Andrew's Blog

     This semester we focused primarily on technology and its effects on communication and society. At the beginning of the year we focused on readings in Good Reasons. We learned how to write essays and how to argue using ethos, pathos, and logos. We also began our journey into the world of blogging. Each student in the class created his or her own blog and started posting in it. We began by exploring other blogs, such as Rachel Lucas’, Joanne Jacobs’, and Tom Daschle’s, and getting a feel for the different styles of blogging. The style of each of these writers greatly influenced many students in the class. From our readings in Good Reasons and our exploration of the world of blogging we were able to write our first essay; a rhetorical analysis of a blog entry. For my essay I chose Andrew Sullivan’s article “Can Dean Win? The Pros and Cons of an Insurgent” as my blog post to analyze. My essay discussed the audience that Sullivan was targeting, the purpose of his argument, and what his argument actually was. The strongest part of the paper was my discussion of his audience. I was able to easily identify his target audience and discuss how he appeals to this audience. I struggled with the conclusion, however, as I always do. Conclusions and transitions have always been my struggling points in all papers. The conclusion for this paper was rather weak; more of a summary of my topic sentences and thesis than an actual wrap-up of the paper. As a whole, though, I believe the paper was a solid one, maybe not my best work, but an effective analysis of an online journalist.

     Later on we shifted our focus away from Good Reasons and began delving more into the world of blogging and articles on technology and society. Our first assignment taken from the online reserves was an essay by Walter Benjamin titled “The Storyteller”. Our assignment was to write a blog discussing Benjamin’s essay. My blog entry argued that although Benjamin made a valid point when he stated that the art of storytelling was in decline, he was unable to see the aspects of literature that were not in decline. He was unable to see how in many ways literature is improving in our world and “As storytelling declines, new forms of literature and communication rise”. As evidence I mentioned the radio, television and internet as new forms of communication. This was one of my longer blog posts, and also one of my strongest ones. I quoted several times from Benjamin’s essay and thoroughly discussed what I agreed and disagreed upon.

     One of the final topics we covered in Good Reasons was causal arguments. We were each given the assignment of finding a causal argument online and discussing how the author makes his or her argument. At first I struggled in finding a causal argument. After searching for a while I landed on an article in the editorials section of the AJC. The article was written by Gaston Caperton and was titled “High Turnout Makes SAT Data Deceptive”. The article made a causal argument against an earlier article written by an AJC writer. The previous writer had discussed Georgia’s poor academic standards and had cited the fact that our state has the lowest average SAT score in the country. Caperton argued against this by pointing out the fact that Georgia has one of the highest percentages of high school students actually taking the SAT. In my blog post I identified his type of argument as being the single difference method. I showed how Caperton found the single difference between Georgia’s SAT scores and those of states with higher scores. This was an effective blog post because I clearly stated Caperton’s causal argument and cited several quotes to back up my statement.

     The second essay topic of the year was an argumentative essay giving an evaluative argument of a visual text. For my visual text I chose the music video for Pearl Jam’s song “Do the Evolution”. I made the argument that the video was an effective satire against humankind’s belief in its own superiority. Of the two essays I wrote this year, this one was the stronger one. I analyzed the video in great depth. I watched it on my computer dozens of times; slowing down the speed of the video to catch the details that I missed at normal speed. Looking back on the paper I could’ve analyzed it even further, going into even more detail about some of the more confusing aspects of the video. But as a whole I believe my analysis worked well, and I also had the chance to discuss other aspects of the video besides the imagery. I also focused on emotions and themes. The video used emotions very effectively. I discussed how it portrayed and evoked emotions such as sadness, anger and sarcasm. The themes present in the video helped “tie the video together” and gave it a sense of storyline. In my essay I listed and analyzed the themes present in this video. If I were to do another draft of this essay I would include a more in-depth analysis of individual scenes along with a more organized structure to the essay as a whole.

     One of the assignments that I struggled with this year was the blog post I wrote about Miles Hochstein’s Documented Life website. Our assignment for that blog post was to write about the relationship between photography and memory. Many have argued that photography does not preserve real memories, and is merely a way of covering up the true memories. I struggled with this blog post partially because of my lack of interest in photography. It helps to write an argument about photography if you have experience with it. I have never owned a camera, and even when my parents buy me disposable cameras I do not take that many pictures. I also struggled with this assignment because it was hard to write about his website. The writing in it was sparse. He had maybe a few sentences per year, and the photographs were far more numerous. But it is hard to find a topic from photographs. I was able to get the assignment done, but I wasn’t very pleased with it. I believe I could improve on similar assignments in the future.

     This course has helped me become a better writer and a stronger arguer. I have experienced new and different writing styles and have learned various forms of arguments. Styles and argument types are important to writing effective essays and proving a point. From this course I have also been exposed to the world of blogging. I knew nothing of this online craze before this semester and now I feel like I am deeply immersed in it. I now visit other blogs regularly, even without assignments. Our focus on other digital technologies has also helped my writing ability. Analyzing a visual text helped me develop new and important skills in the art of visual interpretation. The skills I have learned this semester are vital to my future. Strong writing skills and knowledge of modern digital technologies are essential to a successful future in our society.

     In William J. Mitchell's essay "Homes and Neighborhoods" he discusses the future of the commercial world in relationship to telecommuting. Mitchell believes that with the advent of new communication technologies the workplace and the home will become united in a "live/work" situation. He also believes that the places people choose to live will become less influenced by the proximity to the workspace and more influenced by its appeal as a place to be.

     Mitchell presents many interesting and plausible ideas in his essay. In the future technology is definitely going to change the workspace, but I doubt it will completely redefine it. Already we have the ability to telecommute, yet it has not caught on to the extent some imagined it would several years ago. Part of this is due to the fact that many employers are resistant to the idea. When all of an employer's workers are in one building, or one floor in most cases, he or she has the ability to watch over them, have face-to-face conversations with them, and develop relationships with them. These are very important aspects to the workplace and are part of the reason that I believe telecommuting will never completely take hold of our economy. The people who will be able to take advantage of the telecommuting options will mainly be the self-employed. My father is self-employed and works in an office above our garage. He is a computer consultant and programmer. He communicates with his clients mainly by telephone, and fixes their problems by remotely connecting to their servers from home. But even he has to occasionally leave his office to work. If there is a big enough problem at one of his clients companies he has to travel there to fix it. But without telecommunications his job would not be possible. He has clients all around the country, making it impossible to be at their workspaces regularly. This is the way that I believe telecommunications has really influenced business. Businesses can communicate over farther distances with other branches and other companies.

     In Tara McPherson’s “Reload” she discusses the illusion of “liveness” created by the web and how it is similar to that of television. She makes the claim that in many ways the web is taking over television’s use as a source of information.

     I tend to disagree with this claim. I believe television and the web are two different entities. They both have their purposes, and while they may share a few, they also have many unique ones. McPherson argues that the internet provides us with instantaneous information. With the internet we have the ability to get news immediately, instead of waiting for the late night news. But in my own personal experience the web has not replaced the television as a source of news. Both of my parents still watch the late night news almost every night. Maybe this is not as immediate news as they would find on the internet, but it is easier. With the internet one must first turn on the computer, usually at least a couple minute process, open up a web browser, navigate to the site, find the news article he or she wishes to read, and read that article. To watch TV, All my parents have to do is go into our lounge, turn on the television and sit down on the sofa (often with a glass of wine) and watch. It is also a social activity. My parents watch together, and sometimes the rest of my family does as well. But we cannot all sit down in front of a computer, it just wouldn’t work. And as they watch the news they can talk to each other, cook dinner, or just enjoy themselves.

     My dad does use the internet for news a lot, but that is while he is working and already at a computer. If you are already at a computer, online news is more convenient. You can have many windows open with different news sites on each and you can choose which articles you want to read. Also, the articles are usually linked to related articles, so it is very easy to find more information if you are still interested after finishing. If you find an article interesting and would like to share it, you can email the link to your friends and family.

     The internet may be a faster and more dynamic information source than the television but it does not replace the television. The television still holds on with its convenience and simplicity.

     In one section of Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida he talks about his mother’s death and how he looked through old photographs of her to try to find a photograph that captured her essence. Eventually he stumbles across a photo that he dubs the “Winter Garden Photograph” that is the most effective in capturing his mother’s true spirit. He says that he cannot explain why this photograph affects him in this way, but he does describe the way his mother is standing back from her brother, as if she is timid to be in the picture.

     Barthes is making the point that photography cannot capture the essence of someone and it cannot preserve his or her memory. He makes a legitimate point but at the same time I don’t completely agree with his feelings on photography. I don’t think photography was ever meant to capture the essence or spirit of someone. It is merely a tool for capturing an image. Usually, that image is one which the photographer would like to be able to look back on and remember. Photography isn’t a substitute for memory, it merely refreshes it. When I look at old photographs of me sometimes I cannot remember the time they were taken and sometimes I can. If I can remember when it was taken that usually leads to more memories of what I was doing at the time and what I was doing before and after the picture was taken. If I did not have photographs many of these memories would never be brought to the surface again. I think that if Barthes’ wants to find a way of capturing his mother’s essence I think he should stick to his original plan of writing about her. Writing is a far better way of remembering what someone was truly like.

     In Thomas A. Edison’s short film “Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show” he portrays the character Uncle Josh as an uneducated man from the country who does not understand the concept of cinema. While watching a film on the screen he becomes excited by a lady dancing and tries to dance with her. He checks behind the screen to see where she is but he cannot find her and he becomes confused. In the next scene a train approaches the screen and he jumps out of the way in fright for he fears the train is actually driving at him. Eventually he becomes frustrated and tears down the screen, which leads to a fight between him and the man showing the movie.

     This is a very comical piece of film. It is completely silent yet it manages to portray feelings, thoughts and emotions all through the actions of Uncle Josh. When the people are dancing on screen Josh dances along with them, showing happiness and excitement. His fear is easy to identify when the train approaches and his frustration with the cinema is very evident when he tears down the screen. This is what makes the film so entertaining. Josh’s emotions and actions are amusing. Considering the limitations of cinema for the time, this is a very well made film. It is hard to convey emotions without sound, and it is even harder to make people laugh. This film does both of these tasks excellently.

On Sunday, my roommate Derek and I went to the High Museum of Art. We decided that instead of analyzing the organization and layout of the entire museum that we would focus on one exhibit, and discover the organization and layout for one small but important part of the museum. When we entered the High Museum we rode an elevator to the top floor. The primary exhibit in the museum at this point in time is an exhibit featuring photography by Ansel Adams. After getting off the elevator we noticed a short introduction written on the wall before we entered the exhibit. It told a brief history of Ansel Adams’ life and career. As we walked around the exhibit we tried to discover how the photographs were organized. At first we looked at the dates, but they did not line up chronologically. After that idea failed we started examining the photographs in certain areas and we noticed that they were arranged by themes. On one wall there were pictures of desert scenes and then on another wall were only pictures of buildings. Other themes included canyons, domes, people, the coast, and geysers.

As we proceeded further into the exhibit, the themes started to vary. At one point we noticed another brief chunk of writing on a wall. It discussed Adams’ involvement in the environmental movement and in the Sierra Club and how both of these influenced his photography. Around this chunk of writing were pictures that he took either for the Sierra Club or as activism in the environmental organization. A later section was entitled “Documentary, Commercial, and Experimentation in Color”. In this section there were pictures that he had taken for documentaries and commercial use. He also spent a short period of his life experimenting in color photography.

The final section of the museum was called “Legacy”. In this section were photographers that were either inspired by Ansel Adams or produced similar work to his. This section was not organized by theme but by photographer. Each wall or chunk of wall had a different photographer’s work displayed. In the paragraph next to the photograph it discussed the relation between this artist and Ansel Adams. After exiting the exhibit there was a small shop set up selling photographs and other miscellaneous items that related to Ansel Adams.

For my paper I plan to write about the music video for Pearl Jam’s song “Do the Evolution”. It is my favorite music video. It is quite different from normal music videos. For one, it is entirely animated. Also, no member of the band appears in the video, even in animated form. Another reason I enjoy it so much is that it makes sense. A lot of music videos are completely incoherent. They seem like a bunch of random scenes or images put to music with occasional shots of the band. The Pearl Jam video follows along with the song excellently.

The song is about the evolution of man as the dominant species in the world. It is a very dark, angry, and ironic song. One line that catches the theme of the song well is “I can kill because in God I trust”. The music video shows a very fast forward version of evolution starting with a single-celled organism and ending with man. Along the process of evolving the more advanced creatures start killing the less advanced creatures. When the video reaches the stage of humans as we are now it is filled with images of war, murder, death, and destruction. The final scene of the video is that of a nuclear bomb destroying a city.

The criteria I plan to use to evaluate this video are the effectiveness of the presentation, the correlation between the song and video, the uniqueness of the video, and the powerful message that the music video sends.

(If you would like to watch the movie, you can download it here: http://www.thewonderllama.com/bands/pjvideos.shtml. You will need quicktime or another player that supports .mp4 files to play it)