54 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2016
    1. which use images, text, and comics to summarise the work of major philosophers
    2. the idea that authorial voice is central to academic writing, and as an example of the challenges and opportunities presented by composing multimodal scholarship which eschews this conception of linguistic authorship.
    3. educational comics challenge the conception of an authoritative author’s "voice," as is typically found in traditional educational and academic writing.
  2. Feb 2016
    1. On the Web “the possible” that is conjured is often a possible self, one with a new pair of shoes, whiter teeth, faster Internet service, or a cheaper car insurance bill.

      The intelligent, more knowledgeable and informed self.

    2. "In the above examples, the Web’s rhetorical biases are expressed by the orientation of audiences toward logicized multitextual consumption. Web users are always inundated with a staggering number of “relevant” possibilities, a ubiquitous rhetoric of the possible that encourages them to expand and renegotiate their media experience (see Craig and Flood). These fulfilled possibilities cohere into the rhetorical flows by which users are caught in unexpected patterns of participation, engaging issues, researching products, and exploring topics that while not preordained have been offered to them through a digital rhetoric that is heavily biased toward keeping its users connected to the Web. As is perhaps most evident in the personalization of CNN.com, the defining innovations of Web 2.0 technology only exacerbate this phenomenon, generating what Mark Andrejevic calls a “digital enclosure”: a virtual space in which this rhetoric of the possible surrounds users with customized possibilities for participatory audiencing (iSpy 2–4)."

      Semantics and logic. These are the two driving forces of the 'flow'. Logical transitions are appealing to a society that craves organization. the internet wouldn't be nearly as popular if related information to our original search wasn't readily available.

    3. "Web rhetoric provides a portal to this textual manifold, asserting the possible and provoking an emergent media experience that overcomes the traditional bounds of sentence, paragraph, image, and (web)page. Thus the hyperlink is not merely a way to suggest “outside” sources—a way to “escape” the text at hand in favor of others—but is instead the rhetorical provocation by which one’s multitextual environment is constantly challenged and renegotiated."

      The ever-growing appeal of multimodality in a digital space only aids in overcoming the traditional bounds of print media. Not only can a hyperlink divert attention, but also a sound or visual can entice a reader. This is surely another way in which our multitextual environment is challenge, for our environment may not even be text. This can only be accomplished in a digital interface.

    4. "This seems self-evident enough, and yet for some reason the critical response to hypertext prose has always fixated on the dissociative power of the link” (111). There is nothing at all “random” about Web audiencing, Johnson insists: “What makes the online world so revolutionary is the fact that there are connections between each stop on a [W]eb itinerant’s journey. The links that join those various destinations are links of association, not randomness” (109; emphasis added). In the days of digital audiencing, strolling from one activity to the next is simply a new way to turn the page (see Barker 174)."

      It seems obvious that the hypertext audiences are exposed to are manipulated to achieve a certain agenda. It is my understanding that this is how rhetoric has operated throughout history. This is rhetoric's main objective; to fulfill an agenda without the audience realizing that they are somehow being manipulated. This is not to say rhetoric is inherently bad, but it is a useful tool.

    5. "Romanticizing the supposedly “linear” sequentiality of earlier media experiences and ignoring the central constraints of online HCI, these scholars posit chaos in the absence of the rhetor’s secure jurisdiction over the audience experience. However, the digital age’s constrained liberation of the audience requires that we become more sensitive to the ways in which digital texts,rather than enclosing users in a unified technological product, encourage them to construct a rhetorically informed, multitextual flow."

      Non-linear acquisition of information is not, in my opinion, radical. While it has its own set of problems, it also avoids certain pitfalls that come with relying on particular source of content. no longer are audiences subjected to a singular perspective. Even though the 'flow' might be meticulously constructed, it can still be avoided.

    6. "These insights into the digital audience, I argue, can be best appreciated if viewed within a framework of struggle between the newly “liberated” audience and the procedural constraints of the Web. In this section of the article, I will explore the importance of this struggle, focusing especially on how Web texts productively constrain users’ “audiencing,” or the activities through which they become active participants in their media experience (Fiske, “Audiencing”). These constraints challenge the popular view that Web texts have radically decentralized our experience of textuality in the digital age."

      I'm not sure that I completely understand, but debunking the idea that web users are randomly bouncing through content can be understood in terms of how rhetors preemptively construct a 'flow' to systematically guide the audience down a preconceived path. But there is no end to the path on the internet. Where then is the final conclusion drawn?

    7. "For Williams flow unifies and organizes discrete yet related textual units into a coherent sequence. Commercials, for example, are integrated into television shows in such a way that they appear not to interrupt them but to coalesce with them in a planned “flow”—similar settings, moods, actors, and products will appear during shows and their commercials, easing the transition between the different elements viewed by an audience. This sequential flow therefore overrides the individual unit—that is, the single show—as the organizational scheme of broadcast television. The compelling flow between a show, its commercials, and the programs that precede and follow it thus comprises the palpable unit of broadcast television."

      This brings to mind the various ways that people today are actively avoiding the 'mindless consumer' behavior. Cookies can be blocked (whether or not the information acquired from online purchases can be prevented entirely is another conversation). Television commercials can now be fast-forwarded through. The bombardment of advertising is having an inverse effect on the general public precisely because it interrupts the flow of what people want to consume. With the internet, people can fine-tune their personal flow and exhibit some agency.

    8. "The Web’s hyperlinks entice and engage audiences, keeping us online by, in the prophetic words of Williams, offering “the reiterated promise of exciting things to come, if we stay” (95). Web texts, by giving their audiences a prodding glimpse toward what may come, engender an actively emergent Web experience that is always flowing toward the possible."

      Engaging with the idea of endless possibility, there is also an idea of endless acquisition of knowledge. Which in turn brings into conversation, ethics. How do we confirm what is true? How do we determine what we can rely on as accurate? i believe this dialogue is a part of the actively emergent Web experience. To illicit criticism is to be thoughtfully engaged.

    9. "I turn to Martin Heidegger and John Poulakos to argue that Web interactivity is driven by a rhetoric of the possible that pushes users to continuously renegotiate their online activities within structured flows."

      Or by a rhetoric of the curious.

    10. "By the rhetorical gravity of their links, certain elements of a digital text tempt users by offering a relatively narrow system of possibilities for action (see Khalifa and Shen); and this happens, of course, if one is on a user-generated website like Wikipedia, a commercial site like CNN.com that is driven by personalized ads, or even a social networking site like Facebook. In effect, these temptations contribute to an atmosphere of what critic Raymond Williams calls “flow,” which is the rhetorical means by which media consumers are continuously enticed to devote more of their time to a particular media experience."

      Also known as clickbait. I think the more adept we become at navigating the internet, the more 'link jumping' will diminish. Personally, I can usually tell by the rhetorical conventions of the headline whether or not the link is useful or worth visiting.

    11. "The social and textual transformations wrought by digital media have imposed new challenges upon scholars of rhetoric, who are striving to apply their traditional concepts to technological innovations that are rapidly changing the ways we read, shop, and socialize".

      I would note that the act of writing introduced as a new technology in Ancient Greece presented a similar challenge for scholars. They had to amend their philosophies to accommodate the new technology. Writing also changed the way we read, shop, and social.

    1. instances of Twitter shaming and commenting sections on stories written by or about women are often the most flagrant, with back and forth accusations of “slut”, “whore” and much worse

      As far as shaming on social media desecrating one's reputation, especially a woman's, there is now a market for companies that specialize in "cleaning up" your social media presence. I heard an advertisement the other day that offered a service to "destroy" bad reviews on google, yelp, facebook etc. This is an interesting option in light of our conversation regarding moral infringement.

    1. When we transform our pedagogical practices in the face-to-face classroom to value the deep learning that comes with human interaction and embodiment—particularly when those bodies vary in identity markers of class, gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and disability—our students gain ethical knowledge that values human difference.

      Yes. This is so valuable.

    2. We note, for example, that the content that students post on social media does not, as Manovich (2012) notes, constitute “transparent windows into their selves; instead, they are usually carefully curated and systematically managed” (465). Instead, we focus on the texture of human lives, from what we see, hear, and feel to what we imagine, remember, and predict.

      Universality of experience.

    3. and here is an opportunity to link the student’s visual understanding of a concept to its expression in written English. It’s an opportunity to build off of the student’s existing cognitive abilities to develop a love for written English, rather than focusing only on what is “correct” in written English, effectively reducing her ASL expression of a concept into an uninteresting statement.

      This is so important, not to let "normalization" diminish cognitive skills and abilities that Deaf students already have.

    4. The tutor says, “And this is where, this is where she has problems with writing. Because in signing, you can say so much more with fewer words. I guess when you have ideas and concepts and all that, you can sign it. But on a paper you’ve gotta write it out” (Babcock 2008, 34).
    5. she expressed through words the idea that thrift stores were probably a better consumer practice, but that she rarely acted on that belief. By the end of the semester, she reflected on her new practice of actively optimizing her consumer purchases through secondhand services and thrift stores. Over the course of the semester, she wasn’t just absorbing or observing knowledge, she was enacting it by having to create a physical record of her journey and convey the feeling of consumer excess through her body.

      Enhancing the traditional research paradigm to enact actual change in behavior.

    6. By the end of the semester, and after a series of pedagogical activities which included the nonverbal skit, the student discovered the value of capturing his own facial expressions to communicate the critical and comedic aspects of his study. In the final revision, the student dramatized the physical impact of Tabasco sauce when it is consumed with the frequency the ad encourages

      Pedagogical approaches in teaching rhetoric and discourse that take advantage of one's physicality. Is this ableist? Could a student without this range of motion still achieve what Hunter is looking for? Is this pedagogy limiting in some ways?

    7. In embodying the gestures we see in the media, we’re reading body language in a way that moves us to identify with others and critically read the power imbalance in the pose.

      Power imbalances displayed physically often resonate with audiences more than imbalances displayed verbally/linguistically.

    8. With nonverbal skits, students are playing together in a planned interface.
    9. We communicate relationships of power, aggression, insult, and fear via nonverbal gestures. When I replicated my dad’s performance of “The Teacher” in my own classroom, a glaring gender-power issue emerged. While my dad could humorously perform the act of being overpowered by a student in his classroom, topped off with the act of bending over and getting spanked with a paddle, my identity as a young female professor becomes compromised in the act of performing this sequence. Embodying a narrative becomes an act of critical reading

      Even in multimodal rhetoric assignments, one's gender identity is still relevant in how the discourse is received. By still holding on to what is deemed appropriate by each gender, this visual presentation opens up a dialogue about intersectionality.

    10. Instead, all of their eyes are on me. The stares make me slightly uncomfortable, because they make me aware that my nonverbal performance is different from theirs, informed as it is by Deaf culture. However, I have invited the stares and have made them a part of the pedagogical practice.[6] Through this practice, the attention of their eyes has been recalibrated and retrained to look at me rather than just listen to me. Their eyes respond to me as an embodied classroom interface, and I cannot be replaced by a screen.

      The attention of the students' eyes are no longer just blank and passive audience members, but rather engaged in the embodied classroom interface. What does this mean for courses without the physical body of an instructor present?

    11. Most importantly, we wrap up the session with reflections on the visual and spatial affordances of expressing concepts with our bodies.

      How does expressing concepts with our bodies enhance the content?

    12. we are ignoring the embodied interface of the classroom and the multisensory affordances of shared space.
    13. In ASL storytelling, “non-manual signals, such as facial expression, provide important information . . . By changing [the] body position so that each character faces a different direction, [the performer] help[s] the audience understand which character is doing the action” (qtd in Peters 2000, 83). ASL is a visual language, and adept Deaf storytellers engage in art forms that build upon the everyday gestural communication of deaf persons.

      Deaf storytellers really are performers. With non-verbal communication, the realm of how to evoke the emotion of a story or character reaches new territory.

    14. The nonverbal is typically poised as an extension of hearing culture rather than a fundamental expression of an embodied human experience, capable of infinite articulation.

      This in a interesting perspective that I had never considered.

    15. It does not include signed English, it does not include captions on a screen, and it does not include visual aids. Rather, it is the story we tell with our bodies.

      Gestural rhetoric and engagement. What higher levels of thinking can emerge through this kind of discourse?

    16. no matter how expressive I would be with my face and my gestures, and no matter how brilliant my slide show presentation, my parents would be bored and disconnected from the content and activity of the course.

      How does rhetoric change the more interactive a classroom becomes?

    17. I am engaging the concept of “universal design in writing pedagogy,” which points to methods in introducing “a variety of visual, aural, spatial, and kinesthetic approaches to tap into the intellectual chaos that goes into writing in the physical, literal sense” to show the connection between the inner eye of the signer and the inner eye of the poet (Dunn and Dunn De Mers 2002). In the sections that follow, I explore how understanding the gestural and nonverbal technologies of Deaf culture and languages can influence the public education of hearing, neurodiverse, and differently abled students

      Exploring multimodal pedagogy in the classroom.

    18. create clear images

      The image is more clearly explained by the visual metaphor rather than a linguistic one.

    19. As a child who was more comfortable with the visual expression of ideas, poetry became an instant lifeline for me to communicate my thoughts, feelings, and ideas within hearing culture. Poetry, like American Sign Language, engages with visual and imagistic pulses of expression, with narrative and storytelling following cinematic gestures through time that can be cut and edited.

      Visual construction of poetry is important in its interpretation, but more importantly, the rhythm is something that can be felt.

    20. I propose that we engage the physical space of the classroom as well as the expressive space of an embodied pedagogical practice.

      The physicality that is embodied in this pedagogical practice is potentially paradigm shifting. How is literacy approached in this perspective.

    21. Rather, developments in Deaf Studies over the past five to ten years have shown that “the highly visual, spatial, and kinetic structures of thought and language” that comprise Deaf culture may transform “hearing ways of knowing” (Baumann and Murray 2013, 246).

      It seems to me that encouraging Deaf students to wear hearing aids/cochlear implant, and to use assistive devices only serves to make life more comfortable for hearing people, not Deaf people. Society expects assimilation, but will not entertain other cultures, even if benefits could arise from them.

    22. Along these lines, Lennard J. Davis (1995) argues that “disability is not a minor issue that relates to a relatively small number of unfortunate people; it is part of a historically constructed discourse, an ideology of thinking about the body under certain historical circumstances.

      "Disability" rhetoric and discourse are often problematic and harmful. Who is this "normalization" process really benefiting?

    23. dystopian narratives of immobilized bodies

      Interesting that immobilized bodies have become almost synonymous with a dystopian society.

    24. educators have increasingly turned to technology, such as Clickers and Twitter backchannels, to engage more deeply with their students’ learning.

      Turning to non-verbal modes.

    25. raised hands, arched eyebrows, slumped shoulders, and crossed arms

      Certain gestures in communication have their own implied rhetoric.

    26. become the expressive performers on the stage and the human technologies in motion

      Here it is interesting how students are referred to as human technologies in motion. Hearing students are often a passive audience as mentioned, but Deaf students are communicating primarily in a motion driven language. And ASL is a communicating technology that again breaks the oral tradition.

  3. Jan 2016
    1. The truth of writing, that is, as we shall see, (the) nontruth, cannot be discovered in ourselves by ourselves. And it is not the object of a science, only of a qistory that is recited, a fable that is repeated. The link between writing and myth becomes clearer, as does its opposition to knowledge, notably the knowledge one seeks in oneself, by oneself. And at the same time, through writing or through myth, the genealogical break and the estrangement from the origin are sounded
    2. His name is Lysias. Phaedrus is keeping the text or, if you will, the pharmakon, hidden under his cloak. He needs it because he has not 'learned the speech by heart. This point is important for what follows, the problem of writing being closely linked to the problem of "knowing by heart." Before Socrates had stretched out on the ground and invited Phaedrus to take the most comfortable position, the latter had offered to reconstitute, without the help of the text, the reasoning, argument, and design ofLysias' speech, its dianoia. Socrates StOPS him short: "Very well, my dear fellow, but you must first show me what it is that you have in your left hand under you cloak, for I surmise that it is the actual discourse (ton logon auton)" (228d). Between the invitation and the start of the reading, while the pharmakon is wandering about under Phaedrus' cloak, there occurs the evocation of Pharmacia and the send-off of myths.
    3. If a speech could be purely present, unveiled, naked, offered up in person in its truth, without the detours of a signifier foreign to it, if at the limit an undeferred logos were possible, it would not seduce anyone. It would not draw Socrates, as if under the effects of a pharmakon, out of his way. Let us get ahead of ourselves. Already: writing, the pharmakon, the going or leading astray.
    4. It is at this point, when Socrates has finally stretched out on the ground and Phaedrus has taken the most comfortable position for handling the text or, if you will, the pharmakon, that the discussion actually gets off the ground.

      Personal comfort for the individual's body plays a crucial role in the ability to start a philosophical conversation.

    5. Only a little further on, Socrates compares the written texts Phaedrus has brought along to a drug (pharmakon). This pharmakon, this "medicine," this philter, which acts as both remedy and poison, already introduces itself into the body of the discourse with all its ambivalence.
    6. the author of the written speech is already entrenched in the posture of the sophist: the man of non-presence and of non-truth. Writing is thus already on the scene. The incompatibility between the written and the true is clearly announced at the moment Socrates starts to recount the way in which men are carried out of themselves by pleasure, become absent from themselves, forget themselves and die in the thrill of song (259().
    7. Phaedrus reminds Socrates that the citizens of greatest influence and dignity, the men who are the most free, feel ashamed (aiskhunonta/) at "speechwriting" and at leaving sungrammata behind them. They fear the judgment of posterity, which might consider them "sophists" (257d).

      I find it interesting that Derrida purposefully fills his criticism with particular diction that suggests physical action, whereas Plato suggests that the physical action of speech-writing should be shamed.

    8. "The Phaedrus is badly composed. This defect is all the more surprising since it is precisely there that Socrates defines the work of art as a living being. But the inability to accomplish what has been well conceived is precisely a proof of old age. "6

      Two interesting concepts arise from this quote. The first being how Socrates defines the "Phaedrus" as a living being. It is implied that this is not simply just a metaphor, but once again the philosophy of essence. Derrida argues that the inability to define this living being is due to Socrates age; that his body is betraying him so-to-speak. The second is that age and physicality of the author's body somehow determines the strength of their rhetoric.

    9. on Plato, who already said in the Phaetinn that writing can only repeat (itself), that it "always signifies (semainei) the same" and that it is a "game" (paidia).

      Writing as a technology was deemed vastly inferior by ancient Greeks. The ability to record a piece of information for later study was not truly understanding the academic intricacies of the information. Memorization was prized; for it indicated a true and thorough understanding. Plato might disagree with Derrida here that a piece of writing is not the embodiment of rhetoric, but rather the act of memorizing and orating. Something tangible vs. something intangible. Or rather, the essence of something that cannot be described accurately with words.