Portfolio and Reflection

 

The three main ideas that were used to model the subjects of this class were Belief, Information and Experience. There were many things that I learned about each one of these topics that I can better use in my writing. First, the idea of belief was displayed in the first project we did. This project consisted of taking the belief or worldview of another person and telling a narrative from their perspective. Working on this project was excruciatingly difficult for me because I have never been great at working with media, especially videos. Also, I hate the sound of my own voice, so it was difficult hearing it over and over again. While writing this video, I had to spend a great deal of time just thinking about the perspective I was taking and how I could display that to my listener in manner that came off as genuine and interesting without coming off as an impression. I had never really been asked to write like this before so that was a totally new experience. This project in particular taught me to be more thoughtful with my writing and to consider what my writing conveys to the audience and how what I say sounds to the outside perspective. Secondly, I explored the idea of information. While I had learned so much about licensing, what one must know to be an audiologist, and how many years of school I would need to go through, I never really thought about what it meant to have knowledge in this field or what it means to be an expert. I had to critically analyze my entire field of study. I had to look at where exactly the information that I would consider to be fact. For the longest time I simply would read a research article and consider it fact with out actually considering why. As I slowly found out why I considered these things facts, I began to learn more about where this information came from and where these trusted sources got their information from and what qualified them as experts in this field of study. I learned about how to look into my sources and how to determine what information is qualified to be considered within my field and which is not. Simply from researching where my information came from I was able to more easily validate my sources. In my writing in the future I will be able to more easily provide valid sources. Lastly, the final project of experience supplied me with the tools of how to explain experience through writing and media. It allowed me to explore the different facets of experience and the many ways of composing that in some way. It allowed me to be able to identify what important information may be missing in popular media and even within my own writing. This is extremely important in anything I write because it is important to think about what someone may assume about I write. Overall, this class allowed me to explore different facets of rhetoric in unique ways that I would have not otherwise been able to do.

Project 1

https://www.wevideo.com/hub/#exports

Project 2

http://whatsinaword.weebly.com

 

Project 3

http://graceb9306.wix.com/ayearinmylife

 

 

My Worldview: Blog 6

As the semester comes to an end, I am trying to reflect on how I see the world. A worldview consists of so much more than just who someone is and what they think. It is a combination of how they see the world, how they think others see the world, through what communities and institutions they see through, and through what personal experiences shape this view. It is easy to be able to recognize what you see and hear, and how you feel about it, but it is sometimes difficult to identify that it is your view of the outside world that is in action. For example, when I see the outrage about Starbuck’s new red Christmas cup, I immediately think that the topic is absurd and those who think it is an important issue in the world  are absurd. However, that is according to my worldview. I am a regular news reader, college educated, an avid traveler, and I tend to shy away from religious quarrels due to my loose connection with my family’s religious faith. But to view the world, and not just my own version of the world, I must see this issue from their perspective including their knowledge, associated institutions, beliefs and personal experience. Were every problem approached in the manner of viewing the world through unbiased eyes and being aware of one’s own worldview and the affects it has on their opinions and decisions, conflict resolution could be a much easier task.

Project 3 reflection

Poetics:

My biggest challenge with this project was trying not to use all of my own pictures. I used a good amount simply because I felt they reflected my own personal experience that is completely unique to anyone else’s (mostly travel photos). I felt like my own photos were able to say more about me than any photos I could find online. I supplemented my own photos with online images of things I did not take pictures of myself. I chose the page layout that I did because I feel it says a lot about me as a person. I love having things aesthetically pleasing and organized so having a page layout that is creative chaos would not be a good self representation. I made the page very streamlined and focused for this same reason. I chose the four pages to represent the four seasons due to the fact that I rarely spend an entire year in the same place. This theme allows me to address where and I am what I am doing during these times as well as incorporate things from my past that I look back on during these seasons. For example, in the spring I was living in New Zealand, so I have pictures of my time there.In the winters, I go home to see my family as well as the summer. In the summer I also travel a good bit which is a heavy presence on that page.  I also included pictures of easter on the spring page since it is a time I cherished with my family as a kid, but I also included a graduation picture because that is what I will be doing in the future. I included elements of past, present, and future because I believe that all of those together truly shape who a person is and who they strive to be in the future. The quotes were essential to the more complete picture of my self portrait because they are a rough representation of who I am, where I’ve been, and where I’m going. This represents my digital identity because everything I do online is affected by what I love, where I’ve traveled, the people in my life, and my hobbies. Personally, this does not change, but because of the idea of electracy, I can change what others see about me online. Online I can change my identity, but what drives me to do that remains the same.

 

Reflection:

My digital identity is directly correlated to the things in life I enjoy. Much of this includes being with and doing things with my family. I noticed while creating this project how much the things I enjoy are what I enjoy because of the influence of other people. For example, I love the snow because as a kid I use to get the whole day off to spend with my mom dad and sister. We would make snow ice cream and spend time in the snow together. This is why I tend to take a lot of pictures of snowy scenes and look up pictures of snowy mountains on the internet. However, there are limitations to things like this. With the previous example, a big reason I would get really excited about snow days is because my mom would make snow ice cream. Her recipe was not one she found in the internet, but it was passed down to her from my grandmother. Therefore this part of my digital identity, ie. me pinning a recipe for snow ice cream, only says that I like snow ice cream, but it does not say that it was because it was something done in my family over several generations. This type of information is displayed more on a private data base of social media rather than a public one, but there is still so much of this idea that is missing to the audience if they look at my social media history. I did my best to show this through my blog, but it is much more difficult to do this in pictures and information fragments rather than simply stating the intention in words. I attempted to use aesthetics to show qualities of myself, but because they are simple pictures it’s very difficult for that to be fully portrayed, even when I look at it myself. When I see the picture of the shamrocks, I am reminded of St. Patricks day. However, I am reminded of a different experience each time. This is difficult because when I posted that picture I had a particular memory in mind. If were to have just written a story about that st. patrick’s day in particular, that is the only story I would think of while reading it. Much gets lost in the digital world of pictures. This is why the gif I created of driving pas a field of sunflowers was my favorite element of that page. It shows exactly what I was doing at that moment in time and reminds me of everything I loved about that particular moment. This would be much harder to express through a still picture or someone else’s picture. The music I chose was also a memory provoking media. When I hear the song “Marching Bands of Manhattan” I am brought back to memories of hanging out with my best friends in high school. It is an element of my past that represents times that lead me to who I am today. The song on the Winter page combined some of my favorite music since middle school with music that I just began to appreciate: classical/ string quartet lyric-less music. Overall, this project allowed me to reflect on the impact of media and how it is used to convey something about yourself.

Self-portrait Website

The Seasons of my Life

Optional Assignment

Many people know that there is a considerable population in the country that is unable to speak and/or hear. Many people are also aware that those without an ability to use a verbal language also have their own unspoken, signed language known as sign language. What many are unaware of is that there is an entire culture behind this community called Deaf Culture. This culture spans over history, literature, art, social norms and ethical values. This community has a bond that spans over cities states, and countries all over the world. There are incidences of entire cities learning sign language and even a village in Bali that speaks exclusively in sign language. This culture and its knowledge includes those who use Sign Language as either their primary means of communication or those who use it to communicate with friends or family members who use it as their primary language. The experience of being deaf or having loved ones who are is a very unique one and therefore has an entire culture created around it. This knowledge takes the form of understanding what it is to sign as a means of primary communication. Formally information is exchanged through official organizations such as the world federation of the deaf (WFD) or its local branches and clubs. The formal distribution of this formal kind of knowledge is typically communicated collectively by active members of these organizations and the people whom they represent.  These types of organizations open conversation for obstacles and advantages of being deaf in a world that relies on using spoken language as a main means of communication. Informally information is exchanged through artistic expression such as painting, sculptures, photography and literature. This artistic expression is an accessible way to share experiences and what it is like to communicate differently than most of the rest of the world. The informal knowledge is communicated both on individual scales, such as an individual artist creating a piece of art, or communal, such as a community painting a mural reflecting deaf culture together. This culture deliberately does not dwell on hardships that the rest of the world would assume that they have. It is a celebration of their difference and a culture that no one else could create or have because they have a unique life experience. Deafness is also not seen as a disability or a handicap, but a difference that makes them culturally rich. This movement could be described as “signization” due to their efforts to make a presences in popular culture, their effort to make the greater society more accessible to the deaf community, and their giving a sense of belongingness to those who may not have other friends or family who are also deaf.

This exercise allowed me to analyze a unique community and the way it operates, giving me practice to apply this type of analysis to a greater field of topics. It was really informative to think about who exactly distributes information, what that information implies, and in what manner they do this on every level.

 

 

 

Optional Post

In Ulmer’s interview, and the videos we have discussed and the idea of  electracy all pertain heavily to the idea of currency and ever changing realm of communication and media. All of these works discuss how as culture evolves, so does the way we give and receive new information. I think this currency and relevance is a big thing to focus on when thinking about project 3. Selecting media that is culturally relevant is important because of what implies about you. For example, if you enjoy talking on the phone, for most people an old rotary phone is irrelevant and outdated for their life. It might send the message that you particularly enjoy antiques (which is a fair message to display if that is in fact the case) but a picture of a newer phone may be a better choice.

Blog entry 5

“the likes and loves of my life”

 

Exercise 4

I am standing at the airport 3 meters away from the luggage trolley. The sound of the trolley was moving air particles around it around 70 dB SPL. There was a family standing around me chatting, moving air particles with the pressure of their voices around 65 dB SPL with fundamental frequencies ranging from 120 hz to 230 hz. I hear a vaguely familiar sound as I grab my luggage that weighed 50 kilograms. I don’t know where it is coming from. It is getting louder and the pressure of the air around my ear is increasing. I don’t know if it is closer. In my left ear very little sound information is presented I am receiving 20% of this sound. It’s a low frequency humming that imitates speech patterns. In my left ear I hear several frequencies at 65 dB SPL, so I turn my head to the right. The sound waves at 200hz and its respective harmonics reach my right ear at 60 dB SPL, but my left only receives 5 dB SPL. I continue to look to my right. As the sound gets louder I can tell it is my mom’s voice: a sound with a 210hz fundamental frequency. I keep looking for her but I can’t tell where the sound is coming from. I look toward the entrances that are 50 meters to my left because that is where she would enter the terminal. I saw my mom 1.8 meters in front of me. I am now able to ignore the humming in my left ear. I am able to orient the sound of it coming from my mom greeting me after a year away from home.

Just by looking over the passage, there are so many elements left out just due to the subject matter of the exercise. Any and all emotional information is left out. The reality of this situation as it actually occurred is that I was extremely excited to see my mom in the airport, but if someone were to read this they would not think that from the cold, calculated way I described seeing my mom for the first time in months. This is much like Knight’s concept of how taking a picture is very much unlike real life because of the elements that are not included in the photo. Any subjective information is left out of the analysis of this moment between my mom and I that it seems to the audience to be a whole different situation all together.

Blog Post 4

[technologies of the self] permit individuals

to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number

of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and

way of being, so as to transform themselves in order to attain a certain

state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality’ (18)

I think this quote speaks a lot about how people want to change themselves to be better, stronger, smarter, nicer ect. I find myself doing this on occasion. I find myself buying books about dieting, exercise, and success and reading them to change myself for the better and my online activity certainly reflects that, but sitting down at the end of a long day watching netflix and eating a whole pizza with my roommate (undocumented online) does not.

‘To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting

oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge –

and, therefore, like power’

This certainly applies when I take a picture. I think one of the hardest things for me to admit to other people is that I had a bad day, or that I’m tired, hungry, angry, or upset. A picture I take of myself and certainly one I share with the world will never reflect that thirty minutes before taking it I had stepped in gum and somehow managed to track it all the way through my apartment before noticing that some of it had gotten stuck in my carpet. It’s a very powerful thing to be able to post a picture that other people like when in reality I was having a terrible day.

My Facebook reflects that I’m a little sister, dare devil, that I live very far away from my family.

My Pintrest shows that I’m a bi-monthly gym goer, who cooks a lot and enjoys planning Christmas presents months in advance.

My linked-in might show that I’m a waitress and I’ve never really worked as anything else.

My instagram shows that I’m an avid traveler, but not-so-avid picture-taker.

Project 2 Reflection

Project 2 gave me an excellent insight to how fields of work and study operate in a very general sense. I learned that most disciplines cannot simply be defined about what is learned in the classroom. A physicist must know calculus, geometry, problem solving as well as physics concepts. However the dynamic between these fields of knowledge and information creates the discipline. Were someone to only know math they would be in just the mathematics discipline. This information becomes privileged when it is released by authorized or accredited sources. This information loses its privilege when it is released independently by a unaccredited source then it loses privilege because there is no proof that the author actually has the qualification to be releasing academic information for others to use. The accreditation changes depending on what one’s personal view of qualification is and in which field of study. In creative writing, a valid source might just be someone who is a great writer whereas a valid source in medicine would typically be someone with an MD or PhD. This changes across the world as well. Someone in the UK may not find someone’s PhD from an American university to be a valid accreditation, while at the same time someone in America could not view a publication from a university in the UK to be a valid and reputable source. It all depends on your own worldview. This is further complicated by the fact that many fields of study have associations that do the accrediting. These associations regulate  information from the sources as to not release inaccurate or poorly supported information. These associations also may have ties to other associations worldwide, so simply because something is not accredited by your specific association, your association may see another international association as a valid source of accurate information. However there is much to learn from inaccurate information. Researchers may look into information they see as subpar, research it using their own knowledge and present new, improved information. This information does not always have to be strictly academic however. Some fields such as communications study how people interact socially over the internet. This is done by simply watching what people do online, what people like and how this affects their lives. The community in which information is shared also affects the field greatly. When people in this field associate with each other socially, it can promote either good information or bad information. If a medical doctor is well connected socially his research can be spread quickly given the appearance of legitimacy. However, this does not always mean the information is credible. To those close to the MD, the information may be credible due to personal bias, or it may apply to their particular practices. It is also easy to forget the nature of sharing information. Most of the time, inaccurate and poorly researched information is not always released because of malicious intent. However, the person who released it may believe it would be a good contribution that would contribute to their field. All of this is relative to your view, your field of work, and the communities in which you work.