Glog Assignment

Background:

Nella Larsen's "Quicksand" explores various sides of black identity construction in different geographical regions in the United States as well as abroad. The cultural moment of the novel takes place during the loosely titled "Harlem Renaissance" which functions as a crucial intersection and interruption in this cultural pursuit of identity. Two apparent sides of this identity during this moment are "the folk" and the "middle class black" both of which are extremely problematic categories to merely assign an individual during a single cultural moment.

Big Question:

Consider what is at stake in making an arbitrary designation between people groups. How would assigning categories help the black culture and how would assigning categories hurt these people groups? Are designations like this encouraging exclusivity or inclusive behavior and attitudes? Think of Helga in the novel: do these designations produce a sort of cognitive dissonance in Helga that hurt her or do they provide a comforting reference point for where she belongs? Please reference at least one image or video from each side of the glog in your answer and use textual evidence from "Quicksand" as well.

Skills:

Reading a text is a matter of considering images, videos, color schemes, and quotes that are posted on the glog. Remember, each addition to the glog is deliberately chosen and deliberately placed and thus makes a statement. If every statement is an argument what is being argued? Pay attention to the details of the image and what side of the glog it is posted on. Consider the intention of the glog creator in text placement. Why is there a division at all?

Performing Knowledge:

Post your findings to your individual blogs. Be sure to include the specific glog texts you are considering as well as page numbers from the novel following your textual evidence. The length of your blog should be approximately three solid paragraphs: one paragraph for each image from each side of the glog and one for your synthesis that answers some or all of the big questions.

Visual Teaching Aid for the Harlem Renaissance

19th Century Prostitution

Assignment: Free write for about fifteen minutes (using a computer on either a word doc or blog entry) on what your conceptions of womanhood during the Victorian era are and how Whitman would have been accepting or critical of the prostitute. Do some further online research (because the internet is fast and convenient!) on the gender roles during the 19^th century, the links above are only a start- consider how women lived in both the "angel in the house" world and the brothel world. What was the typical upbringing of a woman who ended up in either situation? How might womanhood and the controversial issue of prostitution be relevant today? 

15 minute Pseudo Free Write: 

Evidently prostitution in the 19th century was extremely common and occurred on various levels. 1 woman in 36 people were prostitutes or 1 woman per 12 adult males.  Some prostitutes emerged from low economic backgrounds and used their bodies as ways to support themselves financially. This is not too different from today's prostitution. Often these women were either orphans or 1/2 orphans where their families could not support them. They were not entirely a lost cause: there was much effort put forth to restore these "fallen women" and some even ended up marrying former clients--an obvious afterlife is seen in the movie, Pretty Woman. 

Two examples of the different types of prostitution are courtesans and street walkers. 

Courtesans were mistresses kept by men who were of the bourgeoisie or nobility and chose this life style for the sake of freedom and guaranteed luxury. This type of prostitution was designated high class and also referred to as an escort. This woman might stick to a few long term clients rather than high quantity clientele.

Street walkers either walk the streets or work in the brothels. The commonality of these kinds of sex workers increased the spread of Venereal Disease, gonorrhea, and syphilis. There was even a Contagious Disease Act passed in 1866 which required prostitutes to pass pelvic examinations in order to combat the spread of these diseases. The men were never required to be examined because that was considered demeaning.    

     

Assignment: 19th Century Madness and Walt Whitman.

The next three class periods will be spent discussing Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" in conjunction with the cultural context of madness and the insane asylum in the latter half of the 19th century.

One week prior to "Class 1" chapter 2: "The Great Confinement" and chapter 3: "The Insane" of Madness and Civilization are handed out. They are to be read at home and students ought to be prepared to discuss them. Chapter 2 discusses the progression of the mental institution while chapter 3 looks closely at how insanity is articulated. We will spend "Class 1" discussing Foucault's representation of madness and how he explores the transition of madness from the Renaissance to the 19th century.

Students will come to "Class 2" having read and thought about Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" specifically focusing on the notion of the asylum, mental patients, and madness and must be prepared to discuss the poem. Class discussion will focus on what madness is and how it is represented in Whitman's work. We will pay particular attention to actual 19th century asylums.

"Class 3" will follow up the discussions of each of the former class periods while exploring some of the various ways Whitman's contemporaries portray madness. Short excerpts and poems will be read in class each with the intention of building additional context for 19th century madness.

Writing Assignment (prompt handed out in "Class 3"):

What is madness and how was this explored by authors, poets, and writers in the 19th century? How has institutionalizing madness and the popularity of the insane asylum contributed to the artist, poet, author, philosopher's representation of it? Pick any two authors, artists, poets, or philosophers and compare and contrast their ideas of madness as they portray it in a single passage, painting, poem or otherwise with Walt Whitman's notion of madness and the asylum in "Song of Myself".

The assignment will be posted to your individual blogs and will be judged based on persuasive, thoughtful, and innovative connections between the materials you choose and those discussed in all three class periods. Please include the passage or the artistic representation of madness that you choose to analyze as well as a specific Whitman passage in your post. Please don't be concerned with the length of your blog because pictures of insanity can speak a thousand words and you are encouraged to use any form of artistic medium to display 19th century madness. Just be sure to make solid connections and analyze those connections clearly and concisely.  

19th Century Asylums Culturally Objectified

In Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" a collection of poems first published in 1855, the cultural status of the "lunatic asylum" peaked my interest. The following lines are two direct references to psychiatric hospitals or asylums: 

"The lunatic is carried at last to the asylum a confirmed case"

"I saw the face of the most smeared and slobbering idiot they had at the asylum," 

I decided to look into the status of mental institutions in the 19th Century to see what kind of framework Whitman was working with. There were quite a few resources to choose from, though I chose to focus on Whitman's very own backyard of New York. 

Kirkbride Buildings shot up all over the East Coast in the latter half of the 19th Century with generally the same floor plan for each building: "Once state-of-the-art mental healthcare facilities, Kirkbride buildings have long been relics of an obsolete therapeutic method known as Moral Treatment. In the latter half of the 19th century, these massive structures were conceived as ideal sanctuaries for the mentally ill and as an active participent in their recovery. Careful attention was given to every detail of their design to promote a healthy environment and convey a sense of respectable decorum. Placed in secluded areas within expansive grounds, many of these insane asylums seemed almost palace-like from the outside. But growing populations and insufficient funding led to unfortunate conditions, spoiling their idealistic promise." 

Buffalo State Hospital: Buffalo, NY. Began in 1871 and finished in 1895. 

 

Hudson River State Hospital for the Insane: Poughkeepsie, NY. Completed in 1871. 

Utica State Hospital: Utica, NY. Yet, from its earliest days, Utica was overcrowded and underfunded. In 1843, the average daily population was 109 with a 49 percent recovery rate; by 1869 the population was 600, the recovery rate had dropped to 26 percent, and seven times as many insane persons were still in poorhouses. Although advocates of Brigham's "moral treatment" philosophy were hard pressed to admit that some cases were beyond their reach, a growing number of physicians and legislators began to see a separate category for the chronic insane; these patients were incurable, they argued, and they needed only custodial care.

Asylum on Blackwell's Island: New York City, NY. Established in 1839. "This asylum was part of a complex that included a penitentiary, an alms house, a smallpox hospital, and other institutions. At times, inmates from the penitentiary supervised the patients in the asylum." 

And drum roll please... Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum: 

New York City, NY. Established in 1808, location of former grounds: Columbia University, Morningside Heights. Isn't that insane?? 

All this to say, Walt Whitman was born on Long Island and grew up in and around New York. Lunatic Asylums appear in his writing because he was surrounded by them. This cultural context is very interesting and sheds light on a whole different aspect of "Song of Myself." These psychiatric hospitals sprang up throughout the 19th Century increasingly so in the latter half of the 1800's.     

Song of MytechnoSelf

What is the relationship between self and music? How might music offer a model of making meaning that is outside a narrative structure? How might music relate or mediate between the bodily self and the self of the soul, between Nature and the self?

Initially, DJ Meagan, MC Jack and I were interested in remixing Whitman in terms of Whitman's relationship to music. After playing a few tracks on the Walt Whitman Archive I found the notion of memory and its role in constructing self or identity particularly fascinating especially in terms of Song.

Does Walt dance to remember or dance to forget?

According to Token X the words forget, forgot, memory, and remember were used increasingly as each version of Leaves of Grass was published. The only word that decreased in occurrence is remembrance as shown in this chart:

word	1855	1856	1860	1867	1871-72	1881-82	1891-92	TOTAL
forget	4	5	13	15	17	18	21	93
forgot	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	2
memory	0	0	2	3	4	4	9	22
remember	5	13	19	15	16	17	17	102
remembrance	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	9

Because remembrance is the anomaly in this search I chose to follow the little white rabbit. In the 1855 version of "Song of Myself" Whitman uses this word in the following lines:

...but always his encouragement and support. The outset and remembrance are there...there the arms that lifted him first...

...and reflectors and the polite float off and leave no remembrance. America prepares with composure and goodwill for the visitors...

...had not work to give her but she gave remembrance and fondness...

Yet the only line that lasts beyond the 1855 version according to Token X is the third line. I speculate that as time passes and Whitman grows older and wiser he finds less encouragement and support from others and becomes a little disillusioned by America's so called kindness to others. After all, it is within the next ten years after this first publication that George, Walt's brother enlists in the military and President Lincoln is assassinated.

As I was trying to explore these occurrences in further context than what Token X provides, I discovered the 1855 version of Leaves of Grass actually has 5 occurrences of the word remembrance, however the two occurrences Token X left out can be explained by the slight deviations of the word to remembrancer and remembrancers. The entire 1855 manuscript is posted online and my Mac's "Command F" allowed me to search for the word and its deviations myself.

The two lines that were not found by Token X are the following:

A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped, Bearing the ownder’s name someway in the corners, that we may remark, and say Whose?

Not too exclusive toward the reachers of my remembrancers,

word	1855	1856	1860	1867	1871-72	1881-82	1891-92	TOTAL
remembrancer	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	7
remembrancers	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	7

According to Token X these words remain through each of the different publications of Whitman's text but they do not occur more than once in any version. Though I chose to follow the white rabbit of remembrance I was even more intrigued by the increase in the other words I searched for pertaining to memory and forgetting. What is so incredible about the Archive hosting each version of Whitman's published Leaves of Grass is that we can see when and where the increases happen.

We can cross reference these occurrences with Whitman's biographical information also provided by the Archive. This is where I paralleled the removal of the pseudo patriotic line with Whitman's possible disillusionment due to his brother George and President Lincoln. While George is at war, he writes letters cataloged by the Archive under Correspondence. At one time George tells Walt, "I have been away on Court Martial you know" and though it might be a stretch to associate an event in Walt Whitman's chronology as a cause that produces a direct effect on the different renditions of Leaves of Grass the proof is in the pudding. All the evidence is available right there on the archive.

As you can tell, this blog follows a rather schizophrenic thought process that deviates quite far from our original questions regarding music and Whitman. This is a virtue of the Archive. Research is unpredictable and this is method caters to exactly that.

Maybe the Diigo Ate Your Baby??

For the past few years, I have thought about how great it would be if we could toilet paper someone’s Myspace. I never thought I'd see the day until God invented Diigo. Since toilet papering a house could be seen by all the neighbors or anyone who drives down the street, it would be nice if ANYONE visiting a person’s page could witness the Diigo activity. Unfortunately, Diigo is highly exclusive like most academic collaborative web-tools we encounter. Just imagine the possibilities, Oh what beautiful chaos we could create...

On the real, clean cut web pages would be messy and unorganized if this Diigo power came into the wrong hands. Right now, we pretend to be both academic and professional and we use Diigo while exercising our refined techno etiquette. It has potential, though I'm not sure the application has the tenacity it needs for us to harness the potential in the classroom. Mainly because Diigo crashes our operating systems if we look at it funny. Something tells me Diigo should work on toilet papering the hard to reach spots like the top of the trees that way it could really be a nuisance and at least last a little longer.

Criminalizing the Classroom

We first started discussing Backward Design in the classroom but because I have recently become an avid watcher of Criminal Minds, I cannot help but draw the astonishing parallel between Profilers and Professors.

Profilers of the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI have the crime first. If the desired result is to understand who committed the crime then the assessment is an intimate attempt to reach inside the criminal’s mind. There are bigger and broader questions that begin their assessment like is this a crime of vengeance, passion, or prank, or is it a crime of terror? Next they assess the evidence and question whether the criminal is organized or disorganized. The BAU studies the victimology of those involved looking for a common thread or theme. They ask themselves what role each victim plays in the bigger picture and how they are connected to the criminal. Sometimes this leads to a deeper understanding of the criminal’s motivation for his crime. Rather than merely collecting the hard evidence and fact-based knowledge they seek to understand the ins and outs of the crime by studying the criminal. Quite often, the criminal will inject himself into the investigation in order to gain a sense of power or deter the police. Once the BAU has their criminal, they entertain the possible types of mental illnesses or specific influences and stressors in the criminal’s life. These events and possible stressors will only make sense in the grand scheme of things if all the other avenues of the crime are explored and understood. Profilers are to investigate the details of the crime and must make them relevant to the investigation in order to obtain a warrant for the arrest of the criminal.

One episode of Criminal Minds was oriented toward the concept that the profile is a greater weapon than even a gun. This logic suggests that when the professor approaches their curriculum like a crime scene then Backward Design, just like the profile ought to be the weapon of choice. The profilers and the professors alike must learn to empathize with the criminals and the students in order to understand their particular process toward acquiring victims or knowledge. Once the professor can assess how a student thinks and the ways they organize knowledge then their course design will be both stimulating and fruitful and dare I say...deadly.

Interrogating Archives

Lewis Carroll Scrapbook

PhilSci Archive

Classics Archive

How is the archive portal designed? Text-based? Image-based?

Predominately text-based for both the PhilSci Archive and the Classics Archive though the Lewis Carroll Scrapbook includes both text and images.

What kind of use and users does it seem to invite? Those who already know what they're looking for? Those who are just exploring?

Each archive is designed for those who have a particular interest in that specific area of expertise. Once on the archive though, the user may open up an abstract that discusses a general overview of what each topic has to offer.

How easy is it to search the archive? How flexible are the search tools?

The PhilSci archive is separated into topics. The archive is very particular to areas where philosophy and science intersect- a combination that is academically fruitful. The user approaches the archive with an inquiring mind, clicking and cross referencing various topics in order to dig deeper and deeper into their particular interest.

How structured or open is the archive interface? Does it guide the user through the collection? Does it offer few guided paths for the user?

The interface of each archive is structured and organized very well. For the topic based Archives like PhilSci Archive or the Classics Archive, it is up to the user to navigate their way through the particulars of the collection because I don't think the entire archive is meant to be used by each individual. Among the different topics, various articles and books are listed as sources of further research. Once I clicked on a topic of interest, I searched the page for the keyword that was relevant to what I was interested in. For the Lewis Carroll Scrapbook on the other hand, it is very likely a single scholar who is interested in Lewis Carroll's work will explore the entire archive in the span of their research.

How are the primary (archival) materials presented? With lots of context? Without any context? Are the primary materials manipulable? i.e. zoom in and out? With and without frames?

The Lewis Carroll archive was able to take the 1866 illustrations by Robbert Tenniel and include them on the archive. There is also a portrait gallery that includes many old photos taken by Dodgson. If you click on the photo, the user is taken to a slightly larger and secluded version of the photo but the user cannot zoom in or out.

Call for Papers on RSS

Many of us are familiar with the Call for Papers website that University of Pennsylvania hosts but what I found really helpful is to subscribe to my particular area of interest via the RSS feed on google reader. Now as I am scrolling down through various blogs and whatnot I can also sift through the different topics as soon as they are posted on the website. I found this really convenient and thought others might too.

iCame, iSaw, iLearn, iConquer

Like most, my experience with ilearn and other CMS websites range from quality learning to very little productivity. My most beneficial online classroom experience was actually with iLearn. In the Spring semester of 2008 I took Professor Hackenberg's 755: Victorian Afterlife. I can see various reasons ilearn was so successful with one large downfall. 

The following aspects of this particular CMS are reasons for the success story: 

1. All of the supplemental readings and the syllabus were centrally located on one website. There was never any confusion as to the required reading and students never needed to locate articles from any other database. If there were videos or links we were to watch for class then they would be posted under the appropriate unit--the most recent being at the top. The key to online learning success is consistency. No matter what, students need to know what is expected of them and when the online expectations are articulated very clearly then they are much more willing to be vulnerable to the learning process.  

2. Participation was mandatory. From day one, we were made aware of what our Professor expected of us. After or while we complete the required reading for each week, we are to contribute at least one question or post to the discussion board. This discussion was far from sterile. Students interacted with one another with a certain edge that was competitive yet professional. If there was a disagreement, one student would call out another providing textual evidence and support for their argument. Inevitably, this kind of participation sharpened each contributor. 

3. iLearn was supplemental to the classroom not separate. Each week the professor would choose a couple different student questions or contributions to highlight in class and that would spark further discussion. If there was anything left unsaid or more to contribute, students would go back to the question posted on the discussion board and that took place over the following week between classes. 

Overall, the success of iLearn or any other CMS is to make the site a central destination for the classroom assignments and discussion, make participation mandatory, and continually bring ilearn back into the classroom. One of the greatest benefits of online discussion boards that I don't always see exercised is peer to peer interaction. Once we post, I think it would be most fruitful if feedback was mandatory. Because students are very accustomed to commenting on pictures, notes, and profiles on Facebook or Myspace students are inclined to provide feedback to one another. One of the greatest benefits of online learning is to mandate that kind of feedback on whichever CMS sight is being used. This would perpetuate thoughtful posting and the kind of connection making associations which are so important in the learning process.

The biggest downfall of iLearn is that professors do not choose to keep the sight activated after the semester is over. The entire semester's work has the potential to be a rich resource in teaching and research long after the semester grades are in and it's unfortunate that this potential is not recognized. The site is closed off and the class becomes a vapor in the students' minds and notebooks. 

   

    

(RS(S)OS)

I am struggling with my RSS feed to change the settings so that all of the most recent blogs are displayed first. I have a little "Tips and Tricks" window for exactly that on the right hand side of my feed but the folder settings I need to change are nowhere to be found. Pending I figure out the nuts and bolts of my feed, I look forward to the possibilities that this kind of feed will open up. Not only will I have access to what my New Media classmates find interesting and what they choose to blog about but I added a few feeds on other New Media blogs myself. I also found a blog on AntiOedipus which is a little abstract but I look forward to watching it progress nonetheless. Cheers to RSS...

Techno Determinism

The destination is just as important as the journey though the opposite is emphasized because it is rarely the destination that is taken for granted. You see, most forfeit their appreciation of the journey because it is the destination that is most gratifying. Lately though, there is much emphasis in many arenas placed on the destination or put another way: the process. One of these is technology. The vast matrix of digital representations is an unstructured territory that remains productive as long as the digital texts involved never cease to play (Derrida's "jeu"). When the process is interrupted the play stops. One must always keep the end goal in mind--no matter what: keep producing and keep moving. If you stop, you fall back into totality. The following passage is part of a larger argument that momentarily emphasizes the process in contrast to the final product: 

Process is the new god; not product. Anything that stands in the way of the perpetual mash-up and remix stands in the way of the digital revolution. Digital Humanities means iterative scholarship, mobilized collaborations, and networks of research. It honors the quality or results; but it also honors the steps by means of which results are obtained as a form of publication of comparable value. Untapped gold mines of knowledge are to be found in the realm of process.

-Excerpt from “The Digital Humanities Manifesto 2.0” 

In AntiOedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Deleuze and Guattari make crystal clear the dangers that arise with the pursuit of process oriented knowledge production in terms of mental illness. They write of process,

…it must not be viewed as a goal or an end in itself, nor must it be confused with an infinite perpetuation of itself. Putting an end to the process or prolonging it indefinitely—which strictly speaking, is tantamount to ending it abruptly or prematurely—is what creates the artificial schizophrenic found in mental institutions: a limp rag forced into autistic behavior, produced as an entirely separate entity. (5)

Then Deleuze and Guattari proceed to quote a passage from Aaron’s Rod by D.H. Lawrence. In this passage, Lawrence discusses the process of love,

We have pushed a process into a goal. The aim of any process is not the perpetuation of that process, but the completion thereof…The process should work to a completion, not to some horror of intensification and extremity wherein the soul and body ultimately perish. (5) 

Though "The Digital Humanities Manifesto 2.0" discusses ideas of scholarship that are particularly timely in lieu of the technological advances of the digital age, the notion of process is a concept that is already very familiar to philosophers, writers, and thinkers. Though the concept is not new, the inclusion of process as a central tenet for this manifesto is revolutionary nonetheless. The humanities is already open to the process of refining information in a shared community of experts however academic institutions are notorious for pursuing a stagnant kind of credentialed knowledge. This is where the manifesto is meant to revolutionize—not merely to open up the possibilities of contributors and contributions that are “qualitative, interpretive, experiential, emotive, generative in character” (2) but to keep those who are already acting as Professor a.k.a. “professional learner” honest. The pursuit of knowledge ought to be process oriented and the goal is always truth and quality knowledge production. The art and practice of technology is the means (not the god) that make this goal more efficient.