Betsy’s Blog

FYI…

http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/talks/9103-media-control.html

FYI:

SAT, NOV 3: SISTER COMRADE, WITH ANGELA DAVIS, JEWELLE GOMEZ, CHERRIE MORAGA & MORE
7:30 pm, First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland
Join us for this special evening as we celebrate the remarkable lives and legacies of poets Audre Lorde and Pat Parker with friends and family, sisters and comrades.  The event features keynotes speaker Angela Y. Davis, as well as Avotcja, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Clare Coss, Melanie DeMore, Jewelle Gomez, Judy Grahn, Holly Near, Cherríe Moraga, Vicki Randle, Mary Watkins and Linda Tillery (artistic director). Visit http://web.mac.com/lisbetslife/Sister_Comrade/Home.html
This event is co-sponsored by Sistahs Steppin’ in Pride and Arts First Oakland; partial proceed to benefit Zami: The Audre Lorde Scholarship Fund.

http://web.mac.com/lisbetslife/Sister_Comrade/Home.html

Sin City is a visual feast! Despite my general preference for reading a book over seeing a film “translation” of said book, I’ve come to appreciate the multimodal system a film possesses and transmits. Each “frame”, as if a paragraph or description in a book, represents and communicates a multiplicity of meanings. In much the same way that a reader of a book can “get inside the heads of” characters, so to speak (through different types of narrative voices–1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person omniscient narrator, etc.) so too does this film allow the audience to enter into the minds of the characters and participate in the plot/action of the story in a way that the characters themselves are not aware of. And yet, unlike a book, there are additional modes (visual, audio, etc.) and materials utilized, as well. In this case, however, the film served as a “translation” of a specific type of multimodal source–the comic book. The use of black and white with the occasional splashes of color reminded me of the movie, Pleasantville , in which we are also seemingly suspended between reality and fantasy. This was a successful technique in staying true in a way to the form of the comic book. I was curious about how this technique was conveyed and so I looked on Wikipedia, and learned that this technique is called “digital backlot.” Basically, the film is shot in front of a green screen so that artifical backgrounds can be added later. This technique enhances the disconnect between the characters and their environment–making even blood and rain appear unreal. Perhaps New Age cinema in the sense that it takes a dated film genre, the noir, and transforms it into an contemporary rendition in with ideas that transcend time periods.

Kress Overview

Music, the visual and other modes have shifted increasingly from forms of communication to means of expression, taking them out of the realm of theory in school curricula to special activity

The landscape of semiotics is changing–language must be re-thought as multi-modal

Mode, Materiality, and Medium:

–”literate” Western societies have placed a great deal of emphasis on a combination of visual and auditory semiotics in engaging with the world

On Materiality:

–What is the material “stuff” we use to represent our semiotic world? How do societies develop that “stuff” to articulate representations? What are alternatives to the dominant visual/auditory forms of semiotics? ex. Braille

–Language represents a non-physical type of “materiality”

On Mode:

–”mode” represents the full range of representation and communication; ex. Graphology is a type of mode because not only does it use a physical surface that is marked (by etching, scratching, etc) by a physical substance, the material itself represents a representational system; thus, it has “meaning-making potential” (186)

–We are taught to think that language is a single, homogenous mode, but it is actually a “multi-modal system” (comprised of intonation, tone-of-voice, etc.)–a good example that demonstrates the multimodality of language is sign language

On Medium: (Transmission and Dissemination)

–ex. in the case of speech, the medium is the air, then the electric current, then radio waves, then back to the air

Multimodality:

1) No text exists in a single mode

2) Some texts and objects live in a mode other than language

–2 examples of multimodality–a bottle of mineral water and an 18th century Sevres china spoon-tray

Potentials and limitations of semiotic modes:

principle of effibility–a natural language can express anything that can be thought

Different cultures use different materials and may have different modes

Language is not the only fully articulate mode of communication–ex. drawing of an elephant by a six-year-old girl–connects language and visual modes–there are intervisual link, there is a mode of communication and representation within the visual mode that does not depend on the mode of language

specialiasation–one representational mode used for a pedagogic purpose, to direct, remind, organize

Grammar and Multiliteracies:

semiotics of the visual space–ex. the way in which “read” a “page”, left-right, right-left, top-bottom, etc.

semiotics of states of affairs–interaction, focal elements, classification

semiotics of social relations of viewer and image–levels between the two represent power dynamics–hyperreal vs. surreal factuality

Commentary

Modes of communication and representation are born out of available “material” and the most effective and allowable means of transmitting that “material” based on social necessity. No mode is singular. The way we receive information is inextricably linked to different modes of transmission happening simultaneously. Technology is advancing at a rapid pace, and it is becoming harder for societies to readjust to these rapid changes. It is important for us to be aware of multimodal systems in order to become effectively “literate” to keep up with the pace of change. Awareness is key. We can “know” basically how a computer works, for instance, but if are not aware of the modal nuances of this technology and the importance of contributing to a larger, “collective knowledge,” we may be left further and further behind. In reading about multimodality, I couldn’t help but think about Stephen Hawking. There has been such an emphasis in the West (according to Kress) on monomodality, that someone like Hawking represents the human potential for multimodality.

Goodman’s Teaching Youth Media (2003)

Overview

begins with an anecdote that shows the relationship between repetitive signs and childhood development, and demonstrates the signficant role of media-saturation

failure of schools to address media as a dominant language—causes disconnect between in school and out of school leading to further alienation

Urban students—a microcosm of “multiple worlds of media entertainment and consumption” (2)

Factory system of schooling—spectators, consumers, rather than social actors; passive and willing vessels for prescribed set of knowledge

Thesis: educators, caretakers, etc. need to develop a deeper understanding of the forces that work in children’s lives; they need to help youth develop “critical literacy”—“the ability to analyze, evaluate and produce print, visual and aural forms of communication” (3) not just for the sake of standardized tests and the like, but also for self-representation and autonomous citizenship (3)

“word has been turned into image” (4)—explosion of web-based media has come to supercede written/printed word

Compares change in culture of literacy to historic moment of the invention of the printing press

Audience reception of media influences varies, and while some things may seem unintended, the media maker makes conscious choices, artificial, financial, or logistical (5)*

“huge amounts of money and effort are invested in making kids literate in the language of consumerism and so apprenticing them for a lifetime of consumption” (6)*

With the rise in consumption, students need to be taught to be critical of media; one way is to have more emphasis on students creating their own media—esp since news and entertainment are interchangeable now *

Sadly, the social/cultural languages of marginalized youth are dismissed for the most part by mainstream media

Immigration, industrialization, urbanization has contributed to structural changes in education emphasizing efficiency and order

Dewey, in response to this factory schooling system, argued that school needed to become a critical, community-building force (Lancaster/Dewey debate)

Media-related trends in education coming out of the factory system:

Technology integration—each technological innovation carried with it the conviction that it would come to replace “old” media to enhance and improve educational experience; but this didn’t really happen until web-based media; this resulted in the “digital divide”

Media literacy—1960s students began to become more critical of the media; 1972—link was found between tv violence and antisocial behavior; while there was a lack of interest in media education in America in the 1980s, internationally, there were all kinds of comprehensive media education plans surfacing

Community Media Arts–thanks to government funding agencies, public participation in media production and film appreciation became institutionalized; non-profit media art centers spread; film and video became increasingly portable and inexpensive, leading to boom in 1980s video consumer market; renewed interest and support for community-based youth media; “guerilla media era”

goes through an overview of the EVC’s mission and goals

*Commentary

Referring back to last week’s post, this week’s reading further emphasized for me the role that money/consumer-driven politics influences youth education and development. I was particularly struck by the line that says that “huge amounts of money and effort are invested in making kids literate in the language of consumerism and so apprenticing them for a lifetime of consumption” (6). The shift from literacy in childhood developmental education as being that of simply learning how to read and write to a literacy that is more nuanced and complex (“critical literacy”) has not fully taken a hold of the system of education in the United States. Youth are not generally taught to be critical of current media forms, and instead are, for the most part, passive recipients of a “prescribed set of knowledge.” There is not enough emphasis on youth creating their OWN media (I’d like to look further into the development of Youth Spoken Word movements in the States, though). Youth have become consumers of entertainment–and in this age, news and entertainment have become virtually interchangeable. (I’d like to learn more about the development of Independent Media as a reaction to this trend–Indymedia? NPR? Programs like Democracy Now?) What will it take to get more youth to take over media waves?

Lister et al pp 72-92

Overview

the ultimate question: does media technology have the power to transform a culture?

Humanist frameworks in analyzing technology:

Mcluhan versus Williams-

Mcluhan–”mosaic” ways of thinking about new media; new media as bringing about radical cultural change–”the global village”; “medium as message”; “electric environment”; 1) remediation–”content of any medium is always another medium” 2) media and technologies are extensions of the human body and its senses 3) the medium is the message (75)

-4 media cultures formed from shifts from oral to written communication: 1)primitive oral/aural culture 2) the culture of literacy 3) print culture 4) electronic culture

-argues that the content of any medium is another medium it picks up and works over; stresses the physicality of technology *

Williams–one of the founders of British media and cultural studies; theories of media as a form of cultural production; methodical antithesis of Mcluhan; also believed in technology as an extension of man, but can’t be separated from content AND they arise from intention and agency that are historically/culturally specific; focuses on 1) why technologies are developed 2) the range of forces that shape them 3) how technology is used as agents toward certain ends; sees the mistake of ‘medium’ as a reification of social process

*Commentary

When watching the film, “As Tears Go By,” last night, I was reminded of this reading in thinking about the humanist framework for analyzing/assessing technology–that the content of any medium is another medium. Film as a medium in some ways seems to literally “embody” the intricacies of human beings and their relations to one another. This film was very reminiscent of Scorcese’s “Mean Streets,” not just in terms of the content, but in terms of the techniques, as well. The lighting, grey/somber atmosphere, pace, remixed Western music all contributed not only to the way the characters within the film themselves responded to one another, but to the way we, as the audience related to the characters/environment of the film, as well.