EM: Photos, Nature, Peanuts, oh my...

(1960)

It won't be until we share URLs that Feedback starts being generated, I know, but I am "bringing my thoughts into being"  by placing them in digital print here on the blog.

I would like to incorporate nature photo/video into my EM project, but I can't seem to drum up an inspiring topic that would work for such.  I don't want to go all eco-friendly/tree-hugger on this project, and while I am interested in the public sphere's grapplings with the issue of Creation/Intelligent-Design/Evolution, I am not sure that I want this particular assignment to focus on such (not that I don't want to express my perspective or pursue my interests, but rather that there's Sooo much research I am interested in on the topic - museums, legal language, media representation, etc., - that I'm not sure I wouldn't be biting off more than I could chew topically when there's so much technologically that I'm going to have to deal with for my EM.  I am interested in pursing the Creation/ID/Evolution avenue for perhaps something like my Dissertation [!]... but time will tell on that front.  Maybe the "Timing" doesn't seem right. [?]).  And thus I am not sure where I'd incorporate Nature photography into topic X.

One of the reasons that this is a current mental hitch is that I'm just not sure what route I'd go for the photo/video capture part of the Peanuts EM.  I don't have any Peanuts ideas that really grip me quite yet... 

...maybe I need to get a cabin out in the woods and listen to the logos....

EM Ideas - Peanuts

 

(First Peanuts strip, 1950)

So I, like most of us in this endeavor, am certainly the infancy stages of working out my ideas for the Electronic Monument.  The idea that initially came to mind was to memorialize Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts.  There are two issues that I am wrestling with as I consider whether or not this is a viable option.  We've worked through these a little in class workshop, and I am beginning to feel more confident in my first-thought/gut-reaction/instinctual-response to the assignment, thus sticking with Schulz.  These two issues are:


1) Am I making the world a better place?  
     >> I've done work in the past on Peanuts as a serious-text, so I feel a little foolish for somehow momentarily abandoning ship.  I think I was a little caught in the wake of 9/11's enormity when reading Ulmer.  Schulz has and does affect Lots of people with his work.  <<I think I'm almost ready to get past this issue as a deal-breaker.


2) Am I re-inventing the wheel?
     << The fact that Schulz was/is so impactful means that his death and work were not and are not unnoticed.  Sure he died 9 years ago, so there aren't ongoing memorial specials about his work (save for around Christmas), but there's still plenty of him "left" in society.  A simply Google search can find a number of hodge-podge memorials to Schulz, most created shortly after his death.  So what am I going to do different?  Or maybe I need to find the more common and overlook to memorialize?
                          >> I think my answer might be in taking a different approach.  The current memorials focus on Schulz's work, but maybe the emphasis should be more on those affected by the work?  Maybe there isn't a real clear distinct here... maybe none at all, really... but here's my current ponderings for an EM that might be "new" --- perhaps a compilation of comments from others on how Schulz's characters allowed them to see something in themselves (THANK YOU Barbara, for your comment in the workshop - it was one of those reassuring/Lightbulb moments).  A working title has even come to mind - "I'maLucy".  I think it would be neat to collect video clips from folks stating why they are like/identify with a certain character.  Maybe someone would submit a video of themselves sitting at a piano, saying, "I am a Schroeder.  Music is what I breathe and silly little girls and dancing dogs just won't ever get it."       << This would give THEM a voice, using Peanuts as a vehicle for catharsis and community, thereby celebrating and memorializing Schulz's Peanuts work.  




There are LOTS of obstacles to this --- like GETTING the video, for instance, but those are all just logistical.  If I can figure out the theoretical and substantive, the logistical will merely be nuts and bolts. There are plenty of HomeDepot remedies for such.


Hmmm...

Some Early Questions

Civic engagement via the net is not a foreign concept to us. Certainly the ’08 Presidential Election here in the US demonstrates such, and there are plenty of examples of non-governmental actors engaging one another via various net tools – e.g., YouTube channels, Facebook groups, etc. (Though I suppose the question still remains as to what degree of “citizenry” they share, in the non-legal sense).

Ulmer turns our attention to this new borderless/fluid-borer landscape as a space in which memorials can be built-virtually. This has been done in a variety of ways already (e.g., posts from fans to a blog reflecting on the death of Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz). Ulmer’s point is not that this is completely hot-off-the-presses (he offers his own URL for examples), but he argues that a key component largely lacking lies in Education, such that we become more EM-electrate .The education that Ulmer suggests includes action on the part of schools and cooperation from local agencies – producing a bottom-up approach/supplement to Expert knowledge.

--

A couple questions remain for me, though, at this early point in the reading –

1) To what degree should we expect the success of this Education? (My ability to answer will obviously change as I embark on this shared experience of EM-formation).

2) What if we don’t explicitly educate on this matter? Are we electrate enough as a society already such that advancement is inevitable? Is this a “the genie is already out of the bottle” sort of moment?

3) To what degree does the EM/electracy focus rely on Design studies (including advancements in aesthetic qualities, programming skills, etc.)? Ulmer explicitly claims that “EM makes no attempt to stimulate Web design”(xvi), but I kind of don’t believe that. Or, at least, this advancement will be a necessary byproduct, even if not an explicit intention, of the program… Right?

Welcome

Welcome to the blog!