Hack Experience
By: Annie, Aly, Stephen It’s hard for people who expect accessibility in every text, to read one that is not accessible and thus have to deal with issues that do not directly relate to them. Hacking can be a way to promote empathy, further exploration of the subject, and encourages leaning into discomfort. We see the need for more conversations around issues affecting people who hold minority identities (sexism, racism, microaggressions, etc),… Read More
Violent Erasure
Examining Power in Roy Styker’s FSA “Killed Negatives” From 1935 to 1942, Roy Styker and the Farm Security Administration (FSA) sent budding photographers across the country to document American life in rural and working class communities. This project, which was considered propaganda by some, was intended to generate compassion for America’s poor and support for the Hoover administration’s “New Deal” policies. These photos have since become iconic in our collective imagination of the depression era,… Read More
Coloring Memory
Driving question: Memories are crafted based on how an event is experienced, felt, and seen. How we perceive an event is often associated with our gender, particularly in an environment where gender manifests itself in terms of space. In his book Nazi Germany and the Jews, Saul Friedlander gives a comprehensive account of German history from 1933 to the end of World War II, relying on primary and secondary sources. Friedlander discusses Kristallnacht… Read More
Mental Image
Driving questions How is the mental image a product of language? What is the relationship/hierarchy between a mental and physical image? I am interested in exploring the mental image. This topic as something that can by analyzed was first brought to my attention in W.J.T. Mitchell’s article “What is an Image?” The podcast we listened to about the two blind men deepened my interest as one man chooses not to see… Read More
Erasure Poetry and the Female Body
Driving Question: How does the emerging genre of erasure poetry interact with modern female conduct guides? What is the significance/message of erasure? Environmental Scan: It is important for me to understand the history and relevance of erasure poetry as a genre of literature and art. I will examine the work of erasure poets including Tom Phillips, Mary Ruefle, Kabe Wilson, and Amy Bagwell. I will also explore the books Lyric Interventions… Read More
Erasure Mapping
THE BIG QUESTION: What does the creation or adjustment of a map say about cartography as a practice and how does it relate to erasure poetry? An observance: Both Cartographers and Erasure Poets hold some power of choice that affects real people (or an original poem and its author) who lose their own power as a consequence of the choices made. Critical- I will write a ~10 page paper detailing the following: Famous instances of… Read More
Hieroglyphs
Are Hieroglyphs Words or Images? I am studying Maya and Egyptian hieroglyphs because I want to discover their origins and find out whether or not they are more word or image in order to help my readers understand the word/image dyad. Additionally I plan to create a present day version of a hieroglyphic story using emojis that hopefully my peers can understand, suggesting the linguistic properties of emojis today. In this… Read More
“Video Killed the Radio Star” – The Buggles
August 1, 1981 August 30, 2015 From the first music video aired on MTV to the 2015 MTV video of the year, music videos have certainly changed over the last 30 years. Not only has filming technology, graphics, music editing equipment, and audio systems improved, but the music video has become an integral part of the music industry. This project will focus on a different time of images (video) and words (music)… Read More
Which came first? The word or the image?
Introduction: This semester we have spent a lot of time looking at the relationships between words and images, but we rarely stop to consider what these words and images are doing. What do Blake’s illuminated books, ekphrastic poems, hacked books, erasure texts, and illustrated books all have in common? They all tell stories, but in very different ways. In my Continuing the Conversations post, I discussed illustrator Edward Carey’s “Drawing Inspiration.” In this… Read More
The Selfie Project: Self-Representation in the Modern Age
I’m interested in the value of self-representation—autobiography rather than biography, self-portrait rather than portrait, selfie rather than photograph, etc. There is power in constructing our own narratives about ourselves — and in sharing those narratives, in whatever way they appear. For my hybrid project, I want to (1) look critically into the power dynamics of self-representation (in both word and image—so far, my research has mostly been in selfies and memoir)… Read More