Blog 11 - that Really Interesting Thing

Looking back over the different assignments and subjects they covered, I would have to say that the one subject that deserves the most attention is the concept of remediation. One of the core concepts to the course, I feel the need to more adequately understand and probe remediation within our society. Unlike engineering equations or laws of physics, remediation is an idea within the realm of the social sciences and its definition can change with its interpretation. Personally, I have always had difficulty with malleable ideas. I once cut to the chase in an English class many years ago, asking quite bluntly if the only reason we say Shakespeare (his writings, at least) is good is because we say he is good.

In my past blogs, I crudely attempted to draw a line around remediation. In many different subjects I tried to find an underlying theme. Now as I prepare for my final paper, remediation may play an important role in the understanding of currency as a text. I am not sure though, my grasp on the whole concept is still weak, even after several weeks of readings and analysis.

With endless time and energy to spend on remediation, I could revisit all the different examples and tease apart the contributing factors. I could find why something is, say, almost remediation but definitely evolution. I could interpret more clearly the examples given in the literature and, most importantly, be able to clearly explain where remediation fits in our society. I would guess everywhere, but I will let you know.

Final Paper proposal

I used to work at a bank. For a little more than a year I accepted deposits, made withdrawals, and helped clients with their money. At first, the idea of handling so much money can be exciting, but the excitement wears thin fast, and all that remains is the dirt and grime from so many bills and coins. I think a final paper on how currency is a cultural text would be interesting, both because of my past experience but also because we see money everywhere, but rarely give it critical thought.

I am not certain where such a paper would fall between research and argumentative. The body of work available will no doubt be large enough to allow both. For now, I will work towards the latter, with the underlying argument that currency, as a text, within a culture is given power not through its importance but through its availability. As technology allows for objects such a debit/credit cards and electronic transactions, the pieces of paper we call money lose their power as a text.

To write this paper I will need to look into how cultures treat money. Not just as a physical object (such as spending and saving through different means) but also an abstract idea. Do companies with runaway inflation have better awareness of the culture printed on their currency, due to more money exchanging hands? Do countries without debit or credit card technology spend or save more? What did money mean to people years ago, when there was no technology to use?

Questions about culture are difficult to answer definitively. In most cases, such as with literature, we create the universe we explore; we say Shakespeare is good because because we say he is. With currency, our ability to express ourselves is limited. Because we do not fully define the text of currency it may be difficult to argue about its power.

Question Time (Blog Assignment #9)

The 'dumbing down' of literature is where standards of writing, over time, drop. With internet technology becoming more and more commonplace worldwide, will literature continue to suffer? Or is literature really even in such a tough spot?

I feel that there are two opposing forces at stake. On one side of this equation, you have talented and gifted writers, professional or not, creating works to be spread online. While content may very, the time and energy spent reflect words written with care and meaning. On the other side, being able to write something and post it online is no longer a financially difficult task. This very blog was free to create. These two forces push literary quality up and down, as different populations gain different skills.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of literature viewed is commercial advertisements. People read many books, but see far more ads or spots on tv. To capture the greatest market segment, advertisers create literature that more than half can understand. Since it is impossible to make an ad too simple to understand ( I certainly hope so, at least) the average literary quality of an ad is lower than the average of all literature. Essentially, market forces are  dumbing us down. I can't shake the images shown in Wall-E, a recent Pixar movie.

I don't believe literature is doomed, however. I do think that our standards of quality will change over time. What was good becomes great. What would have been drivel is instead genius. Reading is always a good thing, but maybe too much of it is hurting us all.

A is for 'Anyone else remember how we learned the alphabet?'

Quite likely not. While many of us might have memories of the stories told or tools used, today we, that is those in the academic world, focus more on complex ideas rather than the components of those ideas. It is no different outside academia. Past grade school, one no longer looks at each letter in a word, rather he treats the word as an individual object. Spending too much time on a single word, either looking at the letters or reproducing the sounds they make, will make me doubt my knowledge and often cause me to err. Try saying 'orange' a bunch of times, you will see what I mean.

Still though, looking at letters may give us insight to the basis of our knowledge, or so argues Crain in "The Republic of ABC: Alphabetizing Americans, 1750-1850." Crain relates the history of the alphabet and eventually arrives at a summary of the three forms alphabets have taken: the swallow alphabet, the body alphabet, and the worldly alphabet. The last and most recent make up the education received by children from the 19th century on. Worldly alphabets connect letters to seemingly random words, each that start with the letter in question - 'A is for Apple,' or some other similar word. In my personal case, 'Aardvark' was used. My memory serves only to recall the alphabet as entirely animal. Yet, while children enjoy animals, whether cartoon or photographic, what would happen with different subjects? The question asked searches for what might happen if in a song or rhyme a different word was substituted. Would the meaning change?

Well, yea.

I don't mean to be trite, certainly with so much buildup, but come on. Our knowledge of the world does not spring from some magical location between a teacher and student. There is no spell which imbues knowledge sans ideology. Fortunately I was never scarred by my animal alphabet (although I did question X-ray Fish as somewhat.... forced). Unfortunately, many children do have preconceived notions imbued through iconography.

One of the most succinct examples I can come up with would be an explanation of how, as Crain argues (less succinctly), letters in an alphabet are not only in the words that are chosen as representation, but also are the beginning of all words. Letters are universal, there is no word out there that does not start with a part of your alphabet. Once you understand the word represented, it can be a cornerstone to your knowledge; a partial lens to the information you will come to grasp.

Fortunately, complex or controversial ideas rarely fit into current day education of the alphabet. A child should be expected to understand the second half of 'A is for Apple,' even if not immediately. Apples are consistently found in storied, much like a Bear, or Cat, or Dog. H would more likely stand for Horse than Homosexual, since horses are considered appropriate content for children. Arguments of political correctness are beyond the scope of this post, but put simply 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' is why 'Horse' stays in while 'Homosexual' is probably not going to make the cut.

Cartographic Distortions of Social Constructs....

See! I can make obtuse phrases too!

Ok, so I just finished reading "Maps, Knowledge, & Power" by Harley and "Mapping the Digital Empire" by Farman and I must say, while many of the points made are thought provoking, it can be difficult to sift through such dense texts, especially when the subject matter is so ephemeral, but thats just me.

As a follow up to the reading, we are asked to find two examples, one physical the other digital, where social distortions of maps occur. The task is difficult, since very little that is physical is not digital so I can only assume such a crossover does not disqualify my example.

First, the digital realm. I believe Farman has the best points, since today, the majority of maps are digital and as such have a different place in the mindset of the most recent generations. The permanence subconsciously afforded to a GIS like Google Earth makes distortion of maps hard to find. One interesting distortion occurred 15 years ago, when time zones in Windows 95 showed a disputed region between India and Pakistan as belonging to the latter. Each country claimed the land and had its own time zone for it, forcing Windows to modify their software from country timezones to region timezones. A similar example occurred between Peru and Ecuador and between Taiwan and China. While Microsoft was attempting to accurately keep time worldwide, social forces created a change in the software.

A physical realm of map distortion lies within politics. The placement of political lines, divvying up different geographical areas, is often one of enormous contention. A carefully placed district line can separate voting groups, effectively changing the worth of a single voter. Imagine that somehow, a candidate could take all voters likely to vote against him and place them into a single district. That district would only be one of many, and the candidate would take office. While forcible relocation is not currently in most politicians play books (hopefully) the idea is the same.

Where a line is drawn can have important, real world ramifications, despite the seeming immutable nature of current day maps.

Credit, not just for cards. Or something.

'The Book of Nature and the Nature of the Book,' written by Adrian Johns, concerns the topic of fixity and credit. In his work, fixity refers to the concept that a written text holds value due to its intrinsic nature of being written. Basically, that something written is far more worthwhile than something told. Credit, however, describes the idea that there are different levels of value associated with text, and while better than the spoken word, not automatically the best.

While Johns considers these ideas within the realm of the Early Modern period, I feel that today such concepts have direct impact to my functioning as a university student. Research papers are a classic method for proving the worth of a student. Since this is a blog, I feel no shame in describing how I have written my fair share and find them to be only partially useful. My abilities and intelligence can not be accurately represented through a single paper. 'Why not write more?' I am certain the professors would argue, yet each paper has a strict set of research rules. For example, Wikipedia is out, internet resources are almost always limited, and a minimum number of sources must be met. But why?

Basically, credit. Wikipedia is an excellent example of how credit plays an important role in today's written word. Wikipedia is an amazing resource, but is given to error since anyone with an internet connection can edit and change its contents. Surprisingly, unlike a majority of websites that are rendered useless through the purposeful placement of misinformation, Wikipedia is incredibly accurate and tests have shown that incorrect information deliberately placed is edited out rapidly. Despite this, Wikipedia is off-limits to research. It does, however, provide a great place to do preliminary fact-finding.

Credit seems to now be an issue no longer of accuracy, but economic benefit. Creators of artistic work, from video games to music, want to be compensated for their work, and credit must be maintained so as to create a value that consumers desire. Pirated music and videos today are often of high quality, with few errors. While yes there are mislabeled pieces and harmful files such as viruses and malware, accurate replication, due to available technology, is a moot point. As such, fixity, as addressed by Johns, is no longer as important today as credit.

Imagery and pictographs in a videogame

With a serious career interest in game design and theory, it is easy for me to overlook how people play games. I am often too far caught up with mechanics and balance, ensuring that a game is not unfair, to notice that sometimes people can have trouble playing the game itself. This brings me back to the basics, as they say, and I want to consider very early games, iconography, and the arguments presented by Drucker and McGann in their article "Images as Text: Pictographs and Pictographic Logic."

In the article, our authors argue that ideas and knowledge are not only contained within pictographs, but also within their structure, location, orientation, and construction material. Before continuing with their thought, I thought it important to also note the manner in which the authors write. While the authors create an article that I agree with, I feel that their writing was, shall we say, soporific? I too can use expensive adjectives and adverbs, yet the writing would be no better. The arguments aren't intensely simple, but maybe reading the original paper would go better given more careful attention to vocabulary. There; diatribe over.

Anyways, after reading the article, I considered one of the first games I have ever played, and how pictographs were an intrinsic nature of learning and playing the game. 'Super Mario Bros.,' originally released on the Nintendo console, is still a classic. There are only a handful of times where text is seen, be it an on-screen timer or an apology for a missing princess. As such, everything must be learned by the player, and at a very cruel method. Unlike today's games, lives were in short supply, continues unavailable, and death quick and brutal. Despite all this, the game was not impossible and much was learned through observation.

One such example of pictography are the question blocks. Shown here, they were special blocks that once broken open could give coins or powerups.  In turn, these powerups were uniquely shaped. They could be a mushroom, a glowing plant, or even a star. All of these images eventually came to be instantly recognized. I find it amazing that people of any background or upbringing can begin a game of Mario and immediately pick it up.

How does all that relate to pictographs? The same way all knowledge must originate. These symbols described have been repeated over and over again in sequels and new Mario games yet never need explanation to those who have played before. Like anything else learned, these pictures now, arguably, reside as a form of basic societal knowledge.

Writing to change your mind

Most revolutions involve war, and while not apparent from the onset, writing revolutions are no different. Changing such an intrinsic aspect of any culture will always create friction. There will be those on both sides of an imaginary line in the sand, and writing is no different. As pointed out by Ong, in his Orality and Literacy, Plato himself described a Socrates upset with the very creation of written text. Arguing that writing would weaken the mind, this argument is similar to current day arguments with the latest revolution in writing, computers and electronic technology.

I find that this, the most recent revolution, to be one of the most interesting. Before, most revolutions were breakthroughs in solving logistics problems. Not enough people knew how to read, or books were hard to make until a printing press, or paper was hard to make in enough quantity. These were all problems that were considered a revolution once solved, however computer technology, to me, is the true revolution. Specifically, we are now at a point where the question is no longer simply what to read, but how to read.

With the ability to fundamentally alter the text we create, such as font, color, size (to name a few), presentation of reading materials is incredibly different. As an online culture we can start arguments over the use of font as means of transferring information. Recently, the movie Pandora featured a font that was the target of ridicule. How did this come to be? Simply put, writing has changed us. We can see so many different forms of writing, that the embedded message is no longer the focus. Information is available all the time on anything, so now all that matters is how the message is sent.

Changing History

After reading excerpts from Ong's Orality and Literacy and prompted to discuss one of the steps from orality to literacy, I found the first step to be the most interesting in terms of remediation. As a student of English, although one not fully 'studied,' Homer is given hallowed ground quite often. Right up there with Shakespeare, Plato, and a whole legion of authors, poets, and writers, Homer demands respect from high-schoolers nationwide. Unfortunately, the whole story has yet to be told.


Like beginning physicists who eventually learn to unlearn everything originally taught, it turns out that Homer was not a master of original thought or composition. His epics were in fact the result of a system of patterns enabling the poet to tell amazing tales without aid. These patterns, to me, are a great form of remediation. Since a writing system had yet to be established, knowledge was passed primarily through oral means. True, one could show another how to tend a farm or fish, but stories were by definition oral.


Creating a story would have been no easy trick. All the components, the words, were available, but setting them down would require immense foresight, or a cheat. That cheat would be to use a system. Changing words into groups of words, such as sentences, would be a first step. Ordering those sentences would be another. Homer, in effect, was like Ong described, less an artist and more a line worker.

Blog Post #1: Remediation as Reform, because I say so.

DTC at WSU is a unique program, exploring the spaces that are growing between contemporary English Rhetoric and the advent of communication technology. The fact that I am using a blog to describe this idea and the concept of remediation is a perfect example.  Unfortunately, this 'space' is not fully recognized nor established in the academic world, thus the reading of 'Mediation and Remediation' can be at times confusing, dry, painful, enlightening, or just bad. I will be discussing these concepts in greater detail as this blog grows, but for now I focus on a specific object I believe is a remediation of past technology. I chose Chatroulette.

For those unaware, Chatroulette is a relatively new program that connects people from across the world. The program works by having a user log on with a webcam, and then finds another person logged on randomly.  The people can then chat and see each other. At any time, a user can move on to another random person.

Chatroulette, I believe, is a remediation of the most basic forms of communication. How does one meet new people? Usually introductions are made, but also sometimes meetings new people is forced, for example in a classroom on the first day of classes. The teacher instructs the students to meet and greet, and one is introduced to random people. Now with Chatroulette the only ties these strangers have are through possession of basic technology. Unlike a desire to take or learn from the same class, strangers are meeting on a whole new set of terms.

This is, I believe, a manner of social reform, as described in the background reading. As a subcategory of remediation, this type of reform concerns itself with the mediation of classic social acts. With Chatroulette, standards of etiquette have changed dramatically. Classically, basic decorum creates a set of rules people feel strongly compelled to follow in most settings of introduction. The most basic are not a consistent part of Chatroulette. When I say 'most basic' I mean ideas such as wearing clothes and not participating in sexual acts.

How is this remediation (and not just gross)? Well, we, as a technological society, have now set a new low for social interaction. While I certainly do not expect to come across someone, naked on the street, introducing themselves while conducting some lewd act, I can imagine one day where our tolerances and tastes for societal graces have morphed dramatically.

In summary, remediation is not always a gentle process of change, pushing ourselves to different places through the introduction of interrelated concepts of technology. Sometimes a giant push in a direction occurs, changing how we interpret ourselves and our society.

This isn't Blog #1, because real nerds start counting at 0

My name is Ricky and if you recall, I am that guy with the goatee being outstripped by a beard.  Shaving is never any fun, but I will promise to look nice tomorrow, since thats what you will see last before we go 100% online.

Really, though, I am a bit of nerd, but not a dork and definitely not a geek. Yea, there is a hierarchy. I am a Jack of All Trades, Master of None. Which means while I can probably talk with you about anything, I wont be able to go into really esoteric stuff.

I spend my time playing video and card games such as Starcraft, Halo, and MTG. I will probably be playing these games for the next 10 years or so, if the past 10 were any indication, I can solve a Rubik's cube in under a minute, and I know how to play Moonlight Sonata on the Piano, but nothing else.

I am a pretty friendly and socially apt nerd, so definitely drop me a line, or even a challenge (if you play any of those games) and I will be happy to accept. I can get competitive though, so no hard feelings if I kick your ass, ok?

See you in Class,
Ricky