Dr Joolz: Snapshotz on Life

Please note change of address

2007-09-17T13:04:00.000Z

I moved a while back but did accidentally post here in this old space a few times ...

I am now updating here

Please update your blogrolls (sorry).

C Dragon

2007-07-30T16:30:00.000Z

Amazing new software being demonstrated via YouTube video.

Watch it and be amazed ... (forgive the geeky delivery and the BMW ad at the start and end)... but this is the spiel that goes with it:

Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation. Its architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, shows it off in this standing-ovation demo. Curious about that speck in corner? Dive into a freefall and watch as the speck becomes a gargoyle. With an unpleasant grimace. And an ant-sized chip in its lower left molar. "Perhaps the most amazing demo I've seen this year," wrote Ethan Zuckerman, after TED2007. Indeed, Photosynth might utterly transform the way we manipulate and experience digital images.

The End of the World

2007-07-24T12:21:00.000Z

You should definitely watch this. (It only takes a minute.)

And pretend you are from California.

(Took this photo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn NYC April 2006. Looks like the end of the world. This is now luxury apartments.)

moving ever moving

2007-06-15T12:19:00.000Z

Find me updating here.

Image courtesy the lovely Rosa.

my new picture

2007-02-20T21:19:00.000Z

In trying to find out why on earth I can't upload an image to my template I have discovered I can still get an image into a blog post.

I have moved here

2006-06-12T08:55:00.000Z

The blog is now here.

Huevos

2006-06-09T11:42:00.000Z

Huevos
Originally uploaded by S3rgio.

Recording moments from the everyday

BLog is here now

2006-04-21T13:27:00.000Z

Yes just click here. It will take you to the new blog .....

I think I am about to move here

2006-04-12T11:07:00.000Z

Here

Labelling(and getting the measure of) the world

2006-04-12T08:38:00.000Z

At the weekend I went to two Flickr meets.

Firstly met Moufle from NYC who came into London; she was joined by Bingo Little and .danimal from Bristol, as well as .Danny from Cambridge. Quite a brigade . We had lunch in Bloomsbury and took a little walk down to Shoreditch where we went to the Eagle on City Road. (See its mention in this nursery rhyme here.)
There we met the London Flickr group and did half their walk with them. (We left early as had to do other stuff).
It was grand to meet people and cemented the idea that while it is great to communicate on a global scale there is never anythung quite so humane as being in aface to face situation.
On Sunday we had our own Sheffield Flickrmeet in The Showroom. It ws our fourth meeting and a couple of new people came along which is good. We voted on the winer of the Cathedral shot competition and have set up a series of new projects. We are also planning an exhibition of our work and want to show it somewhere central. Bristol have done something similar. It is interesting again that while we enjoy the mixing on a global scale we relish the idea of meeting new people in our locality ... all people we would never otherwise have come into conatct with. Fascinating. (However there are those who do NOT come to the meets and so we cannot run far with that idea.)

And finally, in checking out arrangements for when we go to NYC in a couple of weeks, we found that the New York group is using Wayfarer to show aspects of their city as they see it. I love this idea of bringing a personal perspective on the maps available and labelling the world in this manner. You add a photo and a description to a wayfarer map. This is Niznoz's work .. must have taken him ages. (Small world, Niznoz is Moufle's cousin.) TT also had a go here.

We have come a long way since the ol metaphysicals drew up maps and discovered the world was round .. but that really was quite a discovery!

Here is Moufle:

and here are TT and Little Bingo (thankfully in the controlled zone):

Oh yes. One more thing ... I got chucked out of a Flickr group today ... have yet to discover why. Now I am over the trauma (do I look like I care?) I am amused by all this and must consult Iona and Peter to check out why some kids on the playground feel compelled to set up rules so that they have hardly anyone left to play with... (the group has gone down to only 8 members now - from loads and loads)

Semiotic saturates

2006-04-10T18:49:00.000Z

From Tampen we have familiar looking exotic images:

The images are ones I would expect to be able to see in many locations in my home town.

While the exotic exotic images today come from Rigamarole:

I would not expect to be able to see these scenes anywhere in the UK.

So the first two, taken by Tampen of his daughter, show me somethng from my everyday world but with the feel of the exotic - they are richly semiotic. And the second two photos show us Rigmarole's images from Bombay. These are sights which belong to 'other people's' everyday experiences and are probably mundane to them, but unfamiliar to me. I think that both the pairs of photos show us images which are 'strongly cultural'; they seem more heavily saturated with semiotic stuff than many other images from the same culture may have been. They tell me all sorts of things about how life goes on, values etc. That is to say the images say so many things about the culture from which they come and I think that this is why I find both pairs very powerful.

I like the way I can see such a rich cultural mix of images on Flickr, and looking at the images side by side like this, we can see the primitive roots of aspects of western fashion. Photographs from less technologically advanced countries are the ones which seem the most exotic and 'othered' on Flickr however. i think this must be because they are mainly (but not exclusively) brought to Flickr by people from technologically advanced cultures. This is 'the norm' of the Flickr perspective.

Gum blondes

2006-04-07T19:19:00.000Z

Click on gum blondes in the title and you will see art work made of chewing gum.

we have bananas

2006-04-07T08:48:00.000Z

here in san fran sheffield:

in here:

and in here.

Not quite the same as san fran. Hope you are having a lovely time drk.

If you are a teenage boy

2006-04-06T20:26:00.002Z

or if there is a teenage boy near you, you could do worse than clicking here as it will make the teenage boy laugh a lot. (You have to watch an episode)
If you are a witness to this event, you will laugh too as you will see what teenage boys are really like.
And if you are the teenage boy then you will be happy too.

Otherwise.

I am sorry to have disturbed you.

(Grrrrrrrr!!!!!!)

Knox Salad Book: To Market...

2006-04-05T20:57:00.000Z

Knox Salad Book: To Market...
Originally uploaded by wardomatic.

this is for Jennifer. Inspiration ... as if she needs it!!

Flickr in the classroom

2006-04-05T11:35:00.000Z

If I were a teacher in school I would use Flickr a lot. (CB has been doing stuff with his kids - see here.)

At first I might have to make photos accessible only to those who were part of the class - and maybe their parents, to get them 'on side'. In fact I think I would have a Flickr evening to show them how to do it all). That's for starting off when people are scared and go on about weird stuff like having your identity/soul stolen.

For some projects I would invite a teacher from elsewhere to involve her class - and then do a joint project on say - 'places I like to go' or 'interesting angles of everyday life and objects' or 'guess what this is?' type stuff. Or whatever. They could then all be 'friends and family' and see the photos but others may not. (This would be in the run up to going totally public with the photos.) This activity would be great as a way of making tentative online links etc but mainly just fun and would make the kids look more carefully at the images if they were from another class.

Eventually my projects would all be public and we would see if we got comments from everywhere. (But I would tell other teachers to have a look and see if I could get their kids involved in commenting. A bit of off line coercian in other words.)

I would be interested in doing things like:

Getting the kids to produce a narrative with five separate shots.
Asking the kids to look at different pages on Flickr to get ideas for groups and sets. Ask them to set up sets themselves which the whole class could try to contribute to. Talk with them about the affect of bringing together lots of photos with similarities. I would ask them ' What are we learning about people?' 'What can we learn about ourselves?''What choices do people make when they take a photo`?' 'What do we think about the choices people make?' (Cultural stuff; stuff to do with visuals).
Use the notes function to get kids to label stuff in a photo a bit like this. The kids from another class could look at them and could be encouraged to comment (nicely of course.) on the stuff each other is showing. They can ask questions; describe; offer information. Guy did a project where kids brought in stuff from home in shoeboxes. That would be good to get them to photograph a shoebox of their stuff and label it. I can't find his article (where is it Guy?) but this is another similar thing I guess:
Boxing clever: using shoeboxes to support home-school knowledge exchange by Greenhough, Pamela - Scanlan, Mary - Feiler, Anthony - Johnson, David - Yee, Wan
Ching - Andrews, Jane - Price, Alison - Smithson, Maggie - Hughes, Martin (from here.)
Get kids to look at titles across the Flickr site and give their own photos titles. Ask pupils to make suggestions through the comments facility for new titles for all the photos. The owner of the photo decides which is the best title and why.
Introduce them to tags. Show them the Flickr tag cloud and how you can search for photos. We could discuss what is popular and what is not. Get them to tag their own photos and to find particular tags. Make cultural comparisons about 'weddings', and even things like 'reading' .
Get kids to be photographers on sports day (yukky) and on trips out etc. They can then comment in captions giving recollections and memories.
Get kids to be photographers showing positive images of the school to show everyday life there.
Sets of photos showing a 'typical day' in their school life. Make comparisons. Get the kids to caption these and to comment on each others.
Gather photos of current events across the world or important places that may be relevant to other classroom work.
Look carefully at composition and framing. In a drama lesson get kids to produce freeze frames. Take photos from a range of angles and think about how the meanings may change.
Get them to look at Flickr toys and produce magazine covers of the magazine they would like to read themselves.
I would get them to look at the 'interestingness' pages and see if they agree that the photos are interesting.
We would have lots of conversations about images and what is missing from them (sound, moveent, words) and what you get 'extra' - opportunity to look again, see in detail, see in greater relief, use of different effects (photoshop).

I see here that Brooks and others have beaten me to a list like this, and I really like this bit on Edu-gadget:

The thing I like about getting images from flickr is the students can see that there are real people behind the images, not some generic, faceless website. Real people, like them, have created the pictures, shared them with everyone else, and usually only asked to be credited. There are all kinds of lessons to be taught in those actions.

Mister teacher has got a lot of excellent ideas here in his technorati stream.

Sorry Flickr

2006-04-04T16:47:00.000Z

but I just found a website with other new toys like this one:

and here:

I got the link here.

Following a trail

2006-04-04T10:17:00.000Z

from litrate's site took me here and here.
Blogs by people into literacy and digital stuff at that.
Also went over to the other side of the pond, to Day in the life and Flaneuse.

(Did I ever tell you how marvellous all the people were , who I met in Miami? Dana and Sarah are so funky and funny and clever. And DrKate will meet them here soon I guess. )

I would love to spend all day reading blogs and papers and writing.
Oh hang on a minute. That IS what I have done all day.
And now I fear for my schedule.

Before I hop off and get back down to it, let me say ...

I am really looking forward to going to this:

Digital cultures, informal learning and school practice

Wednesday 5 July 2006

Bishop Grosseteste College
Lincoln

where Vic Carrington will be talking about this image like this:

The ‘Trapped underground.jpg’: Why did this image become iconic?
In this presentation, I plan to use examples drawn from a range of digital technologies to explore what strikes me as two interesting social phenomena: the emergence of new forms of civic participation; and, shifts in our view of play and creativity. It seems to me that an exploration of these two currents might tell us something useful about the influence of digital technologies on the everyday life of our society and as a consequence, their significance for school-based literacy practices.

So clever. No wonder she is a professor.

I am not going to tell you what the other two papers are about. Of course they are VERY GOOD but you cannot include EVERYONE all of the time now, can you?

Domesticity on Flickr

2006-04-03T10:44:00.000Z

I am going to write something for a journal about representations of domesticity and the everyday on Flickr - which will feed into a paper I hope to present at a conference next January.

The abstract I sent off is this:

‘Slicing with Vinegar’: Online Enactments of the Domestic

Prior to the invention of digital cameras, amateur photographs depicting aspects of domestic life were always material artefacts traditionally reserved for restricted viewing within the confines of the home. Photographs representing ‘family life’ have been the most common type shown within the home, reflecting, highlighting, even shaping aspects of the lives from which they are drawn – often accumulating narratives of family identity within that domain (Hirsch, 2002; Kuhn, 1995).
Drawing on a study of a photosharing website (Flickr.com), this paper explores ways in which domestic life is represented and talked about through online screen based images, where traditional boundaries between the public and private spheres are being extended, challenged or eroded. The paper reflects on the presentation and subject of the images; the narratives around them, and at how new digital tools and practices are impacting on the ways in which we see and represent ourselves within the domestic setting. Third space theory (Soja, 1996) is invoked to explore aspects of the global/local practices on Flickr, and to reflect on the processes of online social learning, with particular reference to the domestic.

So that is what I want to present about for the conference but I want to write a fuller paper for a journal. Here are a few examples of the kind of thing I am interested in:

Every day aspects of life dignified, or made arty here. This is a kind of home as museum approach. Cultural studies stuff. This is in fact from 'The New Domesticity group' which describes itself like this: Domestic life has changed drastically in the past 50 years. What does your domestic life look like? Sewing, cooking, houseplants, crafts, aprons, I'd love to see photos of anything that fits into your domestic life. My hope is
to showcase a younger generation\'s style and shape of domesticity.
Another example of life as art is here and I notice that this photo is also in the set up shots/not quite a still life pool as well as the 'everyday life pool'. I love this kind of example which asks people to share in their life, with a descriptions saying, 'this is not about the photography but the content (apple pie).
In the kitchen allows people to show off their cooking a bit or again there is a kind of museum/cultural studies approach. And I love this which is also in the 'experimental' group. By looking at the cross sections of groups that people put their photos in, you get an idea of the intention behind the photo. Similarly the group: 'Domesticity: artful photos from around the house' concentrates on things looking good. Very self conscious presentations of identity in the images like this washing up one. or the pegs.
And here is a really interesting glimpse into habitual ways of living and cooking (with a bowl resting on a cheese grater.) Note the sets this photo is in - it is in one to do wth 'family' and one to do with travel. Here the associations run through strongly with family, holiday and food. I feel like this one is a bit less like a 'good house keepings' photo.
I love this one which gives me ideas of what to get for dinner. Here is a delicious meal. A million genre of cookbook and magazine can be seen here.
An insight into life alone from the apartment life group. There's a whole load of stuff to do with food issues again resonating here.
Hapakorean has been a contact of mine for a long ,long time and I saw the toddler in this photo from ultrasound shots even before he was born. HK documents the lives of her kids in detail and has just started enjoying vimeo. Here she has a movie of her son feeding his grandma 'numnums.' Just an episode of a few minutes showing the great American dream; the ideal family here with beautiful children and home. In addition I have traced through the story of how HK met her sister for the first time through Myspace. A lot revealed in these lives here through Flickr and HK has quite a following. Completely fascinating all this stuff as life moves seemlessly through the wrinkled binaries of life online and offline. (HK went to a Flickr meet a short while ago. )
Of course festivals like Christmas, weddings and Mother's day are all excellent areas for me to look at in terms of representations of the domestic. So far a quick glimpse shws me they display things carefully. Apart from this exceptional photo of a 'divorced grandparents' domestic'.
And so is 'what's in my cupboard?' , 'what's in your bag?' , 'inside your drawers', 'deskspace', fridge and so on.
I want of course to also look at representations of family other than the type HK has shown - which are really quite traditional despite the new medium. I find this a brave image - showing a choild looking pretty uncared for - but I am sure this is not so, it is just the presentation has not been 'cleaned up.'
I love the groups which try to emulate particular photographers. So this photo of a Dad and uncle (twin brothers) is in the Diane Arbus group. So the display is mediated through what is known about a photographer.
This one is presented like a social history display in a museum again, using artefcats of identity to represent something of character and time.
And also I want to look at the comments people are making, since this is often at least as revealing as the photo and more stuff is shown of the domestic through the comments quite often.

Lots of data huh? Whoever said that blogs were a waste of time?? I am finding a structure for this paper I think. And some questions.

I am wondering as I am looking at these photos whether the images themselves break down any boundaries? Are they pretty stereotypical of other photos we see in magazines? Family photos? Are we presenting family and domestic life in new ways? Or are the photos the same as they ever were? (Just more of them?) ... while the nature of Flickr is allowing new conversations and new insights into our lives? Hmm those are things I will think about. Maybe it is the community and the talk around the photos that are bringing in the new?

Shall I submit this article to Visual Communication or somewhere else?

For Rebekah!

2006-04-01T07:18:00.000Z

Happy Saturday!!

I think she means academics

2006-03-29T10:08:00.000Z

grownups
Originally uploaded by niznoz.

Gangsters' Grafitti versus taggers' art?

2006-03-28T18:26:00.000Z

ooh er Missus. This is a bit scary. Check out the first in a series of reports in the Pasedena Star News. All very amusing, note the text which explains:

Cavemen did it. So did Roman soldiers, political dissidents and generations of lovers. They left their names, thoughts, complaints, slogans and drawings scratched on walls for the world to see - graffiti.

(Thanks to Wackydoodler for posting about this on Flickr.)

I have been thinking about street art in another context this week too. You may already know that there are quite a lot of people on Flickr who are interested in street art. For example there is a Banksy group or this one with work from arofish . I like this one that is ccalled NOT Banksy. There are also groups with mixes like this one. Stickers are popular too.

So streetart makes quite an easy transition onto the web; the people's art, free art a kind of democratic art 'of the people' by and for the people. (To put it romantically.) Lots of people on Flickr, funnily enough, put up stickers, stencils and other types of streetart then photograph it and upload to Flickr.So it moves back and forth, in and out. C-monster, based in the states, even makes stickers, (who TT made contact with on Flickr, through a shared interest in streetart), and sent some to TT and others to put around the place, to photograph, email to her, so she can upload to Flickr for this international collaborative set. So, OK. All quite fascinating in terms of fluid geographical borders, and fluid spatial borders in terms of:

Online/offline
Journeys everywhere
Affinities
Collaboration
Coherences.

Imagine my interest then, when Kid Acne complained about his work being shown on Flickr. KA has pretty much taken over the London Road area in Sheffield, with art work mushrooming particularly in recent months. He has sent e mails apparently, asking people to remove their photos from the web. (Not disclosed here for ethical reasons!) But he is really cross about the fact that a new group has been set up on Flickr which is dedicated to showing his work. See the discussion thread here. K
Is this an example of web phobia where someone is OK about their work being in an off line public domain, but edgy about it going online? Or is it to do with wanting to control something for reasons of profit - he is currently wanting to brng a book out; has an exhibition on in Barcelona and one coming up in Sheffield.

And in the Picture? TT crosses borders taking a photo of a Banksy, for Flickr:

What a painful day

2006-03-23T21:37:00.000Z

Just like DrKate I have been struggling with work today.

I spent four and a half hours wading my way through one student's doctoral work (Chapter 3) and then when I sent it back with comments her inbox was full as usual so it just pinged straight back.

(But I thought of a solution; I have opened a new hotmail account and have sent her the address and password etc. She can go there and get everything I have sent her in the last three months!!
I thought this was a very clever thing to do. I wonder if it will work.)

But also, I thought I would be able to quickly review an article for Discourse, send a few e mails about other stuff and then get on with the REAL work of the day.

But I did not get to 'the real work' as everything takes so

LO-O-O-O-O-O-NG.

Mind you it was nice to hear from NESTA who want to quote from my conference paper on Flickr from last July. (Blimey. Can you imagine that? ) I liked that e mail.

And that's nice that they asked and they also sent me a draft of an excellent piece they are writing on Social Software and Learning. ('They' are Martin Owen, Lyndsay Grant and Keri Facer). It looks really good. Maybe they will become my new friends.

A piece of BIG NEWS is that one of my contacts from Flickr has got kicked out of Flickr. I am pretty gutted as I really liked him and his photos and had enjoyed a few e mails and comment exchanges with him on Flickr. He had also commented on my blog a few times. (But funnily enough I have seen a new account which includes pictures very like Zombizi's). Good game. Will he win?

Interesting. Just when you think it is the creative commons and that you are all playing your own game, you suddenly realise there is a panopticon. The all seeing Flickr police flicked the lights out on all his photos and stuff. Zombizi Gone .
Flickrites are up in ARMS.

Well. It's all good for the research.

(See this paper here on The Internet and the panopticon idea.)

And tomorrow is another day (when I will be interviewing the Director of this.)

Sweetie?

2006-03-22T11:26:00.000Z

I love doing these photos. I think that it is much more difficult to get a satisfying picture when taking other types of shot taken from life as it moves along . But nevertheless I love to take these shots so close up and showing me what I cannot see with the 'naked' eye.

I have wondered whether this is partly because I am aware that my sight is getting worse and that I want to see everything more clearly.

But I also think I appreciate the carnivalesque qualities of this kind of shot. I love to use saturation and to make these images look like adverts. It somehow transforms things into popular culture artifacts by making them huge, exaggerated images. That is, I associate bright colours, the celebration of the frivolous and the seemingly unimportant, with popular culture. Some people see these characteristics as vulgar and garish. Unlike the subtle subdued tones of high culture - a restrained way of carrying on. But I like 'in your face' stunning things happening around me. (Which is probably why I am a fashion junkie too.)

BTW did you catch the Lady Chatterley Affair, about the 1963 Chatterley trial the other night? By Andrew Davies? That had a LOT of rude words in it and made me feel very depraved indeed to watch it. It were grand.
At the time when Lady Chatterley's Lover was written people thought it showed no restraint at all and so believed it might be dangerous. The problem was they did not know whether it was OK to like it as it may have been vulgar. They needed it to be declared as high culture.

It was only released from its banned status because posh, educated people said that it made grand statements about life, humanity and relationships. Hmm. I am not sure I agree that it should have been 'unbanned' just because posh clever people said it was 'worthy'. Why does everything have to be justified on moral grounds?

Lets enjoy a bit of unexpurgated vulgarity round here.

Little Girl

2006-03-21T21:30:00.000Z

Little Girl
Originally uploaded by madewithpixels.

Oh. My Goodness.
Bridesmaids dresses are good for all sorts of things.
This little girl has found out you CAN eat the meringue dresses.

Peerage for drjoolz

2006-03-21T20:55:00.000Z

I seem to be getting votes ...

Lady DrJoolz

2006-03-20T20:20:00.000Z

Gosh I am so excited as it cannot be long now before my PEERAGE comes through.

Once I am in the House of Ladies I am going to institute quite a FEW CHANGES.

For a start of there will be pink curtains put up at the windows in The House.
All academics will be given a GIGANTIC pay rise in order to help them catch up with teechers.
Girl academics will be given additional cash for shoes and clothing and will be given time off for facials.
Homework in schools will be banned and no one will ever have to do tests as they are wicked.
Further suggestions will be considered by me and all my lady friends.

Gosh

Happy St Paddy's Day

2006-03-17T21:37:00.000Z

Happy St Paddy's Day
Originally uploaded by SeenyaRita.

I love this; some people have the knack of just seeing the perfect composition.
And yes, Happy St. P's.

Thanks DrKate

2006-03-16T21:54:00.000Z

for a really great day.
What a line up of wonderful researchers and practitioners.
Here are photos ..

Firstly here are some of the contributors to Kate and Jennifer's new book. We are:
Gunther Kress, Barbara Comber, Hilary Janks, Jennifer Rowsell, Kate Pahl, Julia Davies and Pippa Stein.

Jennifer and Kate were our wonderful editors:

And the day today was not only a book launch but a showcase for excellent research arsing from Creative Partnerships locally and excellent practice globally. See here, here and here.

You may be interested to know I have been writing this post whilst having the multimodal experience of listening to a Flickr podcast from New York: from here. Fabulous - they have a documentary, interviews, pictures from NYC and a map of the tour they made whilst recordeing the broadcast.
TT was very excited as Star not Star was mentioned - a group he set up aaaages ago. And our friend moufle was on.

Doorways

2006-03-15T21:50:00.000Z

often attract attention, as they are so often ostentatious.

Why are we so interested in doorways?
Is it because they provide opportunities for new beginnings? Openings into new situations? New possibilities?

SimplyClare and I loved this doorway

which opened out into this new secret land:

This is cool.

Breasts

2006-03-14T22:10:00.000Z

No not really.
I just said that to wind up Guy.

Today it is about dogs on the beach.

I went to Exmouth even though it was called Plymouth University. This was extremely confusing but turned out to be very nice.

In the morning I went on the beach and saw lots of our canine relatives having a dash about.

Their owners did not seem very enthusiastic today though.

Eyes

2006-03-13T10:48:00.000Z

I am going here today and coming back Tuesday.

I will be four hours on the train and so am taking plenty to read and do.

Unfortunately this means I cannot travel light despite my determination to find small reads. Books are so heavy and although I could take my laptop and read CDs or something, aftrer a while I feel my eyes may be burning up.

And indeed they seem to be as I have one of THESE growing.

Gross huh?

You will be interested to know I have been told not to worry.
Ok then chaps.
Let's chill.

I also have this in the other eye.

Which is exotic.
Luckily I have these as spares

(Hope I didn't make you feel sick.)

Has anyone else got some interesting medical history?

Cleavage

2006-03-12T16:00:00.000Z

is not a rude word.

I call this photograph 'cupcake cleavage', because it made me laugh. Cupcakes are very 'sex and the city' - if you can remember that. (For a previous post - with recipes - on cupcakes see here. )

You would not believe how many definitions of cleavage I found on the web. Nearly all of them are to do with science.

This one amused me. Even Homer Simpson gets a mention.

One that was missing was the one that John Peel invented. This is where if you walk between two nuns, you score a 'cleavage'. If there are more than two nuns this is worth more points.
I bet you didn't know that.

(Photo courtesy Rakka)

So this was a post about the English language, using photographs to illustrate.

Rubber

2006-03-09T20:06:00.000Z

Rubber
Originally uploaded by Thrift.

I completely adore this.
What style!!
I must advise TT that when he is next cleaning the bathroom he should feel free to make himself an Espresso to keep him going.

Little Miss Stylish

2006-03-08T21:11:00.000Z

Originally uploaded by -gadgetgirl-.

I love it when kids wear glasses.

rosita

2006-03-07T13:55:00.000Z

rosita
Originally uploaded by schaaflicht.

Hanging about on the street; Rosita really is a street child.

I am puzzled by this composition;

Why was it shot like this?
Does it make you feel uncomfortable?
Is it ethical? (Can you tell just by looking at the image?)
If you are / were a teacher would you use it in the classroom? (How?)
Do I sound like Ted Wragg?

Anyway the photo is rosita Originally uploaded by schaaflicht.

Doncha sometimes fancy a nice cup of Java?

2006-03-06T16:44:00.000Z

I like to take this kind of photo lately, just because for the first time I have a camera which allows me to. I love the way photos can show you things the so-called naked eye cannot. Here we can see the clear detail of the bean; it is larger than life.

Other pictures allow us to take in a broad scene, without turning our head. Camera lenses can do stuff normal eyes cannot. It was only when I went to see an exhibition which included the work of Gursky and Sternfeld which made me fully appreciate this point.

And these days I also turn my head to look at things which I would otherwise not even be aware of, or would not believe were even 'to do with' me when I went past. Such as street art (a term I now use) or graffiti, or even palimpsest. I would have missed this before:

And I certainly would not have got up early to get a shot of this before the traffic got busy.

I would say that I have been interested in photography for years, but never as much as now, where I take photos and look at them addictively. Aware of the world more, as well as being aware of the affordances of a photograph. I have become aware of how a photograph can have a smaller or greater relationship with the subject it took and can be cropped or processed in ways that make it look different, convey something different.

Kris Cohen in his article on photoblogging writes that the photobloggers he interviewed, all now take more pictures than they ever have before. And that they take pictures of 'the everyday', 'the banal', 'the boring'. (Their words).

I think this is interesting, as this is what we see so much of on Flickr. (Not exclusively.) It is as if with digital photography, (for that is the cause of all this visual proliferation) people are also trying to capture what is apparently not usually under our gaze. It is as if we are trying to reveal the world anew all the time. So photo-technology allows us to bring into view, the peripheral; and the web allows us to share with others.

And we digikids always carry our cameras everywhere we go - just in case we need to catch a moment that we want everyone else to see. And we go to daft, off the wall, out of the way places to catch something no one else will!

Are we all turning into journalists?

Anyway, before I go, wanna sweetie?

Repair and Review

2006-03-05T21:15:00.000Z

Listening to tapes of interviews I have done, it is amazing how often I find evidence of 'conversational repair' going on.
That is that one speaker, (usually me because I am also taking notes) misunderstands something the first speaker says. I find that in reviewing interviews, that even where I reply inappropriately and it is clear I have misunderstood, the first speaker does not correct me. Out of four errors I made in listening, none were corrected. Instread, the first speaker finds a way of making me understand by re-capping later and re-emphasizing in some way. This is not a new observation, and has been observed as a common phenmenon amongst speakers. We susually glide over hiccups and smooth them out.

(It is of course just one of the many things linguists have been able to observe and learn with technology. Nevertheless I felt surprised to observe it in my interviews. )

It was fascinating to see how the people I was interviewing showed great conversational dexterity in the manner they repaired the conversation; they avoided correcting me (they would have felt this was rude, I imagine - or maybe even thought they were not being clear enough.) And then they later, unobtrusively, wove in the correct information as a kind of 'by the way' mentioning.

Fascinating stuff, which reflects a good deal of cultural knowledge as well as linguistic skill.

I have noticed on Flickr how incredibly careful people sometimes are when they leave comments on photos or on blogs. (look at this polite little exchange across the globe.) Some people are so tactful and diplomatic and gushingly kind it can make you feel ill (not to me in fact but I have observed this and do not wish to do any pointing here.

But I understand that as there are so many cues missing online - so many visual and auditory cues and clues that are unavailable. This means that people tend to careful - (there are exceptions of course). I have in the past though I have offended people - and onlt realised later - but then not been sure. As time has gone on, I have secured some more certain relationships online and this has taken a while - and on occasion meat space contact. But the acts of negotiation and repair are different in opnline spaces and I think we have developed tactics to compensate. In face to face meetings we know what is valued - listening to each other, trying to find agreement, eye contact, standing the right distance apart, even echoing each other etc etc.

I am wondering whether things like memes and other types of in-joke, are part of the repertoire of multimodal tactics we use to define the cultural landscape, a new landscape that does not require some of the other cultural cues. I think that some memes work right across the web, while others are more locaclised. In addition to memes helping create a shard social/cultural landscape I think the games within flickr groups and the ways in which we set out rules for each other, allow a secure space where we all start afresh with new parameters for behaving.

So, on the web we tend to be more articulate about how to behave; off line we tend to show belongingness in more subtle ways. But online, just as off line, when we get to know people we can be more experimental as we become surer of the cultural rules. These rules are partly established explicitly, and partly through practice.

I was prompted to some of these ideas by reading page 23 of this, which I mentioned last week.

More importantly though, I bought some jelly babies and left them alone for just a minute.

When I came back this was the picture that befell my eyes.

There is an identity parade. Can you see who dunnit?

Sychronicity

2006-02-25T18:34:00.000Z

Following on from yeterday's post I have just read an interesting paper by Jan Blommaert, James Collins and Stef Slembrouck. (It came from here but is no longer available as has been published in Language and Communication.) It looks at

Spaces of Multilingualism.

One of the sentences that popped out at me, was where they say:

'....space in itself demands closer investigation if we intend to analyze the way in which multilingualism operates in and across societies nowadays. Every communicative event develops in a particular space, and this space may influence the event in non-arbitrary ways'.

Although this paper is about different languages being used in different ways in a world where travel and cultural exchange is more frequent, the way they talk about language as 'an ideologoical object' is relevant to me in looking at ways in which language is used in online spaces. It is about the idea of language being invested with social and cultural interests, not just a vehice for denotational, neutral meaning. I want to look at the way in which language is used in specific ways in online spaces, so that in a particular online space, meaning becomes imbued with specific cultural and social messages in that space. In this way the words beging to work differently in the space and help to define that space - so that words are both constitutive and agentive.

Spaces of multilingualism: Blommaert, J., Collins, J., Slembrouck, S. (2005)Language & Communication 25: 197-216

But if you think this is all a bit OTT this may be more up your street - about reading shop windows.

This is a nice illustration I found:

When visitors come

2006-02-24T20:18:00.000Z

When I was a kid my Mum and Dad used to sometimes have 'visitors' for tea on a Sunday. Sundays were actually VERY boring when I was a kid - there was nothing to do, EVER.

This was OF COURSE pre everything. No tv on in the day (that started in about 1981 in the UK I think); no Internet of course; we did not even have a tape recorder till I was twelve (and then it ran on batteries that my Mum and Dad could not afford to replace).

My sister Jane had a record player which we played 45s on - Blackberry Way by The Move was Jane's first single. Mine was Crackling Rosie by Neil Diamond (don't know how I can admit that.)

Anyway it was the olden days OK? So when we had visitors my Mum would cook cakes from Good Housekeepings Cookery book - maybe cheese straws, maybe butterfly cakes; maybe date and walnut cake.

( I now have my own copy of Good Housekeepings - bought off e-bay. It's fab.)

And we always had to Look Nice. So after Sunday dinner, ( a proper roast - I always hid the meat in my serviette and then chucked it in the coal bunker immediately afterwards), we had to go upstairs and get changed with clean clothes on.

Weird, huh? Seems so OLD.

Then the visitors would arrive and we had to go downstairs for a while to be polite. But it was always boring so we would usually go back upstairs, play, and then come down for tea - sandwiches and cake. Sometimes we sat in a line on the settee and someone (usually if Stan came, with his 'proper' camera), would take our photograph. This would appear in a frame later if we were really unlucky.

But anyway they always did this boring kind of talk as if they were on a special conversation display. And it was called 'being polite' I think. You had to act like a proper family which was weird as we already were a proper family. What reminded me of this was when I read about Vygotsky who had observed two little girls who were sisters and they said to each other 'Let's play sisters'.

Fantastic.

I knew what those little girls meant. And I felt like when the visitors came, my whole family played families. And it was as if we were in a pretend house with special visitor food. And we had to wear itchy clothes.

There is something in here about the relationships between space, language and identity. And about how there is a push-pull relationship amongst them all; they all influence each other so that you change in the space, or the space can change, and you change your language to change the space, but the space changes your language. And you end up being like a visitor in your own house.

Cool game

2006-02-23T19:45:00.000Z

You will all love this one ... but remember not to do this in real life girls.

Yesterday I met a boy you would not want to throw a rock at. I kid you not his job is so cool - he is in charge of this castle.

Wow!! What a job. He runs the castle, does promotions and markets the place and thinks about historical matters I guess. Yesterday he got kids to get dressed up as medieval people. And told them about working in the tourist industry.

This was at a work related learning event which had been organised by pupils from Danum School in Doncaster. They had organised the event as part of their own Travel and Tourism BTec course. And had invited lots of speakers and presenters to talk about their work in the leisure and tourist industry, with kids who were doing GCSE Leisure and Tourism. It was amazing how they did such a briliant job, getting things together and organised. They were great people, less than 18 years old and so confident. I had to hand it to them, they had done well.

I found it all really intersting; but I had a few reservations which were similar to those I feel when I watch programmes like Super Nanny or Little Angels. Both these programmes assume agreement that there is a right way to live in a family and are totally uncritical about what they assume to be 'norms'. Anyone who does not fit, is just doing it wrong. They set out a middle class way as being the only and right way. No valuing of diversity.
The reason why I felt yesterday's event contained similar elements was that I felt there was a cultural gulf in the lives of these children and the lives of those they would serve in the tourism industry. I felt that a lot of the time they were totally bemused by what they were seeing, not understanding the cultural significance of all these routines and procedures. It was so weird. here is an extract from my field notes:

Making a Hotel Bed
I watched this demo where the bed was made by the demonstrator and as she moved, doing the task very quickly, she gave a clear commentary about how to do it. Then she unmade the bed and asked the kids to volunteer to do it. None did so she picked two to do it together. They did so while others looked on. She asked if there were any questions, and there were none. The kids stood politely in a silent semi circle around the bed. They were mesmerised; one boy was open mouthed. But I asked the kids if they had ever been and stayed in a hotel. None had. They all used duvets they told me and did not do sheets and stuff at home.

(I am thinking how very hard it is to teach these kids anything
beyond the skills in hand if they cannot understand anything about the context. There is a huge cultural gap really in the work that is going on here. If we are to do this properly we cannot just show them the skills there has to be some kind of critical thinking going on. Even if it is just an understanding of why beds are so important in hotels – when at home they typically remain unmade in their houses. If we don’t have this kind of teaching around it all, then we are doing them no more favours than the old sec mods or technical schools.)
The routines and procedures these kids saw were beyond their cultural experience I think; certainly I feel that the people enacting them were also probably uncritical and unaware of their meanings. Other activities included:
Laying a table in a restaurant
Making a bed
Check in – (at the airport)
Air Cabin Crew (doing the safety talk before take off)
I felt that there was a trick being missed here. Vocational education needs to be more than just watch and copy. There needs to be a why and the people teaching need to help the kids ask the questions and be ready to help them with explanations.
Maybe I was in a bad mood but I felt a bit uncomfortable with it all.

Can I have your attention please?

2006-02-22T18:25:00.000Z

This is Sarah of sheffield and I. It is very early in the evening of June 24th 2004. I sought out the photo as Sarah reminded me of the event the other day and how later that night I lost one of my vintage shoes, in the comments here, Sarah of Sheffield explains ...

The photograph is an artefact of identity, but of course it could be a fake identity. I think the picture is quite weird as Sarah is looking into the camera and I am not - but I thought I was. Very weird. It makes me look a bit disingenuine.

(But now this post is not about that. Although of course I do recommend Sarahof sheffield's blog - and you will see she mentions two folk singers here who were on a tv programme DrKate mentioned here and which I watched and liked. Synchronicity, man.)

Aaaanyway.
I have started to read this excellent book. Only the introduction so far but am really finding it provocative and absorbing. It talks about the MATERIALITY of IMAGES and at first I thought I would want to challenge all it said in terms of it not applying to online photographs... drawing on Barthes, the editors (Edwards and Hart) remind us of the photograph as object, as an item to hold which accrues history .

This kind of thing. Or this.

Edwards and Hart say that a photograph is three dimensional, not two. It can be turned and held. And yet today we can say that many images - perhap the most commonly seen images (?) are digitised - on tv or cinema or pc or camera phone or playstation etc etc. Therefore they are not held in that same way.

But then if you think about the notion of SPACE as a more abstract thing, as a metaphor and of materiality as metaphor - then maybe we can STILL talk about the materiality of the image. We can think about the materiality of images and the role they play in people's lives. The editors in their introduction say, ' 'Materiality translates the abstract and representational 'photography' as objects that exist in time and space.' (page 2)

Anyway I want to pursue this idea, puzzling about whether digitised images can be considered as material artefcats. I am going to looking at a lot of work around images and stuff including this book and this by Annette Kuhn.

I'll keep you posted ... as Digigran would say.

MMMMmmm

2006-02-21T17:35:00.000Z

strawberries.

I saw some on a table in Sheffield College today and so immediately went and bought some.

I deserve it.

(And you could do with the break too. )

transduction - creativity- culture...

2006-02-20T16:20:00.000Z

When Dana Cammack mentioned that one of her research subjects requested on her blog that her readers should write in their comments an invented memory of something that they had both been involved in, I was TRANSFIXED by this idea. She was tallking about it at the NRC in Miami.

I was transfixed because of what it meant in terms of identity practices - (to invent a memory requires some knowledge of the other person) . It brought a whole new dimension about identity performances, narrative and blogging to my mind. (I laughed when Dana said to us ' as you can imagine I was all over it when I read that invent a memory of me post', because I would have been too. )

I decided to look into what Dana had been talking about and just typed into Google 'invented memory' . I had remotely hoped I would find the blog she was looking at. However I found LOADS of references to an 'invented memory' as in fact it turned out to be a MEME. I had not realised this when I listened to Dana - I was probably so busy writing notes, you know how it is. I thought it was just her one girl who had written about this.

Anyhow it is a totally great Meme examples of which you will see here and here.

I am fascinated by this whole thing and heard Sue Blackmore and Mary Midgeley rowing on Radio 4's Today programme last week about whether Memes exist or not. I love the way Blackmore says we are 'meme machines' and also answered in the affirmative when the interviewer asked 'We all have genes. Do we all have memes?' I must say I do not go along with this as there has to be a cultural dimension to this - and interested and willing social carriers. I cannot go along with Blackmore's notion that the memes will do their thing irrep[ective of their carriers.

I also think that things do not happen unless they have some kind of social or cultural use - and this will help the process of transformation. In turn this will help the meme become resilient. This is because I think they work in the same way as language does; a semiotic system needs to MEAN something to the hosts who carry it. And it is the hosts that give it meaning... in fact host is a bad word. (Can't think what the right one is at the moment. ) But I am convinced that memes as well as often being encoded in language, also behave like it too, in the sense of how it travels, means, is part of a culture, is capable of evolving and MEANS something.

There is a nice little article here too. Gabora writes:

"While some ideas or concepts instantly fade into obscurity, others spread through a society, getting progressively refined and embellished, forging connections to established conceptual frameworks along the way. Thus the mental representations that underlie the content and expression of ideas, like the strands of DNA that encode instructions for building and maintaining living organisms, seem to evolve. Accordingly there has been a slow but steady effort to map the concept of evolution onto the dynamics of culture. "

But I can't go along with the notion that it is the same as DNA; just that we have a predisposition to sharing and passing ideas on in a similar way.

So let's look at what I mean in comparing it to language. I want to emphasise the cultural dynamic happens to language (and to other semiotic systems ...) which tend to be the vehicle anyway for memes. (For memes can be visual, aural and/or written and/or spoken etc etc. (For an example of a very resilient meme, see 'all your base are belong to us' here and here) Kress writes about new semiotic landscapes here. (In Linguistics and Education). He writes about semiotic systems with reference to changes in classrooms but the relevance is beyond that:

"In a social semiotic account, sign-systems are the result of the work of cultures over long periods, and are constantly remade. Different cultures may have made different choices not only about how to use a particular mode say, speech but also about which modes are to be used and which are to be central in particular domains. ......
The maker of a sign, who remakes the sign in her or his interest out of existing cultural stuff and in the light of a ``reading'' of the communicational environment in which the sign is made, changes not only the representational resources of the group, but also changes his or her own, internalized set of resources.
Remaking a sign in communication is to change the set of resources of the maker. Cognitively and affectively, she or he is not the same as she/he was prior to that remaking. In other words, the theory with which I am operating sees the sign-maker as constantly transformative of the set of resources of the group and of her/himself. It is a theory of the constant transformation of both resources and of subjectivity."

I feel quite excited about seeing these connections between memes and the landscapes that Kress is working with; helping me to see the way narratives can work across and within cultures via a range of modes. His work explains how semiotic systems change over time, moving with a culture ( and there will be a push/pull factor going on here - reflecting change and influencing change - ); he also talks about how this is communicated in a range of modes ( vis, or verbal, etc.) This applies not just to classroom discourses but any discourses which come together; so it can apply to the coming together of teachers and pupils who have different world views or funds of knowledge; or it can happen in cyberspace, across blogs. It helps me to see how the process of learning in classrooms and on the Internet are the coming together of a range of disicourses that can be articulated in a range of modes. Then Kress talks about 'remaking the sign'. This reminds me of third space theory....

And I was so excited when I read this by Kamberelis (2001):

"In classrooms, hybrid discourse practice involves
teachers and children juxtaposing forms of talk, social interaction, and material practices from many different social and cultural worlds to constitute interactional spaces that are
intertextually complex, interactionally dynamic, locally situated
accomplishments. In this article, I argue that hybrid discourse
practice in classrooms can produce heteroglossic classroom (micro)cultures, and that these (micro)cultures constitute ``free spaces'' (Fine, Weiss, Centrie, & Roberts, 2000) for students (and teachers) to construct hybrid social identities
and knowledges."

For me, these are very exciting ideas to bring together and ones which allow me to think about five different research projects all at once. Which is a good thing as I am trying to make all my bits of research converge into one thought. Then I can have a rest. You may all have already seen how these fit but I had not and am at last fired up ...

(Now I can take more silly pictures).

References

George Kamberelis. (2001) Producing Heteroglossic Classroom (Micro)cultures Through Hybrid Discourse Practice. Linguistics and Education. (12:1)

Gunther Kress. (2001)``You've Just Got to LearnHow to See'':Curriculum Subjects, YoungPeople and Schooled Engagement with the World.
Linguistics and Education 11(4): 401- 415.

The best explanation I have seen about what memes are is from Michele and Colin.

(I know some people will think this is really boring but I have to write it so I remember it.)

In the meantime though,

2006-02-19T21:58:00.000Z

Anya and Michele have been uploading exciting stuff relevant to their research.

So Anya has uploaded video and Michele has been pod-casting with Colin.

Wonderful stuff; our blogs will all be so whizzy soon as we all start to join in these games too. No more lists Digigran!! We will be too busy tangled in wires to be able to write our lists.

I just have

2006-02-19T21:24:00.000Z

an obsession with Barbie.

Nothing wrong in that is there?

Which one do you like best ... and why??

mango-smoothie

2006-02-17T18:00:00.000Z

mango-smoothie
Originally uploaded by Dr Joolz.

The mango smoothie.
Cheers to DrRob!!
xx

The Inbetweenies

2006-02-17T16:33:00.000Z

I like this picture because it is about people using their little bits of inbetweeny times in an inbetweeny space:

That is to say, they are using this space, which is a kind of borderland, to grab time for themselves. They seem wrapped up, consumed.

I like the way some people have been there before them, and made their marks on the walls and affected the space. Their presence is there; but they are gone.

I like the way that man is coming down the steps - also in transitition.

The photo got slagged off a bit here for not having a proper focus; this is perhaps something interesting about the way we look at not just photographs, but everything. We are always required to have a focus or 'main subject'.

The perfect sentence is suposed, according to my infant school teacher, to conatin a complete idea.
Which is interesting.
And confusing.

Anyway, I like the way these people have chosen to just suddenly stop. To stop moving and just do what they want to do. To take a moment in their lives, irrespective of the busy road above them and the canal (unseen) in front. They are mid transition; between the boundaries; liminal. But in a way I see them as subversive as they are turning the space into a new space and saying that it is NOT just scrap land, they will not ignore it, they will transform it.

I see them as quite powerful and resilient.

.

getting all horticultural

2006-02-16T13:24:00.000Z

These are the babychicks:

These are the radishes:

These are the brocolli sprouts:

Why?

Because they are high protein, high fibre and Darling Daughter is trying a RAW FOOD DIET. Maybe she is right that healing enzymes are killed when we cook stuff.
But whatever the fact of it, I think that if you have been ill for a long time like she has, it is damnably marvellously fab that to still be finding the energy to try new ideas and FIGHT BACK.

We have an UNCOOK BOOK.

And we have bought a multilayered bean sprouter.

I spend all my time trying to think of what to give her to eat. These are some ideas:

Guacomole
Salads of every kind
stuff wrapped in vine leaves
Hummous made with chick pea sprouts and tahini
cereals soaked in water - such as buckwheat
Lots if different salad dressings
A million types of bean sprouts used in different ways
Fresh fruits
Dried fruits
Nuts
seeds

Anymore ideas? (Must be food.)

Blending

2006-02-15T21:25:00.000Z

our lives and blending learning. DrKate and I finished writing a chapter on this last week; we were pleased with the title:

Blending Voices, Blending learning: Lessons in pedagogy from a post-16 classroom

and it focused on some of the inspirational work we have seen at The Sheffield College. We were really excited about it when we worked with some of the tutors there last year who have developed a course which draws on young people's issues, interests and experiences in a course which manages to blend the lives of the students with the voices of poets and others. The project features work from Eminem and William Blake in a manner that allows the students to see connections between their own lives and the words of literature in a range of eras. (Hey and did you check it out? Both poets now have their own websites.)

Aaaanyway I was there again today, involved in a different piece of research and talking to some VERY interesting people. One of these just commented in a kind of casual way,

' I am sure these days we all blend our activities. We blend our lives in all sorts of ways.'

I found this a very interesting observation; she was talking about how she mixes media all the time, looking in bookshops, thinking about Amazon; disregarding printed train timetables and resolving to look up times on the Internet.

We communicate with each other using so many different types of technology without thinking about it.
I know that what she said was obvious; but at the same time I found it startling.

It is the whole thing about dependency on technology and using it on the move, just embedding it into our everyday activities. We are so networked.
And later, when I went and talked to the people (the tutors from the wonderful course) I love so much in their stafffroom, I took photos of scenes that I have seen so many times through the windows there.

The world going by through the window, old and new ways of travelling side by side. When you are in that part of the college you feel so much a part of Sheffield, the emblems of the culture whizzing past so often and the whole panorama laid out before you. It is no wonder that the tutors never forget who it is they are teaching, who it is they are writing for and working with. In that room I feel I have a foot inside and a foot outside the college all the time.

And in the corridor, the technology that keeps us going in the liquid modern world, is shown in the presence of the suddenly trendy fashion of exposed wires and pipes running across the ceiling. We want to be confronted with what we have made, proudly showing the mechanisms of technology, instead of hiding it (as we used to do) under plaster. It is as if we want the technology in our faces. This is interior design that says we are not ashamed to show how things work; that we are modern beings; that we depend on technology.

Happy Valentines?

2006-02-14T09:39:00.000Z

Last year did not go well...
I'll let you know what happens later.

Learning from DrKate:- Photographs as artefacts of identity

2006-02-13T13:01:00.000Z

self portrait: convoy
Originally uploaded by Lt. TL.

This is Lt TL's self portrait on Flickr. Really interested in this presentation of self, very fragile looking in this close up, despite the uniform.
She looks a lot tougher here and here .

I am very moved by such photos as these where we see the person inside the soldier.
It is an interesting artefact of identity as DrKate would say.

Another presentation of self is shown again here where my son (far right) and his friends are all dressed up to celebrate their last days of compulsory schooling at age fifteen.

I was amazed that the school arranged a formal do and that the students all hired these suits. Although most of the lads got shoes, my son could not go quite that far and wore white trainers. The satirical poses make me think they are not so comfortable in these clothes - but are still proud and having their photo taken. This is their last time as a group together ... and maybe the fact that they don't wear school uniform adds to their enjoyment of the novelty of bonding through ceremonial dress.

I love the view of the northern city behind them and the shot is taken at the top of our road ... all terraces and yorkshire stone. The boys look strongly tied to all that - a very working class suggestion is given here. But one which belies most of their backgrounds, because although they all live in this neighbourhood, the homes are no longer within the reach of most working class pockets.

And here is the glorious DrKate herself, doing fashion icon at my office doorway ... she loves those shoes ... and look at that hat!!

This is DrKate, academic, nomad, mother, blogger and fashion guru.

An all round funtime inetllectual woman.

Guantanamo Bay

2006-02-11T19:07:00.000Z

prisoners only have this much space.

Some have been in that space for four years.
Some have been tortured.
Most have had no trial.

It is four years since the first prisoners were taken to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba by the US Military.

The British government has refused to make representations on the behalf of UK prisoners.

Photo taken at a demonstration in Sheffield city centre today by the Guantanamo Bay Sheffield Campaign.

Self help

2006-02-10T17:31:00.000Z

It is everywhere.
From 10 years younger and What Not to Wear to You are What You Eat, Life Laundry and Extreme Makeover - it is all about humiliating people because they have been living their lives wrongly.

They have had cake; they have not been shopping; they have not moisturised (or cleaned their teeth); they have allowed the natural ageing process to progress, well, naturally.

The programmes conduct themselves around the pattern of the perfect fairytale narrative - if you are good; have an advisory fairytale godmother; go into battle and fight dragons (see the dentist/ have liposuction/ go shopping / get haircut) - then in the end you get the booty.

But actually you don't get a prince - you get to love yourself more.

I love these shows because you know where you are with them; you can watch the magic happen before your eyes and feel satsified that good work has been done. At the start of the show you can feel confident that all will be well at the end. (And you can express disgust at how much they eat; how little they exercise; how crap their house is; how messy they are. (Nice bit of schadenfreude tv in fact.)
Transformations are visible - from outcast to star; from nobody to celebrity; great stuff. The perfect fantasy.

This may be a good thing, but I for one am finally feeling a bit sick of feeling that I am not up to scratch if I just meander along. Whilst the programmes always show this happy ending, their message is, that unless you are following certain life patterns, holding certain values, fitting with certain norms, you are closer to the nobody at the start of the programme, than the somebody at the end.

We all seem to have to have a plan, a mission a way of improving ourselves.

Obviously there are all the books too.

I just wondered how all this happened... and I find it a bit depressing all this focus on the individual and this notion if there's something wrong, then it must be because you need to fix yourself.

There is something in here which fits with arguments about the social model of disability I think.

sweetness

2006-02-06T19:32:00.000Z

1st day of study leave today ...

I am looking forward to more productive days ahead as today was a sort of 'settling in' day.

And I want to have piles of sweet ideas.

White Flower in the Cascade Mountains

2006-02-05T14:08:00.000Z

White Flower in the Cascade Mountains
Originally uploaded by Pixel Packing Mama.

Just gorgeous huh?

Balloons are magic

2006-02-05T12:07:00.000Z

Snapped up in London.
Mixed up in Sheffield.

Cappuccino Community and the Quoran

2006-02-03T20:56:00.000Z

So. Ethnographers are always being laughed at.

And tonight it was a shame that on tv they laughed at the ESRC for funding a project to the tune of £150 K to execute an ethnography of cafe life.

I thought it seemed like a cool project when I looked it up later.

(Cappuccino picture from Jkim)

We could do with a bit more of this kind of reflection rather than jumping to conclusions and making assumptions all the time.

(Why not listen here to Stewart Lee talking on the Radio 4 Programme about how and why satire works only when the writers of the satire understand the culture they are satirising.)

That is why DrKate's exciting research into narratives of migration is so important.

something to say

2006-02-02T11:01:00.000Z

something to say
Originally uploaded by janchan.

Beautifiul portrait here of a woman from Bangladesh.

I got interested in looking at this cluster after looking at a photoessay on the deconstruction of ships in Bangladesh here.

Obviously I was appalled by

2006-02-01T21:13:00.000Z

this

mis-use of the definite article on a wall in Nice.

Woo hoo I won!!

2006-01-31T22:13:00.000Z

Excitement all round as I won ten Popolos in the Popolo Photography group!!!
This photo is my latest success:

But before this, I won with this one:

The group was set up by Zombizi Prime, a contact of mine. He was sick of the mean things people were saying to each other on the deleteme uncensored group and wanted something a bit more light-hearted.

Need more explaining?

OK. The site content of Flickr is not only supplied exclusively by users of the site, but it is organised by them too. Flickrites can set up groups and invite others to join. So there is for example, a 'girls eating sandwiches ' group, which is something quite fun. Then there are those which might interest Michele at the moment, which are quite arty, such as photographic impressionism, or 'photograph like painting'. I like the 'Martin Parr we (heart) you group. Then there are those who are in what I think of as 'look again mode', which directs people's gaze to things they might otherwise ignore, such as the mundane details group. Some are keen on looking at how to do stuff so there is a masterclass group here.

If you set up a group you are called an administrator. You can select others to be admin too. Some people take such roles VERY seriously and will kick out photos that do not fit properly. For example, an image of a girl eating chips is likely to get kicked out of the girls eating sandwiches group. As an admin of 'photovoyeurism', I have occaisonally not only kicked out porno pictures, but blocked those posting such pictures again to the group!!
So there are interesting power dimensions in Flickr; and I intend to write about them probably using ideas about cultural and social capital but also maybe Bernstein's stuff on vertical and horizontal discourses to think about different types of learning and value systems.

There are quite a few groups on Flickr, which invite people to add their photos to a pool in order to receive practical criticism. They often comment about framing, light, photoshop techniques etc etc. People say they use them in order to learn and get better. But as you can imagine, some folks are REALLY brutal and victims get upset. Moreover, the pool remains small as commenters vote either 'delete me' or 'keep me', or in another group 'kill' or 'keep'. Ten delete mess and you're out. The admin kick off your photo. See an example here of the kinds of comments you can get. Or see how one of my friends get her picture of her daughter criticised.
I e mailed Kelsana while her photo was in that group and she told me she was upset; and I think you can see that coming through in her responses. Yet she remains really active on Flickr and overall is loving learning about photography.

I would not post one of my pix in a mean group because I would get upset by that kind of 'play'.

Hence Popolo. With Popolo, someone else selects your picture to put in the group. They tag your photo 'ybp' and write a comment 'You've been popoloed by the Popolo photography group'. Then people vote even ' Popolo' or Unpopolo' or ' don't give a popolo'. Pictures with 10 popolo votes will be eligible for Pop Fabulous. Pictures with 10 unpopolo tags and comments will go to a far more interesting place, in some opinions Unpop Fabulous for that thing called posterity palaver. If you get 10 dontgiveapopolos - quite an achievement, really, - you can go here.

So there you have it.

Some very interesting cultural games going on over in Flickr.
And I am writing about it more more more.
There will be at least one more article on Flickr from me.

Four things meme

2006-01-30T22:34:00.000Z

OK I got tagged by Anya for this meme and you can see what she has done here:

4 Places I Have Lived
BorehamWood, Hertfordshire
Redbourn, Hertfordshire;
Ripon , North Yorkshire;
Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

4 Jobs I’ve Had
Babysitter
Waitress
Cleaner
Teacher

4 Favourite Movies

Short Cuts
Ghostworld
Taxi Driver
Sophie's Choice

4 Favourite TV Shows

Lost
What Not to Wear
Buffy
Malcolm in the Middle

4 Favourite CDs
Not the tremblin kind - Laura Cantrell
Hold on Little Tomato - Pink Martini
Essence - Lucinda Williams
Time (The Revelator) - Gillian Welch

4 Places I Have Been on Holiday

Plas Menai, Wales
New York
Venice
Berlin

4 Things I Love to Do

Take Photos
Surf the net
Shopping
Go to the cinema

4 Favourite Books

Bilgewater
The Diary of Bridget Jones
The Taxi Driver's Daughter
The Wolves in the Walls

4 Websites I Visit Daily

Flickr
DrKate's Artyfacts
E bay
DrJoolz snapshotz on Life

4 Bloggers to Tag with this Meme

So there you have it .... will they take the challenge?

A Flickry day today

2006-01-29T20:27:00.000Z

as I went out with some of the Sheffield Flickr group and took a few photos around the city.
A lot of intensive re-development has been going on in Sheffield city centre over the last ten years, with many of the industrialised bits being taken down and used for new appartments, (old breweries and warehouses being used for this quite often) and for new office blocks and shops etc. Sometimes the facades are retained while the insides are gutted.
Strange how we like the industrial past to be romanticised; we sit and drink or eat in newly formed pubs that were once the factories which exploited people for their labour.

This opne made me laugh really ... an old silver cutlery factory, directing callers to where the offices are located (opposite.)

But in fact the offices are not there as these have all been knocked down for re-development.

The old water works is now a pub:

(some would say that beer is better to drink than water).

I have only been to this area a few times - at crisis oints in my life. This is where the briefs hang out - in Paradise Square.

It was obviously once associated with different activities than Law, as the name of the square and this plaque suggests:

That's it for today.

Whilst in Belfast

2006-01-28T20:48:00.000Z

I was able to pick up a few tips such as this:

Frankly I was very impressed that in 1907 they were able to predict how much time I would be wasting on Flickr and on my blog.

I was at The Belfast Institute talking about their online English course.
The building was pretty amazing actually:

I wish I had taken my wide-angled lens as this was not the only magnifcent place I could not squeeze into frame.

The Central Hall was very easy to find owing to the helpful signage:

But my guide and mentor also helped me find the way. I was really well looked after and was told so much about the EGO course and how it has helped students gain access to opportunities they would not have had without it.

I got a great Irish culture lesson there too. The people were so friendly and I want to go back.

Even if it is just to have a drink in the oldest pub

and another look inside the oldest library.

I stayed in the most bombed hotel in Europe. But it was OK. Don't you worry about me.

I was just fine.

Mr. and Mrs. Jennings Kenyon

2006-01-25T17:38:00.000Z

Mr. and Mrs. Jennings Kenyon
Originally uploaded by kelsana.

Interesting how on Flickr people sometimes share photographs in quite a traditional way. Showing the image and then telling something of the history of the family.
There is a sense of this photgraph being an important artefact, even though it is here shown only digitally.
If you click on this image and go to Flickr, you can see how others comment and sometimes share their stories too.

I think this is an example of the way Flickr is utilised by many to make contact and friendships comparable to those in their off line worlds.

Just so you know...

2006-01-24T12:42:00.000Z

the state of my sanity, this is the e mail I just sent to Guy.

(There are swear words.... )

Hello darlng
No need to blush at all. I am up shit creek as well so I know how you feel. F***ing nightmare actually. (This is like that e mail in some article of yours ... Yes, I read it.)
God it is so hard keeping up sometimes. I am on study leave soon and to be frank think it will remain just as bad. You did not sound bossy.
And yes, how do we do the blogs??

I am sitting feeling relieved for two mins though as I have just now averted a disaster. ....

I was sitting doing my effing e mails when my computer
made loads of beeps and crashed.
(Actually at first I thought the beeps were the smoke alarm. That is how alert I am.)
the screen went dead, the buzzy hum of the cooler thing (fan?) stopped. It was as if the slave's master stopped hitting him with whips and the slave looked up and said - 'but what do I do when the whipping stops??!'

After looking at leads and checking they were joined, all was still dead.
Got out the manual.
No luck there.
Checked leads again.
One was unplugged.
FFS
have not lost all work since 1966 after all.

Back to the whipping.

Phew.
DrJxxx

I now feel a bit ashamed as my study leave will cause my colleagues work and I am very grateful and will work hard and will enjoy it really. I am just a bit scared i won't manage it that's all. (Stress stress stess.)

Stepping Out

2006-01-24T00:14:00.001Z

in midtown Miami

taking a sneaky peek at the shops.

Why not

2006-01-23T15:49:00.000Z

have a little play with these games?

This one

then this

then this.

I think it is weird how much time you can spend on the net having fun andit is free.

Also interesting is the way in which the instructions are hard to find .... the assumption is that you will probably not read them but just experiment.

I love the way the games make so much use of the affordances of the web;

even the one that looks like little fridge magnets uses technology cleverly .

I wonder if games use the multimodal affordances and gizmos more than any other genre on the web....

The games I have linked to here are relatively static though compared to the shoot em ups, adventure games and so on which you could choose to get involved in .... free of charge too.

And there is really only one way of playing them.

Anya is playing Second Life at the moment and is having a whale of a time in a massive mutiplayer game environment.

There are so many mre choices she could make and so many more skills she could develop. In these huge 'cyber world' games there are all sorts of avenues you can take.

So many kids are on Second Life (adults too of course) and similar games like this. It is no wonder they can often get a bit fed up at school. They have so many sophisticated things to learn at home and get access to narrative they can control ... it is so cool.

The digital age is a cool age.

Flea Market Doll and Arm

2006-01-23T09:34:00.000Z

Flea Market Doll and Arm
Originally uploaded by HapaKorean.

Another one in the great tradition of lost soul dolls.

What a digital world!!

2006-01-22T16:56:00.000Z

Went to a gig here last night. It is the back of Sheffield city Hall. This photo was taken by TT - see here.

I saw Dar Williams,

(This is Dar..)

I also saw Lynn Miles.
And Alana Levandoski
All at Sheffield City Hal. See details here.
DrKate would have loved it with her taste in music.

The strange thing was, that at the same concert was Merrony’s Moll. It was lovely to see her.

MM is a member of the Sheffield Flickr group .
We have aready had two meetings and are about to have a third.
Here are some of us.
We met at The Showroom and even went on a joint photo excursion. That is how I recognised MM. She is lovely and we would never have met without Flickr and certainly not without the Internet.

Without the Internet we would never have been to the gig that night either.
How’s that?
Because TT had downloaded some music from a website which told him that if he liked that music (Lucinda Williams) then he would also like ‘Dar Williams’. He bought that CD too and liked it. Then he saw that she was on at the City Hall abd booked tickets (online.)

At the gig, I bought two CDs which I have now put onto my MP3 player.

So digital.

Hanging out

2006-01-20T21:54:00.000Z

in London last week, I saw these other chicks down Portobello Road:

I had a very nice time and saw this, this and this.
There was also a Russian thing going on in Trafalgar Square.

We stayed here.

Which is nice.

T'internet

2006-01-19T09:50:00.000Z

AOL have set up a debate about the pros and cons of the Internet .
Guy's list making idea has inspired me. Maybe we could make a list of pros here ... I'll start off :

There is often a feel of the 'supportive creative commons'.
You can make new friends.
You can keep in contact with existing friends.
You can learn from others in informal groupings e.g. via discussion boards, blogs etc.
You can do formal online courses and get qualifications - without leaving home.
You can work as part of a group and teach others.
If you are unable to go shopping or are disinclined to do so, you have purchasing power, can do online banking, etc.
Many businesses have been successful in cutting costs - on all kinds of product. It is easier for a customer to compare prices on the net.
Many books are cheaper online through companies like Amazon; people are buying more books.
Obscure items - CDs, books, strange things are easier to find on the Internet than in local shops.
People are into recycling through companies like e bay. T;internet can therefore help the planet.
You can publish something without going through another person or company. Individuals can therefore take control over what is published.
Because of point 12 above, busineses and big corporations no longer have complete monopoloy.
Individuals and online groups can get their voices heard and even manipulate situations.
You have access to a massive amount of information and can find out new angles which are not widely reported.
You can gain official and unofficial viewpoints, including 'other culture' views from all over the world.
Publication and feedback can be immediate.
The publishing process is simpler.
There is a range of modalities through which you can communicate, so that people can choose whether to use words, images, sound etc.
Professional, slick looking results are easier to achieve than without technology.
You can communicate in 'real time' - synchronous possibilities.
There can be time lapses in communication - asynchronous possibilities.
One to many communication;many to many; many to one.
Interactivity is easy to achieve.
On-line and off-line media can link up, for example you can have a photograph on your camera, fiddle around with how it looks and then put it on line.
Mobile media can link - e.g. podcasting; mobile phones.
In times of disaster, support networks and information lines have quickly and effectively been set up.

Can you think of anymore?

Crying

2006-01-18T22:54:00.000Z

Crying
Originally uploaded by WayneMethod.

Sweet, huh?

Lots of people on Flckr think it is great to post pictures of their babies and children on Flickr.

Like here, here and here. These are all very cute babies and I like to look at them. I have quite a few contacts who show baby pictures and I love to see their children grow through the photos. Even though I have never met these people in REAL life I feel lucky and priveleged to have this tiny share in their world.

The links to Flickr pictures I put in this post (above) were simply found by selecting 'baby' from the tag cloud here. The fact that the word 'baby' appears in the cloud shows that 'baby' is one of the most common tags.

So, it seems that people are unafraid of showing images of their babies, their treasured family. The fact that they have chosen to tag the photo so that it will be found in this way reflects a desire for the picture to be seen by people beyond a known group. Beyond friends and family. Beyond 'contacts'. It invites a wider audience to look.

So there are some people who have lost their fear, or who never had a fear, of showing images on the web.

I learn here that there is at least one family nervous of sharing baby images. And there are plenty of people to tell us that paedophiles are interested in such images.

Quite a number of people at my workspace have recently asked to have their photographs removed from the University website, because of worries about others misusing these images in some way.

As Guy identifies there are many reasons why people fear the Internet. As time goes on we may become MORE or LESS worried about putting our images on the net. When I first had a blog I did not have my photo on it; now I do. I have loads of pix of me on my Flickr stream and Trois Tetes has put lots of them on his Flickr stream (some of which are HATEFUL.)

I feel like the more that pictures of individuals are uploaded to the Internet, the less potent it is; if you go down a dark alley on your own it is dangerous. If you go in a crowd, it is less so.

Thinking about a different kind of technology, when telephone directories were first published, they were huge fat books and every telephone user was listed. At that time, one had to pay to go 'ex-directory'. Gradually oit has become the norm not to be listed and we do not have to pay to be excluded from the accessible list. This was a process where people took control and denied access to their telephone numbers. Reasons were many, such as to avoid the intruisive nature of 'cold calling'; or to escape the way some kids used to make 'joke calls'; or to deny access to weirdoes who made sex calls or threatening calls etc.

Maybe we will see a similar kind of withdrawal of access to identifying factors on the Internet. We will have to watch and see.

Mmmm Delicious!!

2006-01-17T13:24:00.000Z

Obviously this kind of snack does not appeal to everyone, with its chewy centre, but if you are interested you can buy one from the Queen's own grocer's Fortnum and Mason's. (I always suspected she had a penchant for worms.)

Actually the Delicious I was really thinking about was this one here which is in fact 'del.icio.us'.
I have not really bothered with it before, but have decided to open an account and use it. And although I only have five sites marked on it sofar, I have already had fun.

This is how it works:

You can create your own 'Delicious' page and save all your favourite sites on it. You can tag the sites and add notes to remind you what is what. You can then click on your tags and see all the sites you have tagged in that way. For example you can tag several sites 'museum' and then you will be able to click on that tag and draw up all your museum sites. Or you can tag 'artefact', or 'online learning' or 'identity' or 'literacy' etc etc. (Or 'fetish'). This is useful as when you favourite sites through your web browser, they often get squashed up and out of order. And with Delicious you have your helpful notes too.

BUT. You can also look at all the sites which other Delicious people have on their favourites, e.g. ones that they may have tagged as 'artefact' or 'Museum'. This is a very good tool as users of the web are doing the classifying as they use sites. Web site writers obviously also put in key words, but these may not be the same ones that occur to a site user. The Delicious site is like a HUGE database of people's bookmarked and categorised sites. So your bookmarks are public; but you can view everyone else's too. (It is like being in an academic nudist camp!! (But less embarrassing.) Hurrah!!)

This is yet another way in which the web is interactive; a way in which readers can become active and use their reading of a text to influence other people's readings of a text.

By using the tag 'artefact' I came across this site on 'Making the Modern World' . I have now added this to my 'Delicious' page.

I really enjoyed looking around on that site and especially enjoyed people's narratives on objects that mean a lot to them, like this . (Guy will like this skating one.) It is really nice to hear the stories spoken via a sound file as the voices add particular nuances which I enjoy.

Anyway more info about Delicious is here if you want to do it. I think I have got it right but I may not have it all in my head yet as I just started to use it. I did not read how to do it or what it was, I just 'kind of fiddled'. This is how I learn digital stuf f these days.
Like Maryplain I am a child of the digital age. Talking of which, check this article out for a shock ... written in 1996 it is SO out of date.

'Top-tips in Travel packs

2006-01-16T17:10:00.000Z

I am Queen of the Mini Break

DrKate has declared her position on minimalism, but when it comes to carting bags about, maybe she'll agree with me? That minimalism is a good thing as far as travel is concerned.

I claim the right to offer advice on packing for the mini break as I am married to someone who is ADDICTED to dragging me off all over the place (whether I want to or not. - Luckily I do want to.) Over the years I have developed the art of travelling for a mini-break and pride myself on keeping the rule that if you take it, you HAVE to use it, or chuck it out. (Scary.)

I went away this weekend just down to London over two nights. I took a small bag with me as I hate to carry loads of luggage. I usually take the least I can get away with because:

If you pack something and don't wear it, it will still need washing as it goes all nasty on the journey. (Don't know why).
If you take too much it ALL gets creased; if you take a few things, they don't get as squashed.
If you decide you really need something that you have not brought ... BUY A NEW ONE. (This is an excellent rationale).
Even if you can fit everything in a bag, you may not be able to carry it all comfortably.
I PLAN what I will wear each day and make sure that I can get away with wearing the same boots or shoes will everything.
I make sure that everything you take matches everything else. (If you are colour blind, a heterosexual male, or a woman with no style, this rule is easy to skipover but is important.)
I usually wear bulky, warm items - e.g. when I went down to London I wore boots, skirt, camisole, light cardigan, coat and large scarf - gloves in my pocket, hat. You can always unkit yourself on the train or plane.
I usually wear a skirt to travel in as trousers get too uncomfortable after a few hours - and skirts are warmer I think. I take three camisole tops and two light cardigans (plus underwear etc. but underwear is far too personal to discuss.)
I take plenty of accessories - a chic scarf is lighter than an extra layer of clothing and can still be as warm and worn in many ways. Too many jumpers are bulky to carry. Different jewellery can be worn each day, and this is very light to carry but can really MAKE the outfit.
I sometimes might take an extra skirt too if it is of light material - such as silk or cotton.
I do NOT take a bag with wheels - this would tempt me to break all the rules and I would have to carry the bag up steps (hard) and drag it over bumps. (One is allowed bags with wheels for trips of more than five days or if it is work related and laptops and/or papers and/or books are involved.) It is not cool to have partners carry bags for you; besides they need to save their energy.
I take my Sony MP3 player, all charged up of course, my phone (fully charged), a camera and two lenses. Also one book - no hardbacks, a notebook and pen. A packet of mints. Buy water at the station or airport.

Obviously I am intending you use me as a role model. I strongly advise that you DO NOT use hotel shampoo, conditioner, or shower gel. It is vile beyond reason. Take your own in small bottles and certainly DO NOT take any of the horrible stuff back home as you will never use it. If you do use it, you need more help than I have time to give you.

The ONLY things worth snatching from your hotel room are the plastic shower caps, as you can use these while you are waiting for your hairdye to develop. This way you can walk round the house in that boring twenty minutes before you rinse. And it is also worth sniping cotton buds in little packets. Meaner establishments don't always give you these but they are very handy in your handbag and keep clean in the little packets.

Exhibits

The excellent toilet bag:

(This was in fact a gift from a lovely person.)

The contents of the swag bag:

Please click on the image to see (in Flickr) further edifying notes.

I hope this has been helpful. If you need further advice please make requests in the comment box.

Thank you.

Not much time ...

2006-01-13T16:37:00.000Z

so why I am still stopping to post something?

Just to say I had a GREAT day today .. congregation for the students on the MA Literacy and Language course. It was so good to see them now they have finished ...

Took loads of photos .. but no permission to blog them (yet). In the meantime here's a strange perspective on the Arts Tower. I did my teacher training in this building - well some of it anyway.

Jackanory, Jackanory

2006-01-12T17:58:00.000Z

When I was a kid I used to sometimes watch Jackanory on television. It was a bit boring I used to think, as the programme was just some woman or some man reading a story out of a book. Personally I found the readers a bit posh and preferred to read my own choice of stuff. Also I thought that the telly was best at cartoons and programmes like Crackerjack and possibly Blue Peter.
The music for the opening credits for Jackanory was quite boring too, but if anyone at school was ever thought to be lying or 'telling a porky' (pork pies = lies) then we would quietly sing the Jackanory theme tune as the person spoke. The idea was, that fiction is lies; a made up story; something that is not factual, is a lie. Later when I was at university I discovered that Plato thought this too, whilst Aristotle was all in favour saying that fiction or 'Art' offers us central truths.

Anyway obviously in the post modern world the idea of an essential truth is one we find difficult to accept. We talk about narratives and versions and points of view. This blog offers a perspective on me and my life but it is difficult to say that it offers a story of the real me.

Kate has been thinking about narrative too and I loved her link to these visual naratives in the post the day before. This site has a link to the author's Flickr stream here and when I went to the Flickr place I felt I was seeing behind the scenes. That was a strange thing; I thought I was seeing into the prep room or studio, before the photos were selected for the posher narrative site.

I have referred in this post today, to Kate's site, and to the narrative site and to the associated Flickr stream. Kate today referred to Guy's site.

We all made proper hypertext links, so the fabric of out narrative is DIGITALLY ENABLED. We are weaving together our texts which make another larger text together. It makes the reading experience feel dynamic. And you can ignore the links if you want and just try to get meaning from the 'surface text'. So there may be multiple levels of narrative going on.

I am very interested in the idea of how we tell a story together we all hold the different threads of the narrative across our sites. We could see it merely as discursive and intertextual; I think it is more than this. I see it as a distributed narrative as Jill Walker explains.

This is a wonderfully written article and even draws on the old stuff of English Literature and the three unities and all that jazz. It is beautifuly crafted, very well theorised stuff.

I think that on the web I am part of a number of narrative threads across various blogs and in the Flickr community. These narratives cross the boundares of cyberspace and 'real space' into what Mitra calls 'cybernetic space'. I mentioned it here today too.

These patternings and narratives and different types of crossings form affinities which I think are significant socially and make different meanings in different ways. Sometimes these are to do with the sharing of words and phrases across a group of people as here. See the comments here too. Sometimes it is developing ideas together and here I am clearly helped by Kate's posts earlier in the week.
Finally thinking back to Jackanory, narratives seem less static than in book/paper based texts, more interactive somehow. They are shared across time and space in asynchronous ways and cross borders of formal/informal private/public in what feels like a more dynamic experience.

But this is still not unique, as there have been intertextual references, stories told across time and shared in different spaces since Aristotle's time. We still tell his story now. The ways in which we share in the narrative, the distributive nature of text feels unique... but is it? IF so how can we decsribe that new essence?

Thumb Culture

2006-01-11T14:44:00.000Z

(Thanks to Jon on flickr)

For quite some time now we have known that there have been worries that kids will (and do) suffer from enlarged thumbs if they text too much.

These ideas are suitably and scornfully presented here by Coyote in his blog 'Howl at the Moon'.
Indeed the BBC has reported on the phenomenon known as 'Blackberry thumb.'

Prensky talks about Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants in a well cited article that is worth bookmarking if you don't already know it. Digital Natives are those who are comfortable with technologies, who use them as part of their everyday lives. Immigrants are those who must make the effort to learn the stuff and who have to be inducted into the culture. I am keen to say though , that Digital Natives got that way partly through their own curiosity, their own volition. Prensky himself points out:

They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age. Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives.

I feel a bit weary of hearing the young discussed as if they instinctively, almost in spite of themselves just 'know' about operating and using digital technology. Rather, they were probably inspired to find out by its intrinsic interestingness. And as Prensky points out, they have invested TIME in LEARNING.

It's about time that schools were able to provide such inspiration without being held back by the strait-jacket of twentieth century curicular. Thery need time to learn themselves and they need time to think about developing suitable pedagogies to fit the new climate/culture. Blah blah blah.

Below are two immigrants I spotted in Miami - Digital Immigrants that is; helping each other to get to grips with texting.

Earlier this week I checked out this book on 'Thumb Culture' having read a review by Jennie Bristow on SPIKED. She praises this 25 chapter edited collection (even though it is written by academics) saying for example:

Overall, Thumb Culture is a positive appraisal of the increasingly complex role played by mobile phones in our society. Chapters examine the speed at which this
technology has developed already and its potential for the future, and there is a clear sense throughout the book that mobile phones have indeed come to mean a great deal for society, and that understanding this relationship is critical for
understanding how we view current social attitudes towards progress, communication and co-operation.

Well I would go along with a book that looks at this kind of stuff and with 25 chapters it seems it is jam-packed. Bristow quotes from a chapter about teenagers' use of mobiles/cellphones:

Teenagers' moblog contributions - with pictures illustrating their breakfast, their journey to school, their last party, or their pets and siblings - might seem trite, but so is life,

I agree with this to an extent and would want to add, as I explained in my chapter in this book, (edited by Marsh and Millard), that teenagers like to keep in contact with each other, partly just to show they are sharing the same life rhythms. Their text messages to each other, (on MSN or on text) are not necessarily intended to report news at all,but to just 'hang out' online or via their cellphones/mobiles. They like to just eport in themundane. But a cture is never JUST a picture and as I argued in my paper, (awaiting review), about the photo-sharing website Flickr, people's fascination with digital cameras is giving them a chance to take different types of picture (detailed close ups) and to see the world around them in new ways.

Anyway I do want to get a copy of Thumb Culture, but at the moment Amazon will keep you waiting 4 - 6 weeks with an additional charge for getting hold of it. And even on the other side of the pond at .com. they are asking you to wait a similar amount of time. So I'll have to keep a look out.

In the meantime if you have not got hold of Ito's Personal, Portable Pedestrian, then you should do so. It is of course very readable and excellent. However, if you are strapped for cash, (or even if you are not), go and download this article by Cynthia Lewis and Betina Fabos. This time it is about Instant messsaging, but is along similar lines as textng through phones and thumbs. You'll love it.

Just two more things. A report on how the Iraquis give the thumbs up to US soldiers and what it means here.
And finally:
Our music machines are getting smaller these days too and so instead of precariously balancing a needle into the groove of a vinyl single, or LP, (as I used to do in the seventies), my husband can fumble with his thumbs to hear a crystal clear rendering of the horrible Clash's horrible song 'London's Burning'.

Fashion statement?

2006-01-08T16:43:00.000Z

Fashion statement?
Originally uploaded by Roger B..

It's becoming a trend apparently.

So hard

2006-01-05T21:16:00.000Z

to get back in the swing of work after a little break, isn't it?
I have been swopping from one job to the next, not quite finishing anything. It's like wading through treacle and I am just in a MESS.

Nice to know that others feel the same and thanks to Seb for sending me this little number. It turns out that I am doing the right thing after all and am involved in a useful process called 'structured procrastiation'. Also, as it turns out, NOTHING is urgent. (Sorry Lucinda if you are reading this, but the deadline for updating that unit is apparently quite fluid.)

Maybe before I go I'll share this little soap opera:

OOOOPS. No not that.

It was this smooth operator here at worl in Nice. She is King of the Cats:

Quite a little Drama really, huh? Wish I knew what was going on, but I think I know who won!

No time

2006-01-03T13:56:00.000Z

to blog but have to keep in touch.
Here is a picture of me in Nice old town market.

Thoughts come later ... I have been thinking about photos, flickr, memories, identity, spaces and playing.
Nothing new, huh?

Ho!Ho! Ho!

2005-12-28T17:58:00.000Z

(But not in the American sense)

I am going away here for a few days.
Seeing as DETOX does not work, I have decided on the alternative approach and will be RETOXING over the early part of 2006.
See all in the New Year!!!

Kiss kiss.

Things that go "Boing!! Boing!!"

2005-12-27T13:07:00.000Z

Here is something for elastic enthusiasts. (Remember to experiment with the mouse, as well as watch.)

I am very keen on this woman's hair; she seems able to do lots of interesting things with it.

It seems that there is a new kind of art for the web.

And THIS series of films in an elevator is FABULOUS.

Advertisements on television were the archetypal short narrative, that would have to be completed within thirty seconds or so. A narrative with a purpose to sell, to keep your attention and to be memorable. But now there is a new venue for shorties and on the internet they can even be interactive. I think that Internet stuff is often short as audiences are so often surfers in a hurry; maybe bloggers looking for titbits, workers looking for breaks, kids checking out new sensations.(Did you play with elastic girl?) And what bliss, they don't have to sell you owt. Sometimes they still do, but mainly it is FREE entertainment.

BUt here is why there are STILL so many Mums and Dads who hate t'internet??
Such a shame.

Seasons Greetings!!!

2005-12-26T13:53:00.000Z

Whoa!! Interactivity!!

2005-12-24T17:23:00.000Z

The Internet continues to reveal its hidden treasures to me and today I found this trove of interactivity.
It is an ad for an advertising company and is so slick that Brylcreme would look dull in cmparison.
I am not overloading this post with other links as otherwise you may drift off elsewhere and not do the main site properly.
But use your mouse and click about and see how many tricks it has to keep punters engrossed - and therefore reading about the product.
I am thinking of transforming the School of Education site like this.

But I know you don't want me to mention work, so here then is the REAL meaning of Christmas.

And here is a little gingerbread person out shopping for presents.

Hope you all get nice things.

What irritates YOU?

2005-12-23T18:15:00.000Z

It is clear what is bugging this guy.

Maybe you have a moment to see how when you have been the victim of a mega irritating person, that Karma will ensure that person gets punished.

Finally if you are in the narrative swing, check out the Espresso stories ... even have a go yourself. They are short and powerful like an Espresso coffee. (I can only suppose that is how they got their name.)

Do you have a moment?

2005-12-22T19:00:00.000Z

Check here to see if you do ...

OK?
Got time?

Then go here.

Or maybe you have time to move away from your desk. Go here.

If you have just another minute, check out these two presents I got today. Lovely to be surrounded by pink, I have to say.
This is my new radio switched off.

This is my new radio switched on:

It makes the room go all funky when I turn my new radio on.

This is my Christmas tree purse:

Maybe you want a lesson on Visual Culture after all that?

(By the way I love the magic which technology brings to the pencil and paper handwriting activity. Gorgeous macro there.)

My site meter tells me that people spend an average amount of time of between 5 seconds and three minutes on my blog ... quite a challenge that.

Intolerance

2005-12-21T12:00:00.000Z

Seeing as My Vedana mentioned it, I will supply the link. I got this in the summer but did not really dare post it. Wherewas the fear? Maybe it was the idea that Barbie wearing a Burkha was originally intended to undermine Islamic beliefs. I am not sure it could do that. Where is the original joke? Maybe that someone as glam as Barbie would not wear a burkha - but they patently do.
Many people have blogged about it - even though as far as I can tell only the concept exists, not the actual doll.
But I have also found this burka song again which I mentioned here a long time ago. (My previous link broke but now I have found a new location - I bet you're pleased.) I also found this further info.

NB Like Guy, (Guy Merchant's blog: consisting of current pre-occupations in a variety of realms populated by my multiple identities) I think that Barbie plays with multiple identities and that is why poewple are forever trying to find one that will undermine her iconic status...

The Reader is not Dead

2005-12-20T13:15:00.000Z

Obviously readers will remember Toto from The Wizard of Oz.

Especially at this panto filled time of year.
('Panto', NOT 'Pants')

And I know you will feel pleased that the reader is still not dead. (Barthes actually wrote that the author was dead, in order to emphasis the vivacity of a reader). For a friend of mine was interactive when he watched The Wizard of Oz on tv at the weekend, and dressed himsellf and his dog in an appropriate manner:

Certainly we can see that my friend is a very avid, lively reader of texts.
(Here is Tallulah Sparkle who seems a little less than animated about being a fashion icon, however.)

Build your own

2005-12-20T09:49:00.000Z

here.

Excuses and stuff

2005-12-19T21:24:00.000Z

I know you think I could not be bothered to blog, but in fact I have a lamer excuse.

I was too busy.

(Embarrassing, I know.)

This is the kind of excuse that might be anathema to REAL bloggers as REAL Bloggers scoff at those who say 'How do you find the time?'

But last week, I was hard pushed to find the time.

(Pathetic)

It is a bit like hardened runners who roll their eyes at people who are asked about how they find time to train. For some what is a way of life (blogging, running), is to others an interruption on the smooth running of other things (work, family).

But my blog has started to become a way of helping me think about and get into order the other aspects of my life. It has also become a ritual in my day and one which I move towards as the day goes on. I think about what to blog. Similarly runners use the running time to empty their minds; to think; and they feel uncomfortable if they do not run. It becomes a real need that involves guilt if it does not happen.I even feel like I have let people down.

Strange.

Although I did not post anything here since last Tuesday, I have thought about things I wanted to post (and indeed there are a myriad of things gone by in the past, that I regret not posting about.)

here is how my week went:

Last Wednesday I did post here .

On Thursday I thought I would post about the amzing coincidence of meeting Alyson Simpson who works with Anya who I met in Miami the other week. How much of a coincidence is that??

Alyson came and spoke to Jackie and myself about her research and our research and we agreed that it would be great if Alyson came and did a seminar sometime next year when she is on Study Leave.

And I had not noticed at first that she is a co-author of this book which she and Anya both contributed to:

(I have not read this yet but will let you know when I do.)

On Friday I thought I would write about this strange phenomenon.

Have YOU become a lensmaster yet? ,

................................................ my brother asked me. ......

Well I registered and so on, but have not really got my head round what a lensmaster is yet. I think you must proclaim yourself to be an expert in something, and that is the trouble. Then people use you as a portal to grab related information to your expertise. As I did not want to be fraudulent I chickened out half way through. I had identity problems. Am I an expert on anything?

Doubt it, somehow.

And anyway I suppose you would have to keep writing endlessly about the same thing.

Maybe.

Then at the weekend I went here. Salt's mIll. Home of David Hocney paintings etc etc.

Interesting stuff.

Set here in Bronte Country:

It is an Old Textile Mill which was once filled with the working classes.

Transformed into a showspace for the middle-classes and their educated children. The cafe sells fusion food that people first experienced on their foreign holidays.

It is all very bizarre. It also sells books and upmarket designer gadgets for the kitchen. It also has stuff (artefacts) to clutter up your house - if you want your house to look like a stage set..... (which I don't.)

What can it mean?

I think it is strange, these transformations of working class Hellholes, into shopping areas.
I do like going to Salts Mill and have been LOADS of times to look at pictures; but it is a weird phenomenon.
We, (and I am talking for myself here), romanticise the past, filling it with cultured artefacts and positioning ourselves in that contemporary space, yet re-posditioning ourselves in relation to times gone by. By re-articulating the present space, we somehow see the past differently. The place is like a stage set, a new arena, and we envisage the past as peopled by actors, who pose in our minds, in stances that pictorialise history.
The past becomes infused with the present, a kind of comfortable pastiche and we think about industrialsed England almost as a small chapter in a cultivated story of the place.

(I wouldn't buy those lemons though.)

Taking the pith

2005-12-13T21:21:00.000Z

The answer is here:

The question was here

Couldn't stop laughing

2005-12-13T15:20:00.000Z

when DrKate gave me this:

THANKS DRKATE. SO FUNNY.

Merry Christmas from Canary Wharf Management

2005-12-12T21:29:00.000Z

Merry Christmas from Canary Wharf Management
Originally uploaded by Simon Crubellier.

Cool.

Blending

2005-12-12T19:32:00.000Z

On my birthday (nearly two weeks ago now, but hey, what the Hell) my brother sent me a blended message from here. You click to unblend it amd you can play on the site if youy want to. It is quite fun.

Blending is all the rage.
You can have blended learning.
You can haveblended drinks.
You can have blended fashion .
And blended coffee.

DigitalDubs and Mr. Catera

2005-12-12T11:08:00.000Z

DigitalDubs and Mr. Catera
Originally uploaded by eyoalha.

Digital worlds, digital lives.

Beyond the Surface

2005-12-12T10:06:00.000Z

Beyond the Surface
Originally uploaded by pupski.

Looking again at the everyday stuff. Things that are just trodden upon, shown to us here and seen anew through an artist's eyes. I like this.

Celebrities and Monarchs

2005-12-11T14:22:00.001Z

Another thing on Identity.
These people believe they are special and are entitled to priveleges.
That is because people around them pretend they are soooper superior.
Then everyone (except me and you) starts to believe it all. They end up thinking it is really true that they deserve to be treated as special and that it is a criminal offence not to treat them as special.

Very weird.

And sometimes the special/not special people pretend to believe they are ordinary; and really ordinary people pretend to believe that they are ordinary, but in an extraodinary way. Which is somehow supposed to be even better than being simply special.

It can be very confusing.

Yesterday I accidentally watched a bit of a tv programme where Sir Cliff (yes, 'Sir') was being interviewed. I heard him say something like,

'Yes I am just ordinary.On Christmas day I will be going to church and then spending the day with my family and friends just like ordnary people do.'

Yes Cliff. We know you are ordinary. But do you? Mind you if he keeps saying often enough 'I am just ordinary' more and morepeople will believe he is extraordinary.

Anyway yesterday in town I caught these two hot babes moving on with their identity formations like this:

I don't need to do this as I have a hairspray thing which helps me be a Queen AND a Superstar:

I suppose you thought that my extraordinarily luscious hair was natural. But is is not, ithas been faked with what is now referred to as 'product'. 'Product' used to be called hairspray.

Quiz 2

2005-12-11T13:57:00.000Z

What do you think this is then?

Quiz

2005-12-10T19:46:00.000Z

Do you know what this is?

Or this?

(I want a precise answer for the above please)

Have a crisp while you are thinking...

I have been shopping today, more of which tomorrow.