Author Archives: Robert Lestón

Hey Folks, Thanks again for another fun class. The drawings were awesome! Here’s what’s on this week. Get started on the Media/Tech Exploratory Project Finish Reading the McLuhan book. Part 1 of Blog Post 4, read pages 101 through the … Continue reading →

Hi Everyone, I had a fun time in class yesterday. Thanks for your participation. I think we got a lot done and I left feeling energized and excited. Hope you did too.  Here’s what’s on for the coming week. Due … Continue reading →

It was a pleasure having you all in class yesterday. Sorry that room was so hot. I let the “authorities” know. If we have the same situation next week, we’ll just switch to an adjacent room (though we won’t have … Continue reading →

agenda sept 7.2023 Tech Lit Narrative–First Draft due 9/14 posted to blog, entitle it Tech Lit Narrative Draft

As we stated in class, your first reading assignment is Postman’s “Five Things We Need to Know about Technological Change.” For your first post, I’d like you to write a summary-response. Two paragraphs. In the first paragraph, summarize Postman’s five … Continue reading →

Here is the final assignment, which is due Tuesday, 12/20. Final-Reflective-Paper BP 13–Due before class 12/13. I’ve made the video recording of our encounter with Greg Ulmer available to you through email. Again, please don’t share this video with anyone … Continue reading →

BP 12 is very simple. Title it BP 12, Ulmer Question. Write your one single final question that you would like to ask Greg Ulmer when he joins us via zoom on Tuesday. The question can be related to the … Continue reading →

Hope you had a great thanksgiving. No readings this week except for finishing up the Ulmer piece. Finish up reading the last two sections and write two questions. As before, make sure to give an explanation as to why you … Continue reading →

Since we’re not meeting in person, the following is what is going on today. This work should be completed by 5:30 p.m. Discuss your technical process for your culture jams. In the comments section to your own post, I’d like … Continue reading →

Yep. It’s a Banksy. For BP 10, title it Culture Jamming–BP 10. I want to be able easily find these projects and to find BP 10, so please put both titles in the title area. Ulmer First, for next week, … Continue reading →

electracy notes 11-15-2022 10.24 Issue Presentation Message from Future with AOC. Break Culture Jam Analysis (Jenkins) and Assignment for detournement Tools:  10 image creation tools for students Begin Project. You’ll have most of next week in class to work on … Continue reading →

As we discussed in class, you have two separate blog posts to write for Tuesday, the 15th. Title your first post “Culture Jam Initial Research.” Take a look at these videos to get you started. Pepper Spray Cop  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaDjatVtKLc&ab_channel=PresidentObama3 Pepper … Continue reading →

Ulmer Reading Schedule 11/8 Designing the Disaster 11/15 Hueretics and Theopraxesis 11/22  The Visceral Turn 11/29  Caberet Academy 12/06  Theming Mystory (The Big Day!) Today Lecture/Discussion about Ulmer Share questions in group, can you answer the question yourselves? Which are … Continue reading →

Remember to read the first section of Ulmer’s piece that he shared with us on Electracy. If you were not in class, it can be found here.  Make sure you print it out and bring it to class. Make sure … Continue reading →

Ulmer.Electracy_final Khaled Presentation Panopticon Images https://cla.purdue.edu/academic/english/theory/newhistoricism/modules/foucaultcarceral.html Images/Sousveillance Begin The Great Hack

We have three readings about surveillance this coming week. Elmer, Zuboff, and Nolan, et. al. (et. al. is Latin for “and others.”) Pick two of the three pieces and do the following: (extra credit if you do all three pieces) … Continue reading →

We have three articles to read for Tuesday. Here’s your prompt: Read all three pieces. Respond to the Ulmer piece. And then pick either Carr or Turkle to respond to. (Extra credit for responding to all three.) Respond Literally Intellectually … Continue reading →

Pick up where we left of with Winner and share out what was posted. Groups: Two jobs discuss what you found with the relationship with sound, language, and technology. Sharing your findings, report out what you discovered through writing and … Continue reading →

For October 18th, remember to bring both packets with you to class. Title your blog post BP4 and BP 5. Drawing from three readings from 10/11 and 10/18, discuss the relationship between sound, language, and technology. You should use at … Continue reading →

Groups: Tech-Lit Narratives. Read aloud to group. Leave comments on revision plans for each other. Share out. Exploratory Project Updates. Break Unpack Winner. Everybody look up Haymarket Square.  (124) What happened?  How were the politics intentional?  What was the political … Continue reading →

Robert Lestón is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Robert Lestón’s Zoom Meeting Time: Oct 11, 2022 02:15 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5841073403?pwd=a25HekxXTWtiWkxIMUFwTldXS05vdz09 Meeting ID: 584 107 3403 Passcode: 1710    

Tech Exploratory Project Due October 11  

For 9/20, write a few paragraphs that explain to us how each of the three readings (Trask, Gee, and Rath) all relate to each other. How you connect them is up to you, but make sure to be clear about … Continue reading →

Week 3 1. Tech Lit Narrative. 2. Review Hairston, Gee, Postman, and notes: 100,000; 3,400; 220 Apparatus Chart, epistemologies, final vocabularies, circumferences, ideologies, paradigms 3. Ulmer Tapes 4. Break. 5. Groups of 3. McLuhan: What is meant by the medium … Continue reading →

Dear Students, Go ahead and get started on your TechLit Narrative. Assignment sheet is here. It is due  9/20. For 9/13, read McLuhan and Pratt. This time around, do the same thing as before, but with a little twist. Make … Continue reading →

Day 2 Tech Issues Introductions Career, corporations, professional writing, technical writing Hybrid designation, office number correction Syllabus Review Tech Lit-Narrative, changed date. Thoughts on the development of the class. Gee, Ong, Great Divide, Sound Terms for discussion: What is technology? … Continue reading →

Dear Students, Unfortunately, even though it’s our first day, I can’t be with you. There’s a death of a loved one in the family, and I’ll be attending the funeral in Florida on our first day of Tuesday, the 30th. … Continue reading →

By 5/11, make sure to get your new culture jams up and tell us where you are in the process and what you plan to do next. By 5/16, the creative project is due. We’ll call that Response 15. I’ve … Continue reading →

As stated in class, your job is to post a draft of culture jam before class. GIMP is going to provide you with the most possibilities for image manipulation. Here are some basic tutorials to get you started. After doing … Continue reading →

Dear Students, as you put the finishing touches on your infographics, check out the icons from The Noun Project. They have some really great icons that will help everyone. https://thenounproject.com/    

For the day we come back from break, please read Alonzo “Art as Resistance” by class time. A lot of good stuff is in this piece. “Unless all the voices of the history of art are in the history of … Continue reading →

Response 13 Two things for next class: Part 1 For next class, we’re going to come up with our three ideas. We’ll spend some time in class today brainstorming. For next class, sketch out your ideas in a blog post … Continue reading →

For Monday, read Jordan’s piece of reclaiming the streets. The response is open–your choice. Three to four substantial paragraphs that revolve around a central idea. Make sure to print out the essay and bring it with you to class on Monday. Make … Continue reading →

Détournement–appropriates and alters an existing media artifact, one that the intended audience is already familiar with, in order to give it a new, subversive meaning. . . . In addition to its instrumental, critical function, détournement has an important humanistic … Continue reading →

Towards the beginning of your packet, you’ll find Postman’s From Technocracy to Technopoly, an essay that’s included in the packet but that we haven’t yet read. For Monday, read through this essay. Pick three passages–one from the beginning section, one from … Continue reading →

Issue Paper Submission Ok, we’ll make Winner’s piece due on Wed and we’ll continue our discussion from Wednesday over into Monday’s class. For your issue paper, set up a new blog post, and attach the paper as a Word file. In the … Continue reading →

As per the syllabus, there’s no blog post due on Monday and since we don’t have class on Wed, you’re going to have a break until next week. I designed it this way so that you could get moving on … Continue reading →

Part 1: Post your photo related to “Anti-homeless Spikes.” Tell us where you found it. Be detailed here. Give us the cross streets or the street address. Part 2: Pick any issue from “The End of Capitalism has Begun” and … Continue reading →

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/14/sanders_thanks_rahm_emanuel_for_not

For each reading, select a quote and respond: Make sure to include the quote and the page number. Then respond to it in the following ways. Literally–translate into your own words. Intellectually–what it makes you think. Emotionally–what it makes you … Continue reading →

Melville and Carmona Agenda 1. Film: 2-2:30 2. Find a passage in Melville that you think is particularly relevant for the work that we have been doing in this class. Let us know what it is and how it connects … Continue reading →

I got this post up a little late, so I’m going to give you until Friday midnight, 3/12, to get this done. Make sure, however, that you have the reading done before class. After you read the story, I’d like … Continue reading →

Get started on this project right away. Your job: You need to have six to eight sources for this paper. They should be a mix of expert sources, peer review articles, journalistic essays (but be selective here—get substantial think pieces). … Continue reading →

Here is the promised updated reading schedule

Monday before class, post your assignment as an attachment. In the blog post, please write (mandatory) an explanation of the process that you went through. Make sure to include here the three issues you chose to discuss, the sources you … Continue reading →

On Wed, March 2 write a blog post where you discuss your exploratory project in detail. Give us an overview of the project and how its coming along. Provide as much detail as you can. Don’t forget to leave 4 … Continue reading →

For response 5, explain to us how the Duncombe and the Frank piece connect to one of the pieces that we’ve already read for class so far this semester. Feel free to pick any of the previous reading to make … Continue reading →

Agenda After reading my comments and the Murray piece, write a blog post in class where you explain your revision plan for Wed. Think about how you might draw upon some of the readings that you’ve read since you wrote … Continue reading →

I’m adding a short reading to the other two that we have going on for Monday. This short piece is about the process of revision and will help you considerably for the submission of your final drafts of your tech-lit … Continue reading →

Here’s a supplement to the reading that we’ve done today. Nicholas Carr’s famous Is Google Making Us Stupid?   Notes Nick Carr “Vital Paths” 1. What is the point of the story about Nietzsche? 2. What was the old assumption … Continue reading →

Here is a video of the Malling-Hansen Writing Ball, the first commercially available typewriter that Nicholas Carr discusses. Check it out. It’s pretty awesome. Here’s the McLuhan – Mailer debate that Carr discusses from 1968.

Here’s the assignment. Tech-Lit Narrative Drafts are due Wed, the 17th posted to the blog. Please post these as a Word attachement. (If you don’t know how, click the “Add Media” button above the text dialoge box and then insert … Continue reading →

Title your post “Response 2”.  We’re going to write another summary-response to the second reading. This should be two paragraphs long. The first paragraph should summarize what you consider to be the main argument that Postman is making in the … Continue reading →

Welcome everyone. Glad you are hear. If you haven’t done so already, make sure to write your intro blog post, you can call it “intro post” or something along those lines. In  your post, let us know who you are, … Continue reading →

Hi Folks, My comments are attached to the file. I would like revisions. You have done good work but you have not presented it in a way that reflects the good work you have done. At the stage that it … Continue reading →

As a group, you will design a campaign for a day of action concerning your elected issue. You may do more than this, such as set up an organization with future directives (highly encouraged), but you are required to at … Continue reading →

This final paper will take the form of a letter that you address to me. I’d like you to post it to the blog AS A WORD FILE. In your letter, I would like you to explain in detail how … Continue reading →

In order so that we can figure out which project to pursue, we’re going to vote in the comments section of this post. We have 7 issues, and we’re going to try to figure out which one to work with. … Continue reading →

For Wednesday, 12/02 we’re going to be reading chapter 1 of Stephen Duncombe’s Dream: Reimagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy. Here is a link to the whole book. Read the first chapter for Wednesday. You also have a … Continue reading →

For this project, you’re required to post an culture jamming image/creative detournement project. I would prefer to see projects that are related to your issue project, but you can do others as well. I’d also like to see you post … Continue reading →

Made with http://giphy.com/create/gifmaker

 Here’s a draft of my image, suitable to my current project. I made this using the online image editor https://pixlr.com. We’ll spend some time in class today looking at these various editors. 9 Good editors to use.  

Hey Folks, Sorry I missed class Monday (I was sick). We’re going to stick to the syllabus, so for Wed. read Smith and McLuhan. We’re still going to do our 1-2 minute presentations on creative detournement pieces. By the way, … Continue reading →

We’re continuing our work with art as protest. Remember that after your post these three, you’re going to be giving brief 1-2 minute presentations on one of the creative detournement pieces you want to share. For this response, include three … Continue reading →

I’m doubling this post up, so we can caught up (as we’ve fallen one post behind). As we began in class, find three detournement projects to share that are referenced through the readings. (Also take a look at the Beautiful … Continue reading →

Warmup Writing prompt: Open a new blog post. Think about the way that you detourned your slogans last class. Can acts of activism be fun? What is the role that enjoyment should play in the work that we go through … Continue reading →

You’ve read the background, confusing as it may be, but now you can go back to it to see where some of these ideas origniated from. Now, read  a more modern version that helps put things into perspective.

Your choice from Jordan or Graeber. Choose something interesting you want to discuss and discuss it. Two to three paragraphs or so.

I’ll be out of town, but you’ll have the amazing Professor Lovegreen sitting in. Watch the first and second section “Empires” and “Banks” of The Four Horseman, found here. Up until minute 50:50. Some things to consider from the film: “The … Continue reading →

Your job: You need to have six to eight sources for this paper. They should be a mix of expert sources, peer review articles, journalistic essays (but be selective here—get substantial think pieces). You may also use US government documents … Continue reading →

Three very different readings for this post and for class. Anti-homeless spikes (Andreou) Dada Manifesto (Tzara) How Computers Change the Way we Think (Turkle) Here’s what to do. 1. Pick a quote from Andreou, quote it, and then explain how … Continue reading →

I missed posting the prompt for Response 7. Apparently, my eyes just scanned over it, so I’m going to give you time in class to work on this. I find Frank’s article to be important and there’s a lot of … Continue reading →

You read the Declaration of War, but you haven’t read the important Zapatista 6th Declaration (pdf). Here it is.

1. Response 6 and draft of exploratory paper. 2. Discuss paper assignment. Reflection in blog post. Review updated post. Round robin. Explain your project. 3. Castells–What was the biggest criticism that occupiers faced? What is the difficulty in answering this criticism? … Continue reading →

Warm-up: Do a freewrite where you discuss what you think your three issues are going to be.  205 1. Online. Leave comments on previous Response 4 for peers. 2:25 2. The Corporation–starting at 1:08, 2:55 3.  Groups–share responses with each … Continue reading →

Response 5 This response is going to be light because you’re also working on the paper, but it’s crucial that we read and think about these two pieces coming up on Monday. To this end, I want you to pick … Continue reading →

For this blog post, I’m interested in seeing how you make connections across the  readings and film. You should have picked up by now that we have two major threads running through our readings. The first are issues related to technology … Continue reading →

Good supplemental article to Nail’s the one we read for today. http://www.glovesoff.org/features/gjamerica_3.html Also, check out the United Nations List of Human Rights Issues

Hi Folks, Make sure that you follow the syllabus closely for all the readings and work that is due. This week we had to make a correction to the syllabus, so that what was due on Monday is now due … Continue reading →

Due 9/14. Available here.

Welcome, folks. Glad you made it here. You first job will be to write a blog post on this site. To do this, you will need to create an account and login if you don’t already have a City Tech … Continue reading →

Commenting–Due Sunday 5/10 by 8 p.m. I tweeted Jodiann and asked her to contact you all and tell you that the comments for each other’s projects are due Sunday night. I have also emailed each of you. Failure to complete … Continue reading →

The project below will get you thinking about hour next assignment. Be sure to reread Lewis Mumford’s the Automation of Knowledge. Here is the assignment. Before you go through these, I can’t list everything here, but if you do a … Continue reading →

For class on Tuesday, we need to have read Arroyo, chapter 6 to get ready for class. For this blog post, do the following. Pick one passage, quote it, and then respond to it. We’ve done this structure before, but … Continue reading →

This is related to Arroyo and to the rest of the work we’ll be doing for the semester. Prolectrate Inventions

Readings for class: Barthes studium and punctum from “Camera Lucida,” Barlow and Leston “For the Love of Zoe.” Here is the Barthes’ excerpt. It’s also in the dropbox. Print out the Barthes piece and bring to class. Make sure you … Continue reading →

The Postman article is posted. Please go to readings and access it from there. Make sure to print it out and have it with you in class. We’ll be having a standard, 10 question quiz at the beginning of class. … Continue reading →

Dear Students, I look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday, 3/10. This blog post should clarify what’s going on and get us caught up. Let me start with some basic announcements and then your blog post assignment due on the … Continue reading →

Hi Folks, We ran out of time before I could discuss the blog post in class that would have been due this week. We have such a small class and we were missing a couple of folks, so I’m going … Continue reading →

Nicholas Carr – Is Google Making Us Stupid? Cory Doctorow — You do like reading off of a computer screen

An essay to help explain these two anthropological ideas Mumford mentions.

Writing restructures consciousness. 1. What is meant by this? Name one way in which this takes place. 2. Explain what becomes possible as an effect of writing that is not an effect of print. How does writing change the oral … Continue reading →

For this post, I want you to pick something from the reading that you find terribly interesting and important and discuss why up on the blog. A few paragraphs.

On Tuesday, we’ll spend some time talking about Jack Goody and Ian Watt’s The Consequences of Literacy that we didn’t get to last class. We mentioned that we need to unpack how Goody’s piece is related to the Phaedrus, something we’ll … Continue reading →

Hey Folks, Just to let you know, the full version of the syllabus is now up.Please check it out. Also, if you are missing any work from the beginning of the semester, please get on that. See you tomorrow!

I’ve altered the Goody reading slightly. Rather than the essay on the “Domestication of Savage Mind,” which is a little too bloated for our purposes, I’ve decided a better piece is going to be Jack Goody and Ian Watt’s “The Consequences … Continue reading →

Readers of the Phaedrus have often wondered how the dialogue hangs together. The first “half” seems to be about love, and the second about rhetoric. A slightly closer look reveals that any such simple characterization is misleading, because the first … Continue reading →