Anne Wysocki’s “The Sticky Embrace of Beauty” was some dense stuff, and after reading it I really wish I gave myself more time and broke it down in between days. Essentially, Wysocki argues that “teaching the visual aspects of texts are incomplete and, in fact, may work against helping students acquire critical and thoughtful agency with the visual”.
I would have to agree with Wysocki’s argument. She uses the ideas of Robin Williams, whom we have read already, and Kant, who we are on the verge of reading, to explain her point.
What I got out of her depiction of Williams point of view of visual elements is that Williams is to textbook with visual elements. It seems as if Williams’ point of view is a math equation, where there is either a wrong or right answer with how to perceive a visual element. Williams’ point of view includes the elements of contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. Wysocki argues that all of these elements together helps explain to the viewer what is important in the visual text, but it doesn’t give the reader room to explore the visual of the visual text. She uses the Peek advertisement that Dr. Springsteen showed off in class on Tuesday, and said that Williams’ ideas don’t offer the reader any explanation for why the picture is on the advertisement.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Post Three
Upon first reading the first two chapters of David Weinberger’s Everything is Miscellaneous, I was enthralled by his writing style and the information he was giving to his reader. After reading Chapter 5 and Chapter 6, I still admire his voice, however the information he is giving the reader seems to be awfully repetitive.
Once again in Chapter 5, Weinberger goes on to give an example to the reader of a type of system that needs organizing. In this case it’s a silverware drawer within a mutually rented college home. Then, as we read on Weinberger demonstrates to us new, fascinating ways that technology is replacing old ways of organizing.
In Chapter 3, Weinberger wrote about Amazon.com. He mentioned that Amazon’s system of giving every thing “more then one category” ends up being beneficial to the search process because you can find what you want to find by not having to narrow your search so precisely. In chapter 1 Weinberger also spoke about how a website like Flickr.com adds more information to certain pictures in order to be able to find those pictures in a multitude of places, similar to Amazon’s system. Here in chapter 5 Weinberger is once again writing about how tagging is making certain topics easier to find on the Internet, like with Delicious.com’s system – which happens to sound very similar to Amazon’s and Flickr’s. Is anyone else noticing a repetition here?
One example from the text that I use almost every day is Wikipedia’s method of tagging. Weinberger even explains how useful it is within chapter 5. I always find myself going in circles on Wikipedia, by looking up an athlete then somehow ending up reading about some guy that opened up a miniature-golf place that is named after that athlete. At least it keeps me entertained.
Once again in Chapter 5, Weinberger goes on to give an example to the reader of a type of system that needs organizing. In this case it’s a silverware drawer within a mutually rented college home. Then, as we read on Weinberger demonstrates to us new, fascinating ways that technology is replacing old ways of organizing.
In Chapter 3, Weinberger wrote about Amazon.com. He mentioned that Amazon’s system of giving every thing “more then one category” ends up being beneficial to the search process because you can find what you want to find by not having to narrow your search so precisely. In chapter 1 Weinberger also spoke about how a website like Flickr.com adds more information to certain pictures in order to be able to find those pictures in a multitude of places, similar to Amazon’s system. Here in chapter 5 Weinberger is once again writing about how tagging is making certain topics easier to find on the Internet, like with Delicious.com’s system – which happens to sound very similar to Amazon’s and Flickr’s. Is anyone else noticing a repetition here?
One example from the text that I use almost every day is Wikipedia’s method of tagging. Weinberger even explains how useful it is within chapter 5. I always find myself going in circles on Wikipedia, by looking up an athlete then somehow ending up reading about some guy that opened up a miniature-golf place that is named after that athlete. At least it keeps me entertained.
Post Two
Post Two
“The Geography of Knowledge” in Dave Weinberger’s Everything is Miscellaneous seems very similar to the chapters that precede it. Within this chapter, we get an example of “how it was once done” compared to “how it is done today” – Out with the old in with the new, I guess you could say. The chapter opens up with the Dewey Decimal system. When Weinberger describes the Dewey Decimal system and the work that goes into running it successfully, he sounds like my father when he gets home from a long day of work. Weinberger does a good job of demonstrating how stressful the old way of shelving books in a library was, and goes on to say that once one part of the library spectrum changes, every thing has to change – which only adds to the stress. You get the idea that Weinberger is trying to say that ideas, philosophies, text, etc. change too quickly in the present day to be able to set up a library with the Dewey Decimal system.
This is when Weinberger begins to write about the “new way” to go about classifying a system. Really though, he says to just throw out the idea of having categories and orderliness of the system: “When it comes to categorization, Amazon[.com] doesn’t care about the precision and orderliness of its system; it cares about putting information – and offers – in front of you.” He goes on to say that they do this by linking books to other books through the multiple different listings you could bookmark the selection with. He uses a historical cookbook as an example, and says it is listed as just a cookbook under one call code in a usual library. However, on Amazon.com it is listed by author, historical fiction, and cooking. This helps customers try to find other books that relate to it, which makes me wonder whether or not Amazon is actually trying to help organize the world of literature easier, or if they’re just trying to sell more books. I think the answer is easy.
One example of this “listing” system that I use a lot is on Cdnow.com. It kind of frustrates me, because I listen to your typical college rock bands that you only see on the “top ten lists of college radio” in the back of Rolling Stone magazine, or during select hours of Potsdam’s radio station. Because of this (and I’m sure other fans of other genres have the same problem), when I type in a specific band that I am looking for on the website, the same 40 or so bands pop up in the “other bands you might be interested in” box at the bottom of the screen. This never leads me in the direction to find other bands that I am interested in, since I know most of them already. Maybe Weinberger’s system that he says is so easy to update is time for an update, or maybe people who listen to the same music as me need to find something else to listen to?
“The Geography of Knowledge” in Dave Weinberger’s Everything is Miscellaneous seems very similar to the chapters that precede it. Within this chapter, we get an example of “how it was once done” compared to “how it is done today” – Out with the old in with the new, I guess you could say. The chapter opens up with the Dewey Decimal system. When Weinberger describes the Dewey Decimal system and the work that goes into running it successfully, he sounds like my father when he gets home from a long day of work. Weinberger does a good job of demonstrating how stressful the old way of shelving books in a library was, and goes on to say that once one part of the library spectrum changes, every thing has to change – which only adds to the stress. You get the idea that Weinberger is trying to say that ideas, philosophies, text, etc. change too quickly in the present day to be able to set up a library with the Dewey Decimal system.
This is when Weinberger begins to write about the “new way” to go about classifying a system. Really though, he says to just throw out the idea of having categories and orderliness of the system: “When it comes to categorization, Amazon[.com] doesn’t care about the precision and orderliness of its system; it cares about putting information – and offers – in front of you.” He goes on to say that they do this by linking books to other books through the multiple different listings you could bookmark the selection with. He uses a historical cookbook as an example, and says it is listed as just a cookbook under one call code in a usual library. However, on Amazon.com it is listed by author, historical fiction, and cooking. This helps customers try to find other books that relate to it, which makes me wonder whether or not Amazon is actually trying to help organize the world of literature easier, or if they’re just trying to sell more books. I think the answer is easy.
One example of this “listing” system that I use a lot is on Cdnow.com. It kind of frustrates me, because I listen to your typical college rock bands that you only see on the “top ten lists of college radio” in the back of Rolling Stone magazine, or during select hours of Potsdam’s radio station. Because of this (and I’m sure other fans of other genres have the same problem), when I type in a specific band that I am looking for on the website, the same 40 or so bands pop up in the “other bands you might be interested in” box at the bottom of the screen. This never leads me in the direction to find other bands that I am interested in, since I know most of them already. Maybe Weinberger’s system that he says is so easy to update is time for an update, or maybe people who listen to the same music as me need to find something else to listen to?
Post One
Everything is Miscellaneous is not your average text book. It reads as if it's written by a once incredibly bored college student who knows how boring he could be, but chooses not to be. While reading the first two chapters, I even laughed to myself; I felt like the kid in high school that I told myself I never wanted to be. I guess if you're writing a book about how writing is changing, the end product is bound to be more exciting to read then your American History text book.
The idea of "everything is miscellaneous" really showed through in the first chapter, and Weinberger did this by making example through relevant websites that most readers would actually know of, such as Flickr.com. The idea that the solution to an overabundance of information is to add more information is comical and true. We sort picture now by adding more information instead of tucking it away in a single photo album.
The comparison of Flickrs tagging system, or googles search engine to the Library of Congress make me think about how many late assignments I would have if it wasn't for the Internet. Where would I be if I couldn't quickly search Wikipedia for information on some artisit for a pointless AE-credit class 10 minutes before that class actually start? At this point, probably not still in college. Instead I'd have to go to the library and actually READ a book about this artist, which takes more time, as Weinberger points out towards the end of chapter one.
The idea of "everything is miscellaneous" really showed through in the first chapter, and Weinberger did this by making example through relevant websites that most readers would actually know of, such as Flickr.com. The idea that the solution to an overabundance of information is to add more information is comical and true. We sort picture now by adding more information instead of tucking it away in a single photo album.
The comparison of Flickrs tagging system, or googles search engine to the Library of Congress make me think about how many late assignments I would have if it wasn't for the Internet. Where would I be if I couldn't quickly search Wikipedia for information on some artisit for a pointless AE-credit class 10 minutes before that class actually start? At this point, probably not still in college. Instead I'd have to go to the library and actually READ a book about this artist, which takes more time, as Weinberger points out towards the end of chapter one.
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