Material Practices
In your opinion, what are the material practices that accompany literacy? And how important are they? Are these practices challenged by the Internet and digital technologies, or are those technologies fostering new practices?
posted by kathiyancey @ 2:42 PM
13 comments
13 Comments:
My material practice is highlighting and annotating in the margins. I never read without ink in hand, so reading online (for lasting purposes--grading student papers, reading for later writing, such as coursework) is difficult without this crutch.
No, wait, I don't apologize for it. It's a survival tool. It's no crutch; it's a Swiss Army knife. I've killed countless animals with it and fed my family with the pen. Ah, cliche, the pen is mighter than the sword, so by taking my pen, someone is disarming me. And, yes, helplessness follows. Penless, I read without retention. I come to class and can't pull quickly from the text for discussion. I'm lost.
I would propose that digital culture is challenging existing material practices to literacy and creating new ones. PDA's and laptops are making portability of literacy equal to and expanded from that with books, pen and paper, the functions with which to digesest information, normally by marking text with pen, highlighter, yellow sticky, are being adopting by digital machinery as functional literacy within the digital age has not yet caught up to functional literacy in the age of (print?) - I'm assuming this trend will continue, digital adopting print tendencies and continuously challenging them until they overtake.
What Digital literacy allows for in material practice is the hyperlink, references information at ones fingertips, anytime, anywhere. Libraries are becoming home computers, becoming PDA's. This creates a culture wed to immediacy and increasingly individualized.
Deidre,
I'd also argue that looking at the setup of the computer screen makes it more difficult to digest complex information, I think as it promotes a quick scroll/scan methodology over the in-depth read you'd have with pen/highlighter. I've never enjoyed highlighting and writing in books or articles (I'm snooty and enjoy the unmarked aesthetics) but I miss folding over important pages.
Material Practices:
"Cuddling up" with text
writing on (if you own it) text
turning pages
silence
single focus
We each have our own peculiar material practices, as well. I, for example, have a habit of counting how many pages I have left to read. Incessantly. Even though I like reading.
Some of these practices are challenged, some are not. Some dig. tech. fosters new practices. Although I can still cuddle up with my laptop in bed (wire-free as well!); we still have sites divided into "pages" (and seemed to collectively agree that not being able to "turn pages", as with the ebooks, is annoying).
Handwriting is another material practice that accompanies literacy. And while we value the uniqueness of an individual's handwriting, we also decry the handwriting of those who write "sloppy." Fonts echo stylistic handwriting preferences, and typing echos the dependence on the hands to create text. Fonts also are interpreted as being impersonal and sometimes loud.
The end.
The material practices that accompany literacy are important because they constitute the personal, physical ways we interface with the information we need to be literate/practice /gain literacy. Naturally these practices are going to affect the ease with which we operate, and they are indeed changed according to the medium of the information. I compare the ease with which my granddaughters at 3 & 9 use a computer -- it seems instinctual -- to the difficulty with which many older people approach the concept of opening or closing a window on the screen. We feel differently about books and online material, as if they were different species (are you a dog or cat person?). The new technologies foster new practices, new concepts of what it is to be a reader and a writer, and new ideas about intellectual property (as Lanham notes).
I like language enough to follow it and use it anywhere it ends up going, I guess, but books are my first love.
The material practices that accompany literacy, in the academic world, involve writing notes in the margin, highlighting or underlining important passages, anything that engages the reader with the text, which could even be said to include the mobility of the book (the ability to take it with you wherever you want to go to read). For me these are very important. I find that it takes much longer and is more difficult to retain or engage with material when I encounter it through a computer. The internet absolutely challenges me in certain respects. As I said, the notes on the margin are essential (for me) especially when dealing with large amounts of information because I can reference what I have already encountered without having to start all over. Also the portability of a text (even a large one) offers me the opportunity to take my work with me, I know that it is hard to believe but I don’t have a laptop. I am sure that the new technologies are fostering new practices for some and will eventually for me but until then, it is often more of a challenge.
If we were talking about literacy in children then that would be a whole other conversation.
Gina,
I, too, love to read, though I count pages to finish each chapter. I may already know roughly how many there are, but I look again, just to see if I'm close. THE DAVINCI CODE was a really rewarding book for me because the chapters were so short (most only a handful of pages, however many that is) that I was constantly thinking, "Wow, Deidre, what a fast reader you are! You're just swimming right through this one, aren't you?" It was a real ego booster.
There are several material practices that accompany literacy, and I think they all are very important in the reading/writing/interpretive recursive process. When I am reading for a class or grading a paper, I always sit down with a pen in hand so I can mark away. I feel the compulsive need to agree or disagree with what is typed on the page. I enjoy the dialogic quality of responding and highlighting and underlining. I even love to get mad at the page and write things in bold letters to show my rage or disgust or disbelief.
As far as technology goes, I think if you are on the receiving end, material practices can be very helpful. But if you are the participant, then they may not be as useful. For instance, when I email my colleagues a draft of my essay to read and I am able to track the changes they made and view their explanations, it is very helpful. Because at that moment, I can agree with their suggestion or not. For revision purposes, this feature is incredible for the recipient. But it seems like a lot of work for the person giving the feedback. And in the end, nothing beats a highlighter and a pen anyways!
Yes, I definitely think that digital technologies are fostering new material practices. I find myself going through a ritual every time I sit down at the computer. However, I still prefer to brainstorm and outline on paper before I begin writing a scholarly or creative piece of writing. It seems like my thinking process and paper are still a better match than my thinking and a computer. One obvious reason - it is much easier to procrastinate staring at the computer (exploring various websites) than staring a blank sheet of paper. With this said, I have often found research ideas and sources as I procrastinated at the computer.
Deidre,
That's great! It always gets to me, too, when chapters are really long and I get impatient/frustrated. Perhaps I am just a child of the digital age and its need for speed, but at the same time I get down on myself for not being patient or involved enough with the reading to suck it up and get through it. Like, "what kind of bibliophile am I if I get annoyed by every big chapter I come across?"
:)
In the past, using a pen to write and turning the page to read. Typewriters complicated the composing part buy substituting keystrokes for pen strokes. However, I can remember typewriter erasers and brushes taking pencil form, so we still hadn’t left that mind state. Word processors transformed composition by requiring a writer to be literate with using symbols to replace actions. Instead of the eraser, you had an undo button. Instead of a physical highlighter, you had a button and an icon that looks like a traditional highlighter. The Internet pushed this literacy further by using symbols for navigation as well as the concept of hyperlinks and bookmarking. The addition of a graphical user interface (GUI) begged for another physical method of input, the mouse. Now opening a “folder” was like knocking on a door.
I think we are just beginning to see the possible combinations of composition using alternate software like video and sound recording and editing tools. These tools are available and have adopted many of the widely assimilated interface models. Although there are different types of input devices, mouse pens, led keyboards, cursors moved by tracking eye movements of the user, I think any new materiality of literacy will be in the ability of users to combine the products of these applications in new ways.
Perhaps in olden days it was gathering, crushing and applying berry-dye in properly spaced slashlines on faces with stained fingers; as a child I liked to sit under my Father's big desk and use the footplate as a writing surface, secretly composing poems of dubious quality but certain emphasis on newsprint tablets with fat pencils. Now I have a habit to ALWAYS carry paper of some form. I love paper, and usually have a Pilot P-500 waterproof black micro-point pen in some pocket, with (hopefully) my glasses hanging from my shirt-neck. Ready to write. Readywrite. Also- a notebook (or two,or three) in reach of my bed, in reach of my hand at a redlight driving. BUT- I will say that I have noticed an ODD SENSE OF VOICE that comes out when I compose at a keyboard. I become, mysteriously, closer to the author I wish to be; sometimes a stranger, a person who knows more than I do and is more confident- is FORMED differently than me- as if she had a different set of life experiences behind her- or had at least responded differently. (Also loquacious, can't you tell) So I'll say that my material practices include the computer, are in fact enhanced by it- but paper is more handy for catching the odd thought-breeze, and remains a textural and textual side-kick of mine- a dear friend.Also- I HATE READING ON THE COMPUTER SCREEN- anything long, that is-like- no book- uh uh. NEVER.
educator
literary critic
communication theorist
known for phrases "the medium is the message" and "global village"
"patron saint" of Wired magazine
1964 book: Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (phrase born)
more interested in percepts than concepts
started the journal Explorations
pioneering study of pop culture (Book: The Mechanical Bride)
The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Topographic Man (study in field of print culture, cultural studies and media ecology)
wrapped up!
from,
rachel & gina
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