Author Archives: b w

Linking Assignment

Link 6 – Task 2, April Huang, Warren Wong

Task 2: Does language shape the way we think?

Warren’s responses to Dr. Boroditsky’s talk stood out to me. he makes an interesting set of points between the first two quotes he responded to – teasing apart language and culture while indicating that language may not shape thinking as much as culture does.

I think that this is fascinating – to me what Warren appears to be engaging with, especially in his writing around Seppuku, resonates more with the idea of “values” rather than what I was considering as “ways of thinking”. But how are those things different?

I think I had been approaching this task from almost a neural pathway level – do we develop different pathways in our brain based on the languages we speak? Cursory searches seem to indicate that there’s a level of ‘rewiring’ that takes place when you learn a new language (Wei et al., 2024). I wonder if similar changes would occur if you moved to a culturally distinct place that shared the same language that you already speak, or if language itself alters the brain in a distinct way from other immersive experiences of culture. Warren’s response really took me aback – it was a direction I hadn’t considered when I was listening to Dr. Boroditsky’s talk and I appreciate that eye-opening!

Task 2: How Languages Shape The Way We Think?

I found April’s response beautiful, visually. I also appreciated her reflection coming from her perspective as a grade 1 teacher who is observing students learning how to communicate their feelings. For some reason that twigged me to my experiences in therapy – not just communicating my feelings but also how much labor goes into breaking up patterns of thought that seem to have sprung from nowhere.

This connected me back to Warren’s response – do I think the process of learning to think about, label, and sort through my own feelings is something that would be impacted by language? I think it’s evident that our relationships to our emotions are impacted through culture, but would having multiple words for love make it easier to sort through on an individual level? I’m often grasping at straws when it comes to describing feelings of anxiety, diving into simile and metaphor to articulate to others what is happening. But what about communicating with myself? One strategy that I’ve personally found effective is kind of similar to ‘noting’ in meditation. When I find myself overwhelmed and anxious, having the time, space, and ability to put a label on it can help. How is that act of labelling connected to language, culture, and my own emotional regulation?

This response got a little off the rails but I found it interesting how those two responses connected together and provoked something for me. Thank you Warren and April!

References

Huang, A. (June 1, 2024). Task 2: Does language shape the way we think? ETEC 540. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540ah/2024/06/01/task-2-how-languages-shape-the-way-we-think/

Wei, X., Gunter, T. C., Adamson, H., Schwendemann, M., Friederici, A. D., Goucha, T., & Anwander, A. (2024). White matter plasticity during second language learning within and across hemispheres. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – PNAS, 121(2), e2306286121-e2306286121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2306286121

Wong, W. (May 27, 2024). Task 2: Does language shape the way we think? ETEC 540. https://blogs.ubc.ca/warrenwong/2024/05/27/task-2-does-language-shape-the-way-we-think/

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Linking Assignment

Link 5 – Task 1, Steph Takeda

Task 1: What’s In Your Bag?

I’ve realized that I haven’t spent as much time engaging with the “What’s in my bag” task that I wanted to. Two things jumped out at me from Steph’s post.

  1. The immense amount of “stuff” (her words!) in her bag – this speaks to me!
  2. The way Steph bolded phrases and words in her response

I think these two factors kind of work together beautifully in her response. She writes on the wide variety of items in her bag and the act of searching for the relevant item she needs at this time, buying accessories in bright colors to . At the same time, in her post, she writes beautifully and at length while highlighting relevant keywords. This kind of facilitates a similar experience for the reader – sorting and sifting and finding what you’re looking for in the text.

I think the use of bolding also represents a facet of changing text technologies! It would be more challenging to facilitate a reading experience like this without using word processing software. I appreciate her reflection on text technologies and how she maintains an affection for pen-and-paper which leans towards the realm of the personal, while integrating affordances of word processing so effectively in her post.

References

Takeda, S. (May, 2024). Task 1: What’s in your bag? ETEC 540 Webspace. https://blogs.ubc.ca/stephtakeda/2024/05/26/task-1/

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Linking Assignment

Link 4 – Task 7, Joti Singh

Joti’s Post

I’ve already written about Task 7, but wanted to focus in on Joti’s response specifically. Joti focused on integrating the theoretical into her response, and she developed an interesting Genially that took advantage of blending the visual, audio, and linguistic modes.

I wonder how it could be expanded to include the spatial, and gestural modes. I wonder if something as simple as Genially allowing swiping on a mobile device could be considered in the frame of the spatial and the gestural. Using a mobile device compared to a laptop or desktop computer does impact how you interact with and consume content. Recently I’ve been working on a complex self assessment tool on Qualtrics and have spent many an afternoon swiping through the form on a mobile device testing out the different layouts to see what is the easiest and most straightforward way for users to get to the end of the form. As I work on this I’ve also been reflecting on the attention economy task – funnily enough it’s an ethics self-assessment tool so issues of ethical design and effective use have been bubbling to the surface.

How else could you incorporate the spatial and gestural in the mode-bending task I wonder? Spatial audio like you’d see in 360 degree videos could be one way to consider the spatial still in a web platform…. part of me thinks we’ve been trying to instill depth into the screen since we started projecting images.

References

Singh, J. (June 24, 2024). Mode-bending. Joti Singh’s Weebly. https://jotisingh.weebly.com/tasks/mode-bending

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Linking Assignment

Link 3 – Task 4, Duncan Hamilton, Lucy Lai

Task 4 – Writing and Potato Stamps

I resonated with Duncan’s post – as another tech-adjacent worker I also don’t often handwrite and so found Task 4 physically challenging to an extent, and I have a shameful collection of notebooks with only the first few pages used. Without fail they seem to become a home for lists that ultimately peter out as I repeatedly forget the notebook when I venture out to accomplish the entries.

Duncan’s approach reminded me of Jeffrey Brown’s debut book Clumsy (2002). This has been a favorite book of mine for many years and has informed many of my ideas around art creation in terms of economy of line and clarity of feeling. Brown’s (2002) book was inked without pencils – there are visible errors and changes throughout the book. Duncan’s lower case “r” really reminded me of Brown’s work.

Task 4: Manual Scripts

Lucy’s approach to this task was different – while she didn’t wind up making potato stamps I enjoyed reading her approach to handwriting and journaling. I think it comes through that it’s more integrated in her daily life when compared to Duncan and I. The way she includes the time with her date reminds me of letters from my aunt – she always includes time, date, and weather information which always situates her letters in a sense of place.

Task 4 was a task that I was able to integrate into my life easily – we made potato stamps during one of our Art Nights (I write this post during another Art Night). I think the connection to the personal comes through both Lucy and Duncan’s handwriting, and it’s something that I try to nurture in my writing whether it is mediated by the keyboard or not.

References

Brown, J. (2002). Clumsy: A novel. Top Shelf Publishers.

Hamilton, D. (June 9, 2024). Task 4 – Writing and potato stamps. Duncan’s ETEC540 Space. https://blogs.ubc.ca/duncman/2024/06/09/task-4-writing-and-potato-stamps/

Lai, L. (June 4, 2024). Task 4: Manual scripts. Lucy Lai’s Blog. https://blogs.ubc.ca/lucylaietec540/2024/06/04/task-4-manual-scripts/

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Linking Assignment

Link 2 – Task 7, Matt Huang, Lachelle Farris

Matt Huang

Task 7: Mode-bending

Matt’s response to this prompt is extremely thoughtful. He has tapped into layers in this assignment that I didn’t directly consider in my own response. His division between public and private modes, and the way that he directly considered the look and feel of public versus private took this response to a space that I didn’t explore. His unified narrative also helped to contextualize how his various objects are utilized in his day to day life. However, I wonder about the decision to go completely unscripted in both ‘layers’ of his response. I wonder if a more scripted and formal public persona would have provided more contrast to an off-the-cuff private response. I also think that some interweaving of the layers may have provoked more of a response in me as an audience member.

Lachelle Harris

Task 7 – Mode Bending

Lachelle’s response was unique! I really enjoyed how she considered the audience and created more of an interactive response while adhering to the requirements of the assignment. Writing a riddle is SO tricky and the fact that I can even hazard guesses for her speaks to how effective her riddles were. My answers are: Watercolor paints, wallet, softball, waterbottle, granola bar, sunglasses, seed packet, ID card, keyfob, car keys, daytrip backpack. I appreciated how she considered both linguistic and auditory design in her response, and I think it was effective considering I was excited to respond!

Matt and Lachelle’s responses both directly tackled mode-bending in different ways – considering the public and private or linguistic and auditory as spaces to be explored.

References

Farris, L. (June 18, 2024). Task 7- mode-bending. Lachelle’s ETEC540 Blog. https://blogs.ubc.ca/texttech540/2024/06/18/task-7-mode-bending/

Huang, M. (June 30, 2024). Task 7: Mode-bending. Matt’s ETEC 540 Webspace. https://blogs.ubc.ca/mhetec540/2024/06/30/task-7-mode-bending/

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Linking Assignment

Link 1 – Task 9, Rachel Lim

Task 9: Network Assignment Using Golden Records Curation Quiz Data

I wanted to respond to this post as a sort of meta-meta-analysis. I found Rachel Lim’s review of the selected tracks to be fascinating. Rachel and I approached the initial curation assignment very differently, as she selected songs based on a couple of rules she established (one song from each continent and four to represent human emotions), while I leaned into the personal and just selected based on what songs I liked the most.

Rachel’s analysis is multi-faceted. She approached the most and least selected songs and drew conclusions. Both she and I arrived at a similar limitation to the assignment – it becomes challenging to analyze these selections because of a lack of understanding of the reasoning for the selections. This sentiment was echoed across many responses: Duncan, Seb, Carol, Carlo, Abdulehad, Shannon, Matt, April, Lucy, Lachelle, Warren, Robyn, Jonathan, Joti, Katy, Kris, Steve, Tina, and Steph all mentioned the missing qualitative data or context as limitations in their analysis (that list got out of hand).

 Rachel directly addresses the assumptions that can be made about our cohort and selections in a very direct way:

“Assumptions can be made that most participants are English-speaking residents from English-speaking countries with bachelor’s degrees involved in education, suggesting a familiarity with Western culture and possibly considering diversity and popularity in their selections.”

(Lim, 2024)

I wonder about the inclusion of diversity and popularity in that snippet. What is it about English speaking residents from English speaking countries with education backgrounds that would suggest a consideration of diversity and popularity? I think there’s a space to explore in that relationship. Anecdotally a lot of fellow MET students I’ve been in group projects so far have come from very different work backgrounds so I’d be interested to see if most do have bachelor’s degrees in education. My own background is tech (work) and art (school) which may be why that leapt out at me.

References

Lim, R. (2024). Task 9: Network assignment using golden records curation quiz data. Rachel’s Learning Journey. https://blogs.ubc.ca/metrlim/2024/07/25/task-9-network-assignment-using-golden-records-curation-quiz-data/

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Final Project

Final Project – Spirit Seekers

For this final project I researched tabletop and computer role-playing games, and have created a rules set for a rules-light one-page Discord role playing game. The background, rules set, and combined document can be downloaded at the end of this page.

Background

Role-playing games (RPGs) emerged in the 1970s from the worlds of miniature-based wargaming, fantasy literature, and the traditions of rules less role-playing (Porter, 1995). Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is often considered the first entry in this genre, published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules (Hosch, 2024). RPGs exist across a wide range of genres but typically consist of a few key components: players take on the roles of characters, succeed or fail on tasks based on rules, and a player takes on the role of game master (GM) who guides the narrative and interactions. As soon as the D&D ruleset was published, game designers were sneaking into campus computer labs to create and play computer RPGs (CRPGs) – digital versions of tabletop RPGs (TRPGs) that translated RPG mechanics into the digital realm (Daglow, 1988). These CRPGs streamlined many RPG mechanics such as inventory and skill management, and enabled single player RPG experiences without the need for a GM.  

The difference between TRPGs and CRPGs lies primarily in flexibility. CRPGs are typically characterized by a detailed and defined story that the player explores through their character. The player’s impact on the story largely exists through the selections they make for their character’s skills and abilities. TRPGs on the other hand, are typically defined by their openness – the limit of player exploration, decision-making, and impact on story is only defined by the GM’s willingness and ability to explore the decisions made by the players.  

There is a hybrid space that blends the digital affordances of technology with the flexibility of TRPG systems. Porter (1995) theorized that future versions of role-playing games may include “live role-playing by Net” or “a personal digital assistant” to assist with tracking character status or passing information back and forth between player characters (Porter, 1995, para. 32). Many of his visions have come to life through the many online services that exist to support hybrid tabletop and computer roleplaying such as Roll20 (Roll20, 2024) or D&D Beyond (Wizards of the Coast, 2024). These hybrid spaces allow for the high levels of player agency and narrative flexibility typical of TRPGs, with the affordances of the CRPG like automatic calculations and tracking of items and statuses.

Bringing the focus to the educational – RPGs and game-playing have been explored in the classroom in many forms to many conclusions. From rudimentary side-scrolling platformers (Jamshidifarsani et al., 2019), to problem solving CRPGs (Chen & Wu, 2023; Zou et al., 2021), interactive digital retellings of classic literature (Kirginias, 2022; Cook et al., 2017) and beyond, many educators have deployed and examined the use of games in their classrooms. Gaming literacy has emerged in the field of multiliteracies, the player understanding of objectives, rules, and gameplay standing distinct from narrative understanding (Apperley & Walsh, 2012). Gaming literacy invites students to “critically and creatively apply their experiences” within the structure of the game, making layered meaning as they move back and forth across “types of text, experiences, and so forth” (York et al., 2019, p. 120; Cook et al., 2017, p.202).

Educators have identified some key components of deploying RPGs in the classroom to include open narrative structure for improvisation and collaboration, game simplicity due to tight timelines and logistics, and the minimization of the role of the GM whenever possible (Campbell & Madsen, 2021; Cook et al., 2017; Zou et al., 2021). When applied thoughtfully and not treated as a pedagogical panacea, tabletop games and TRPGs have been found to support knowledge acquisition, narrative skills, interpersonal skills, and personal development (Chung 2013; Daniau, 2016; Kirginias, 2022; Orr et al., 2020; York et al., 2019).

With this background in mind, I’ve developed a rules-light one-page Discord RPG heavily inspired by the incredible work of Grant Howitt, John Harper, and particularly Will Jobst. The rules can be found in the following documents.

Background Text PDF

WEIR-Describing-Communication-TechnologiesDownload

Rules Set PDF

Rules-SetDownload

Combined PDF

WEIR-Describing-Communication-Technologies-Combined-1Download

References

Apperley, T., & Walsh, C. (2012). What digital games and literacy have in common: A heuristic for understanding pupils’ gaming literacy. Literacy (Oxford, England), 46(3), 115-122. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-4369.2012.00668.x

Campbell, H., & Madsen, A. (2021). Nothing like a good fiasco! exploring the potential of tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs) as literacy experiences. Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education, 12(2)

Chen, H., & Wu, C. (2023). A digital role-playing game for learning: Effects on critical thinking and motivation. Interactive Learning Environments, 31(5), 3018-3030. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2021.1916765

Chung, T. (2013). Table-top role playing game and creativity. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 8, 56-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2012.06.002

Cook, M. P., Gremo, M., & Morgan, R. (2017). We’re just playing: The influence of a modified tabletop role-playing game on ELA students’ in-class reading. Simulation & Gaming, 48(2), 199-218. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046878116684570

Cullinan, M. (2024). Surveying the perspectives of middle and high school educators who use role-playing games as pedagogy. International Journal of Role-Playing, (15), 127-141. https://doi.org/10.33063/ijrp.vi15.335

Cullinan, M. & Genova, J. (2023). Gaming the systems: A component analysis framework for the classroom use of RPGs. International Journal of Role-Playing, (13). https://doi.org/10.33063/ijrp.vi13.305

Daglow, D. (1988). Over the river and through the woods: The changing role of computer game designers. Computer Gaming World, (50),18. https://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/cgw_50.pdf

Daniau, S. (2016). The transformative potential of role-playing games: From play skills to human skills. Simulation & Gaming, 47(4), 423-444. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046878116650765

Dickey, M. D. (2007). Game design and learning: A conjectural analysis of how massively multiple online role-playing games (MMORPGs) foster intrinsic motivation. Educational Technology Research and Development, 55(3), 253-273. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-006-9004-7

Hosch, W. L. (2024, April 11). Dungeons & Dragons. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dungeons-and-Dragons

Jamshidifarsani, H., Tamayo-Serrano, P., Garbaya, S., Lim, T., & Blazevic, P. (2019). Integrating self-determination and self-efficacy in game design. In M. Gentile, M. Allegra & H. Söbke (Eds.), Games and learning alliance (pp. 178-190). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11548-7_17

Kirginas, S. (2022). Improving students’ narrative skills through gameplay activities: A study of primary school students. Contemporary Educational Technology, 14(2), ep351. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/11526

Orr, M., King, S., & McGonnell, M. (2020). A qualitative exploration of the perceived social benefits of playing table-top role-playing games. International Journal of Role-Playing, (10), 70-83. https://doi.org/10.33063/ijrp.vi10.277

Porter, G. (1995). Where we’ve been, where we’re going. Inter*Action (1). https://web.archive.org/web/20110629093643/http://www.rpg.net/oracle/essays/wherewevebeen.html

Roll20. (2024). A complete tabletop for D&D and more. Roll20. https://roll20.net/

York, J., deHaan, J., & Hourdequin, P. (2019). It’s your turn: EFL teaching and learning with tabletop games. In H. Reinders, S. Ryan & S. Nakamura (Eds.), Innovation in language teaching and learning (pp. 117-139). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12567-7_7

Wizards of the Coast. (2024). D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond. https://www.dndbeyond.com/

Zou, D., Zhang, R., Xie, H., & Wang, F. L. (2021). Digital game-based learning of information literacy: Effects of gameplay modes on university students’ learning performance, motivation, self-efficacy and flow experiences. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 37(2), 152-170. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.6682

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Tasks

Task 12: Speculative Futures 

Prompt

Describe or narrate a scenario about a beverage found a decade into a future in which a profound historical evolution has occurred. Your description should address issues related to artificial intelligence and elicit feelings of hope.

I set a timer for 4 minutes initially, then did another 4 minutes for my initial writing just because I was enjoying myself. From there I generated some add-ons using Suno.AI, Adobe Firefly, and Microsoft Copilot and then reflected on the process.

Response

This beverage is completely personalized, as your self-hosted AI assistant has access to exhaustive data about your preferences, needs, and sodium levels. It’s different depending on your context and comes from a self-managing reusable container that you carry with you. After the proliferation of AI assistants, open source alternatives have saturated the market meaning you can self-host and manage your own AI assistant, comfortable that your data isn’t being sold to a third party, and that your assistant prioritizes you and your needs above the needs of advertisers.

The beverage is made from raw materials that are shipped to individual households. These raw materials are used by the AutoChef to either create meals or your own ingredients if you prefer to make your own food. Just like AI assistants, AutoChef used to be a brand but has since genericized to be a catch-all label for the hacked together and self-hosted variety of AI enabled material processing systems that exist on an individual household or small community level.

While there was efficiency gains to be had by the centralized cloud hosting model of the internet in the early 2020s, it was determined that the rebound effect meant that companies were gobbling up any efficiency gains in an attempt to analyze more and more data to better understand their audiences. Consumers rejected that model after waves of cloud hosted service outages and have returned to a more fractured self-hosting model for many day-to-day services. It’s less efficient but the overall use of compute has dropped globally due to the many overall lifestyle changes that came about because of the disappearance of artificially cheapened cloud computing.

This overall trade off – less efficiency in exchange for less overall compute has been reflected by all facets of society – humanity does less, works less, and consumes less.

AI Brew Artifacts

Reflection

I was inspired mostly by Smyth et al. (2021) and their description of future past speculations – specifically Futurama. Visions of the future designed specifically around products and not people make my head spin. Harari (2017) speaks of possibilities enabled by the AI revolution. I’m tired of reading how the AI revolution will enable humanity to focus on more creative forms of work – did that happen with the spinning jenny? Did we find ourselves luxuriating in the countryside, reclining in creative idleness? The universal basic income (UBI) project in Ontario that Harari references has already been spun down (Ontario, 2018) even though respondents “consistently reported improvements in their health, housing situation, financial status, family relations, and labour market experiences” (Ferdosi et al., 2020, p.6). 95.5% of respondents reported the cancellation of this pilot forced them to abandon or place on hold their life plans (Ferdosi et al., 2020, p.60). Federosi et al.’s (2020) reporting is limited because the team that was created to evaluate the impact of the UBI pilot was disbanded at the same time the pilot was prematurely ended.

I am exhausted of futures envisioned around the structure of consumption, and growth. The most hopeful message that I can think of now is a world of less.

References

Harari, Y. N. (2017). Reboot for the AI revolution. Nature (London), 550(7676), 324-327. https://doi.org/10.1038/550324a

Ferdosi, M., McDowell, T., Lewchuk, W., & Ross, S. (2020). Southern Ontario’s basic income experience. McMaster University. https://labourstudies.socsci.mcmaster.ca/documents/southern-ontarios-basic-income-experience.pdf

Ontario. (August 31, 2018). Ontario’s government for the people announces compassionate wind down of basic income research project. Ontario Newsroom. https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/49980/ontarios-government-for-the-people-announces-compassionate-wind-down-of-basic-income-research-project

Smyth, M., Auger, J., & Helgason, I. (2021). Echoes of futures past – Speculations and fictions from history. In I. Mitroic, J. Auger, J. Hanna, I. Helgason (Eds.), Beyond speculative design: Past present future (pp.24- 67). SpeculativeEdu; Arts Academy, University of Split.

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Tasks

Task 10: Attention Economy

This feels right in my wheelhouse, to be honest. I was a web designer and developer for ten years – lovingly crafting dark, medium, and light patterns of my own. The Golden Rule as I saw it was:

  1. Make it easiest for the user to do what you want them to do

This all hinges on you knowing what you want the user to do and being effective in the interventions you make to guide them through your ideal process with little time, effort, or thought required on their part.

This game really was a delight – every trick, every deceitful button, every pattern that has ever bothered me felt like it was represented. Alphabetical order month drop-down, check. Age slider, check. Select/unselect all buttons buried in a list, check. My personal favorite, and one that I see contravened in genuine interfaces all across the big beautiful web is: the button on the right doesn’t go ‘forward’ in the process. Check!

Thinking about advertising and these dark patterns got me thinking about Zalewski’s 2009 US Patent US8246454B2 or the infamous “say McDonalds to end commercial” patent.

The “embodiment” (Zalewski, 2009) of advertising in this patent takes things a step further in that it demands a physical interaction, instead of racing “to the bottom of the brain stem” (Harris, 2017) to influence thoughts before they would become movement. I wonder if the reason that we haven’t seen as much embodied advertising is because the techniques that Harris addresses in his TED talk are just that much more effective.

Harris’ (2017) note of “technology is not neutral” was a standout for me from the TED Talk (Is it ironic that the video of his talk auto-played when I visited the TED site looking for citation information as, in another tab, he talked about market share and the effectiveness of auto-playing videos?). His view of a Facebook that guides users into the best use of their time reflects his own values and circumstances in a distinctly non-neutral way. His example of dinner at home with friends to have controversial conversations is only possible when you live in a location where others can physically attend, when you have the time, energy, and funds to host people, and when you have friends that you can have controversial conversations with. His own vision of best-case scenario completely disregards the advantages of an online platform itself – low cost, asynchronous, geographically diverse connections. I’m not sure that I have a point beyond both agreeing and disagreeing with Harris – technology is not neutral, and neither is your own vision of a best-case scenario.

Tufecki’s (2017) TED Talk also engages with advertising interventions happening and working startlingly well for reasons we don’t fully understand. I’ve honestly thought for some time that when speakers say things like “we don’t fully understand” why machine learning algorithms arrive at certain conclusions, they were really saying “I don’t fully understand”. I’m realizing with creeping horror that maybe “we” actually don’t understand fully. For example, I have a difficult, if not impossible, time reconciling the idea that I could deploy a chatbot directly to students that would effectively sum up lectures and provide individualized tutoring to many students at the cost of some who are led on a wild goose chase by hallucinations. At the same time, here we are, living in a world that increasingly appears to be based on just that sort of model where we’ve bet it all on vaguely understood technologies that work great for reasons unknown.

References

Harris, T. (April 2017). How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day. TED Talk. https://www.ted.com/talks/tristan_harris_how_a_handful_of_tech_companies_control_billions_of_minds_every_day?subtitle=en

Tufekci, Z. (2017). We’re building a dystopia just to make people click on ads. TED Talk. https://www.ted.com/talks/zeynep_tufekci_we_re_building_a_dystopia_just_to_make_people_click_on_ads?subtitle=en

Zalewski, G. (2009). System for converting television commercials into interactive networked video games (US Patent No. 8246454B2). US Patent and Trademark Office. https://patents.google.com/patent/US8246454B2/en

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Tasks

Task 9: Network Assignment Using Golden Record Curation Quiz Data 

This song selection visualization shows our selections as an unweighted network. “Within networks, how connected an individual node is becomes a key metric of its significance within the network”, so how commonly selected a Golden Record song could be interpreted as that song’s significance (Systems Innovation, 2015). However, I think this type of data visualization does not articulate qualitative selection factors. For example, while we were all ultimately curating a selection of the songs on the Golden Record, there was no unifying approach to how we ranked them so it’s difficult for me to determine just what conclusions we could raise from this data set.    

Before thinking more about drawing conclusions, I thought of investigating the data. It appears that Shannon Wong, Stephanie Takeda, Abdulehed Yarkin and I each had five selections in common so their criteria compared to mine might provide an interesting vector to approach this data from.  

Palladio filtered to show just the selections of Stephanie Takeda, Shannon Wong, Abdulehed Yarkin, and Brie Weir

I looked at Shannon’s webspace and saw that we did not use a similar sorting mechanism to curate our lists as they worked off geographical representation as a sorting structure (Wong, 2024). Stephanie and I came at this task completely at odds – they note “my decisions were primarily based on criteria other than personal preference” which is at direct opposition with how I just selected based on my own preference (Takeda, 2024). Abdulehed and I were on a somewhat similar approach– as part of their sorting algorithm Abdulehed ranked pieces with higher emotional impact as higher (Yarkin, 2024). While I didn’t take that exact approach there’s more common ground there than with Stephanie and Shannon’s approaches. 

After exploring the posts of those I had a lot in common with I wondered if I could filter the visualization to show me who I didn’t have anything in common with. Filtering by “source” gave me another vector to play with the data. It appears I have a selection in common with everyone in the class, but Tina Wei and I are the least networked – only “Dark was the Night” joins our curated lists together. What I found funny about this is that “Dark was the Night” is my far away favorite track on the list!

the Palladio filtered to only show Tina Wei and Brie Weir's selections

I read Tina’s post about selection criteria and our algorithm did have much more in common than the criteria of the colleagues that I had more selections in common with. Tina and I both leaned into the subjective and made selections without a logically consistent selection framework (Wei, 2024).  

I find myself again thinking about Linda Salzman Sagan’s reference to the “ridiculous and the sublime” when selecting songs for the Golden Record (Taylor, 2019). Those who I have selections in common with, I don’t have criteria in common with. Those who I don’t have selections in common with, I do have criteria in common with! It’s getting muddier and muddier for me to try and draw conclusions from this data.

the Palladio filtered to only show the most popularly selected songs

Looking for another way through, I filtered to find the most popular tracks. Melancholy Blues and Johnny B. Goode are the most selected songs with 16 students selecting them. Does that reflect the dominant mode of cultural production in our contexts, or personal taste, or are these just objectively the best songs to represent humanity to a new form of life?

Re-listening to Melancholy Blues (ugh, maybe I should have selected it) and scrolling through the YouTube comments I’m shocked that they are largely positive and happy, anticipating a new audience for Louis Armstrong, assured of the positive reception of this song, excited that Louis Armstrong’s work and output get to live on in space (Lunathicka, 2010). Another possible motivating factor for song selection enters the fray – not possible reception of the song, but some occult math that could be used to calculate how deserving the artist is of their work being preserved and shot into space. 

As an aside – I was driving back from Kelowna last weekend, baking in the heat, and talking to my husband about the original Golden Record task. We talked through what we would do if we had to do the Golden Record from scratch all over again. He’s adamant that the best approach would be to take most chart-topping hits from the last X number of years. I’m aghast at his suggestion, that what we can afford to lose is the already underrepresented voices, he argues that the point of the task is already accomplished by song popularity. Ultimately, we agree that the task leans into the absurd and that we’ll just have to approach it differently if either of us is called upon to curate Golden Record 2.  

So, after much looking around, poking and prodding, talking and arguing, I return to the original questions of the prompt. This visualization cannot capture why selections are made in this context; I think partially due to a lack of common decision-making algorithms. I believe there is an opportunity to collect additional data around the songs that were emphatically not selected – an inversion of the selection task where you eliminate songs may be an interesting way to make a contrasting data set from which you could draw conclusions around which songs are controversial or polarizing.  This type of visualization helps to articulate the quantitative but does not involve the qualitative which on a deeply individual task like Golden Record curation means the missing data has a deep impact on the conclusions that can be drawn.

References 

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