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). 

In today’s digital age, screens have become the primary medium through which information is presented and consumed. As a result, I thought this task would be easier than it was. I found I had to leave out huge amounts of detail so my description is just key words. In order to understand this story someone would have to be able to interpret both the literal meaning of some emojis and the symbolic meaning. “Words are (relatively) empty entities…This is the task we call interpretation, namely interpreting what sign the writer may have intended to make with this signifier” (Kress, 2005, pg 7). This became clear after trying to identify the meaning of my classmates emoji stories. I as the reader interpret the symbols by assigning them meaning based on the context, trying to decipher what the writer is intending. However, as Kress (2005) mentions, it is harder to interpret images which have so many more meanings than specific words. I found myself able to pick up on some phrases or have a decent idea what the show may be, however I could not decipher some plots. I relied on a combination of syllables, words, and ideas because there were not enough emojis to stick to only one of these strategies. I started with the title because I knew I would need to repeat these emojis often throughout the story and I quickly realized that I might have chosen a difficult show. Hopefully someone can identify it! The first and very important emoji is a bit blurry which also does not help…

Kress, G. (2005), Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, 2(1), 5-22. 

Overall this task was very humbling. I thought it would be an easy process however as evident through my potato (yam) printing it did not go well. First of all I did not have any potatoes so I was off to a tough start. I then didn’t have one large enough to write 5 letters…so I ended up with 3 which was challenging enough for me. It was challenging to create a precise line or outline the stamp. It actually took me over 30 minutes just to create the stamp. I am not a very patient person so it took a lot of will power to not switch to the other optional task and scrap the stamp altogether. The letters I chose had both straight lines and curves. Originally I thought the curves would be harder but the straight lines were no easier. The lowest point of the potato stamp creation was realizing I had not mirrored the image so it was legible once stamped, ultimately making my stamp useless.

It took me a lot of time and effort to create my 3 letter word it. This was upfront work that once I was printing paid off in efficiency. Now that I created that word I would not have to do it again therefore speeding up the mechanization of writing. It also standardized the print. As long as I had the same amount of paint on the stamp it always turned out essentially the same. This is beneficial in many ways however it also removes the creativity or personalization that handwriting has. This made me think about typing and its benefits to cursive writing. Easier to read regardless of who wrote it and more efficient. However, there is something so human and personal about receiving a cursive written note. I always feel this nostalgia when I read my grandmas old recipes. If these were typed they would not be the same. Overall, this assignment demonstrated the benefits of the mechanization of writing through a very simple task while highlighting some downfalls. A potato stamp or cursive writing not cannot be easily adjusted or changed. Does this mean that through mechanization and speed we are losing careful consideration and thoughtfulness of our words? I know if I had to create stamps to communicate through text, I would show extremely purposeful consideration for each and every word used.