Perhaps Ulmer has a more elegant puncept for this, but basically I'm thinking here about the analog of illiteracy within electracy. I.e.: literacy -----> electracyilliteracy -----> illectracy? For the first 25 years or so that we have discussed electracy, I don't think there was a pressing need to imagine the operation of illectracy. For one... Continue Reading →
non-metaphorical wayfinding and writing studies
Jonathan Alexander, Karen Lunsford and Carl Whithaus have a new article in Written Communication, "Toward Wayfinding: a Metaphor for Understanding Writing Experiences." I think it's a great article, and I'm planning to share it with my WAC colleagues. It provides a useful overview of important ideas in the field and adds wayfinding to that list.... Continue Reading →
anti-anti-utopian rhetoric
Kim Stanley Robinson as this great essay, "Dystopias Now," which covers a lot of ground, but one of the central topics is his discussion of anti-anti-utopianism. Basically, you have to imagine a Greimas (or semiotic) square. I'll just borrow the diagram from KSR. As KSR explains it, dystopias are the "not-concept" of utopias, where things... Continue Reading →
distributed vs. centralized incompetence
Here's the basic thing. Humans are in/competent. I mean: it's all relative, right? As I (cynically) tell my students, in terms of being "digitally literate:" you don't have to outrun the bear; you just have to outrun your friends. Let me be more specific. At my uni (and I imagine most others), the IT folks... Continue Reading →
media theory and the Video Assistant Referee (VAR)
For the American sports fan, the instant replay is a familiar feature of our viewing experience. The use of replays in the NFL actually goes back to 1986 and has been steadily employed for 20 years. I think it's about the same for the NBA and even MLB has used it for a decade to... Continue Reading →
pharmakon poisoning in the electrate collective experiment
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436105 Without going into too much depth about it, I write ~30K words in May and June. It wasn't fun. No one told you writing was fun, right? I mean, generally speaking we don't get paid for doing things that are fun. Or as Julius Erving once said ‘Being a professional is doing the things... Continue Reading →
English Studies in the post-digital world
Though there are some ongoing conversations about the notion of a post-digital world (including Justin Hodgson's Post Digital Rhetoric and the New Aesthetic and Mike Flatt's discussion of post-digital poetics), I'm starting here with the mildly disturbing corporate speak of Accenture on how to be competitive in the post-digital world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=173&v=dpaw_ZAHZ-Q Accenture identifies five elements... Continue Reading →
hell is other people (on screens)
There's a NY Times article by Nellie Bowles doing the rounds with the titular observation that "Human Contact is Now a Luxury Good." It focuses on both old and young: the senior citizen with a virtual pet companion; the kids taught by apps on tablets and laptops. And it notes that the wealthy eschew screens... Continue Reading →
Becoming b-roll #4C19
Here's the text and videos used in my presentation in case you weren't inclined to drag yourself over here at 8am. Rhetoric and composition has been talking about video for decades—as a teaching tool, an object of study, and a medium of scholarly and student composing. More than 15 years ago, Dan Anderson was discussing... Continue Reading →
