Author: sacree

Working with data such as the selections made in this assignment can be quite insightful. It can also be one-dimensional if you take the numbers at face value and use them to draw simple conclusions. Considering why selections are made, and examining reasons for the selections allow for greater depth of usefulness and findings. A simple look at numbers does not necessarily allow for proper interpretation as intentions and procedural steps are not considered. These additional factors make the data much more relevant and impactful. 

Examining the data in Palladio was quite interesting regardless of limitations. The cloud created with all the data was intriguing, if somewhat overwhelming, and admittedly it took me a while to realize that one could drag around the points for different looks. In the meantime I peered at the graph, noting which of my peers was closest to me, which ones I seemed to share selections with, and which ones were more divergent from my own selections. As I progressed, I began to manipulate the graph for alternative views.

First, I selected the first modularity. This graph limited the data to five individuals who, I presume, shared more characteristics. I could now pick out the individuals, and trace their musical selections, noting commonalities and differences. My own quiz results happened to place me in this group, which made the data more personal and interesting. With a little bit more tinkering, I could make it even more user-friendly.

By moving individuals to one side, and musical pieces to the other, I found myself more able to identify tracks, assess common selections, and take note of unique choices. I took the arrangement one step further.

This arrangement was very informative. It allowed for an easy view of common selections and also allowed me to note which musical tracks were unique to individuals in this group. Individuals had 1-2 tracks that they alone selected, while they shared 8-9 tracks with individuals in this group. No track had all 5 individuals select it, which I found very interesting. I also found myself wondering if the unique selections had individuals choose them who were placed in other groups, or data sets. Indeed, when I looked at the data as a whole again, I found that my 2 unique tracks had 4 to 5 of my peers select them, however, they were placed into other groupings.

I wanted to consider Palladio graphs with different data, so I selected the fifth grouping. With only three individuals in the grouping, this data visualization is much easier on the eyes, and one can easily identify some differences from the other data group. In this grouping, individuals have 3 unique track selections, and 3 of the tracks have been selected by all of the individuals. I wonder why this is a different characteristic than I observed in the first group?

Conclusions:

It is easy to see the connections between individuals who are placed in the same groupings, or modularities. It would be much more helpful to be able to host an interview and explore both why selections were made, and why we did not select some of the tracks. I believed the Pygmy Girls Initiatl Song to be important, for instance, and that it helped create a widespread representation. So why did the individuals in my group not believe the same? Was it assumed to be unimportant because the Pygmies are not considered leaders in our modern world? This judgment and assumption of bias may not be true at all, yet a data set like this allows for these potential misinterpretations to be made.

While this data is fascinating and produces evidence of trends and differing values, it is simply incomplete without the valuation and insertion of the human element, and the reasons both for and against making certain selections.

References:

Stanford. (2014) Palladio. hdlab. https://hdlab.stanford.edu/palladio-app/#/upload

What a fascinating action – curating 27 pieces to send out to any life form that may be out there. This is a first impression, a first contact, and an invitation to judge and to interact. The pieces included in the golden record represent the people of this planet and act as advertisements and encyclopedia entries for this planet.

In curating the list down to 10, I considered the following criteria.

• The selection of songs should be representative of the diverse population of our world, as inclusive as possible.
• The selection of songs should demonstrate the progress and evolution of the art form over time.
• The selection of songs should be stylistically diverse, representing the multi-faceted art form that music is, not just regionally, but also represented in the personal preferences of this planet’s people.

My curated list includes:

1. Wedding song – Peru
2. Tchakrulo – Choir – Georgia
3. Morning Star and Devil Bird- Australia
4. Melancholy Blues-L Armstrong&HisHotSeven
5. Zaire, Pygmy girls’ initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull
6. Johnny B Goode – Chuck Berry
7. Jaat Kahan Ho – India – Surshr
8. Flowing Streams – China
9. Bach, Brandenburg no 2, part 1
10. Beethoven 5th, part 1, Otto Klemperer

As I completed my list, I sought to include a song from each of the continents and included a variety of musical styles and periods. The Australian piece, for instance, will date from significantly earlier than some of the other pieces. I was prone to include pieces that utilized voices, a piece of humanity that can be heard. Instruments are hugely important, and demonstrate an incredible art form, but actual human voices cannot be replaced by technology.

As I redesigned the task, I tried to think about this in two ways. First, what is a new mode that utilizes technology, stretches my skills a little bit, and provides an engaging way for other to view the assignment? Second, what is a slight adjustment to the task that creates an altered view, even if that view is just from a bit of a different angle?

I selected Animaker and created a short video. There is some time investment, and it took me quite a while to create this minute and half piece to re-examine the image of what was in my bag.

The slightly altered view I selected was that of a geographical journey – an analysis of the setting. In addition to a simple narrative of self, an examination of literacies and temporal periods, I examined most of the objects in light of where the possessor had to journey in order to obtain them. If an investigator were to map the subject’s movements, where would they have to go to retrace the subject’s steps?

Mode-changing is beneficial for this altered perspective. One can take the same image, and the same objects, and add to the overall story by examining them in a different light with a different intention. This is a beneficial practice for many things and many situations in our lives.

I would absolutely have enjoyed doing a longer video and analysis, however in this case the time and effort needed to be limited for me.

Enjoy!

In taking on this surprising and interesting task, my eyes were opened to the benefits and limitations of emojis as text to convey messages. I did not select the work because it would be easy, I actually selected the last work of cinematography that I enjoyed. On the nights when I need to stay up later than my family to work on meeting a deadline, I sometimes have the TV on to keep me company with something that I know well. The voices help me stay alert, but the familiarity with the plotline makes sure that my attention is not grabbed by the visual.

I started with the title, and I did so because I think it is essential to identify the show and the genre to understand the plotline. I fear it would be nonsensical otherwise. If the title is understood, then the rest of the symbols may fall into place rather than raising eyebrows.

As I related the plot, I relied entirely on big ideas, characters, and actions. I did not utilize syllables at all. The plot has been reduced to quite a basic summary – in fact, I imagine more of a description that would appear on Netflix or a plot overview that may appear on Wikipedia. Certainly, there were a lot more plot details that would be explored using words than is demonstrated by the emojis, and those words would be necessary to communicate the intricacies of character interactions, the subtleties of facial expressions, and so forth. This is what I would describe as the challenges encountered when translating the plot into emojis. The limitations of the provided emojis mean that the artistry, subtlety, the depth of story telling is somewhat lost. 

Overall, what I found interesting about this activity is the reminder of the strength that comes with combining words and text. Emojis alone struggle to paint the whole picture, yet words alone in text messages can lead to misunderstandings as they may not convey tone and ultimate purpose. As Bolter wrote in 2000, graphic designers sought to demonstrate that the “combination of word and image offered an experience that was more authentic than the conventional printed page could offer alone.” With today’s integration of text and emojis in messaging between cell phone users, I suggest that they were correct in their pursuit of such a demonstration.

Reference:

Bolter, J. (2000). Writing Space : Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print: Vol. 2nd ed. Routledge.

For this task I used Speechnotes. I spoke it unscripted as asked, but this is a story that lives in our family lore and I’ve always wanted to write it up as a funny short story. A note of interest to me is that my dictation took over five minutes, but reading it back was notably less time. The act of storytelling was a thoughtful process that led to a slower pace. My analysis follows the transcription.

The Speechnotes Transcription:

So our family likes to go camping. My wife and I have done it right from the beginning of our time together, but when we had kids things changed. I was told there would be no more tent camping, and that a trailer would be necessary. So number of years ago we bought ourselves a little trailer and begin to Camp with our kids. We realize quick quickly that things change a lot when children are involved, and we began to take more stuff along. Once our kids were old enough, this definitely included bicycles 

Now bringing bikes is not easy, especially when you have a small trailer and a small vehicle like we do. But I began carefully loading bikes into the trailer, always conscious of how I packed it in such a way that it wouldn’t damage but was inside. It was really awkward, a long time to set up when we got there and to load up before we left. 

So I came up with a solution. I went on Amazon, ordered a bumper mounted hitch. I had this vision of the bikes riding along, enough the back of our trailer, which would mean easier loading, your setup, and less potential for damage. It was delivered, yep, again to follow the instructions. If you know anything about me you know that I follow instructions. And these instructions were very specific about tightening the bolts and and balancing the hitch. And so I did so, animals both very specifically to a to the proper weight, done I stood back and I was pretty pleased with myself. I loaded on those bikes, off we went to our favorite camping spot. We love camping outside Nelson BC, goonies are a wonderful place to be, I know it’s a bit of a drive, worth it to us. That week it was beautiful and hot. Never before had we cancel so long, going to stay for 8 Days, which we knew would really stretch the resources of our trailer. But it was a wonderful, waxing time in our family built some great memories. We spent the week playing in the lake, paddle boarding, exploring the area, enjoying the different culture that Nelson offered. We enjoyed our time with friends, laugh a lot, and really did not worry about much. It was about as perfect the time as we could have had as a family.

I’m about the 6th day, daughter came out of the trailer and said something very concerning. She said, daddy, toilet won’t flush! My stomach dropped. With some urgency, I went into the trailer and take a peek. Sure enough, the toilet tank was filled right to the brim. With urgency I told my family no more using the toilet. And we did pretty good for the last couple of days, as we enjoyed our time and got ready to leave. 

The day of our departure I drove ever so carefully to the Sandy dump. I did not want anything splashing around, it’s very eager to empty that trailer and get it on the road. It was already hot, my family was waiting for me at the visitor center, and I had to wait in line for a little while. My turn I pulled up to the pump, walked around, and began to pull out the hose. With a clunk, it got stuck and would not come out of the bumper. With a mounting sense of horror, I realized that the tightening of the hitch on the bumper it squeezed it enough that the hose, rather the fitting on the end of the hose, could not slide past that tight Point. What was I going to do? I thought for a minute.

There was a lineup of other families waiting to empty the trailer so they can get on the road, and asking to borrow somebody else’s sanyo’s clearly does not fit within the realm of normal. I thought fast, the sweat coming now. Then I remembered that in the trailer was my son’s hockey stick. We had played with it throughout the week, and maybe it could help. I ran around and pulled it out, before taking it back to the bumper. Using it like a ramrod, like Mom comes troops on the plains of Abraham. I began to batter at the hose in the bumper. I was sweating as if the British troops were bearing down upon me. Once,, three times, many more, and suddenly those shot out of the bumper onto the far side of the trailer. Did you an awful lot of attention. 

But it was out. I calmly walked around the trailer, pick those up off the ground, connected everything and took care of business as if nothing unusual had just happened. I may have even smiled and waved at the guy waiting behind me. I managed to do my Sandy dump, and I went to pick up my family. My wife irritably climbed in looked at me and asked why did it take so long? Never mind I said let’s go I’ll tell you later.

Analysis:

As I look over the text, I note that it is much more conversational than conventional written English in several ways. For instance, I began sentences with words like “so” and “now”, a practice that I would certainly comment on in my students’ written assignments. My paragraphs are not structured with a statement, evidence, and explanation as they might be in a more formal piece of writing, rather the paragraphs are divided according to the pauses in my storytelling. Other notable deviations include the lack of quotation marks for verbal sections

What is “right” in the text is the feel of it, the light-hearted effort at entertainment. Overlooking any of the “wrong”, or any mistakes, the text communicates a sense of authorship to tell a good story. With some tinkering, the text could be entertaining enough to evoke a smile. 

What stands out as “wrong” is closely tied to the mistakes in the text. This was a story that referenced locations such as the Kootenays, and Speechnotes struggled to recognize those identifiers. It also had difficulties with terms that were camping-specific, such as “Sani-hose” and “Sani-dump”, and simply replaced them with words that do not make sense in context. I found it interesting that Speechnotes made mistakes such as word tenses, missing words, and added words. It made the mistake of simply placing words it believed I said rather than inserting them with adherence to grammar, sentence structure, and basic understanding. I find myself wondering how much it will change as they begin to utilize AI to make these corrections.

If I had scripted the text, I would have read with a more regular pace, avoiding repetition and pauses, and likely speaking with greater clarity. This would have provided Speechnotes with a source that would have been easier to transcribe. 

Oral stories are made to be heard with the expression, and the character of the speaker. More than just words, oral storytelling is the complete personalized package of the storyteller. The meaning is not found entirely in the words, and the words may be less powerful or even incorrect in written form. Written storytelling must be well-structured, and “correct” in its conventions to avoid distracting from the narrative and the purpose. While the personality of the storyteller is critical to a meaningful and enjoyable story, written stories place that personality in the minds of the reader. Different readers will have different interpretations, feelings, and responses based on the manner in which they interpret the written words.

This was an enlightening and interesting experience. Based on this, I look forward to experimenting more with dictation technology.