multimedia|ted e|visceration: a queer critique

Final video mockup

2010-02-17T16:31:00.001-08:00

A message, since Jonathan's flight has been delayed...

2008-10-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

Sent:
21:11:56
10/17/2008
Where you at?
Sender:
JackieRcell
+1909...

[Voice mail mssg received and translated by SpinVox]

2008-10-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

[Voice mail mssg received and translated by SpinVox]
Sent:18:56:02
10/16/2008
"Hey Jonathan, it's Jackie and I'm getting ready to go to the opening reception which should be co opening regional be close that I'm doing some major chatting up with the northern people but wow you should be here. Our installation looks quite fabulous, you can't reach out the pictures and video just it because sell some campuses close. I couldn't bring my really good charmers (?) with me but I'm gonna try the remedies some of that tomorrow..." --SpinVox
Sender:
JackieRcell
+1909...

cellphone chat from Louisville (4)

2008-10-16T17:20:00.000-07:00

Sent:
17:20:34
10/16/2008
Wish you were here!!!!!
Sender:
JackieRcell
+1909...

setting up took 3 hours

2008-10-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

cellphone chat from Louisville (3)

2008-10-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

Sent:
14:35:49
10/16/2008
And of course plz post this entire conversation to the blog. ") just saw wysocki btw
Sender:
JackieRcell
+1909...

cellphone chat from Louisville (2)

2008-10-16T14:27:00.000-07:00

14:27:53
10/16/2008
Okay it's up and VERY cool
Sender:
JackieRcell
+1909...

2008-10-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

cellphone chat from Louisville (1)

2008-10-16T11:51:00.000-07:00

11:51:09
10/16/2008
Good news and bad--space is really good, equip is all here. Bad news is that spycam w/9v batteries won't work--connection is so hot I burned my fingers. Hazard!
Sender:
JackieRcell
+1909...

In Louisville (Jackie)

2008-10-15T15:51:00.001-07:00

I'm staying at The Brown Hotel, one of the conference hotels. Jonathan gets in late Friday; that means that I'm setting up the installation solo tomorrow morning (but fair's fair--he will set it up solo next month in Irvine). This sort of piece takes a lot more travel planning than my usual conference presentations; with those, I just need to make sure to bring extra copies of the paper in case I lose one. For this installation, however, I'm traveling pretty heavy: an Epson digital projector, two 9" DVD players, a spy cam and a radio receiver for that, an 8-pack of 9-volt batteries (for the spy cam), assorted cords, assorted bits of velcro and double-sided tape, a surge protector, and an extension cord. Oh yeah, and my laptop and a dozen blank CDs and DVDs. That was all carry-on, and I was surprised that I didn't get searched by the TSA people. It's a bit disturbing to me how much space (mental and physical) this sort of work takes on the part of its designers/authors. It definitely encourages collaboration and studio approaches to creation.

A clip from one of the projectors (greetings!)

2008-10-10T15:19:00.000-07:00

Thoughts on the teacher's body

2008-10-08T16:42:00.000-07:00

...a good deal of what is fascinating about the “savage other” is its existence as our alter ego, as an idealized abstraction of what lurks beneath our veneer of civilization. It is crucial to remember this point, for it is the queer subject’s own “savageness” in the classroom that both licenses her to speak (by giving inside/emic knowledge) and makes her suspect. The automatic and presumptive sexualizing/fetishizing of the queer body constructs us as Other, destabilizes our Be-ing, forces an intimacy with anyone in our orbit. The body of the queer becomes the “public sphere” of the multicultural classroom, mediating private self and state authority (as expressed in the narratives of inclusion underlying multicultural classrooms).

It is alarming to realize that one’s body is not one’s own, particularly if one is in a context (the classroom) in which “bodies” and “passions” and “emotions” are not supposed to exist at all. To be “embodied” by others and then filled with meaning is disconcerting, and it is threatening. How are we to “compose ourselves” in such a system? Such composition comes at unacknowledged personal cost—moral, social, religious, sometimes legal cost. Sometimes it comes at great physical cost. Is it worth it? Maybe. There’s not a right answer to that question.

2008-10-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

Jacqueline and Jonathan,

I just wanted to send a last note updating you regarding the exhibition space for your installation. After considering some recent security issues regarding the room where we had your installation located, and given the distance it was located from the other installations, we decided that it will be best to include you in the same large room as the other installations. We will be blacking out the windows, providing plenty of power, laptops, projectors, and screens as you originally requested. We will also make sure that your installation is curtained off from the other installations. This way, your equipment will be secure throughout the day, as we will have attendants present throughout the duration of the conference. We will be leaving our own rented equipment for other installations (several huge display monitors, as well as computers, etc) over night in the room, and you will be free to do so as well. Not only will this space be bigger and more flexible for you to work within, but you should she additional traffic because of the new location (Humanities 300).

I realize that we all thought that the previous setup and location was settled, but as we have several people involved on our end, and new information is coming in each day, we felt that this was the most responsible decision. I truly aplologize if it's cause the two of you any trouble.

If you have any questions, or you see any trouble with this plan. Please let us know ASAP.

Otherwise, Jacqueline, you can visit Humanities 300 when you arrive on Thursday morning. I'm sure I'll be running around checking room setups, etc. So please call me when you get here, and I'll help get you started in the space. I already have your mobile number, so I wanted to make sure you both have mine: 502-***-****

Jonathan, when you have a second, could you send me your mobile number? (I promise not to call unless absolutely necessary.)

Thanks so much, you two. We're so looking forward to experiencing your installation.

Wordle.net

2008-10-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

setup, part 2a

2008-09-30T11:37:00.001-07:00

Hey, Ryan. Wednesday eve. and early Thursday a.m. isn't going to work. I can actually do the setup myself (as long as I know where I'm supposed to be and where the plug-ins are). As Jonathan had said before, we don't actually need a screen--in fact it'll be better without one--but something that divides us from the next presenter (room dividers) somewhat would be helpful, and we need a small table. So in short, point me in the right direction, I'll get started around 8 or 8:30 a.m., and maybe you could just check in with me that morning to make sure I'm not, I don't know, frying the University's circuits? :) Let me know--I'll have my cell phone w/me (909-***-****). --jrr

setup, part 2

2008-09-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

Good god, no. With the time difference, 6 a.m. is 3 a.m. my time. :)

Let me check my flight--can't remember offhand when I get in on Wed., and just rolled into my office. --jrr

setup

2008-09-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

Hello, Jacqueline.
Things will be pretty hectic on Thursday, with registrations and the inevitable tech scrambling, so I was hoping you might be available very early on Thursday morning (6:00? 7:00? Maybe you could catch the first bus?) or even Wednesday evening would be good, depending on when your flight arrives. If it can't be until after 8:00am on Thursday, then we'll have to meet during one of the concurrent sessions to get everything set up. Hopefully, I can have most of what your need ready to go before you get here.
Just let me know when you're flight arrives, and when you'd prefer to meet up. Thanks.

Ryan

The diagram

2008-09-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

emails...and plotting and planning... (Jonathan to Jackie)

2008-09-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

Hey, let me know if you got the email I sent to Ryan and cc'd you on re: our tech needs.
We'll need to coordinate when you arrive so he can help you set up, so let us know your travel plans.
Also, what's our timeline now for *Writing Against Composition*? I need a couple of more weeks for more chapter stuff. You?
j.

Re: Watson Installation (Jonathan)

2008-09-21T18:12:00.000-07:00

Ryan!
Thanks for calling. Sorry that things have been hurricane crazy in Louisville. Hope you all are recovering...and hope your exams are going well! Best of luck.
As for our installation, I think we're on the same page.
Jackie and I met this past week, and we decided that we need the following:
2 laptops (capable of playing PowerPoint and QuickTime files)
2 projectors (to go with the laptops)
room dividers, if possible.
a large chunk of wall (12x12 would be great, concrete fine) upon which to project various images.
Jackie, am I missing anything?
Ryan, any questions?
Thanks so much, you guys :-)
j.

check this out...

2008-09-19T08:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.swenkemedia.com/
--an experiment in global black queer new media

2008-09-18T22:33:00.000-07:00

thinking new media and the queer critique together...

2008-09-18T17:51:00.002-07:00

In the broadest sense, materiality emerges from the dynamic interplay between the richness of a physically robust world and human intelligence as it crafts this physicality to create meaning
--N. Katherine Hayles

At present, the mass-cultural public sphere continually offers its subjects an array of body images.
--Michael Warner

Dress rehearsal

2008-09-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

We spent the day doing a tech run-through in UH 252...

2008-09-17T16:59:00.000-07:00

Ever since the “social turn” in composition, at least, compositionists have tended to agree that textuality and identity are intimately related; indeed, one can probably follow this long thread of ethos back to its classical roots. The discussion of identity/textuality formed one of the key arenas for composition scholarship during the ‘90s, at the moments before (and during) that time when our field became enamored of computer network-based curricula. It was a time of great scholarly synergy. Given what we think we know about identity and textuality, we asked, how will the different textual possibilities of cyberspace affect our identities? In cyberspace, will anyone know you’re a dog? Can you be a dog, a man, a woman, a bot, a borg, or something of all of these multiplicitous textual identities at once?

The possibilities were alternately terrifying and exhilarating, but most of us agreed—and still tend to agree—that such shaping of self through text is problematic mostly if what we’re looking for is a unified, coherent self. We see our students’ (and our own) writing being into multiple existence as a potential source of great discursive energy. In many ways, however, these celebrations of new textualities celebrate the disruption of “self” in its material sense. We push the writing body to the side of the stage, perhaps even into the orchestra pit to sit and applaud our brain’s star turn.

We'd like to push back.

Interesting piece on queer spaces

2008-09-16T17:45:00.000-07:00

Scott Carey, in his Queer Space as installation, writes:

Queer space is a way of contextualizing my installation practice. In order to describe how my installations may be construed as ‘queer space’ I have associated some theoretical contexts of both ‘queer theory’ and ‘queer space’ that possess a degree of affiliation with characteristics that Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari call rhizomatics and arborescence...

Program questions, part 2 (Jackie)

2008-09-15T20:23:00.000-07:00

Hi, Ryan. It's true--if my name doesn't appear on the program, I don't get reimbursed for going, and I don't get any professional credit for doing the work; that means that I can't commit to buying the ticket, registering, getting a hotel, and transporting all the materials to Louisville yet. Argh. Is there an updated version of the program available yet? The one online was last updated 8/26. --jrr

Somaesthetics

2008-09-15T18:13:00.000-07:00

"...one's body (like one's mind) incorporates its surroundings, going, for example, beyond the conventional body boundary of the epidermis to satisfy its most essential needs of breathing and nutrition. Our bodies (like our thoughts) are thus paradoxically always more and less than our own." -- Richard Shusterman

Balls

2008-09-15T17:51:00.000-07:00

I’ve never wanted a penis.
It’s too easy to strap one on and
fuck like a machine, all grooves and
gristle, sleek, oiled,
power.

I like that.
But I like taking it off too.

No, what I want are
balls. Large, hairy, wormy
balls with their persistent
itch, tugging at the limit
of what I
am.

I want to touch myself in public.

Tech needs (Jackie)

2008-09-15T16:51:00.001-07:00

We're going to need two laptops/projectors w/DVD drives. We'll bring a third projector. We'll also need a small table (almost cafe-table size). Ideally, we'd have a room to ourselves, but if not, we're certainly going to need a projection space that is a good 12' x 12' as well as room dividers of some sort.

Program questions, part 2 (Jonathan)

2008-09-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

Ryan,
Just checking in. I hope to have to you SOON a sense of tech needs and requirements. Nothing drastic--I promise :-)
Question: will there be a large wall against which we can project things? Any sense of dimensions would be great...
In the meantime, I do have a favor to ask. If you could make mention of the exhibit, and our names, in an online brochure or schedule or the Website, that would be STELLAR. To get money to attend, Jackie needs to demonstrate that she's going for a particular purpose, and this kind of professional recognition would do it. I hope this isn't a problem, but feel free to call or email if there are issues or if someone (Debra?) has questions.

THANKS!
j.

facebooking

2008-09-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

facebook planning 2

2008-09-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, don't feel unsteady. I'll forward you all correspondence. You're totally included--actually, I think your name is first on the installation. And once we determine tech needs (?), I'll email and ask that we see a draft of the conference scheduled with our installation noted.
Now, for being there. Here's the tricky party. I can't arrive in Louisville until Friday night. I know, it sucks. I failed to realize that I was already booked for something that CANNOT be changed. I didn't worry about it b/c my presentation isn't till Sat. But, of course, the installation means that it would've been better to be there earlier. SO, if you don't mind getting there and setting up for Friday--that would be HUGE. Naturally, I'll be setting up in Irvine in Nov. all by my lonesome, so you can let me know what's what. But, if you can get it set up, great. I'll gladly get to Redlands in the next couple of weeks to help figure out EVERYTHING that needs to be done.
So, talk to me!
j.
BTW, have fun in SF! Hi to the LAW!

2008-09-09T15:07:00.000-07:00

Ack! I feel a bit unsteady abt that since you've been the conference contact--they haven't managed to even get my name anywhere in the program yet. What's up?

2008-09-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

No, going to today. Been out of town.
I also realized that I might not get to the conference until Friday. We need to talk logistics!

2008-09-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

To Jonathan (Jackie)

2008-09-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

So I'm filling out the MLA form for technology--do we have any idea what we need? We'll have our own laptops and a projector, but should we ask them for anything?

Item #2--I still haven't bought the ticket/reserved a room for Watson. Will do that today. Are you staying in one of the conference hotels? (Have you booked yet?)

facebook planning

2008-09-07T13:39:00.000-07:00

Didja buy your ticket/hotel yet? I haven't.

Program questions, part 1 (Jonathan)

2008-09-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

Wonderful!
Jackie and I will confer soon about tech needs--probably today--and get back to you ASAP.

When you have the program up online, would you kindly let me know? Jackie and I would like to document our participation.
Thanks much!
j.

2008-09-03T06:12:00.000-07:00

Professor Alexander,
Thanks for the title and abstract of the installation. Tabetha will be
dropping it into the program in the next few days.
Now all we need from you is a list of technical needs (i.e. projector, screen, computer, dvd, player, speakers, etc.) Of course there are some inferences I could make from your description, but given what I know about your work, you're likely to surprise us. In any case, could you let us know what your tech needs will be?
Thanks.
Ryan ****

Pictures for Jonathan, part 2

2008-09-02T17:57:00.000-07:00

2008-09-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

From the Keynote draft, part of the installation:

Pictures for Jonathan, part 1

2008-09-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

We needed more pictures for a fast-changing projection that Jonathan's put together.

Metrolink

2008-08-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

Jonathan's visit (Jackie)

2008-08-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

Tuesday's cool--I have an appt. at 9 a.m., but will be done by 10. What's the train schedule?

title/abstract (Jackie, to Jonathan)

2008-08-27T13:33:00.000-07:00

Looks good!

When you coming to visit?

multimedia|viscerations

This multimedia piece plays with projections of text and body, writing digi/somatics into being, challenging normative expectations for legible selves.

Or, put another way…

{[the textual body] / [the somatic body] ∑ normative horizon of expectations ≈ perception < or > identity ≤ or ≥ community}

To Jonathan (Jackie)

2008-08-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

I kind of like digi-somatics. Can we use that in the title? digi-somatics/viscerations

2008-08-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

multimedia|viscerations

This multimedia piece plays with projections of text and body in order, writing digi/somatics into being, challenging normative expectations for legible selves.

Or, put another way…

{[the textual body] / [the somatic body] ∑ normative horizon of expectations ≈ perception < or > identity ≤ or ≥ community}

from Jackie's Blackberry

2008-08-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

Got 2 philips portable media players w/9" screens, play dvd or sd cards, and from ipod--on clearance @ Target. Part of the price of my life as a digital arteest

To Jackie (Jonathan)

2008-08-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, we need to talk!!!

2008-08-21T17:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Professor Alexander,
I am one of the Assistant Directors for the 2008 Watson Conference in Louisville this Fall. I wanted to check in with you about the message (below) that you sent this past spring about possibly producing an installation for this year's conference. I apologize that it's been so long since we've been in touch about this.
At the moment, we're in the process of laying out the conference program, and we'd love to include your installation if you're still planning on putting it together.
If you'd like to ask any questions, I'd love to hear from you. If you'd like some extra time to consult with Professor Rhodes, just let us know. Basically, all we will need from you (relatively) soon is a title and short abstract describing the installation.
You will have access to a wide variety of AV equipment including a window laptop, LCD project, speakers, a large area to work within, etc. If you have something specific in mind, please don't hesitate to ask.
We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,
Ryan ****

Posthuman

2008-06-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up feeling a
little bit different. My balls intact,
the stream of urine a little too
gold (but that can be cured) and the
toast as burnt as ever—but some-
thing wrong in the folding of the
mind around the porcelain and
coffee cup: this isn’t the way I
see the world. This is better.

bodies legally bound

2008-06-17T16:59:00.000-07:00

something excessive...

2008-04-11T11:45:00.000-07:00

Our contention is that queerness pushes hard at the limits of composition. It asks that we consider not only what is not composed, but what refuses to be composed. Put another way, if queerness is the excess of sexual identities, the part that exceeds easy and knowable encapsulation in identity, then it is also the excess of composition, of the composure of stories, narratives, arguments, and texts that are “composed.”

Only an expert...

2008-04-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

Jonathan and I (and Mack and the LAW) saw Laurie Anderson last night at Royce Hall (UCLA). Wow.

E.M. Forster

2008-04-09T16:59:00.000-07:00

"People never touched one another. The custom had become obsolete, owing to the Machine."

Don't you?

2008-04-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

Suggestion for installation

2008-03-08T13:26:00.000-08:00

Jonathan writes:
Hi Debra--
I'm checking in with you again about the possibility of a digital media/arts installation at Watson. Jackie Rhodes and are still very interested in seeing what we might be able to set up. Here are two of my projects that I'd very much like to put on display:
phonesex : a digital collage [to be shown at the Electronic Literature Organization's conference this summer.]
dis|orientation : a digital collage
Jackie has some wonderful photoshop manips and other projects, all of which, along with my interactive webtexts, might productively be called:
multimedia|ted e|visceration : a queer critique
Let me know if you still want to talk! Hope so! This could be great fun...and fit in beautifully with your conference theme.
Hope you are well :-)
j.

_____________________

To Debra Journet (Jonathan)

2007-12-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

Hi Debra!
I'm really looking forward to the Watson conference next year...twill be fun :-)
I've been talking with my dear friend Jackie Rhodes (CSU, San Bernardino) about proposing that we do an installation on (roughly) gender, sexuality, literacy, and new media for the conference. Can we talk--you and I--about parameters, equipment, possibilities? We've just been brainstorming, but I'd love to get a sense from you of the possibilities here...
Looking forward to chatting...

...and, in the meantime, please accept my best wishes for a safe and happy holiday!

Choo-choo blues

2007-10-20T17:37:00.000-07:00

At the Riverside-Downtown Metrolink station, Jonathan finds out how helpful the "Passenger Info" phone is.

thinking out loud here...

2007-09-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

Just as new media texts and practices prompt us to reconsider what “literacy” means, so too do they enable us to reconsider what sexuality and sexual identity (always already discursive) mean. Our installation attempts to understand the multiple layerings of sex, text, and technology as sites from which to perform queer identities--and maybe just to perform queer. Specifically, we explore the radical, disruptive invocation of body, gender, desire, fear, and sensation that is the (new-)mediated queer self. We make use of our converging alienations, our mesh of desire and want, in order to position ourselves to be—if only for a particular, rhetorical moment—and, more to the point of this particular work, to be sexual. Through the constant exchange/deferral of need, this self-positioning increases and sustains itself through its desire, serving as the engine of its own perpetual visibility. It is thus a generative, multimodal techne of self, with both somatic and representational consequence.

Our view of techne—a sort of generative lived knowledge—points less to the prescriptive how-to sense of the term and more to its ethical, civic dimension. Our view demands that we embrace the incommensurability of bodily self and representation at the same time as we acknowledge the importance of lived experience to the formation of an ethical stance. It’s important to clarify, however, that our sense of sexuality and ethics does not cover “appropriate” sexual behavior or sexual manners, but instead draws from a close examination of the discourses surrounding the sexual self. What behaviors, what subjectivities, what possibilities, and what impossibilities are created through the intersections of sex and text? It is with this view in mind that we attempt to perform in our installation our own encounters—as sexed and sexual beings—with a variety of texts.

We contend that what is most attractive about queerness—theoretically, personally, and politically—is its potential illegibility, its inability to be reductively represented, its disruptive potential—in a word, its impossibility. At many different moments, queerness appears (or emerges or erupts) to trouble normalcy, legitimacy, signification. It’s what doesn’t fit. It’s what skews, bends, or queers the realities we construct around ourselves, and that have been constructed for us to induce a hetero-normative sense of stability and progress through the replication of particular kinds of people in particular kinds of families.

Queerness disrupts such stability, such progress. And as a movement of disruption, it is often difficult to track, to catch, to identify. Gays and lesbians are often positioned in relation to the normative, often as those seeking a place at the table—and many gays and lesbians are seeking that place. But in our lives as a gay man and as a lesbian, we have encountered numerous instances in which our queerness most certainly does not fit in, where it marks us as separate, as possessing and possessed by a subjectivity that is often incommensurably other.

Those are often our most delicious moments. And the most critically insightful and revealing, for that moment of instantiation—of the flesh made real—seems ripe for rhetorical and embodied action, one that encourages an attention to the moments of uncertainty between desire and hope, bodily self and representation, lived experience and ethical stance.

Mediated

2007-09-13T17:51:00.000-07:00

CFP: Thomas R. Watson conference

2007-08-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

THE SEVENTH BIENNIAL
THOMAS R. WATSON CONFERENCE
University of Louisville
October 16-18, 2008

THE NEW WORK OF COMPOSING

What is the new work of composing in the midst of the rapidly changing technologies and communicative forms that characterize contemporary life? We invite proposals for any topic related to the conference theme, including:

How do new technologies change the ways we understand the work of composing?
How do issues of access, materiality, or economics affect composing within and outside the university?
what is the relation between new and old media? between textual, visual, and aural modes?
what happens to writing in contexts of new media composing?
how do we define our responsibilities as teachers, scholars, and practitioners?
where do we now locate disciplinary identity?

We welcome scholarly papers and new forms of scholarship, including videos, sound essays, installations. We encourage you to think creatively about the new work of composing.

Deadline for Submissions: MARCH 3, 2008

Submission Guidelines

The Book On Display

2006-12-19T15:11:00.000-08:00

some of my inspiration for working with "installed" text...all from a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago

2006-12-18T17:51:00.000-08:00