more on philoctetes center
More on one of my favourite things of the moment the Philoctetes Center. Last week while working on a commentary for uni I was also watching one of their roundtables on literacy and imagination - January 11, 2009 Literacy and Imagination under Past Programs. Part of the discussion as about the impact of contemporary technology on literacy, which it was agreed was not destructive but rather opening up different potential. Unfortunately there seems to be a problem with the file and I can't play the last 11 minutes or so which are part of the open discussion at the end.
The discussion of the impact of contemporary technology set me thinking. Clearly with texts, social networking, Twitter, email, blogging and so forth there's a massive proliferation of written language out there and no obvious threat to literacy. But it occurred to me that with vlogs, YouTube, podcasts, tv/film players, and things like Philoctetes there's also potential there for a return to something almost pre-literate - a kind of technological oral tradition. I've felt watching Philoctetes roundtables that I'm using parts of my brain that I've neglected a little, and I think part of that is not being dependent on something written down. Not that this negates the need for reading, but that we use technology to augment some fairly basic capabilities. Up until 2002 I had a lot of phone numbers by memory. I then got a mobile phone while I was temping, which I still have, and now no longer remember any numbers. I'm not certain quite what idea I'm working towards here, but there's something there.
I've now watched eight of these roundtables amounting to around fourteen hours so you'll understand I've had a lot of ideas. Some of those will make it on to santiago now I have my work for this semester of the MA completed and once preparations for the mutapoem event are more advanced.
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The discussion of the impact of contemporary technology set me thinking. Clearly with texts, social networking, Twitter, email, blogging and so forth there's a massive proliferation of written language out there and no obvious threat to literacy. But it occurred to me that with vlogs, YouTube, podcasts, tv/film players, and things like Philoctetes there's also potential there for a return to something almost pre-literate - a kind of technological oral tradition. I've felt watching Philoctetes roundtables that I'm using parts of my brain that I've neglected a little, and I think part of that is not being dependent on something written down. Not that this negates the need for reading, but that we use technology to augment some fairly basic capabilities. Up until 2002 I had a lot of phone numbers by memory. I then got a mobile phone while I was temping, which I still have, and now no longer remember any numbers. I'm not certain quite what idea I'm working towards here, but there's something there.
I've now watched eight of these roundtables amounting to around fourteen hours so you'll understand I've had a lot of ideas. Some of those will make it on to santiago now I have my work for this semester of the MA completed and once preparations for the mutapoem event are more advanced.
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Comments
how the web is undermining reading
I dunno what got her on to this paticular path way of discussion but i love the bit at the end.
"University teacher friends have told me that some of their freshers have started to write in a similar fashion to the way we apparently read online. All the right keywords are in the right paragraphs, but the sentences don't follow on coherently from each other. Their essays are meant to be skimmed, not read."
As soon as i read it I just though "Of course they aren't coherent, they're just rewriting bits from wikipedia and the such, referencing books, and sticking them in an essay." - This isn't the brevity of web writing ruining peoples ability to write coherently. They're fucking freshers! They're just being lazy! Writing Essays is a whole fucking artform that requires practice and study. Plus, it's really boring! The less time you can spend writing an essay the better. Which means the 1st/2nd draft is the draft you hand in and it's the 2nd/3rd draft which usually consist of making it all gel together really well.... writing comments is a great example. Am i going to bother to go over this whole comment and redraft it? no, cuz it'll get what i'm trying to say across even if it's not in a particularly artful way.
Sometimes I wonder about the technology writers at the guardian...
Besides if the essays aren't coherent they should be getting marked down for that. I don't see the problem. The students producing poor essays that don't make sense get a worse grade.
Anyway it's an interesting contribution, and may help me clarify what I was working towards. Something pretty much opposite from the Guardian columnist that's for sure.