not quite the Socratic dialogue

Final Project Reflection

The first challenge of this project was figuring out exactly what to do. Somehow, and we had no idea how, we had to convey very complex linguistic theories to our classmates who we assumed had little to no experience with that kind of theory. Initially we had the idea of doing a pastiche of an old informational slideshow reel; we thought it would be a nice remediation of an old style, as well as exemplary of a subset of an educational speech genre. We know that the dings mean 'turn to the next page' because we are informed by our society about that genre. But that idea didn't really pan out; we couldn't think of a good enough way to incorporate both theories and have it be effective. Over break I was ranting about theory to a coworker, who reminded me of the film "Waking Life," which is a life-action philosophical film turned into a cartoon style, complete with extra illustration of the ideas being stated. I sent a clip of the movie to Nicole, and we decided on doing a podcast working in that kind of mode. We figured something more conversational, yet illustrated with sound, would be more interesting and easier to follow than a straightforward presentation, since theory is so dense and can get preachy and boring to those not already interested. We went this route instead of a practical application of the theory because with our theory, the ideas are so inherent to our language that we thought that it would be difficult to explain and exemplify at the same time.
So over break I worked on the bare skeleton of what we would say (since I was the one with experience studying literary theory), and brought it to class Tuesday. From there we brainstormed a bit more on what precisely we wanted to cover; I wrote my rambling bits of theoretical explanation and Nicole wrote her critical comments and modern applications of the theory. That night we found an empty engineering classroom, practiced a few times, and edited the text, which ended up being much more intensive than we had anticipated. Then we set upon the task of putting in the complimentary sounds to illustrate our points a bit more, cutting them in just so in order to fit the time limit. We decided on the radio sounds at the beginning and end to give the illusion that the listener tunes in and out and that this is just part of a longer discussion, to suggest that there is so much more you could say on this topic.
We decided to challenge ourselves to keep our podcast within the time limit, and it was that more than anything that led to the majority of the edits. It forced us to really scrutinize the theory and make decisions regarding what was truly essential to the works. It also made our criticism much more to the point and concise. Overall, our project achieved our goal of presenting a semi-informal discussion and explanation of genre theory. It combines a presentation of the theory with our own interpretations and critiques thereof.

new jumping off point for our project?

I mean obviously we can't vector a film like that but even an audio version would be awesome and probably the best way to get theory and critique across.
Maybe?

Prepare Yourselves for Theory

This is what it turns you into.

EXHIBIT A: SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK'S WEDDING

Except probably without the model wife.

response to Qs

1. Explain a piece of "modern art" that you have recently come across and what emotional response you had to it. [via Emma]

My neighbor has a public art piece up, mimicking the signs that are in front of UIUC buildings on campus. It was originally intended to be a straightforward pastiche, complete with false department name. However, he decided to go for a more interactive piece with the chalkboard to make the sign even more subversive.
Since I expected the installation, I was not as confused as most people I see when they come across the sign. However, I think it's a very interesting commentary. It does relate to remediation because it is a reworking of a known medium into something more collaborative, which is pretty cool, honestly. Inviting people to write on a sign with all the things that university signs imply (ie, the Man and that it is an Institution of Serious Learning) has had some pretty interesting results. I've seen everything from the inane to quotes to personal confessions.

Bolter Questions

1) Why do you think media are become increasingly self-referential?

2) What is the result of video's increasing dominance over more traditionally linguistic forms?

3) How is remediation 'healing' our interaction with media?

Representing Others Video