No, I really don’t have time for puttering around with graphing software, so
that’s exactly what I did for a brief while yesterday, an insignificant gesture
of defiance at my own focus and production obsessions. It is spring break
after all, a period of regenerative slothfulness. Yet knowing that I have
to ease into slothfulness to avoid system shock, I watched a little basketball
while reading, trying to get ahead of the post-break reading load to avoid any
related trauma on down the line. It all folds together–the slothful
regression, the read-ahead and NCAA hoops–this way, in what I’m calling trails
of activation. Just a quick graphic generated by software from a
randomized list of stuff from Saturday. I’d offer claims toward
intelligibility, but that would require effort and, therefore, undermine my
attempts to enjoy some overdue rest and relaxation.
hahaha that’s great. kind of reminds me of afterbirth. has the potential for a future MLA conference paper.
Maybe you’re right. I was mostly just messing around with the software. I’m endlessly intrigued by visualizations, though, so I’ll probably try something more focused with it later this spring.
Have you found any successful ways to teach visual rhetoric in the classroom? I’m attempting to do this with my students in a variety of ways, but I’m never sure if I’m hitting the so-and-so on the so-and-so: http://joe.english.purdue.edu/sp05/damore1
I’d probably lump my few attempts as qualified successes with at least a few examples of really good, rich stuff happening. This semester, for example, we started with questions of media set up by McLuhan. When we switched to working on data visualization group projects, I think some of the media setup faded from view, and I haven’t been great about restoring it as one of the anchoring concepts in this second unit.