(via BoingBoing)

Do we allow our rights to be violated (photography, filming and audio taping of performances is illegal) or tolerate rudeness by members of the audience who feel they have the right to sit in a dark theater, texting or checking their e-mail while the light from their screens distract both performers and the audience alike? Or, should I stand up for my rights as a performer as well as the audiences I perform for?

Reader comments generally supported Ms. LuPone’s position.  I especially liked this one:

Welcome to the club. College profs have been putting up with this BS for the better part of a decade.

Students often wonder why I have such stringent policies regarding technology use within the classroom.  I usually mention how it is distracting to lead class discussion and lecture when there are individuals surreptitiously writing text messages or e-mail on their phone.  In labs, I have students turn off their computer monitors – if I didn’t, most of them would spend the class period doing a combination of surfing the Web, IMing friends, and obsessively checking Facebook.  It’s not that no learning is taking place when students are doing this kind of multi-tasking, it’s that they’re paying continous partial attention to multiple tasks (what Linda Stone refers to as “semi-synch”).  This makes deep, reflective learning difficult.

Taking a cue from David Silver’s Digital Media Production class, I’m going to be separating out technology-focused days from theory-focused days in my Introduction to Communication and Technology class in the fall.  Fortunately, I’ll be teaching in a lab that has a large table with computers ringing the outside of the room – I think this structure will facilitate class discussion more readily and allow for a natural division between times we’re talking about technology and when we’re actually doing hands-on work.  Hopefully, this will also encourage students to become a bit more conscious about their use of technology in the classroom.

CMUN 240 – Assignment 2 (15% of final grade)
Due March 18 by 9:00am via e-mail

For this assignment, you will reflect on the role that communication technologies play in your everyday life.  Thompson (quoted in our text) suggests that “an everyday world external to the media is central to individuals’ experience of their lives and their self-formation” (Lister et. al., 2003, p. 253).   This assignment is designed to challenge that assumption.  There are two parts.

First, you need to take a two-day (48 hour) fast from unnecessary new media consumption. During your fast, you should abstain from all non-essential exposure to new media.  By “new media” I mean text messaging, Facebook and other web surfing, instant messaging, iPod listening, etc.  While I don’t expect that you will be able to refrain from all interactions with new media (after all, you do have to check your e-mail for classes, etc.), I do ask that you create a typed log the time you spend using it (and for what purpose) during the course of your two-day fast.  You will turn this log in with your completed assignment.

After completing your fast, I would like you to write a 4 to 5 page reflection on your experience. In your paper, you should focus on Thompson’s suggestion that an experience of life outside the media is critical to our identity and self-formation.  This can be done in several ways.  You might, for example, reflect on your sense of identity and how this is/is not changed by not having access to new media.  Or, you could discuss the ways in which your interactions with others changed (or remained the same) as a result of your lack of new media access.  Still another possibility is for you to write about the connection (or lack thereof) you felt towards the communities of which you’re a part.  The goal of this paper is for you to reflect on your experience in light of one or more of the recent course themes we’re discussing (identity, community, cyborgs/embodiment, etc.).

In your reflection, (1) make a clear argument (provide a thesis) as to the role technology/new media plays in your everyday life, (2) offer clear, specific examples from your fasting experience to support your thesis, and (3) draw upon the course texts to support your argument.  Your paper should include an introduction, good transitions between ideas, and a well-conceived conclusion.  Be sure to include your communication log when you turn in your paper.  Please be creative and have fun with this!

Basics:

• Word file (.doc or .docx)
• 4-5 pages using 12 pt. font (Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana, etc.) double-spaced with 1” margins
• Citations should use APA 5th edition guidelines
• Send your paper by 9:00am on 3/18 to me (amassanari@luc.edu)

You can use the grading rubric included in the syllabus as a guide as to how your work will be assessed.

very targeted comment spam on flickr

Has anyone else had this happen?

Guerrilla Media covers the history and theory of alternative forms of journalism, film, art, and digital media production, and explores how the term guerrilla has been appropriated for various methods of distribution, promotion and audience participation. Some topics we will consider include:  the rise of DIY (do-it-yourself) culture, guerrilla/indie news media, citizen journalism, zines, music and film mashups/remixes, viral ad campaigns, and Web memes.  We will see how the “independent” classification shifts according to appropriations of avant-garde techniques and how similar guerrilla media tactics are employed by union activists, artists, bloggers, citizen journalists, and advertisers.  Students will have the opportunity to create their own media artifacts that reflect DIY/guerrilla media sensibilities.

The course is roughly divided into three parts.  During the first part of the course, we will focus on some of the foundational issues that shape the production and consumption of alternative/guerrilla media.  The second portion of the course will be dedicated to further understanding some of the expressions/forms of alternative/guerrilla media (zines, machinima, mashups/remixes, citizen journalism, etc.).  The third part of the course will be dedicated to understanding some of the political, social, and legal implications of alternative media artifacts.

Students are blogging regularly and will be creating some sort of guerrilla/alternative media (or campaign) for their final project.  In the spirit of the class, last week I offered students extra credit if they:  (1) found a DIY craft/technology project they liked (like those posted on Craftster or Instructables or Make), (2) made the project, (3) wrote back to the communities from which they found the project with additional suggestions/ideas/improvements, and (4) blogged about their creations (with pictures!).  They have until the end of the semester to post their projects, and I’m very excited to see what they make.

Caden Cotard [PSH's character in Synedoche] seems to echo many of Hoffman’s own internal debates and anxieties. “I took ‘Synecdoche’ on because I was turning 40, and I had two kids, and I was thinking about this stuff — death and loss — all the time,” Hoffman continued. “The workload was hard, but what made it really difficult was playing a character who is trying to incorporate the inevitable pull of death into his art. Somewhere, Philip Roth writes: ‘Old age isn’t a battle; old age is a massacre.’ And Charlie, like Roth, is quite aware of the fact that we’re all going to die.” Hoffman looked around the theater. The stage manager was arranging furniture; the actors were lolling on a sofa; Andrew Upton was chatting with an assistant. “In 80 years,” Hoffman went on, “no one I’m seeing now will be alive. Hopefully, the art will remain.”

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the creative process.  There’s something about creativity that requires an intensity of focus – a drive to be sure – inspired by the intense realization that we are mortal and fallible and when we die we leave so little behind.  Art, then, is driven by this need to make our lives meaningful and important.  But I wonder if this same drive can become overwhelming.  If we’re constantly having this metadialogue about the relative permanence of what we’re creating, does this allow us the freedom to make mistakes?  To create “bad” art?  When I’m having difficulty writing, I think it’s because I’m spending too much time thinking like an editor rather than as a writer.  Words don’t hit the page because I’ve already decided they’re not quite right.  This means it’s harder for me to enter a flow state and actually get to the business of writing.

(All this musing is no doubt inspired by the fact that I’m supposed to be writing right now and am procrastinating a bit.  Oh, the irony!).

One of my new favorite quotes also comes from this article:

“Sometimes when I see a great movie or a great play I think, ‘Being human means you’re really alone…’”

Read the complete article.