Rhetorical Analysis of Multimodal Texts:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/182606959861376899/
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/219164/the-best-parmesan-chicken-bake/?internalSource=popular&referringContentType=home%20page
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVa7TAxS1Hw
Researching Your Project Idea:
Aasa, Maja, et al. Editing Havana: Stories of Popular Housing. Copenhagen: Aristo Publishing, 2011. Print.
Aponte-García, Maribel. "Foreign Investment and Trade in Cuban Development: A 50-Year Reassessment with Emphasis on the Post-1990 Period. Bulletin of Latin American Research 28.4 (Oct. 2009): 480-496. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Carpenter, Craig C. "Copyright Infringement and the Second Generation of Social Media: Why Pinterest Users Should be Protected from Copyright Infringement by the Fair Use Defense." Journal of Internet Law 16.7 (Jan. 2013): 1-21. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Con Nuestros Propios Esfuerzos: Algunas Experiencias Para Enfrentar el Periodo Especial en Tiempo de Paz (With Our Own Efforts: Some Experiences to Face the Special Period in Time of Peace)
Cunha, Miguel Pina, and Rita Campos Cunha. "The Role of Mediatory Myths in Sustaining Ideology: The Case of Cuba after the 'Special Period.'" Culture & Organization 14.3 (Sept. 2008): 207-223. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Gold, Marina. "Peasant, Patriot, Environmentalist: Sustainable Development in Havana." Bulletin of Latin American Research 33.4 (Oct. 2014): 405-418. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Londoño, Johana. "The Latino-ness of Type: Making Design Identities Socially Significant." Social Semiotics 25.2 (April 2015): 142-150. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Oroza, Ernesto. Statement of Necessity. Miami: Alonzo Art, 2008. Print.
Piercy, Emma, et al. "Planning for Peak Oil: Learning from Cuba's 'Special Period.'" Engineering Sustainability (163.4): 169-176. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Powell, Kathy. "Neoliberalism, the Special Period and Solidarity in Cuba. Critique of Anthropology 28.2 (June 2008): 177-197. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Sevitt, David, and Alexandra Samuel. "How Pinterest Puts People in Stores." Harvard Business Review 91.7/8 (Jul./Aug. 2013): 26-27. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
I'll have to keep my comments about the ways in which the two exercises from Writer/Designer might inform the work I do for the final project short, because, as you can see, I got a bit carried away with the research process. There are a whole lot of interesting takeaways from these two assignments, particularly when you juxtapose the prospects for design against research considerations. The multimodal "texts" that I found were interesting to me in terms of the way the materials that were needed to compose another object were represented and, in many cases, taken for granted. For example, the multimodal "text" from Pinterest did not list materials; it just included photographs that provided a step-by-step guide for composing the "pop bottle idea." The "allrecipes" example was generally sensitive about the specific ingredients that were needed while the tools that were required to bring the recipe to fruition were subsumed by and in the instructions. The "Dry Wall Patch Repair" video was generally clear about the tools that were needed, but I found it interesting that it didn't linger on these details in the beginning stages of the video; rather, the gentleman who provided instructions simply launched into how to approach the matter of dry wall patch repair. (It's also important to note that the video was sponsored by Craftsman, a company that obviously manufactures the specific tools that were being used in the video.) These examples are in stark contrast to the DIY solutions articulated in Con Nuestros Propios Esfuerzos: Algunas Experiencias Para Enfrentar el Periodo Especial en Tiempo de Paz, something I will have to keep in mind as I attempt to represent these issues through design in potent and compelling ways. More on this later.
Monday, November 2, 2015
Sunday, November 1, 2015
(Re) Contextualizing Computer Literacy: A Call for Multiliteracies and Systemic Change in Writing and Communication
In Multiliteracies for a Digital Age, Stuart Selber argues for a more robust framework by which to understand and articulate the dynamics of computer literacy. Insofar as existing computer literacy frameworks seem to offer rather narrow definitions of computer literacy as pertaining exclusively to the acquisition of technical skills, Selber attempts to answer the call of these decontextualized frameworks with more dedicated efforts to "account for local social forces and material conditions" (23). Selber's framework seeks to increase the prospects for more responsible and responsive iterations of computer literacy that explore the complex and dynamic interplay between matters of functional literacy, critical literacy, and rhetorical literacy. Ultimately, this complex and dynamic interplay begins to address the panoply of considerations that comprise theories of computer literacy by framing and juxtaposing representations of computers as tools, cultural artifacts, and hypertextual media, a move that potently and productively challenges the one-dimensional theories that have come to dominate debates and conversations about the use of computers.
Throughout Multiliteracies for a Digital Age, Selber emphasizes the ways in which instructors in writing and communication departments have neither been deferred to nor taken enough interest in expanding the scope of computer literacy in the ways he proposes with his multiliteracies framework. By arguing for more systemic changes in and around computer literacy, Selber acknowledges that advocacy must pass through a number of different layers of requirements in order to institute real change. Much like his arguments regarding the complex and dynamic interplay between matters of functional literacy, critical literacy, and rhetorical literacy, individual systemic requirements for change cannot be approached in isolation; rather, one ought to consider matters of technical, pedagogical, curricular, departmental, and institutional concerns simultaneously and in conversation with one another.
In my mind, Selber's arguments resonate with many of the other readings we have engaged with throughout the semester. By predicating his multiliteracies framework on efforts to challenge the manner in which existing iterations of computer literacy have remained decidedly decontextualized in nature, Selber rehearses many of the theories that comprise multimodality. In On Multimodality, Jonathan Alexander and Jacqueline Rhodes suggest that conceptualizations of mediated action and multimodal practices require deeper consideration into "specific sociocultural contexts" and "intricacies of location, access, ability, and ideology" in order to better understand the manner in which the mediational means employed by composers emerge and acquire meaning. Similarly, Jody Shipka's "mediated-action framework" in A Composition Made Whole pushes back against a sort of "highly decontextualized skills and drills, linear, single-mode approach to writing instruction," challenging instructors to develop approaches that "offer participants . . . a richer and more intricately textured understanding of how communicative practices are socially, historically, and technologically mediated." In many ways, multiliteracies and multimodality are linked by an impulse to see writing and communication as more than rote or formulaic attempts to express oneself, but, rather, richly-textured, dynamic, and nuanced ontological and epistemological processes, in which composers contribute to the existing wheelhouse, so to speak, of information and subjectivities.
Throughout Multiliteracies for a Digital Age, Selber emphasizes the ways in which instructors in writing and communication departments have neither been deferred to nor taken enough interest in expanding the scope of computer literacy in the ways he proposes with his multiliteracies framework. By arguing for more systemic changes in and around computer literacy, Selber acknowledges that advocacy must pass through a number of different layers of requirements in order to institute real change. Much like his arguments regarding the complex and dynamic interplay between matters of functional literacy, critical literacy, and rhetorical literacy, individual systemic requirements for change cannot be approached in isolation; rather, one ought to consider matters of technical, pedagogical, curricular, departmental, and institutional concerns simultaneously and in conversation with one another.
In my mind, Selber's arguments resonate with many of the other readings we have engaged with throughout the semester. By predicating his multiliteracies framework on efforts to challenge the manner in which existing iterations of computer literacy have remained decidedly decontextualized in nature, Selber rehearses many of the theories that comprise multimodality. In On Multimodality, Jonathan Alexander and Jacqueline Rhodes suggest that conceptualizations of mediated action and multimodal practices require deeper consideration into "specific sociocultural contexts" and "intricacies of location, access, ability, and ideology" in order to better understand the manner in which the mediational means employed by composers emerge and acquire meaning. Similarly, Jody Shipka's "mediated-action framework" in A Composition Made Whole pushes back against a sort of "highly decontextualized skills and drills, linear, single-mode approach to writing instruction," challenging instructors to develop approaches that "offer participants . . . a richer and more intricately textured understanding of how communicative practices are socially, historically, and technologically mediated." In many ways, multiliteracies and multimodality are linked by an impulse to see writing and communication as more than rote or formulaic attempts to express oneself, but, rather, richly-textured, dynamic, and nuanced ontological and epistemological processes, in which composers contribute to the existing wheelhouse, so to speak, of information and subjectivities.
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