Final Reflective Blog

1.Discuss ways multimodal composing differs from and is related to your composing practices for alphabetic, print texts. How did this class affect your previous experience with digital writing both as a reader/consumer of digital media, and as a creator of digital media?

I think the first and most obvious difference between multimodal and alphabetic texts is there are a lot more moving parts (I'm not apologizing for that terrible potential pun) to multimodal. There are far more components and things to consider as far as the editing process. 
You also need to have more knowledge. Especially about how to use software. 
Multimodal is certainly linked and related to alphabetic text composing - they both require the author to put their thoughts down and there is generally text  in both forms. 
I didn't have much previous experience with multimodal aside from a capstone project last semester. As stated many times - I'm not tech savvy. So having to do this project certainly allowed me to gain some experience and become a little less hopeless at multimodal and digital creation!

2.How do you now apply rhetorical theory to digital/multimodal texts? How might this knowledge be important/applicable outside a classroom setting in terms of issues like power and ethics?

Honestly, I'd need a bit more distance from this class and project to answer that correctly. Because as of graduation day, I'm going to be staying as far away from a computer as I possibly can for around a month. 

There won't be any digital/multimodal texts going near these eyeballs for a while if I can help it. 

However for the sake of the question - I imagine the way I will apply rhetorical theory to digital texts will take on a more informed lens. Once you've seen or been involved in the inner workings of a thing, you gain insight and as a result, see different elements within it. 

I'll certainly be more aware of the rhetorical moves other creators of digital/multimedia works are making to effect their audience.

 

3. Do you see "delivery" as an important re-emerging canon of rhetoric when it comes to multimodal work? If so, how?

I see delivery as everything. Well, perhaps not 100%, more like 85%.  I don't see it as "re-emerging" either. It may shift and change (today, more in the realm of the digital and less from a speaker at a podium - though that still exists too!) but it hasn't gone anywhere.

Without effective delivery you have no acquiescence, without acquiescence, what is the point of rhetoric? This may smack of oversimplification. But I happen to love over simplifying things. Chop them down to their basic meaning and then build them up a bit more where needed.

Rhetoric is infamous for being wordy. Lets be real. And a lot of people see it as innately something dry, dull and antiquated. I think this class is an excellent example of the fact that its anything but antiquated. Because if you look at rhetoric as being dry and dull you're only looking at a sliver of what rhetoric is - actually rhetoric is EVERYTHING. Whether you want it to be or not. Trust me, there was a point in my academic career when I did NOT want it to be. But it is, and its actually pretty fascinating. But I digress....Delivery, that's what I was talking about.

You can have the most important, meaningful thing to say in the history of meaningful things - but if your delivery sucks, you're probably not going to gain much of an  audience. People are fickle, they like good stuff. They like to be compelled and moved and made to laugh. If you can incorporate those elements, and really use the canon of delivery effectively, your rhetorical game shall be strong.  

Digital Archive Project

1. Discuss your development of an archival literacy.  I'm honestly not sure how this has helped my archival literacy...once I get more distance from the project I'm sure something will reveal itself, but at the moment we're still dealing with last minute issues with the programs/tweaking the project and making adjustments - so I'm still in a state of mild frustration. 
2. How did your group construct meaning from the archive through your webtext? We wanted to focus on something other than This House of Sky, which we figured has been in the spotlight the most. The photo collection, initially disconcerting to me, proved to be an interesting topic when linking it with storymaps. We focused on Doig's images from Scotland and it was interesting to see the links between where he traveled, how much research he did for one book that featured Scotland.
3. How did using new technologies (i.e., the Doig Digital Archive, the finding aid, StoryMaps, etc) shape your research experience and composing process? To be perfectly frank, the process was a pain in the neck. Story Maps is not particularly intuitive, so for a tech-challenged person this was a struggle. We were limited by what we knew about the site and what the sites would allow us to do. There were also some things about the archive that were not straightforward - rather than going from point A to B, you had to go from A to C then F, E and back around to B.
4. To what degree did you and your group take advantage of our librarian partners' expertise with the collection or with technology? How did it go? We used the HTML code to upload our chosen info into StoryMaps - again, not a wildly intuitive program for people who don't code. Lots of trial and error and some limitations as far as amounts of photos we could upload. Overall it was a sharp learning curve for me - a non techie person. Challenge is always good is some facet though and this was definitely one!

11/14

This blog prompt is a bit difficult to answer yet, as we are still in the forming/ideas stage. I think as as we go on with the project, our individual contributions will become more clear.

The project seemed rather vague to me at first, but I think we're getting a grip on it.

Digital Archives

This article by Solberg was interesting to me because I can relate to it. I think every student these days has had to explore a digital archive - generally for a research paper or project where facts and credible sources are vital.

I can recall wading through hundreds of pages of digital articles for business research or analysis papers, or going through historical documents for English essays. Now, this can make the process easier because everything is so readily accessible - however for me it also makes it challenging because I'm a very tactile learner. I like to be able to highlight things, fold pages, spread items out on my desk and refer back to them physically. Archaic perhaps, but I function best this way. I've noticed that with a purely digital reference platform, I miss things in the copy&paste madness.

There's also the continuing issue of not being digitally inclined. So every time I do a search in one of these massive archives, I think I'm missing something, or not searching correctly. Which may not be the case at all but that's how it makes me feel (cuz feeeeeelings are SO important).


On that note however, I think if I didn't have digital archives as a back up/filler, I'd be lost. Sunk. Defunct. Not effective at all.

Doig

So I went and jumped ahead into the Ivan Doig archives.
I was part of a previous class that got to explore this archive while it was still being put together - which was pretty dope.
The special collections department and everyone that has been involved in getting this online have done a great job.
Overall the archives are easy to navigate, user friendly and look pretty good as well.

The first thing I dove into was the photograph collection. And honestly....it was a bit odd to me. Kind of like when you're at someone's house that you don't know very well and you see their photos, personal family stuff on the walls, and you sort of feel like you shouldn't be looking at them.....maybe that's just me but it feels oddly invasive. Yes, I know Doig is no longer alive, and the photos probably offer some insight into his writing process. But it still seems, weird.

The Books and Other Writings section was very cool - mainly because I think a lot of people don't realize how many other things Doig wrote. Its nice to have all his works displayed, with good clear images, on one page. This House of Sky is certainly his most well known work, and many would argue his best, but the others are work a look as well. There's quite a few that I haven't read either and would like to check out. Looking through this archive has inspired me to do so. 

10/31

Whenever I read a piece about or having anything to do with games/gaming, I almost instantly feel like I'm drifting into rhetorical waters that I can't navigate.

Within Kairos I read Vie and deWinter's piece on surveillance and games - really I'm not sure why I chose it - perhaps a vague hope that with every piece on gaming that I read, I will begin to feel less like a rhetorical outsider (which is a bit odd I suppose because I don't really care about gaming, but I like understanding things) and begin to gain knowledge on the topic.

Welp, still trying to gain. Still not getting much. I get the gist - gaming, surveillance, peoples patterns, strategies of the game companies to get more traffic, privacy issues, etc., but there is still so much lingo and terms within that rhetorical sphere that I feel like I'm missing things. I get this inner vibe that I can't even discuss it correctly...

Personally I've never played Candy Crush, or Words with Friends, I've had opportunity and nearly everyone I know has played these and similar games. I have nothing at all against games, or the people that play them. But something about it - especially the way these companies PUSH their product on you - just irks me. I also think that privacy is something that is highly misunderstood. None of us have our privacy really, not anymore. So whenever there's an option to say 'no' to something that potentially takes one more chunk of it, I relish the choice to say, NAH.

Multi-modal

Well, it is done.
Not quite how I wanted it to be, due to freezing video makers and a tremendous lack of tech savvy on my part. But it is complete and I think presents the points and rhetorical approach I wanted.

My initial paper that I revised was written for a Political Science class a couple semesters ago. It got a lot of reaction - on both sides of the argument and I was curious how it would translate to a multi-modal format. 

The largest challenge for me on this didn't show itself until the last minute. Literally last night when I attempted to do the final upload on the video I had crafted over the previous weeks. It just froze. Dead. Wouldn't do a thing. Stuck in digital limbo.
I restarted the program, convinced I was going to lose everything. Didn't, had a moment of hope, then it froze again at the exact same point of execution. Owing to previously stated lack of tech savvy, I decided at this point - 2am - that it was time to change the plan and I threw everything into a Prezi. Gone are my music and voice-over, which I was pretty stoked about, but I can live without them. Because of the lack of voice-over I had to rely on more text because there's a lot of info and its not as slick or 'professional' looking as I would have liked.

The topic I chose is rather a grisly one and certainly one that people will feel strongly about. I feel very strongly about it which is obviously why I chose it! 
Hopefully the intent and point of the presentation is still vivid and accessible even if my avenue of presentation isn't what I'd initially wanted. 
Link is below, and its old school, copy & paste and such!

http://prezi.com/z-j7cmtkcfoz/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Banksy

When I first heard of Banksy I initially thought he was a bit of a twat.
I was living in England from 2004 - 05 and recall the hoopla over the 10 pound note stunt and other Banksyisms from that era. Then when I heard about how much Banksy works were selling for on these secondary markets, I thought it was completely ridiculous.
Then I heard what Banksy him/herself (we don't know for sure what Banksy is) said about these sales - To coincide with the second day of auctions, Banksy updated his website with a new image of an auction house scene showing people bidding on a picture that said, "I Can't Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit."
I nearly fell over laughing and immediately changed my mind about Banksy.
I had been assuming that this Banksy character was one of those artists who was so desperate to be edgy and make statements that it was just plain annoying.
But it became clear that this was actually a rather talented person who was just out there having a laugh and making stuff that gets a rise out of people. 

Whether or not Banksy is an activist is really and truely up to Banksy. Sure, you could call what he/she does 'activism', and I think people project onto it what they want it to be.
I could be mistaken but I don't believe Banksy has ever heralded him/herself as an 'activist'. Also, it does seem that activists as a breed generally take themselves way more seriously than Banksy does.

I wouldn't say I have ever been 'compelled' by Banksy's work, but I have been extremely amused, mainly by the way other people freak out over it.
Understand something - this sort of graffiti and far more complex renderings are ALL OVER Britain. Tons of people do this. Banksy got international attention for all sorts of potential reasons - timing, chance, etc.

I think graffiti can be persuasive because of its anonymity, also there's this inherent fringe-world that people associate with graffiti, and the projection I mentioned earlier - that those who do it must really be concrete poets with grim lives and oceans of untapped talent.....well, maybe that's the case here and there, but a notion like that is sort of ridiculous, and I think just maybe, Banksy would think so too.
It seems that Banksy started out like a great deal of graffiti artists, they really just wanted to stick it to the 'man' and have a laugh, and somehow ended up having something to say along the way.

Emoji's and Stuff

 Firstly - there are people that literally study emoji's?? Wow. That...doesn't immediately strike me as a terrifically vital or necessary field of study.
Maybe it's just my perception but I think there may be more important areas of study to invest time and money, like I don't know, how to efficiently and cheaply desalinate sea water for the impending water shortage that's looming over future generations? Just a thought.
Who knows, perhaps emoji study is actually very important. We'll chalk that up to worldview I suppose.

When I look at the use of non-text item in my mobile communications it really varies depending on the person. Some use tons of emojis, some use very few or none. I see a direct parallel between that and how people gesture and demonstrate in real life.

"Paralinguistic features are those features that function outside a language system, such as non-verbal cues like gestures or facial expressions, or the modification of a verbal representation of a word or message like shouting or inflection (pg, 114)."

This is how I see the use of emoji''s and paralinguistic features - it is just a crafted image that replaces or fills in for actual physical expression that people use in every day communication with other people. Think about it, we communicate and relay and express all the time using no words at all, but just our faces. I know my friends and I can have an entire conversation in facial expression only. And I'm not sure this requires explanation - we ALL do this, it is a human trait.

Visual imagery is powerful, there is no arguing this. The levels and impact of that power vary, and can be manipulated to differing strength by the author. 

 Kelsey Weyerbacher's video essay on the topic of assault is powerful for several reasons - 

• The photograph - monochromatic, simple with dark paint marring the skin on the individuals, representing the assault and the mark it left. 
• The music - Kelsey chose a song ( I believe by Mumford & Sons) that was both melancholy and triumphant. That, coupled with the images send the message that despite the wrong that has been done, these people will go on, they will rise above. 
• The use of stark facts and data about assault rather than opinion or conjecture - this was a very concise, to the point make people aware of the gravity of what is happening. It is direct and difficult to ignore.

All these factors, combined with the authors obvious understanding of the topic, make for a highly effective and moving video essay. 

I really struggled getting involved in this article/blog combo.
I think I've pin pointed why. I'm so blasted tired of social media. I use facebook and instagram every day for my business and the last thing I care to do is examine and pick it apart social media on a rhetorical level.
I don't want to look at it, think about it or even know it exists.
For this reason I chose the article that is about the social media I use the least - Pinterest. I really don't know much about it, I made one a while back but I pretty much just look up supercars when I'm briefly on there. I'm into cars. Slightly. Maybe bordering on obsession. No biggie.

Firstly, Katherine DeLuca is the author of this webtext and she designed it to apparently mimic Pinterest itself. You click on one frame and it takes you to another, which takes you to another and so on until you aren't sure where you are, or how you got there, and why are you looking at how to make paper elephants??  (This literally just happened to me while visiting the real Pinterest)

One main difference is that Pinterest is highly image heavy - yes there is text - especially if you actually follow a link on an image you have selected, which takes you away from Pinterest. DeLuca's webtext is highly text heavy and I found myself feeling fractured as I followed the different 'links' and reading the text. It didn't feel cohesive to me. Once I was down one particular rabbit hole, I sat there for a while trying to figure out how to get back to the main page/point. Constantly clicking back and forth was a tad distracting. Though perhaps I'm just whinging because of my current social-media disgust right now...

One positive thing about this style is that if you're looking for specific information, i.e., who uses Pinterest, there is a sub category for that you can go directing to.

Under the section 'Politics and Pinterest', DeLuca examines the debate about the place for politics on Pinterest and the rhetorical discussions that arise from political stances/opinions being aired. There seem to be two camps - those that want politics on Pinterest and those that just want recipes and fashion. I must say, if I wanted news or politics I most certainly wouldn't visit Pinterest to get them. 

I wish I had more profound things to observe about this but I have a 6 page Business Motivation Analysis due today that is monopolizing all my brain, which currently feels like a Pinterest board, crowded and going in fifty different directions.

EDIT: Yep, totally missed the 'abstracts' prompt.....woops! We'll chalk that up to having 22 credits and reduced brain power! 

 http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/19.3/topoi/deluca/index.html

371 Multi-modal Project – NOTES

• ·         Paper to be revised – One I wrote for political science several semesters ago. Horse Slaughter – Why the ban of horse slaughter plants in the US is actually creating a larger animal rights issue. Fact – data – opinion – everything is already present in the paper- it just needs to be shifted to multi-modal. Getting a delayed start on it since the actual paper isn’t in my possession yet, but it won’t take long once I get going. I have portions of the paper in a digital form so I’m working from those for now.

• ·         Take original text and turn that into voice-over that will coincide with images and video highlighting what is discussed in the text.

• ·         Actual text overlaid on some images

• ·         Utilize an online movie maker of some kind, not yet chosen

• ·         Powerful and visceral topic, be careful about not choosing footage that is TOO graphic or upsetting, but enough to make the point.

So I had a perfect paper all picked out for our mulitmodal revision project.
It is a piece I wrote for a Political Science course a couple semesters ago, on the topic of horse slaughter...I know, it sounds iffy, but withhold judgement til further reading!

Ran into a slight roadblock though....I don't actually have the paper. I professor from last semester has the only hard copy I possessed. And currently, said professor cannot find it.
Which blows. Like, a lot.
When my previous computer took an enormous crap last semester I lost several files - the digital copy of this paper among them.
However, I'm not giving up hope. The paper is being searched for as I type and will hopefully be in my possession within time to complete this assignment to instructor satisfaction.
All the above also means I don't have much to show for assignment show and tell day. So that's a bummer man.
BUT! If I do get to use this paper I'm going to rework it utilizing lots of video clips and perhaps even voice-overs along with text. 

I love twitter.
I don't actually have a twitter or subscribe to it, but as a concept I think its brilliant/hilarious.
As far as it relates to this article by Zappen, its a wonderful example of constraints. These affordances and constraints set upon twitter users is what makes it so fantastic. Granted, there's some real crap on Twitter, but there's some gems as well.

You have a word count, a literal constraint on what you have to say. It is like a condensed, super charged version of of quotes and speeches. It must be direct, sharp, to the point and within word count. This makes the writer really think about word choice, meaning and delivery.
One of my favorite twitter writers, called The Captain, is a brutally honest, insanely witty person who chucks these sentence bombs out into cyberspace with the ferocity of a mother moose chasing a hiker.
There's not an excess word and everything is where it should be. You read his quotes and you innately want to agree/believe them because his rhetorical delivery is so strong and so fitted to the medium it is placed in.
I think constraints can actually cause a writer to flourish.
And in honor of twitter, I'm keeping this post short and to the point. There shall be no rattling on here. 

A Visual Rhetorical Analysis of the University of Maryland’s Website (Duo blog)

Upon arrival to the University of Maryland’s (UMD) website, the viewer is immediately immersed into a home page filled with red, white, black, and gold (the colors of the Maryland flag, which is very iconic to residents) text outlines. Within these backdrops lies ‘blocky’ text that is somewhat unattractive and outdated; selecting a font that is easier on the eyes might be something to consider for designers of this web page in the future. The current font is relatively tiny and sort of blah. One of the main focuses of University of Maryland is research. Perhaps they should put some people onto researching the best visual rhetorical methods for making a website memorable. The quality of the website does not directly reflect the quality of the institution, but unfortunately in our fast paced, short attention span, visually charged world, the first glance can determine interest.    

Also, it is difficult to tell if the bright red header on the homepage is extremely tough to look at or just the result of our tired student eyes - either way, it is not very pleasant.

When the viewer clicks on one of the options provided by the drop down menus at the top of the page, for example, selecting ‘Academics’ then choosing ‘colleges and schools’, the viewer is transported to another, very bland page with stark red and white design and more tiny font. This layout does not entice the viewer/student to think, man I want to go here!

Unless the viewer is already a student, it is safe to assume that one of the primary goals of this website is to attract prospective students and their parents. For this reason, it comes as no surprise that there is a sizeable part of the home page that is solely dedicated to relaying news about UMD’s recent academic and athletic achievements and accolades. Titled ‘In the News’, this section provides links to articles such as “UMD Honored for Campus Sustainability Efforts by Sierra Magazine & Princeton Review” and “UMD Named a Top 20 Public University by U.S. News & World Report”. Although not a visually appealing part of the home page by any stretch of the imagination, the actual content provided is germane to the one of the main goals of the website itself - to attract interest in UMD from new students and their parents.

When one visits a website like the one for MSU, their main page is very image heavy. Utilizing visual rhetoric and using less text, the website draws the viewer in with pictures of campus, students doing studious things, and the gorgeous land around Bozeman. University of Maryland’s reliance on text and outdated fonts creates a feeling of being overwhelmed for the viewer. All the information displayed is both pertinent and practical, but the delivery needs to be modified significantly in order to portray the University of Maryland as a sophisticated, modern, academic institution.

Delivery

I found Porter's article on delivery to really interesting.  Delivery isn't something I think about very often but its something that is constantly influencing us.

Think about your favorite Ted Talk (if you're into that sort of thing) or the one that stands out in your mind the most. For me its the one given by Sir Ken Robinson called Do Schools Kill Creativity? Robinson is a genius in delivery - his cadence of speech, the pauses, the humor, the way he engages the audience and builds the speech. Given by another person who didn't utilize these tactics, the talk would undoubtedly have been a bit on the boring side and not so memorable. This is simply a small example of the power of delivery. Lackluster delivery can make an interesting speech fall short of impacting an audience, and on the flip side, a not so excellent speech can be bolstered by sharp, creative or entertaining delivery.

The idea of delivery in a digital realm changes things.  Porters article mentions how, "delivery seemed less relevant, or irrelevant to written compositions than the other canons" (Porter, 1).
But in our day and age, where the mediums are so melded with gaming and the internet and digital media, it seems to me that delivery plays a large and vital role. Whereas the delivery was once only in the realm of the orator, its now in the hands of designers, filmmakers, digital artists and so on.  

Rhetoric of Gaming

I chose to read The Rhetoric of Video Games for my other reading.

Allow me to preface this blog post by saying I know zilch about video games. Nada, nothing.
Sure, I've played a few rounds on a friend's playstation or x box and was decently good at it because of good hand-eye coordination. But beyond that I don't have a clue about the world that surrounds games and gamers, and I'm not going to pretend that I do.

So, with that in mind it feels a bit iffy for me to even talk about the rhetoric of video games. This is why I chose Bogost's article because I was hoping it would shed some light on the whole topic. Bogost discusses the idea that video games are a type of media that is a representation of certain cultural values or 'rhetoric', either either in a serious manner, or a satirical one and so on. My favorite quote from the piece is the following on pg 3 (or 119) - 

"When understood in this way, we can learn to read games as deliberate expressions of particular perspectives."

This is a really nice, succinct way for a 'non gamer' to begin looking at the rhetoric of games.
I think most people I know who play video games do so because, they're entertaining for certain personality type. Surely there are more deep reasons but I'm not going to guess what they may be. It also seems to me that there are people who play video games often or now and then, and then there are gamers. Sort of like someone who writes assignments for a class and does well, and someone who calls themselves a writer. I can assume that the rhetoric for the latter two is far more intense or in-depth than the former two. I would like to know how people who are in that rhetorical world of gaming, really think/feel about it. 

Intro vid - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu_QgXDTZxg 
Hopefully it works!