the importance of teaching multi-modal discourse

"Listening is an art, a conscious process of observing and defining sound. And like the art of writing, it is affected by one's place in and knowledge of a particular sonic environment as much as one's previous experiences with sonic forms” (Comstock and Hocks 2). How often do we ask students to listen? Yes, we expect them to listen to our lectures, our podcasts, etc., but how do we teach (and do we teach) our freshmen how to dissect spoken discourse? How can we expect them to develop this skill, unless we ask them to create arguments in spoken discourse? Just like subliminal messages, our students listen to types of music that do in fact over time change the way they think and feel about certain issues. Our students can say, “Man, that Wyclef song is tight!” But do they really know what Sweetest Girl means? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PxBGHjABnU) [Or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zryvBnCaShc, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aj1sznTdLM, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un2dbprtZFE&feature=related] They may listen to the nightly news, or a politician’s speech, but can they really decipher the rhetoric and manipulation of language? Would they be able to do it if we taught them how to construct multi-media texts that included sound? Plus, we have to take into account that visuals lend to meanings (as in music videos as displayed above). Each time we construct new sounds as a composition, we are redefining what we believe to be our own “truth,” and we are revealing a part of who we are as individuals because of the choices we make in constructing the compositions. Simply put, “our ideological location regulates the relationship between what is audible and inaudible, imaginable and unimaginable” (Comstock and Hocks 2).

“illusion of realism” (Comstock and Hocks 3). This is yet another concern with written texts and the ability to transfer our notion of rhetoric from what a student sees on paper to being able to transfer those ideals to other types of media discourse. Students cannot yet (usually) listen to a song, or watch a segment of news, or listen to a speech and decipher reality from illusion (this may be due to the staged reality TV that has become ever so popular). One of the struggles we face as composition instructors is trying to get our students to not only decipher fact from fiction in the research they do (what is a good source to use in a paper) and make that lesson true to life. We can’t just say, “politicians are sneaky, don’t believe them.” or “all news casters are biased and stretch the truth.” We have to somehow get our students thinking about dissecting written, spoken and visual literacies. My philosophy is, if a student can do it, they can recognize it—so I think that teaching multi-media discourse and rhetoric certainly has a place in general education.

My Audio Remix

So in German..."Ich bin haben freunden" means "I have no friends." "Scheize" means "shit"
So the effect I was trying for was a lonely woman that is getting ready to committ suicide...a little dark, yeah, but it was what I was thinking.
NEVERMIND...next blog

Writer Strikes ending and New Media

I saw this article from the 10th of Feb...actually, my student wrote about the BBC and CNN articles for an assignment and the quote they used grabbed my attention. Here is an excerpt from the BBC article followed by my thoughts on it...

"Writers Guild of America (WGA) members discussed the settlement plan at meetings in New York and Los Angeles on Saturday.
"We had a very lively discussion. I'm happy with what happened," said Michael Winship, president of the WGA, East, after the meeting in New York.
Earlier, Mr Winship and his West Coast counterpart, Patric Verrone, told their members the proposed deal was "an agreement that protects a future in which the internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery".
"It creates formulas for revenue-based residuals in new media, provides access to deals and financial data to help us evaluate and enforce those formulas, and establishes the principle that, 'When they get paid, we get paid'." "

This is a debate that has been on the minds of scholars for a long time. Questions of "Who owns the internet?" "How do you police the internet to make sure that copywrighted material is protected, etc." Since everyone, including Hollywood writers are beginning to question this, it validates all the studies and papers and theories we are learning. It validates our field.

I can't really decide if I am happy the strike ended the way it did or not...Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad that Lost and ER and Grey's Anatomy and 24 will continue without interruption...the new seasons are kind of the highlight of my winter. But at the same time, I have to question accessability. Are they now going to make us pay to gain access to movie and television scripts? If that is the case, there are going to be some that cannot afford to pay for them, and the great thing about the internet is having free (for the most part) information at your fingertips. When we start restricting information and charging for it, could it not lead to further class division in this country?

Final draft Photoshop Remix!

Project Report Photoshop Remix

MEMORANDUM

Roma Industries, INC.
Kathie Gossett

Ella Marie Shaffer

ENGL 766 classmates

2/11/2008

Photoshop Remix

The purpose of this memo is to discuss the meaning, choices and processes implemented throughout this project, along with connections made to theories in New Media.

Meanings
“The media is the most powerful entity on earth…because they control the minds of the masses” Malcolm X. This statement for me holds great meaning and echoes earlier leaders dating back to Naro of Rome. He was famous for saying, “If you give the people circus and bread, they will never question you.” Media represents our circus. We are drawn in to being entertained, even during our news casts, and who hasn’t heard of people being, “mesmerized by the boob-tube?” The zombies are meant to represent us…the masses. The news background represents media, but I decided to choose some very different images to represent the newscaster and inlay. The inlay is the “media’s depiction” of the typical gypsy. She is standing over a crystal ball getting ready to reveal some magical outlook about someone’s future. The newscaster however, is actually a picture of a 28 year old Roma woman dressed professionally. If you look closely into her eyes, she (like all us Romani women) does have a very mesmerizing stare. The reason for these images of “Gypsies” for me plays with the concept of how these groups are portrayed in media, stereotypes of dominant culture and the reality of the culture of the Roma people.

Processes
I think that most good writing comes from sudden urges. This being said, once I had chosen the quote for this project, an image appeared in my head of what I kind of wanted the final collage to look like. This actually helped me choose Malcolm X’s quote in the first place. It is kind of hard to describe the organic deeply imbedded desire to create something artful. It is something like a sudden itch that demands to be scratched. I rarely, when composing texts for school, have this urgent, organic desire to create. I usually have to spend a long time thinking about the topic I have chosen, and then can sit at my computer and type furiously as the words often stream out of my head faster than I can type them. I then have to go about correcting the grammar and polishing it.

Much the same way, once I had this set image in my head, I had to find pictures that would work to create something similar to what I originally had in mind. I have to admit; I did get extremely frustrated and ended up changing my original plan due to my own limitations with Photoshop. Once I saw the image in grayscale, I decided that although it was not the image I originally had in my mind, I did like the finished project. I felt like no matter how much more time, or how much more Deke videos I watched, I did not think the picture would get any better. Sometimes it is best to quit when you are ahead.


Choices
I have always had a strong fascination and fear of zombies. They are supposed to be dead, but yet they are walking and grunting; you can’t kill them unless you physically destroy their brain, and they walk around really slowly sort of like they are in a trance. They eat other people, or they bite you and you then turn into a zombie. This is why I chose the background image of zombies. Originally, I wanted just a group of zombies walking, but then I decided that the circle of zombies would be better since I would then have an open space to put the image. The zombies could look like they are then gathering around the media image and are subsequently drawn into the TV screen. The image of Fox News represents media. I chose a Fox News image because it is the least of my favorite news sources and, in my opinion, the most biased propaganda in America.

The other two images that I chose were very personal in nature. The Roma are a group of people originally from India that have over centuries, migrated throughout Europe. My great-grandmother was supposedly Roma and immigrated to this country around 1908. Throughout time, Roma have been persecuted by the dominant culture in which they reside and there are a lot of rumors and myths about their culture and beliefs. They have been labeled gypsies and are still treated as second class citizens in some countries. The image of the female sitting in front of the bookshelf is one of a 28 year old Roma that attended college in Prague. Many times media, myth, and ethnocentrism play a role in depicting Roma as dirty, panhandling, mystical nomads. The reality is most Roma are very superstitious, and they will at times practice such jobs as fortune telling and palm reading. Most Roma do not, however, put much stock in the actual reality of these soothsayer activities. But, in the interest of the project, I felt like I needed to validate that image a little since the quote does have to do with media controlling the minds of the masses…so therefore, I picked an image of a lady gazing into a crystal ball.

I did choose other, more accurate depictions of Roma in everyday life, but thought it best to choose the professional as the anchor (something that you would rarely see, especially in Europe) and the “gypsy” fortune teller as this was the best photograph I found on Google Images. Please refer to the above post for earlier drafts, and the top of this post for the original pictures.

Connections
I definitely see where the use of visual composition is sometimes both much more urgent and thoughtful than classical composition. As I stated earlier, the image I desired as a finished product jumped into my head within a matter of a few seconds. This rarely, if ever, happens in written composition (at least for me). In this way, technology was able to affect my thought processes in that I did not feel the need to “pre-write,” “draft,” “organize,” “research,” “re-draft,” “polish,” etc. in the way you would need to in writing. The steps were much more compacted…brainstorm, research, draft, polish…and in that order too, unlike with the writing process of Flowers and Hayes where the process is circular and fluid. Just as Tristan Tzara and Brion Gysin developed poems and artwork using the cut-up method, this project asks us to use the images we find in order to create something new (NMR 3, 90).

arrg photoshop!!!

I am so frustrated right now...I figured out how to cut some of the selections from the layer I did not want...but I can't figure out how to fix the rest of it...SO...I'm just going to go with my original instinct...yes, you can tell I just put the stuff over the top and changed it to a greyscale image...BUT...it's better than getting an F on an assignment...and yes, I read and did all the selections and even went to Lynda.com...which did not help me at all!!!, but here are some of the pics for this project...

I personally like the black and white pic...although you can tell I meshed the photos on top of one another, I think the black and white pic gives it a little something extra...as in, it hides some of the flaws in layering due to operator error...but also, I feel like it makes a statement alongside the quote...controlling the minds of the masses, media influence, deadening of the senses...etc. So, that is what I am going with...and I'll accept the consequences or rewards.

Quick thoughts before class

So, my first question is going to be...about the line and circle generation section of Sketchpad. I didn't understand the section at all, and to be perfectly honest with you, I didn't try very hard cause Math equasions give me migranes. I mean I get that Sketchpad could be seen as pre-Photoshop...

Also, Burroughs peice discusses the cut up method and how poetry is for everyone...(sort of like the web is for everyone) and can be melded into different site and pages (much like public service offices are constantly growing and changing and disappearing, etc. to meet the needs of the public).

I'm not really sure how Kaprow's peice would fit thematically in with this week's topics. So far I'm seeing things about media and computers and the like being fluid (which he is talking about art being fluid and impermanent like the internet) but he talks a lot about the artist and their impermanence cause once they are noticed and gain popularity they "sell out"...

Anyway, those are the thoughts that I came up with so far for this week.