Remediation

What is remediation? What does it contribute -- if anything -- to your view of writing? Of writing technologies?

Journal 12: February 24, 2015 Sasha Polissky

Class discussion of Read Write Culture and Remix-

·      RO (Read Only)- Devices that distribute content so you passively consume what the audience is putting out there.

·      RW (Read Write)- Assemblage occurs, takes a borrowed work and makes it new. Remix culture is not designed to compete with profit culture like remixing The Beatles. Instead, it is remixed for the love of the music. Favors amateur (not for profit) and democracy.

·      Ex. People creating an anime music video spend 50-400 hours taking anime cartoons and putting them into the song for the love of anime itself.

·      Remix happens within communities of practice and making and participating in the culture (democracy).

In class example: A not for profit text done out of the love for Pokémon and Miley Cyrus.

     ·      A blog is a technology that creates read write culture.

Three levels of a blog:

1.     Link to the blog

2.     Tags

3.     Content

·      Now that we live in a read write culture, it is up to the content makers to do all the jobs producers used to do in a read only culture such as titling, describing, tagging, and categorizing YouTube videos.

·      Why is this idea of Remix valuable? What does it add to our current understanding?

-       The freedom of Remix is valuable.  It gives life and more avenues for participation that opens up to a new audience that wasn’t originally familiar with the work.

John Phillip Sousa-

·      Sousa was an American composer back when you had to have someone play music for you if you wanted it copied. He believed culture would develop into read only. However, when Sousa was confronted with recorders and piano strips he attempted to make a law to regulate the copies and see a profit from this.

·      Even though he was trying to protect RW culture through copyright laws, he did the opposite by making it really difficult to participate in RW culture.

·      The price of borrowing a text is a citation. Now it is legal to quote written text but illegal to quote a song in a video.

Kirby Ferguson: Everything is a Remix-

Part 2: https://vimeo.com/19447662

·      Hollywood transforms old into new. Genre movies stick to templates and break up into subgenre films. To Ferguson, everything is considered a remix. He uses Star Wars as an example, since it is known as being original but it’s components come from Joseph Campbell and outlines The Monomyth, along with Flash Gordon, Hidden Fortress, and many other movies. George Lucas collected, combined and transformed materials. To him creation requires influence.

Part 3: https://vimeo.com/25380454

·      Creativity happens by applying ordinary schools of thought to existing materials. Copying is how we learn; we can’t introduce anything new until we are fluent in the language of our domain. We need copying to build a foundation of knowledge and understanding. It is possible to create something new through transformations (taking something and creating variations).  For example, Thomas Edison didn’t create the light bulb but he created the first commercially liable light bulb. By connecting ideas, creative leaps can be made such as when the Star and the Alto served as a foundation for Macintosh.

Class comments-

·      The most important activities for an inventor, writer, and designer is to locate and arrange things that are used through copying, transforming, and collecting. Not everything is a remix, however most things are built off of each other.  For example, designers still have their original design but recreate colors and patterns from existing material. Also, every musical note has been used and recorded so there are no more original sounds but when you remix them it makes it transforms into original content. The original goal simply develops when the design is enhanced.

Lawrence Lessig Page 73-

·      When asked why the remixer simply doesn’t make their own content Lessig responded, "Their meaning comes not from the content of what they say; it comes from the reference, which is expressible only if it is the original that gets used."

Reminder: Rough drafts due on Thursday and main project due on March 3^rd !

Journal 11: February 19, 2015 Emily Jones

Assemblage Reading

• (p4) “In other words… conceal their sources“
• Dissonance between culture and classroom – in practice (architecture, web design, etc) borrow is normal, not bad
• Old: original > borrowed (378)
• New – assemblage: original is as valuable as the borrowed
• Shift from performance to action (400)
• Ex: a meme has borrowed image, borrowed theme, possibly a borrowed quote
• Effect in context (RS)
• Writing happens in a social environment, not a void
• Assemblage is common practice outside the classroom
• Ex: sending an email throughout a company to recirculate the company vision

Shia LeBeouf

• Accused over and over of plagiarizing, responded over and over in plagiarized tweets ( link )
• Example of the ways words can fit different contexts
• By not attributing ownership he created an assemblage, but it flopped in the context because as a creative artist he is expected to produce original content
• The value of a text lies in what it does (its effect)

Remix Culture

• Where there is action in context, assemblage is more likely to happen
• The work of a writer in remix culture is about selecting and arranging
• We listened to Strange Fruit by Nina Simone about lynching and burning black men in the 1930s, same words in Blood on the Leaves by Kanye West about how he didn’t think he was being treated fairly when he wanted to launch a clothing line
• Not an absence of original material, as West still writes own lyrics – this is remix culture, postmodern
• Is this more acceptable in this genre of music?
• Does it take away from the ‘lone genius’?
• Does it make a difference in audience perception if you know the original artist’s piece beforehand?
• (382) Assemblage doesn’t replace old practices, it validates remix (as a form of writing, etc)
• Soundtracks, found picture films, etc
• (387) “Comparing a text… performing in that context."
• Use of a template is an assemblage practice, ex: web design

Modernism – generally one artist creates something entirely original
Postmodern tendency – meaning changes with time, reframed works are new interpretations

Ethical issues

• There are cases and communities in which assemblage is not valued and can be punished
• Fair Use is a set of guidelines that defines when you can use certain things
• Ex:  second video of a baby crawling with a song in the background, band sued
• Four Factors of Fair Use
• The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or for nonprofit educational purposes
• The nature of the copyrighted work
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
• The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted works
• George Lucas vs fanfiction

Creative Commons

• To ‘save the world from failed sharing’
• Gives you a set of licenses to choose between, regarding availability
• Gives tools to creators to make choices about copyright
• Creativity and connection, access and control
• Move from content to community
• Ex: Fair Use Disney mashup met each of the four factors to avoid copyright infringement and qualify for Fair Use

R/W Culture and Remix

1. What's R/W culture? 
2. What's remix? 
3. What's the role between the two? Has remix help to re-democratize writing? Or has R/W culture validated remix practice?

Journal 10: February 17, 2015 Lane Giddings

Digital Studio Facts/ Tips

• ·      No appointment needed
• ·      Have most adobe programs
• ·      Employees will assist you, if asked

Class Website: http://goo.gl/Lq9dkk

•      “How do you make your text stand out?”

·      Text Heavy

o   The photos help create a theme and the text complements the photo through its location – the text doesn’t cover the important part of the photo. The text is consistent with the public service announcement genre in the fact that it informs and the text leads the audience to take action.

·      Picture Heavy

o   None have text is covering the face so there is priority on the face of the picture, which allows expressions to be more readable, thus drawing people in.

o   Pictures draw attention and evoke emotion

·      Visual Heavy

o   The text helps explain the cause and effect of the visual and the visual emphasizes the point of the text.

·      Colors

o   Text is frequently in black, white, blue, and red. Black and white draws a lot of attention

·      Other things to consider in PSA

o   Medium

o   Location of PSA

o   Audiences

o   Emotion it evokes

·      Genre sets

o   Radio

o   Fliers

o   Billboards

o   TV commercials

o   Online ads

o   Social media

Photoshop

·      Search tools can search for size, color, transparents (no background), usage rights

·      Remove background

o   Lasso click and drag around area needed to cut out remainder

o   Quick selection finds edges for you

o   Layer mask recommended to cover background

Originality & Assemblage

What is assemblage? What -- if anything -- does assemblage add to your view of writing? Is assemblage a necessary condition of writing in the 21st century?

Journal 9: February 12, 2015 Daniella Deloatch

-Different genres can emerge from a text depending on the way it is read and interpreted

                - example: The Declaration of Independence can be seen as a list of grievances, simply a declaration or one of many other genres, depending on how it is read.

- Genre sets do not have not have to be well established but can work well as long as justifiable. The combination of genres can be unconventional yet still appropriate for certain goals.

- The separate genres within a set (especially for the first major project) must be working toward the same goal.

                - The purposes of each text and genre used can be different while still keeping the same goal.

                -example: Using different genres to spread awareness about animal rights. Different letters are sent depending on the audience that is being reached. An animal rights letter that is being sent to someone in PETA will be different than one sent to someone who goes hunting.

                                -The goal is the same but the purpose is different.

                                -Purpose can change based on: 1. Location/context

                                                2. Author

                                                3. Audience

- What= content, goal

                -This is what message the text is attempting to convey.

-How= Genre

                -The way the text is attempting to convey this message.

Example from the textbook: A prezi and book can have the same content or goal but use different genres (multigenre approach).

-Genre can dictate content by how much information and what information can be presented.

-example: Philip Seymour Hoffman’s obituary vs. eight page Rolling Stones tribute. Obituaries are usually shorter (space constraints) and more visually based while the Rolling Stones tribute has space for a lengthy text.

-Genre also determines: 

                - what images we can and can’t use

                - what word choice is appropriate

                -  what sentence structure is appropriate

                - the voice of the text

-Group Activity:  Discussing our blog posts and how we could effectively change the genre of our posts to meet the same social goal. 

Journal 8 : 2/12/15 by Joseph Fuqua

Genre Sets and Genre Systems

-          Genres

1. Typified Response to writing [interactive]

2. Can be social actions; written to achieve social action

            - Genre helps complete goals in my life

- All texts have conventions  - genre theory

- Kerry Dirk: “Because genres usually come with established conventions, it is risky to choose not to follow such conventions.” (258 – 259)

       -     Genre Sets and Genre Systems

  -     Genre Systems – set of genres interacting to achieve an overarching function within an activity system

- includes genres from multiple genres over time and can involve the interaction of users with different levels of expertise and authority who may not all have equal knowledge of or access to all the genres within the system (88)

  -    Genre sets –  more loosely defined sets of genre, associated through the activities and functions of a collective but only defining a limited range of actions

- Collection of genres with more than one genre operating at a time

- Meeting same purpose or goal for the same audience

            - Examples

- Graduate School: Statement of purpose, test scores, letters of recommendation

- Hospital setting – Hospital social worker genre set:  Referral forms, initial assessments, patient documents, ongoing assessments, progress reports and closing reports

- Classroom setting -  Teacher genre set: Class notes, reading notes, essays and emails

- #blacklivesmatter  web page: Sense of who these people are, set of demands, photos, each blog containing a different genre

            * When might genre sets be useful? *

                        - Dividing labor between tasks and functions – need content, cover, etc.

- Distributing meaning across locations – advertising on billboards (not getting a target audience)

- Credibility – evidence and demonstrating skill

- Letter to the editor – constraints, lots of hyperbole

- Fliers and pamphlets

  -     Genre Repertoire – genres you know

                        Examples: Fiction, Non- Fiction, Descriptive, Narrative

-          Context of Genres – “set of all existing genres in a society or culture” (87) ; also defined as all genres in a culture

Examples include:

§  Facebook posts

§  Letters/email

§  Debate/speech

§  Text Messaging

-          Paratext – materials surrounding the main content of a major work which can include material supplied by the editors, publishers or other people who are not the author of the work

-Paratext is the threshold between content and the reader

- Also includes cover and cover art, title, front matter and back matter and formatting

                                    -Examples: Amazon reviews, books a million “best books” table

- Moby Dick cover art – Modern vs. 1851 cover, great illustrated classics, 1950 Hungarian version

Genre & Content

Arola, Sheppard, and Ball point out that genre can shape how authors make their point. In other words, genre shapes content. Locate one print text that tries to bring about some change and briefly discuss how the genre conventions of that print text has shaped the text's content.

Journal 7: February 5, 2015 by Whitney Morris

Navigating Genres by: Kerry Dirk

Can art function rhetorically?

-It can, however art can also be demonstrated without rhetorical value.

-Ex. Animal Farm by: George Orwell

·      Fiction- an art form

·      Communism- the exigence

·      Identification of the exigence qualifies Animal Farm as a rhetorical construct.

Composition

            -Before we looked into the rhetorical situation, we were concerned with formatting: where items are effectively located to convey to your audience what they should expect upon viewing your material.

Recurring Rhetorical Situations

            -Dirk included a quote from Bitzer in Navigating Genres that explained how rhetorical situations reoccur once an initial exigence and audience, along with respective constraints is addressed. Dirk used the example of presidential speeches, such as the State of the Union Address to demonstrate this idea.

Handout: Genre in Rhetorical and Sociological Traditions

-Because of the rhetorical situation, everyone has the ability to participate in public. There are no restrictions regarding who you are. There are plenty of outlets available to address an exigence and receive a response. Everyone has the ability to read, write and publish. Anyone can affect positive change.

-“Typified” Explained:

·      Ex. Email- has a greeting/salutation, a body of text, signature, etc.

·      Genres with typical formats

-Genres create expectations in readers

·      Genre gives us a tool for creating messages based on the expectations people have about the selected genre.

·      Ex. To write your first memo you would read over memos that others have already created in your community or find examples on the Internet to see what memos look like and what they consist of. You are looking to define the memo genre.

Discussion of Literary and Rhetorical Genres based off Navigating Genres:

Literary Genres

-Ex: Fiction, Non Fiction; subgenres:   Romance, Science Fiction, etc.

-Primarily used for entertainment

-Although, books are used for entertainment but can also be persuasive

-Length of text is taken into consideration more so than rhetorical genres, but is not always an indicator of the genre.

·      Ex. Poems are short, novels are around/at least 200 pages.

·      We are taught not to use first person, to consider tone, and be cautious about the length when composing in the literary genre

-Relationship to the audience: “Writing To”

-Must be an original message, no plagiarism

-“Passive”

-“Personal”

-“Timeless”

-Bitzer says literary texts can be rhetorical but not all literary texts are rhetorical

Rhetorical Genres

-Deals with persuasion (Bitzer)

-Primarily a call to action

-Social Action: texts aren’t persuasive they are a response.

·      By achieving social action, one is addressing an exigence and producing a fitting message.

-Easier to break conventions because your focus it to address and exigence and receive a response which has endless genres to conform to.

-Relationship to the audience: “Writing For”

-copying former messages (plagiarizing) is not an issue.

·      Ex. #likeagirl and “Keep Austin Weird” were reused over and over in different capacities in order to spread awareness.

-“Active”

-“Social”

-“Timely”

The remainder of the class consisted primarily of discussion/confusion regarding what is considered rhetorical:

-One student believed everything literary has some rhetorical material

·      Ex. Sketch Comedy Show – meant to entertain but addresses controversial matters

-There are more materials than we are aware of that contain rhetorical function

·      Ex. “Bad Romance”- Lady Gaga, the music video confused viewers with its avant garde nature but was intended to bring attention to human trafficking. On the surface it is merely artistic and entertaining.

·      Ex. “Bible” and “The Declaration of Independence” – both considered rhetorical materials but today are treated like art, placed in museums, bible verses framed and hung in households, etc.

-Dickens addressed the struggles of the Industrial Revolution, which we cannot relate to, therefore his works function less rhetorically overtime despite coinciding themes with today’s issues.

-Can Harry Potter be rhetorical?

·      It brought up issues of faith (Christianity) and the definition of family; a coming of age story, censorship

·      How explicit is the exigence? The class felt that the characters clearly went through these difficulties throughout the books.

·      If Harry Potter was brought into current conversation, then it can be considered rhetorical.

-       Switched At Birth vaguely addressed rape in recent episodes. An article was published explaining the show’s representation of rape. Both the show and the article are considered rhetorical.

-     The message can fail and still be considered rhetorical

Dirk: genre used to be a form that you would fill out (p.252)

-       Cited Bitzer’s requirement for a first response

-Static Genres aren’t entertaining

-Rhetorical Genres are social because they call for action

-Literary Genres are personal because they convey desire; make others feel

 -Ex. Slam Poetry (Anger) – but usually address an exigence so it is considered rhetorical as well.

-Intention does not change because the message failed

-Can an exigence accidentally be addressed?

-       Ex. Hitting foot on the door and yelling an expletive, having class react to it. Initially thought to be rhetorical. (?)

-Vats thought rhetorical situation is much more ambiguous than Bitzer lead on

-It is difficult to isolate a single rhetorical situation

“Genres help us make decisions when writing.”-Dirk p. 259