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.