Afternoon, all. Good to see you today.

During today’s class, aside from reviewing Major Paper 1 and MLA, we considered how we might think of composition in terms of developing a set of tools for knowledge-making, rather than as information in and of itself, isolated and only applicable to analyzing For Whom the Bells Tolls and the like. To that end, we:

• Developed slogans for 2008 presidential candidates.
• Used approaches relevant to the first major paper to argue for why the slogans matter.
• Unpacked the target audiences for those slogans.
• Attended to how those audiences intersect with particular social issues.

And as Ryan noted, these slogans are not written on a whim. They are rhetorically strategic, politically purposeful, and usually — as with yours — quite clever. That said, we might have some tools in our belts to work through not just why we vote or even how we vote, but also how we — as subjects — come to the decision on how to vote.

On to a different form of representation… Your sound-scripts.

Before Wednesday at 9 p.m.:

• Please upload your sound file to the course drop box or e-mail it to me at english3000@gmail.com
• If you are using YouTube, then please include the URL for your clip as a comment in the drop box or in your e-mail to me. Thanks!
• I’ll upload your sound-scripts to the blog on Wednesday evening.

For Thursday’s class:

• Please come prepared to class, on time, ready to introduce and implicate your sound-script. You should also come ready to ask questions of the sound-scripts.
• We will show your visual (on mute) and play your sound-script over it.
• If you are using a DVD, then please put a sticky note (or the like) on it that denotes which chapter of the film you’ll be playing. Ok?

As you prepare your sound-scripts, let me know what questions you have.

All the best,

Jentery

Before I begin, My Drum Buddy is just plain awesome:

That said, shown, and heard, I enjoyed meeting with you last week. The major paper and sound-script ideas are looking stellar, and I’m looking and hearing forward.

And, per last Thursday’s class, our mock paper on Roger & Me is on the blog. Use it for your major papers!

Now, here’s what’s in store this week:

Tuesday’s class:

• Nothing is “due”
• Workshop: “The Presidential Primaries: Mobilizing 121 Tools Elsewhere”
• Review of MLA
• Prepping Your Sound-Scripts for Thursday
• Last minute questions/concerns about your Major Paper 1

Thursday’s class:

• Your sound-scripts are due for in-class presentation

Looking ahead:

• Tuesday, February 19th: Major Paper 1 is due
• Thursday, February 21st: Podcast 2 is due
• Tuesday, February 26th: Podcast 3 is due

Let me know what questions you have!

Best,

Jentery

Soundscript

My newly proposed soundscript for the “Stranger Than Fiction” clip will feature the watch as the narrator.  From the opening scene where the watch is sitting on the nightstand, the watch will introduce itself to the audience.  As Crick, the main character, begins to go about his daily business, the watch will be heard (only by the audience) commanding Crick to do things in an orderly way.  In the instance of Crick brushing his teeth and tying his tie, his wristwatch’s voice will be heard commanding his actions.

Research Question

How does our dependency on discipline affect our society?  To what extend are we controlled by orders and the demands of others?  How does the role of power factor into the workplace and the development of “super-scheduling devices”?

My Claim

Our dependency on discipline has led to new developments that take advantage of this dependency.  New watches and cell phones are emerging in the marketplace; these new devices are geared towards commanding us to perform actions, albeit preprogrammed by the user.  Such devices are designed to verbally announce the user’s upcoming schedule, important reminders, and other notifications.  While this may seem an innocent development, it is a very real possibility that this technology will someday enslave us: our tasks preprogrammed and assigned to us, and our lives carefully structured to increase efficiency.

Stakes

The stakes pertain to all societies as technology continues to develop and current trends of the workplace (power ladders, subjugation, etc) continue.  To what extent are we really dependent on such disciplines?  These are important to us because we would all like to think that we have control over our own lives and the way we do things.  The claim should be a step towards investigating this issue.

New Versus Old: The Soundscript

With the narrator now being the wristwatch, how will the connotations from Stranger Than Fiction be different than when the narrator was an author writing a book?  With the new narrator we will see the transformation of a previously implied dependency on the wristwatch to an immediately literal example of dependency on the device.

Support

I’d like to include articles and quotes from site such as Gizmodo.com, where information on upcoming and futuristic new designs for ipods, cell phones, and watches are emerging, such as the type of technology that would be necessary to (eventually) turn the ‘talking wristwatch’ idea into a reality.

Questions

I think I’ve settled on a better soudscript than I’d originally planned, but it’s been somewhat slow-going, trying to further develop the idea.  I wonder if I’ll be able to incorporate movies such as Office Space and Falling Down in the whole scheme of dependency on discipline, and the development of anxiety in the workplace as a sort of relationship between dependency on orders and the stress associated with low-lever worker roles.

Today Jentery exclaimed, “You’re all claim and no support!” Sounds like my last breakup.

Here it is! Enjoy! Go, the future!

Mock Paper (.docx)

UPDATE:

Indeed, how we make knowledge is the first question. For you sans Word 2007, below is the mock paper in two other formats:

Mock Paper (.doc)

Mock Paper (.rtf)

How can information be free when it’s formatted?