CMST 3900 – The Rhetoric of Cyberculture
Dr. Sells
Fall 2003
 

Lab II KEY

1. What is the title, author, and date of publication of the book you read from eBooks? Write a brief paragraph that summarizes the content of the eBook you selected.

Enough to demonstrate having read a book.

2. Describe your experience of reading the eBook. In what ways was it similar or different from reading a print book? Which format do you prefer and why? Explain your answer using concepts from class readings.

Experience described; any concept used to explain it.

3. Describe your experience of reading (thumbing through) Griffin and Sabine. In what ways is it similar or different from reading a print book? An eBook? In what ways does Griffin and Sabine illustrate Benjamin's arguments about art in the age of mechanical reproduction?

Experience described.

Griffin and Sabine/Benjamin - The book is studio art produced for commercial value. The letters a "fake" love letters produced for fictional reading and commercial value. The book takes -nothing- out of its original context except perhaps the very idea of a romance through love letters so it has no authenticity. Benjamin says that aura withers when something is mass produced. The book is mass-produced. It has no unique experience to it.

You can agree or disagree with Benjamin.

4. Briefly compare/contrast your experiences of visiting Barnes&Noble and Amazon.com. In what ways do these two experiences illustrate or challenge ideas of authentic experience (define authentic experience using the readings)?

Define authentic experience (Kellner or Benjamin). Example to illustrate. Face to face interaction (kellner) or art in its original cult context that has aura (Benjamin)

Example to illustrate.

5. In what ways does Amazon.com illustrate Kellner's ideas about the spectacle and simulation? In what ways does Amazon.com illustrate Kellner's ideas about interactivity? In your opinion, which of the four steps in the lab experience best illustrates Kellner's idea of authentic interaction and why? (Define spectacle, simulation, interactivity using the readings).

The spectacle stupefies us; we passively consume spectacles instead of actively producing our lives; dazzling arrangements to sell things to us; books are reduced to commodity spectacles (even though B&N already does that); anyone can buy sparkling objects; makes it appear that life of fashionable is available to everyone

Simulation mediates authentic communication; it replaces real with virtual; creates realm of hyperreal; reality is mass produced; individuals constitute themselves in terms of celebrity images; affirmation of mere appearance

Kellner: We are at a new stage of both spectacle and simulation - people make their lives spectacle on internet; interactivity of Amazon is false.

Examples to illustrate

6. In what ways do Barnes& Noble and Amazon.com illustrate Sorenssen's and Mitra&Schwartz’s ideas of space metaphor? (Explain how both articles approach space)

Space (lived space) and place (formal geography) (deCerteau, cited in both)

Sorenssens: Space is a metaphor to refer to experience of internet; described as "moving through" space. Space is outward movement; expansion; both a container metaphor and an orientational metaphor.

M&S: space is political, geographic, and movement; identity is connected to space.

Example to illustrate

7. How does your experience in this lab illustrate Mitra&Schwartz’s concept of cybernetic space? (Define cybernetic space).

Cybernetic space - Based on the interaction between real space and virtual space; Amazon is a valid competitor to B&N; cyberspace is SF and fictional and mysterious, cybernetic space is grounded in reality.

B&N and Amazon have to play off each other to compete; the reality of economic competition forces amazon.com to redesign regularly and to provide features that simulate RL engagement at the bookstore in order to make money.

8. Explain Baudrillard's concept of "the ecstasy of communication" (define this concept) and identify an example from the lab experience to illustrate this concept.

Media is an instrument of obscenity, transparency, and ecstasy. The intimate processes of our lives become feeding ground for media. Everything is exposed. Everything is transparent, there are no hidden depths, no privacy; there is a promiscuity of information.

Need an example to illustrate.

After participating in the lab experience, write a 5 page (typed) paper in which you reflect on and analyze your lab experience in relation to the themes and concepts from class. You may write a paper that focuses on one or more of the lab questions or you may make up a question to answer. In your paper be sure that you 1) include and define four concepts from class readings since Lab I, 2) define your concepts, 3) support your analysis with examples, and 4) support your analysis with quotes from at least four readings since Lab I.

1. Ability to draw concepts from the reading material into your essay.
2. Ability to demonstrate understanding of concepts from course readings, lectures and discussions.
3. Significance and appropriateness of concepts chosen for discussion in the essays.
4. Fit between concepts and illustrations.
5. Specificity and amount of support material from readings, lectures and discussions to illustrate the concepts
6. Thoughtfulness and insightfulness of arguments.
7. Coherence of essay__ability to organize ideas and create an argument.
8. Writing mechanics.