Blog Post #5

Apologies to all for my absence.  I was unable to attend our last meeting due to an injury and the week following was crazy busy.  I presented research at the CUNY CLASP Colloquium and feel honored to have been named by the keynote speaker, distinguished scholar from UNC Chapel Hill Dr. Julia Wood as one of the premiere scholars in the discipline currently exploring images of women and minorities in American Media.  She mentioned me twice during her keynote, including praise for my presentation earlier that day (she attended my panel, she said, because she saw my name listed).  I was beaming.  All that said, however, I was so busy with preparing my presentation and preparing for the colloquium that I neglected my PLS responsibilities.  I'm back, though, and ready to move forward.

As a brief aside, before I launch into the current blog assignment, I presented the Digital Project about which I posted in my previous blog post to my HUC117--Introduction to Computer-Mediated Communication course yesterday.  I discussed the incorporation of word clouds and, luckily, had found some scholarly articles that discussed how word clouds were used to study the tweets/status updates of 9000 people and in so doing, accurately predicted the gender of the poster 89% of the time, and predicted psychological characteristics 92% of the time.  Using that as a foundation, I explained the benefit of incorporating word clouds into students' analysis of the issue they will address in their research project, showed the exemplar I had created last semester and then showed the word cloud I created (which I included in my last blog post) and discussed how using it would have improved my overall argument.  I then opened the discussion to the class and, surprisingly (and happily), the students were very excited about the possibilities.  Seems like my little project might work out after all. :)

As I explored various GIS/mapping sites, I stumbled upon a couple that I found particularly interesting.  In particular, I decided to focus on the New York City Graffiti and Street Art Project created by Lewis & Clark College's Watzek Library and Off-Campus and Study Abroad Program.  The site's "About" page indicates, the idea for the site "was an experiment to develop and employ mobile technologies for teaching and learning with the expectation that it might serve as a model for creating collaborative digital image projects with mobile devices and Flickr for non-traditional classroom settings."  The site includes a google map with points on which the visitor can click, with links to the various neighborhoods that, when clicked, open a gallery of photos of graffiti and street art.  I was sad that the Hunter's Point link didn't have more photos of 5Pointz.  I meant to take photos of it myself before it was whitewashed but never made the time.  Clearly I lost my opportunity, though I'm happy to report that on my travels past the building each morning on the 7 train I notice new graffiti and new tags popping up over the whitewash.  Rebellion!  I did create a montage memorial of 5Pointz on my Facebook page the day it was whitewashed, images obtained from Google images.  I was equally sad to realize that there are no links for my neighborhood:  Washington Heights.  This neighborhood is filled with graffiti, some of it very poignant.  The RiteAid across the street has a beautiful graffiti mural painted on the side of the building that celebrates neighborhood and unity.  Down the street is a graffiti piece that encourages residents to "Know Your Rights!"  Unfortunately, the site only extends as far north as Harlem (125th between Lenox and Park Ave).  Hmmm... maybe I should take some photos and create my own site.  I snapped a screenshot from Google Maps "street view" of the RiteAid just for fun.

I chose this particular site because I teach the importance of the visual and the importance of actually paying attention to the images, signs, and symbols to which we are exposed on a day-by-day, minute-by-minute basis, and to then examine the messages sent by those images, signs, and symbols.  Many of us walk around in a fog, not really paying any conscious attention to what we see, yet we are nevertheless influenced by it all on a subconscious level.  The images, the messages, speak to us and influence how we see ourselves and our place/role in the world, not to mention how we see others.  Graffiti is, by its very nature, a form of rebellion, often perceived as deviant, but often very political in nature.  Many graffiti artists try to make a point with their art, to call attention to something they deem important or relevant to the neighborhood and its population.  Thus, by encouraging students to examine a site like this, and then to potentially visit some of the neighborhoods and look at the art in real life, students might begin to appreciate the importance of paying attention.