Describe or narrate a scenario about a candy found a decade into a future in which society as we know it has come apart. Your description should address issues related to the government and elicit feelings of alienation.

They say history repeats itself. Perhaps it is foolish to hope for this prophecy to come true. The past had problems too, however they seem so trivial in comparison to the present. 

These thoughts were prompted by the finding of a piece of candy- a red wrapper covered with colourful polka dots, reminiscent of a time a decade ago when positivity, hope, and connectedness were abundant. The strawberry flavor floods me with the lost feeling of belonging. After a few minutes that feeling melts away leaving me with the bland taste of reality. One where political polarization has destroyed the world as we knew it. With so much distrust in government and the overwhelming growth of fake news, people have lost the ability to see outside of their own algorithms and biases. Political divides fragmented into millions of subgroups across the globe destroying political party lines, boarders, and societal norms. Centralized governments are a thing of the past. Conspiracy theories have officially gotten out of control and those with opposing views are treated harshly as enemies. A feeling of every community for themselves is evident, and the resource battle has begun.

Although people are part of communities with those that reinforce their same beliefs, a greater feeling of isolation from society as a whole persists. Micro communities fighting for survival amongst the greater population. But are others views really that different? At this point, there is no one who would risk exploring or discussing for fear of the dire repercussions. Those in power in these communities would rather maintain control than risk losing supporters to opposing camps. What was once a grouping of commonality is feeling more like one of control and conformity.

As I hold this candy wrapper, its colors bringing back painful memories, it acts as a reminder of unity lost to polarization and distrust. Yet, could this candy be a symbol of resilience? Perhaps history will repeats itself and life could become full of polka dots of positivity, hope, and  connectedness once again.

The first thing I noticed is that my name seemed to have many connections to it. This could mean that my music choices were similar to others. I also noticed 2 songs on the outskirts of the visualization that had only 1 and 2 connections meaning they were not chosen by many. Looking into the metrics section I saw that many people were similar to me in thinking that Johnny B Goode was a great song as it received 16 and had the highest degree of connectivity along with Melancholy Blues. The fact that both of these songs had such strong connectivity indicates that the majority of people in this course may be North American. Or it could indicate how prolific American culture and music is across the globe. I know I found it hard to remove one of these songs to make room for another because they were so familiar to me.

When looking at the groupings of responses it was not possible to capture the reasons behind these choices. In my group (0) there were 4 of us. There were many songs that only one person had selected and there were some many of us selected. Because of this I do not think it was based on musical taste or even a similar song selection process. I do not think it is possible for the visualization to capture the ‘why’ behind each person’s choices.

These visualizations do not capture the reasons for why people did not choose certain music. These null choices could be influenced by many things such as culture, exposure, and personal preference. They also assume similarity based on our music selections when really we are all so different and probably made these selections based off of different motivations or rationale. Additionally, the null choices may represent cultures that are underrepresented. The fact that 2 American songs had the highest connectivity show how this could be perpetuated in other ways through the web. This is a good reminder that drawing conclusions about people based off of data, especially when so limited, it is problematic. This quantitative rather than qualitative data can allow for stereotyping and generalization, bias, and misinterpretation. 

1. “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
2. Bach, “Gavotte en rondeaux” from the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux. 2:55
3. Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38 (mostly vocals)
4. Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow. 2:30 (instrumental)
5. Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
6. Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18
7. Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor. 4:35
8. “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
9. Bulgaria, “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin,” sung by Valya Balkanska. 4:59
10. Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14

I started by reading the list of songs. I immediately highlighted Johnny B Goode and moved it to the top of my list. This is such a classic and from one of my favourite movies. I then continued going through each song and identifying where in the world they were from. I wanted to have representation from as many countries as possible. I would have included all of the Bach and Beethoven however I didn’t think I should. I also wanted to have some instrumental with varying instruments and some lyrical. I will admit that once I felt I had at least half from across the world I then went with my personal preference and which songs stuck out to me most. In this case, Abby Rumsy seems spot on that what is archived or chosen to be kept is in fact arbitrary. I chose based on little criteria or logic and therefore I am sure no one in our course has curated the same 10 songs.

Music from Earth.Links to an external site. (n.d.). NASA.

Rumsey, A. (2017) Abby Smith Rumsey: ‘Digital memory: What can we afford to lose?’, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBrahqg9ZMc (Accessed: 07 July 2024).