(continuing from the previous post)
Standardized testing, then, establishes a restricted economy of writing, which--in keeping with literate metaphysics--neglects the "accidental" iterability of (arche-)writing and the excess of the signifier. As a utilitarian response the problem/disaster of contemporary American public education, standardized testing adopts the efficiency of machine readers as perceived from the calculating standpoint of instrumental reason. This of course contrasts with genres of electrate writing, which embrace machinic technologies precisely as means to write with the excess of the signifier rather than downplay it.
And so, though I've been saying this whole time that my accident/disaster was the proliferation of standardized testing, I now think it's more accurate and productive to see it as my contrast. That is, standardized testing constitutes the restricted economy's way of dealing with the underlying disaster, which is the somewhat recent failings of the American public education system (as documented in films like Waiting for Superman).
In addition to being utilitarian, standardized testing could also be seen as a profoundly literate response to the emergence of digital/binary technologies, rooted in the same fatal drives evident in the invention of the jacquard loom. As such, and this is perhaps the starting point for a future project, standardized testing as a writing system marks an important point of contrast from electrate writing practices, which in turn speaks to the value of electracy as a theoretical/pedagogical project that is distinguished from the conventional calls for so-called digital literacy, media literacy, information literacy, etc.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Thinking with Prezi: Receiving the Trope
Some thoughts accruing alongside my work/play in the Prezi (but not explicitly referencing what I'm doing in Prezi):
The Jacquard loom initiated machine reading processes into technics at the beginning of the 19th century. The loom was designed to "read" specific patterns programmed into punched cards by textile designs. The loom would produce textile designs based on its interpretation of the presence/absence (binary code) sequence of each punched card.
Humans have a desire to know. Since Plato's academy, schools (along with libraries and museums) have been the institution that societies entrust with the responsibility to generate, disseminate, and archive knowledge. Schools appeal to the desire to know--to learn--via literate metaphysics.
Machines can read/register binary code (presence/absence markers) much faster than human readers. If students write in binary code, then their writing can be read at the most quick and accurate manner possible. When binary writing meets machine reading, learning becomes hyperlearning (the hyperlearning of hyperknowledge?).
When machines read binary writing, the only measure is that of presence/absence. Standardized testing practices map over this measure with their own (i.e., the axis of true-false) and erect a set of referents made to stand in as signifieds for the binary writing. To write in the space of "A" is to mean/signify a pre-established answer, the true-false value of which has already been predetermined by the test-maker-as-foundation/referent. Machine reading processes – at least in the case of standardized testing – reinforce the writing of literate metaphysics.
The Jacquard loom initiated machine reading processes into technics at the beginning of the 19th century. The loom was designed to "read" specific patterns programmed into punched cards by textile designs. The loom would produce textile designs based on its interpretation of the presence/absence (binary code) sequence of each punched card.
Humans have a desire to know. Since Plato's academy, schools (along with libraries and museums) have been the institution that societies entrust with the responsibility to generate, disseminate, and archive knowledge. Schools appeal to the desire to know--to learn--via literate metaphysics.
“According to Derrida then, metaphysics involves installing hierarchies and orders of subordination in the various dualisms that it encounters (M 195). Moreover, metaphysical thought prioritises presence and purity at the expense of the contingent and the complicated, which are considered to be merely aberrations that are not important for philosophical analysis. Basically then, metaphysical thought always privileges one side of an opposition, and ignores or marginalises the alternative term of that opposition.” (IEP)
Machines can read/register binary code (presence/absence markers) much faster than human readers. If students write in binary code, then their writing can be read at the most quick and accurate manner possible. When binary writing meets machine reading, learning becomes hyperlearning (the hyperlearning of hyperknowledge?).
When machines read binary writing, the only measure is that of presence/absence. Standardized testing practices map over this measure with their own (i.e., the axis of true-false) and erect a set of referents made to stand in as signifieds for the binary writing. To write in the space of "A" is to mean/signify a pre-established answer, the true-false value of which has already been predetermined by the test-maker-as-foundation/referent. Machine reading processes – at least in the case of standardized testing – reinforce the writing of literate metaphysics.
“Derrida’s more generalised notion of writing, arche-writing, refers to the way in which the written is possible only on account of this ‘originary’ deferral of meaning that ensures that meaning can never be definitively present…He suggests that “writing is not a sign of a sign, except if one says it of all signs, which would be more profoundly true” (OG 43), and this process of infinite referral, of never arriving at meaning itself, is the notion of ‘writing’ that he wants to emphasise…The widespread conviction that the sign literally represents something, which even if not actually present, could be potentially present, is rendered impossible by arche-writing, which insists that signs always refer to yet more signs ad infinitum, and that there is no ultimate referent or foundation.” (IEP)
On Kovitz's Style: Quotes and Anecdotes
Ultimately, my reading of Pig City Model Farm focused on the style of the book -- looking intently for elements of Kovitz's style that we could learn from and make use of as we begin our Prezi.
Quotes
One of the most striking features of the book is of course that it is made up of about 95% quoted material. For me, this was cause for frustration that lasted for about the first 25 pages. Most of us are use to reading for the author's position/stance, and, as Jake pointed out, Kovitz complicates that very notion of positionality. Thus, after getting over my frustration, what helped me "get into" the book was paying close attention to the sudden shifts in one discourse to another (ie, from quotes of farm-handbook discourse to stuff like Donald Barthelme). These shifts, as well as the juxtapositions between images and quotes, seem to be the location of Kovitz's work. When discussing "normal" books, we tend to point the presence of words, sentences, paragraphs, etc. as the location of the author's thought. Whereas, with Kovitz, we may do better to locate thinking in terms of absence -- to prioritize the white space as the mark of his most profound gestures, which is to establish (conductive) relations among disparate discourse. Like Kovitz, our consulting reports will perform a lot of quoting (whether it's verbal or visual), so I think we can learn from ambition (as I see it) to "write with the white space" -- to really stress the generative role of combination (collage/montage) in our composition. In the band presentation, I also plan to discuss a potential difference between Kovitz's book and our Prezi: Kovitz's quoting is primarily verbal and our quoting is likely to rely more on visuals. Through some examples, I'll try to show how we can try to make some of Kovitz's tactics work visually.
Anecdotes
Given the dominance of quotation, the anecdotes of Kovitz's summer work in the meat packing plant (spread over two different pages) really stuck out. Though the tone differs from Blanchot, these anecdotes reminded me a lot of Blanchot's inclusion of his primal scene in his book The Writing of the Disaster. In both books, the inclusion of the anecdote adds another layer of relationality, in Kovitz's case: the intersection of architecture and agriculture in Kovitz's early life which become two of the prime discourses in his book. Though I don't think we've put this on the list of instructions yet, the subtle inclusion of a brief anecdote (especially if written in the Hemingway/Chekhov style of Kovitz's, which seems to emphasize the object) in our Prezi may give our consultant's report an added dimension, as it does for Kovitz.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Syzygi and Conceit
"Jarry does not borrow scientific concepts so much as scientific conceits..." (29)
"Jarry may posit this notion [ie, syzygia] within a medieval context...but such a principal of alliance does provide a pretext for postmodern philosophy about the theme of syncretism...conceits which conjoin as much as they disjoin, inverting, while equating, the values of the binary that must support them" (40-1).
In his commentary on Jarry, Bok points to the role of conceit as a 'pataphysical interface between poetry and science. Conceit, as a literary device, can be added to our list of the four rhetorical tropes -- or at least be acknowledged as a specific brand of metaphor. In particular, "The metaphysical conceit involves the use of paradox, images from arcane sources not usually drawn upon by poets, and an original and usually complex comparison between two highly dissimilar things. The originality of a metaphysical conceit often derives from ordinary or esoteric materials used in a previously unthought-of way. A single metaphysical conceit may function as the controlling image for the entire poem" (Bedford Glossary of Literary Terms).
The prezi could be approached as a 'pataphysical conceit, wherein we -- like the poets -- develop a visual conceit as the controlling image or guiding figure of our consultant's report. This visual conceit could stand as the large, establishing shot/image, which contains the smaller images that get zoomed in on throughout the path. Perhaps each zoom shows an image that somehow tropes the meaning of the controlling image when we zoom back out. The controlling image could be ordinary at first glance, then inch closer and closer to a conceit as the viewer moves through each zoom in and out, ultimately coming to see that initial controlling image in the light of the syncretism generated by each of the close-ups.
"Jarry may posit this notion [ie, syzygia] within a medieval context...but such a principal of alliance does provide a pretext for postmodern philosophy about the theme of syncretism...conceits which conjoin as much as they disjoin, inverting, while equating, the values of the binary that must support them" (40-1).
In his commentary on Jarry, Bok points to the role of conceit as a 'pataphysical interface between poetry and science. Conceit, as a literary device, can be added to our list of the four rhetorical tropes -- or at least be acknowledged as a specific brand of metaphor. In particular, "The metaphysical conceit involves the use of paradox, images from arcane sources not usually drawn upon by poets, and an original and usually complex comparison between two highly dissimilar things. The originality of a metaphysical conceit often derives from ordinary or esoteric materials used in a previously unthought-of way. A single metaphysical conceit may function as the controlling image for the entire poem" (Bedford Glossary of Literary Terms).
The prezi could be approached as a 'pataphysical conceit, wherein we -- like the poets -- develop a visual conceit as the controlling image or guiding figure of our consultant's report. This visual conceit could stand as the large, establishing shot/image, which contains the smaller images that get zoomed in on throughout the path. Perhaps each zoom shows an image that somehow tropes the meaning of the controlling image when we zoom back out. The controlling image could be ordinary at first glance, then inch closer and closer to a conceit as the viewer moves through each zoom in and out, ultimately coming to see that initial controlling image in the light of the syncretism generated by each of the close-ups.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Caillois's Relevance for our Project's tale
Caillois's linking of gaming and culture is predicated upon Huizinga's thesis that "culture is derived from play," which has always been an important form/force of invention (58). Furthermore, games as such occur only within the pure space of play; the spatial and temporal boundaries of play separate it from the pressures, obligations, and stakes of "ordinary life." These restrictions enable the players to partake in the logic of potlatch and gift economy: "Play is an occasion of pure waste [of time, energy, skill, etc.]" (5).
One way to conceive of our perspective work with Prezi is to see this phase of the project as a pure space of play, in the sense elaborated by Caillois. Not to say that it is a waste of time, of course, but to say that the fatal strategies of our consultant's report embrace waste: our method experiments with modes of thought/expression that run contra to those deemed "useful" by conventional consulting practices, and we are also making it a point to notice the waste evident in our accident.
Moreover, in defining his game catagories, Caillois description of mimicry and ilinx seem especially applicable to our work with Prezi. Particularly his claim that, "Mimicry is incessant invention...it consists in the actor's fascinating the spectator" and his claim about the seductive appeal of ilinx, "which consist[s] of an attempt to momentarily destroy the stability of perception and inflict a kind of voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind" (23). In our case the role/agency of actor is replaced by the fatality of the object. We can also think about the cinematic movements of Prezi as a kind of ilinx-generating machine (Caillois points out that the speedy machinery of the Industrial Revolution were crucial to the development of ilinx games).
If we do approach our Prezi reports as a space of pure play (invention in spite of--or by virtue of--waste), then, for framing purposes, we can appeal back to Baudrillard's comment about the relationship between fiction and reality: "Somehow, whatever happens on the level of pure appearance of the tale always impinges on the real" (169). Play-as-consulting does not solve the accident but playing with the accident affects our perception/conception of it, enables us to see it differently, and possibly introduces something new/unthought into processes of deliberative reasoning and policy formation concerning the accident.
One way to conceive of our perspective work with Prezi is to see this phase of the project as a pure space of play, in the sense elaborated by Caillois. Not to say that it is a waste of time, of course, but to say that the fatal strategies of our consultant's report embrace waste: our method experiments with modes of thought/expression that run contra to those deemed "useful" by conventional consulting practices, and we are also making it a point to notice the waste evident in our accident.
Moreover, in defining his game catagories, Caillois description of mimicry and ilinx seem especially applicable to our work with Prezi. Particularly his claim that, "Mimicry is incessant invention...it consists in the actor's fascinating the spectator" and his claim about the seductive appeal of ilinx, "which consist[s] of an attempt to momentarily destroy the stability of perception and inflict a kind of voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind" (23). In our case the role/agency of actor is replaced by the fatality of the object. We can also think about the cinematic movements of Prezi as a kind of ilinx-generating machine (Caillois points out that the speedy machinery of the Industrial Revolution were crucial to the development of ilinx games).
If we do approach our Prezi reports as a space of pure play (invention in spite of--or by virtue of--waste), then, for framing purposes, we can appeal back to Baudrillard's comment about the relationship between fiction and reality: "Somehow, whatever happens on the level of pure appearance of the tale always impinges on the real" (169). Play-as-consulting does not solve the accident but playing with the accident affects our perception/conception of it, enables us to see it differently, and possibly introduces something new/unthought into processes of deliberative reasoning and policy formation concerning the accident.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Planning a Fatal Strategy
We know that the second half of the project will be devoted to making a consultant's report targeted at public policy formation surrounding our disaster. Furthermore, we know that this report will break from the conventional literate/scientific mode of consulting (e.g., a narrative forecast of possible scenarios) and will instead focus on obscene and fatal graphic details arranged by an aesthetic and pataphysical logic of conduction. The exhibition of accident -- the fascinating seduction of its appearance -- will be of greater concern to us than any ambition to explain its empirical cause and to pitch a positivistic solution.
So, what have part one of the project prepared me to do for part two? Looking back over my posts so far, I'm confident that three groups of post will come in handy during part two.
1. Technics. I've gathered an inventory of technical devices and processes that have been historically crucial to the rise of standardized testing, noting these machines are basically the same one used in voting for the legislators who have come to promote bills like FL SB 6. A key question for part two: what does this popular application of copy/scan technics show us about the conditions of though in the dromosphere? (i.e., how does it explain us?)
2. Values. Thinking rhetorically about the information I gathered from the Foundation for Florida's Future (the "think tank" behind SB 6), and using One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as a relay for the fundamental values at work in my policy debates, has alerted me to some of the drives and desires currently guiding the more pronounced stances on the issue. As I've commented in these posts, values such as civic duty, pay-for-performance, and omni-accountability -- though not "bad" values -- seemed to have become warped to the point of ate (blindness/foolishness) in this case.
3. Graphic Detail. I've been seduced by a graphic detail -- the clip-art style images of kids that typically adorn FCAT worksheets -- which clearly resonates with the politics/values of standardized testing as an educational application of copy/scan technics. This detail also suggestive of appearance and disappearance, or the appearance of a disappearance: the disappearance not only of a person a standardized ideal of "the student," but also (and more subtly) the disappearance a certain way of experiencing the world and engaging with knowledge (the disappearance of the methods of the humanities?). I'll be continuing this line of thinking/designing in part two, attempting to make the disaster of this disappearance appear more and more seductively.
Taking each of these areas into part two, the major task I'm prepared to pursue (which I've drawn from class lectures) is to design the appearance of my disaster such as to evoke (conduce?) an epiphany about emergent electrate thought structures. To put more specifically, my aim in part two will be to articulate (or at least make visible and seductive) the metaphysical stakes of the appearance of the disappearance occurring at the intersection of copy/scan technics and bureaucratic education policies/practices.
So, what have part one of the project prepared me to do for part two? Looking back over my posts so far, I'm confident that three groups of post will come in handy during part two.
1. Technics. I've gathered an inventory of technical devices and processes that have been historically crucial to the rise of standardized testing, noting these machines are basically the same one used in voting for the legislators who have come to promote bills like FL SB 6. A key question for part two: what does this popular application of copy/scan technics show us about the conditions of though in the dromosphere? (i.e., how does it explain us?)
2. Values. Thinking rhetorically about the information I gathered from the Foundation for Florida's Future (the "think tank" behind SB 6), and using One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as a relay for the fundamental values at work in my policy debates, has alerted me to some of the drives and desires currently guiding the more pronounced stances on the issue. As I've commented in these posts, values such as civic duty, pay-for-performance, and omni-accountability -- though not "bad" values -- seemed to have become warped to the point of ate (blindness/foolishness) in this case.
3. Graphic Detail. I've been seduced by a graphic detail -- the clip-art style images of kids that typically adorn FCAT worksheets -- which clearly resonates with the politics/values of standardized testing as an educational application of copy/scan technics. This detail also suggestive of appearance and disappearance, or the appearance of a disappearance: the disappearance not only of a person a standardized ideal of "the student," but also (and more subtly) the disappearance a certain way of experiencing the world and engaging with knowledge (the disappearance of the methods of the humanities?). I'll be continuing this line of thinking/designing in part two, attempting to make the disaster of this disappearance appear more and more seductively.
Taking each of these areas into part two, the major task I'm prepared to pursue (which I've drawn from class lectures) is to design the appearance of my disaster such as to evoke (conduce?) an epiphany about emergent electrate thought structures. To put more specifically, my aim in part two will be to articulate (or at least make visible and seductive) the metaphysical stakes of the appearance of the disappearance occurring at the intersection of copy/scan technics and bureaucratic education policies/practices.
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