Remixing and Hacks!

Housekeeping:

• Blogs have two values within our course: they count as writing (and therefore in your grades) but they also count as attendance, since this is a hybrid course. Failing to turn in a blog on time affects both your blog grade as a well as your participation and attendance. So keep a close-eye on those deadlines!
• Blog content: I enjoyed reading your blogs but want to push you towards more critical thinking and argumentation. Push through your observations and explain why they are significant and what impact they might have on how we understand technology, reading, and digital work.
• Speaking of participation: we’re a small group, so there is no excuse to not make your voice heard! Let’s be attentive and know when to use silence as an invitation for others to join.
• Next week: No classes

• What is DH, according to these student manifestos?
• Which parts did you agree/disagree with?
• Are there sections you think apply more or less to York College students and courses?
• What interested you most?
• Anything you didn’t quite understand?

Visual Rhetoric

• What is the difference between Fair Use and Copyright? How do we define them?
• What about originality vs. inspiration, and plagiarism vs. art?
• Video: can we fill out the four factors and determine whether this Fair(y) Use tale qualifies as copyright infringement?
• Have you heard of the Creative Commons?

Group Reading and Writing

1. What does Jaron Lanier, the computer scientist, mean when he observes that the dynamics of the Web are leading “authors, journalists, musicians and artists” to “treat the fruits of their intellects and imaginations as fragments to be given without pay to the hive mind”?
2. According to Mr. Lanier and others, in what ways is the Internet changing the way we read, write, seek and process information? What do you think of these observations?
3. What is “cyberbalkanization”? How could it be dangerous? What are the implications for the establishment of truth, “consensus and common ground”? How might you relate this to the current debates around news and credibility>
4. How does Kakutani assess the various remixes in the culture? How do you think this connects to the occurrence of political memes like #NeverthelessShePersisted? Do those have any real power?
5. Based on our discussion today and your own understanding of Remix Culture, explain why you believe remix is important/dangerous/necessary for contemporary culture.

After-class exercise:

Before midnight tomorrow, watch this video on Remix Culture (hint: it might inspire you on modes of presentation and illustrations for your Disciplinary Technologies assignment!) and attempt to create your own remix. Here are some ideas:

• Take a photo around campus and create a satirical piece of news, Onion-style. Make a new post and categorize it as “Remix Activities”
• Copy-paste different texts together to create a postmodern poem. Make a new post here and categorize it as “Remix Activities”
• Create a Pinterest page curated with sites/images about technology and/or Digital Humanities. Add your own comments to the images. Make a new post here and categorize it as “Remix Activities”
• Fact-check a political pieces of news/tweet by taking a screen shot and then using a site like https://imgflip.com/memegenerator (upload your own meme). Make a new post here and categorize it as “Remix Activities”

Alternate exercise: learn to code!

Coding is another way that we can hack and build things. Most programmers learn to code by remixing existing materials from other sites.

• Take yourself to codecademy.com and choose a language. If you’ve never done this before, I suggest you start with HTML. Go through the first 9 exercises and take a screenshot of unit 9 (“Review: Structure”) when you’re done. Make a new post here and categorize it as “Remix Activities”
• Create your own custom version of Flappy Bird (easy enough for even 9yos)! Make a new post here and categorize it as “Remix Activities” 

Next Week:

• No classes! College is closed. Please arrange to conduct your interviews and begin to prepare your presentations (week 6)
• When we return: read from Franco Moretti’s book, think through visualizations, complete your Blog #3