology needs. In doing so, towns are built for employees and other companies are allowed to setup shop to meet the service industry needs (Wal-Mart and KFC anyone?).

After this happens, it doesn't take Futuretech, Inc. long to realize that there needs to be laws in put into place (codes of conduct) with some kind of justice system. Police and judges are hired to enforce these codes of conduct and anyone wishing to live or work in Futuretech, Inc. will have to agree and abide by the codes of conduct. Protecting their interests and ensuring that warlords from other areas of Africa don't try and get any ideas, Futuretech, Inc. hires the French Foreign Legion as its military force. Futuretech, Inc. decides that it likes the idea so much, that it BUYS the French Foreign Legion and spawns a new division of the company called FutureTech Defense, Inc. with the goals of protecting themselves and contracting out these services to other similar companies or governments.

Currency would be an issue and so to make things easier, Futuretech, Inc. decides that it should conduct business using an already established monetary system called the EU. This would provide compatibility with the rest of world's markets and allow Futuretech, Inc. the ability to regulate its own economic environment.

I could go on and on, but I think that this may have been what Stephenson had envisioned as the prehistory of "The Diamond Age". Companies becoming so powerful that they in and of themselves take on their own global identity and adopt their own unique corporate culture. The citizens themselves, would be working for the common goal of protecting the interests of the company instead of a country.

Far fetched? Maybe not.

Abstract: Root Cause of Colonialism

2009-12-11T09:39:00.000-08:00

There is little doubt that colonialism has changed the face of the planet and continues to affect postcolonial societies in a number of different ways. Fusing of cultures, religion, economics, and language are but of few of the results of postcolonialism. Some societies have adapted markedly well while others have fallen into abject poverty, civil war, social unrest, and in extreme cases extinction. Regardless of the outcomes, this essay examines the texts we have read throughout the semester in an effort to determine the underlying reason ,or the "why", for colonialism in the first place. The answer is undoubtedly capitalism.

In examining colonial Europe, the common thread found in examining the question of why colonialism happened can be seen clearly in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart", and V.S. Naipaul's "The Mimic Men". These novels show how the Europeans used various pretexts for rationalizing the colonization of other countries, in order to pave the way for private enterprise to make money.

Looking into more recent history, Ha Jin's story, "After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town" shows how America, a postcolonial society itself, uses capitalism as a means of spreading culture and values to other countries. Future evidence of capitalism's role in colonialism can be examined in the Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age". In "The Diamond Age", we see a future "globalized" world that is controlled by tribes instead of countries. In examining the relationship between the tribes and globalization, we see evidence that the most successful tribes are really technology corporations who's citizens are members of the corporate culture.

Pundits may argue that there were other reasons for colonialism, such as religion, and that capitalism played a secondary role. Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies", Diamond provides evidence through historical facts that the driving force behind colonialism was completely based on capitalism. Further evidence can be found in Juan Gonzalez's "Harvest Empire" where he explores the history behind Spanish colonialism and provides compelling evidence that colonialism is rooted in capitalism.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Norton, 2009.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Norton, 2009.

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.

Gonzalez, Juan. Harvest of Empire. New York: Penguin, 2000.

Naipal, V.S. The Mimic Men. New York: Vintage, 1967.

Stephenson, Neal. The Diamond Age. New York: Bantam, 2008.
Jin, Ha. "After Cowboy Chickin Came To Town." Jin, Ha. The Bridegroom. New York: Vintage, 2000. 184-225.

Abstract: Colonialism - The Root Cause

2009-12-04T09:06:00.000-08:00

Throughout the semester, we've been reading story after story about the affects of colonialism throughout various parts of the world. While we have discussed the implications and effects of colonialism on both the colonizers and the colonized, we did not spend a great deal of time discussing the "why". My essay will focus on the "why" by looking at the root cause (reasons) of colonialism: Capitalism. Using the texts from our reading, along with additional material about U.S. colonialism I will be able to demonstrate that the single driving force behind all colonialism lies not with religion (although it is often used as justification) but greed, pure and simple.

The following is a list of works I currently plan to use:

Juan Gonzalez. "Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America". New York: Penguin 2000.
Joseph Conrad. "Heart of Darkness". New York: Norton, 2005.
Jared Diamond. "Guns, Germs, and Steel". New York: Norton, 1997.
Bernard MacLaverty. "Cal". New York: Norton, 1995.
Achebe, Chinua. "Things Fall Apart". New York: Anchor, 1994.
Naipaul, V. S. "The Mimic Men". Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.
Jin, Ha. "After Cowboy Chickin Came To Town." Jin, Ha. The Bridegroom. New York: Vintage, 2000. 184-225.

A Painful Case

2009-11-13T08:27:00.000-08:00

I think the underlying theme of the story is how cities (and society) can give us an excuse to withdraw into our selves and forego dealing with other people on an emotional level. It's very easy to get lost in crowd and forget what its like to have an emotional attachment to anyone. The main character in this story definitely falls into this category.

However, a series of (chance?) encounters with Emily leads to friendship and his detachments begin to erode. For the first time (ever?) he begins to find a friendship and companion who he can share his thoughts and emotions with but at the same time feels safe because she's married. As I read this, I thought that he might actually have been using her marriage as an excuse NOT to get too close. Sure, she was married, and their relationship was "improper", but they did have a common bond.

It was when she touched his face to his that it all clicked for me. She got too close and he used his ability to emotional detach (hiding in a big city?) as an excuse to break off the relationship. The books he was reading suggest that he was conflicted about the relationship and was looking for a way to justify it. For example, when he wrote some quotes from Nietzche suggesting that men and women couldn't be friends because there was intercourse involved, he was using that as an excuse to justify his behavior.

Of course, after he found out that she was dead,it finally sank in. He was a cold hearted SOB and the one person whom he had an attachment to was now dead, possibly because of him. At this moment, he realized that he had blown it and that he may never find another. In her death, he was now unable to hide his emotions and detach. She had gotten to him in the same way he had gotten to her. He was heartbroken.

A Temporary Matter

2009-11-06T11:31:00.000-08:00

Let me start this blog post off with "sorry I'm late to the party." I actually started to work on this last night but was a bit confused. I poked around at various blogs and didn't see anything related to Lahiri. I then cowardly looked at other peep's blogs and noticed that they hadn't posted either. I was waiting for someone to go so I could figure out what I was doing wrong. After a bit more poking around and scrolling way way way down, I finally saw the Lahiri posts. My bad...

This post is in response to Auggie's post on Lahiri and his idea that her writing suggests that marriages are fragile. To use Julie's analogy of viewing this under a different " lens", I'm going to take a closer look at their respective roles in a traditional Indian marriage.

While I don't disagree that Lahiri might be making the statement that marriage is a fragile thing, I think that the story delves deeper into issues of Indian culture in America. For example, if we buy into the idea that Indian women are to be subservient to their men, then we have to look at this story as being contrary to that.

What I mean is that in this story, we see a man and woman of Indian descent that are dealing with the loss of a child. Each person is dealing with (or not) this loss and the story revolves around not only how they dealt with it individually, but as a couple. However, in the story, we see that the stereotypical roles Indians are associated with simply do not apply. For example, it is the husband who is so distraught that he has had to stay home (can't teach) and work on his dissertation. The wife on the other hand goes back to work as soon as possible. This is our first clue that not only are the roles reversing, but that each is dealing with the issue differently.

The husband is actually trying to deal with it. He is clearly depressed and sad. However, in spite of this, he assumes the womanly role around the house and cooks the food and cleans the house. His wife on the other hand goes back to work almost immediately. She comes home late, throws her stuff around like she lives in a hotel (for him to clean up no doubt) and doesn't actually engage in the relationship. Sure sounds like role reversal to me.

It is when the power is out and they are eating by candlelight that they are able to finally break through the ice a bit and start communicating again. The naive husband is delighted by this and begins to feel as though they might actually be heading in the right direction. During their conversations we begin to learn some of their secrets. The wife details various secrets, which upon closer examination, detail her selfishness. The husbands' secrets however, detail his selflessness. For example, the wife mentions staying late to go out with a coworker for drinks. The husbands mentions forgetting to tip a waiter and driving all the way back to give him a tip. His motives were always for her benefit and her motives were for her own benefit.

Near the end of the story the husband learns that she has been staying late to find an apartment. While it certainly hurt him, his response was unselfish. He wanted her to deal with the problem and to face the fact that "they" had both lost a child. He told her that he had seen and held the child. He was at the hospital that day. He didn't say anything because he was keeping a promise to her that he wouldn't tell her the sex of the child. It wasn't until he felt that this was all he could do to help her did he betray his own promise.

In the end, I think we see a complete role reversal from a typical Indian couple. The husband becomes the nurturer and the wife becomes the typical stubborn male not willing to deal with her problems. Do they get back together? Who knows. But his unselfishness causes her to finally break down and feel something.

Any thoughts?

FA331 Group Art Project - Teamalicious

2009-11-03T13:13:00.000-08:00

Hello all, welcome to group #1. Please post your email addresses so we can at least keep in touch.

maurice.smiley@email.wsu.edu

Conrad, Jin, and Postcolonial Literature

2009-10-29T22:36:00.000-07:00

After spending a few days reading and discussing Jin's work, it's clear to me now that he had something to say and used English as his means of saying it. Had he chosen to write it in Chinese, he would have alienated the very audience for which (I believe) he intended his writing for. That is to say that Jin wanted westerners to gain a better understanding of the political and cultural differences between the east and west. What's interesting in his writing is that he is very careful and deliberate in painting a scene and telling a story without actually demonizing anyone. For example, in "Saboteur" he writes about the police have mistreated a Chiu. Instead of going on and on about how EVIL the state is, he balances the story with Chiu later purposefully spreading his hepatitis. In "Cowboy Chicken", he shows Mr. Shapiro as a greedy capitalist, but he then shows the Chinese actually doing the same things when they wanted to have Peter fired and his divided amongst them. He has had his feet firmly planted in both worlds and uses that knowledge to tell creative stories that reflect the realities of life in China.

Had Conrad written his novel in Polish there's almost every certainty that his writing would have fallen into that exclusive group of writers in Poland that had a lot to say, with no audience to read it. All kidding aside, I believe that Conrad made a conscious choice in writing in English because he knew very well that the majority of the powers most involved in colonialism at the time were in fact Western Europeans and almost all, English speaking on some level. Even the Americans were involved in colonialism (just ask the Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and almost everyone in Central and South America). To make the greatest impact and reach the largest target audience, he made the only logical choice at the time. Of course, we'll never really know what would have become of it if he had written in French or Spanish, but my guess is that it would have whithered on the vine. He took advantage of a receptive audience and made the most of his it.

Was She Drugged?

2009-10-09T17:12:00.000-07:00

Our classroom discussion have been pretty fascinating in the last few days. Wide Sargasso Sea is turning out to be far more complex that it first appeared. We have learned that there's more than one meaning for creole and the "N" word, which totally depends on your point of view, whether it be British or Caribbean.

Furthermore, I think we all came to the conclusion that Rochester was dirty rotten scoundrel (for lack of a better description) and pretty much had his way with Antoinette. By "had his way", I mean, he got his money and was able to essentially have her committed.

In doing a bit more thinking about this situation, it occurred to me that Antoinette was a wild and free spirit who loved the Caribbean. It has been suggested that Antoinette didn't fit in, but I disagree with that. While she might not have been loved by the locals, having come from a slave owning family, she definitely understood the people and fit in.

If you believe that she wasn't crazy, then it stands to reason she was drugged. We know that she hated Rochester for what he had done and I just can't believe that she would willingly allow herself to be transported to England, away from everything she knew and loved, to be locked up in a room.

Just throwing that out there to see if anyone bites...

Changing connotation and meaning

2009-10-02T07:39:00.000-07:00

So far, the Wide Sargasso Sea readings have not disappointed. I have been surprised to learn quite a bit more about Caribbean history in addition to the fact of dual representations of how British colonial citizens viewed each other and their status. Terms like "creole" and "nigger" have entirely new meanings to me now, especially in light of how their meanings are different in the story than they are in the present day U.S.

When I used to think of "creole", it conjured up images of African Americans living in Louisiana, cooking up some crawfish with some red beans and rice. Cajun and creole were very often intermixed in my mind's eye as one in the same. However, thanks to the readings, I now see that in British Colonial times, "creole" actually meant someone who was born or native to the islands regardless of their skin color. Wow, now I have to totally readjust my thinking...

Another interesting use of a word has been "nigger". This word, not surprisingly is definitely a derogatory term, however, it's use and connotation have now changed for me (no, I don't use them in sentences to describe people regularly). Wide Sargasso Sea clearly demonstrates the use of the word describing not only blacks but whites. This, once again, is forcing me to readjust my definitions and think of the term more in relation to denigration of people in general, white or black. It's interesting to read wikipedia and other definitions and note that they make no reference to this term used by anyone other than whites against blacks. Once again, my thinking has been readjusted...

ENGL373 - Changing Viewpoints

2009-09-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

After reading Chinua Achebe's critical review of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, my initial impression of Achebe wasn't very good. His review seemed almost like a personal attack on Conrad and it (in my opinion) clouded his review.

However, after reading Things Fall Apart and learning a little more about Achebe's personal history, I have come away with a much different opinion of Achebe. What Achebe was unable to do in his critical review (shed light on "the other" convincingly) he has marvelously been able to do in Things Fall Apart. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe is able to paint a portrait of a complex society and interweave a storyline that definitively shows what life for "the other" is like. It takes a different view of "the other" and allows you to see the other side of the coin per se.

What I'm left with, after reading these two stories, is much deeper understanding of colonialism and how it affected "the other" no matter which side you look at. My opinion of Achebe has definitely changed and I am a better person for having taken the time to read and analyze his work.

Thanks for "making" me read this Julie. It's been a great study.

ENGL373 - Should We Read "Heart of Darkness"?

2009-09-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

Heart of Darkness is one of those stories that can be interpreted in an almost infinite number of ways. Depending on your world view, your race, your religion, and even your sex, you will most likely take something away from "Heart of Darkness" that's different from your peers. Most people that have read it can agree on some very simple tenets of the story: 1) it is a story about a riverboat captain named Marlow, who got a job with a Belgian merchant company to sail a steamship up and down the Congo; 2) Marlow gets to the Congo and tells his “story.” After that, it is almost all up for individual interpretation.

First, a little background. The author, Joseph Conrad, was himself a steamboat captain who arguably had a great deal of personal experience and involvement in much of what Heart of Darkness deals with. Heart of Darkness was written during the height of European colonialism of Africa which is a huge moral argument, in and of itself. Was it wrong for the Europeans to treat Africa and its native inhabitants the way they did? Was the European attitude towards the Africans racist? Was Conrad a racist? These are only the tip of the metaphorical iceberg.

Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness in a manner that insulates him from direct involvement. That is, he is narrating the story, via Marlow, who is narrating the story to a group of sailors sitting on a boat. Knowing about Conrad’s personal experience and close relationship to his subject matter gives rise to the first question, which is, is Marlow really Conrad? Subsequently, if Marlow is Conrad, then is Conrad a racist? Is the story (as Marlow relates it) a racist story about the conquest and destruction of the African continent? Were the events that occurred in the story a reflection of then current European attitudes of race and religion, or those of flat out racists? It goes on and on.

You see, we haven’t even gotten to the controversial figure named Kurtz yet and we’re already swimming in questions without conclusive answers. Kurtz himself brings with him an entirely new set of questions that the reader must grapple with. Is Kurtz evil? Did he do what he did because he was insane? Power crazed? Assimilated? Was Kurtz a racist? A womanizer? On and on we go.

We will never really know what Conrad was thinking or what he really meant when he wrote Heart of Darkness. Should we read Heart of Darkness? The answer, in my humble opinion, is an unequivocal yes. It is the investigation and analyzing of stories that gives us a broader understanding of our own humanity. Without introspection, we can never grow and evolve into something better than what we once were. If you read it, you will most likely be changed…and that’s a good thing!

FA331 - Class Notes

2009-09-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

Technology in Science

1) Spreading
2) Changing our ideas of Humanity / Universe
3) Being challenged by critics
4) Increasingly being used by artists

3 new ways artists are using technology

1) Use new technology like old technology
2) Deconstruction
3) Become scientists themselves

Duplication - reproduce the results
What is a masterpiece?

1990's was the beginning of the digital revolution
Computer Art --> Multimedia Art --> Digital Art --> New Meda Art

1945 - First digital computer (ENIAC)
1961 - Docuverse
1964 - Internet
1968 - Mouse / Keyboard
1969 - Arpanet
1970's - Satellites/Broadcasting/Internet used in art
1970/80's - Virtual objects
1990's - Technology --> Museum

Why did museums take so long to display digital art?

Aura of original
Masterpiece
Scarcity = Value
Own a web experience?

FA331 - Examples of Postmodernism

2009-09-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

Art Appropriation

Unknown Artist

Richard Prince - Untitled (Cowboy) (1984)

Dada

Sophie Taeuber-Arp - Head (1919)

George Grosz - Remember Uncle August, The Unhappy Inventor (1919)

Pop Art

Richard Hamilton - The Solomon R. Guggenheim (1966)

Richard Hamilton - Picasso's Meninas (1973)

Fluxus

Erik Dietman - The Unwell Saw (1961)

Daniel Spoerri - Daniel Isac Spoerri-Feinstein (1977)

Conceptual

Josepch Kosuth - Clock (One and Five) (1965)

Marcel Broodthaers - Museum-Museum (1972)

Semiotics

John Heartfield - Hurrah, The Butter is All Gone! (1935)

El Lissitsky - The Constructor (1924)
Deformalism

Philip Guston - The Line (1978)

Philip Guston - Couple in Bed (1977)

Feminism

Kiki Smith - Untitle from White Mammals (1998)

Imogen Cunningham - Self Portrait (1974)

Gender Issues

Nan Goldinn - Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a Taxi, NYC (1991)

Martin Wong - Big Heat (1988)

New Media

Jodi (1995)

John Klima - Earth (2001)

Postminimalism

Eva Hesse - Addendum (1967)

Richard Serra - Tilted Arc (1981)

Deconstruction

Unknown

HUM450 - Torture - Jean Amery

2009-09-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

Jean Amery describes in great detail the mental and physical scars that haunt long after he was tortured by the Germans. Amery was a Belgian who was in a progagandist resistance movement against the Nazi's. He was caught and beaten by Germans. He didn't know anything and subsequently didn't (and couldn't) give them any substantial information. He was then sent to Breendonk, which was an interrogation facility. His hands were tied behind his back and he was lifted by a chain (breaking his shoulders at the joint). After that, he was beaten with a bullwhip until unconciousness.

A great majority of the passage details Amery's ideas of torture, what it means, and what it's like. He talks of why people torture, who handles torture the best, why people crack under torture (and why other's don't) as well as visits the metaphysical aspects of torture. He recounts several other interpretations and comes to the conclusion that in the end, torture is what torture is and that it kills a person even if they are still living.

Avery eventually committed suicide.

HUM450 - Voices - Charlotte Delbo

2009-09-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

In this accounting, Charlotte tells of her? account in Ausschwitz as a Jew. She speaks of how terribly cold it was and how brutal life was in the concentration camp. Of special note is how she detailed how incredibly cold it was and how they had to stand outside the barracks during roll call in the morning. She recounts how one lady lost her galoshes and how all of the other women were helping her find it because without it, it meant certain death. Also, she writes about a Gypsy woman who would show up for roll call with her dead baby. The unnamed Gypsy woman was later killed when a policewoman tried to take the baby away. The baby was thrown in the trash and the woman was put into a collection of bodies to be burned.

Another story Delbo tells is that of a Jewish boy (14?) who recounts how he and his father escaped being deported to Ausschwitz. His mother was sent there. The boy and his father joined a resistance group in France, fighting the Germans. He was later captured and sent to Ausschwitz, where he spent his days there looking for his mother. After the camp was liberated, he returned home to Paris where he met back up with his father.

They never found out what happened to his mother.

HUM450 - Days of Nightmare - Jozef Zelkowicz

2009-09-09T13:25:00.000-07:00

Jozef Zelkowicz recounts events in the Litzmannstadt ghetto where the Germans have decreed that all children under 10 years old and all adults over 65 would have to be "resettled. The Jewish Resettlement commission, which is comprised of elder Jews gave a speech to the Jews and explained what the decree was and how they had no options. They were being ordered to give up 20,000 Jews for "resettlement" and knowing what that really meant, they explained the difficult choices they had. Through his sobbing, he explained that it was decided that it might be better if they did the choosing of the Jews instead of the Germans since maybe they could save the healthy and give up the poor. In the end, it was a dilemma that had no good solution.

Zelkowicz then details the mood and details of how the Jewish people in the ghetto were reacting to the news and how sad (wailing tears) everyone was to know that this was going to happen. He describes how the Jewish police would come and take people, but would empathize a bit. However, when the Germans came, they were extremely brutish in their methods.

Finally, after the children, the sick, and the elderly were taken away, he describes how completely empty and aged everyone became. Those that didn't try to kill themselves were so horribly scarred that they felt as if they were living in a kind of hell.

ENGL373 - Evalutating "Are Humans One Race or Many?"

2009-09-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

In his essay, "Are Humans One Race or Many?", Alfred Russel Wallace investigates the issue of whether or not mankind is a singular race or many races (as the title duly suggests). Wallace postulates that early mankind does indeed share a singular past ancestry, up to a certain point. He asserts that mankind developed different traits early in our development based on the surroundings he found himself in to best survive that environment. However, as mankind grew smarter and became more and more social, their ability to communicate, empathize, and even think about the future gave rise to communities whereby the collective good outweighed the individual. This, in turn, led to humans being able to divide labor amongst many individuals, care for the sick, and plan ahead. It was at this juncture in early human development that humans were able to bypass the concept of natural selection and separate themselves from the rest of animal kingdom.

Wallace goes on to further qualify his opinion by stating that this ability of mankind to rise above natural selection via man's intelligence has lead to the more modern variations of humankind in existence today. That is to say that the more organized and intelligent species of man have not only been rise above natural selection, but have also been able to stand out and dominate other humans evens though we are the same species. To prove his point he gives examples of how in warmer climate regions, humans aren't necessarily required to evolve their intelligence, because their surroundings and natural selection have afforded them a genetic predisposition to their environment, making life comfortable for them. There is no reason to evolve because they are naturally suited to their environment.

However, species of mankind that wandered outside of their comfort zone were forced to adapt and use their brains to survive. Wallace points out that all species of northern origins are smarter than those of southern origins simply because they've had to use their brains to survive and this has led to their greater capacity for intelligence. This, he concludes is why northern species of humans are always more dominant than their southern counterparts, simply because they are smarter.

In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad illustrates this very same mentality throughout the story. For example, while Marlow was fixing the steamboat, he compliments his fireman with the following, "And between whiles I had to look after the savage who was fireman. He was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler. He was there below me and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat walking on his hind leg (pg 36)." This quote, finely illustrates the European attitude that those not of their "kind" were savages. They were thought of as smarter than animals, but just barely, and that they were only capable of doing what came naturally (animal instinct?) or what they were trained to do, as Conrad eluded to when he said it reminded him of watching a trained dog performing a trick.

HUM450 - Diary of the Great Deportation - Abraham Lewin

2009-09-02T16:16:00.001-07:00

Lewin details in a diary (journal?) the day by day details of what life was life in Warsaw after the Germans moved all of the Jews into the ghetto. The Germans, with the aid of police officers squeezed out the Jews in Warsaw, block by block. The Germans used many methods to convince people to give themselves up in addition to allowing (at first) some Jews to work in shops for the Germans. As more and more buildings and streets were cleared out, German companies moved in and hired Jews for slave labor.

Everyday, food got scarcer and the brutality of the Germans got worse. So many people were killed and deported that those who were left behind were forced to either starve to death, give themselves up in the hopes of somehow surviving the deportation, or killing themselves. Many, including Lewin lost family members (children, parents, siblings) along the way and the uncertainty and guilt drove many to madness.

Perhaps of greatest interest to me was how devious the Germans really were. They convinced some Jews to act as policemen to help in rounding up fellow Jews, only to eventually kill them too, after all of the others had been rounded up. Also of interest was the letters from family members and friends talking about how life wasn't so bad where they had been deported to (Treblinka?). This was of course, something the Germans made the Jews do (write letters back home) before killing them to make others believe that they weren't being harmed.

Crazy.

HUM450 - Conversations with a Dead Man - Jacques Furmanski

2009-09-02T13:40:00.000-07:00

Furmanski relates his experience in a concentration camp whereby everyone has resigned themselves to dying. He describes the feeling of hopelessness everyone feels since it's not a matter of how or if you will die, but when. Their lack of hope often creates a feeling of apathy and most people can only wait helplessly like lambs being led to the slaughter.

HUM450 - But Lidice Is in Europe - Frantisek R. Kraus

2009-09-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

Kraus, a Jewish journalist from Prague, describes a period of time whereby he is interned in a Jewish ghetto in Czekoslovakia. While on his way to the ghetto, he describes seeing a poster that SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich was murdered by Jews. To set an example, the Germans intend to raise the town of Lidice, as it was believed to house the Jews who killed him.

Subsequently, Kraus (among 30 men) are rounded up the guards and ordered to grab digging tools and get onto a truck. He details the trip and describes the destination, a town called Lidice a scene right out of Dante's Inferno. Everything is on fire and there are bodies lying around everywhere. He and the work crew are ordered to dig a trench and do so for 36 hours straight, being given a single piece of black bread the whole time. After they get the trench dug, they are ordered to remove the shoes, identification, and anything of value, while watching his best friend Langendorf get beaten by Seidl, a German SS officer.

After this, they are ordered back onto the truck and taken back to the ghetto where they are allowed to return to their barracks and immediately fall asleep.

CptS 401 - Class Notes

2009-08-31T18:13:00.000-07:00

Method for addressing ethical issues:

Understand the issue
Analyze the respone
Act

Threefold test of action:

Is it good?
Is it right?
Is it legal?

FA331 - Homework (Examples of Modernism)

2009-08-31T10:43:00.000-07:00

Here are 1-2 samples of Modernism in art, broken down by style. Click on any image to view it in full size.

Formalism / Structuralism:

Composition #10

by Piet Mondrian (1939 - 1942)

Op Art:

Belvedere

by M.C. Escher (1958)

Balcony

by M.C. Escher (1945)

Abstract Expressionism:

The Windows

by John Ferren (1958)

Landscape-Table

by Arshile Gorky (1945)

Precisionism:

Turbine Shafts, Coulee Dam #2

by Ralston Crawford (1971)

Americana

by Charles Sheeler (1931)

Minimalism:

Contingent

by Eva Hesse (1969)

Abstract Painting #34

by Ad Reinhardt (1964)

Futurism:

Battle of Lights, Coney Island

by Joseph Stella (1913 - 1914)

Dynamism of an Automobile

by Luigi Russolo (1912-1913)

Cubism:

Large Nude

by Georges Braque (1908)

Bust of a Woman

by Pablo Picasso (1909)

Expressionism:

Street in Asgardstrand

by Edvard Munch (1902)

Starry Night

by Vincent Van Gogh (1889)

Pictorialism:

Grand Prix at Longchamp, After the Races

by Edward Steichen (1907)

Una Balleteuse

by Robert Demache (1900)

Fauvism:

Le Port d'Anvers (The Port at Antwerp)

by Georges Braque (1906)

Nude in a Wood (Study)

by Henri Matisse (1905)

Symbolism:

Baby

by Gustav Klimt (1917 - 1918)

The Fallen Angel

by Odilon Redon (1905)

Impressionism:

The White Church, Newport

by Frederick Childe Hassam (1901)

Starry Night Over the Rhone, Arles
by Vincent Van Gogh (1888)

ENGL373 Introduction

2009-08-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

Hello all, I'm Maurice Smiley. I'm finishing up years of school by finally deciding on a major (DTC). I own a small business in Richland, have a wonderful wife and 3 awesome kids. My oldest is enrolled at CBC and we have contests to see who has the highest GPA. I haven't been beat yet ;-)

I'm experimenting this semester by attempting to use the blog to keep track of class notes and journal all my readings from various classes. All told, I think I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 20+ books to read this semester from English and Humanties alone. I'm also going to try and use it to post homework assignments (where applicable) so that I make the most use of this medium.

We'll see what happens.

BTW Julie, sorry for not having posted this before 10:00am this morning... I won't make this a habit, I promise.

ENGL373 - Lecture Notes

2009-08-27T13:28:00.001-07:00

Colonialism - tribes and tribal authorities were used to control territories and their constituent populations, even when the authorities were clearly colonial puppets and the tribes themselves ossified almost beyond precolonial recognition.

Postcolonialism (PoCo)- Thus reminds us that colonialism remade the modern world and, by shaping the reactions against it, continues to do so.

"Colonial histories - the historical relations of domination between East and West - produced, and in turn were produced by, a range of discourses in which the colonial 'other' was essentialized, inferiorized, feminized, and ultimately naturalized as the always already colonized"

The Other - The non-self and the non-us. Who were ARE NOT. There is fear about what the other might do to us, about whether we could survice such an encounter with the unknown.

"There is nothing man fears more, than the touch of the unknown."

Globalization - refers to the ways in which individual and their cultures merge into a single, "global," society and attempt to function together.

FA331 - Modernism Lecture

2009-08-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

Cezanne - Founder of Modernism

Form - All of the elements of a work of art independent of their meaning. Formal elements are primary features which are not a matter of semantic significance -- including color, dimensions, line, mass, medium, scale, shape, space, texture, value; and the principles of design under which they are placed -- including balance, contrast, dominance, harmony, movement, proportion, proximity, rhythm, similarity, unity, and variety.

Clement Greenburg - Abstract Expressionism
If art is any good, it can't be picked apart... big proponent of Pollack's art.

Beat Generation (1950's) - A group of American youth, writers and artists in the 1950s who experimented with communal living, a nomadic lifestyle, and Eastern philosophy. Often associated with jazz music, the improvisational works by authors such as Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg challenged traditional forms of literature. Note: This is not a traditional “school” of Modernism, but one of its “creations.”

*** Homework Due Tues 9/1 *** - Find one or two works of art from each of the periods and attach them to an email (zip them up). Lable them with the "movement / artist / time/date"

HUM450 - Jankiel Wiernik - "One Year in Treblinka"

2009-08-26T16:51:00.000-07:00

Wiernik was a Jew who was sent to the Treblinka death camp and managed to stay alive by being valuable as a carpenter. He provides great insight into the happenings and goings on inside the camp and talks about the horrific ways the Jews were treated.

He talks about how the Jews were killed immediately if they became sick, and the only Jews not killed were those who were put to work dragging corpses from the gas chamber to the trenches. After awhile, the bodies were getting to hard to dispose of. This led the Germans to engineer huge pyres and began digging up the bodies in the trenches so they could be cremated and thrown onto the fires. He describes in great detail the horror and stench associated with digging up the bodies and what it looks like to watch corpses burn. He even noted that women burn better than men and that pregnant women's belly would pop open and you could see the baby burning inside. Absolutely awful!!!

While working at the camp, Wiernik describes the relationship between the Hungarian guards and the Germans. The Hungarians are described as virtual retards who drank in excess. The Hungarians often stole anything they could and would be at odds with the Germans over it. The Jews were caught in the middle. If they didn't do what the Hungarians wanted, they were killed, however, if they were caught stealing for the Hungarians by the Germans, they would be killed too.

Eventually, Wiernik and the other surviving workers were able to plan an escape whereby he was able to make it 5 miles and into the woods.

HUM450 - One Day in Josefow: Initiation to Mass Murder - Christopher Browning

2009-08-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

Browning examines the testimony of police officers (middle aged men who were recruited for police service) who were ordered to round up and kill all of the women and children in the town of Josefow, Poland. The police officers were ordered to go into the town and round up all of the Jews in the town. The male Jews were to be sent off to a labor camp and the women and children were to be shot just outside of town in the woods.

The commander, Major Trapp offered his men several opportunities to not participate without any fear of being punished. While a few men took him up on the offer, most of the men didn'tt. The men who didn't participate were given alternate duties, such as escorting the male jews to the labor camp or were reassigned to other units to fight the Polish partisans.

Of the men who carried out these orders, most admitted years later that they didn't want to be seen as weak in front of their comrades. Others admit that is was wrong, but were "cowards" by not doing the right thing and not participating in the first place. It's not clear after reading this if there is really any answer as to why these men did this, other than peer pressure, cowardice, and anti-semitism.

HUM450 - Kulmhof (Chelmno) Deathcamp

2009-08-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

Written by Wiernik, these memoirs relate the events from actual guards who were assigned to the Kulmhof deathcamp. Wiernik described having 2 "camps."

The first was called the "castle" which was a building on the outskirts of town. In this building, the Jews were told that they were going to be deloused and that they would be showered and then sent to a work camp. They were stripped of their clothing and herded like cattle into "gas" vans. Once the Jews were in loaded up in the van, the driver of the van would hook up the exhaust pipe to the van and start the engine. This would suffocate the Jews in the van. As soon as it looked like there were no survivors, the van was driven to the second camp called "camp in the wood" where the bodies were dumped into mass graves.

Of the stories told by the guards, the vast majority stated that they were acting on orders directly from the "fuhrer" himself and that they believed all of the propoganda they were told. That is, that the Jews were boils and a plague to their society and they were not human. Only one guard indicated that it was horrific and refused to participate.