Announcements

Announcements

  • Friday’s lab at the MFA. I won’t be there. Practicum students leading the exercise
  • You will have to stash your bags. Have something portable for note-taking (pad & pencil, phone)
  • Does everyone have a partner for the Dead Media posters?
  • Next Tuesday, wait outside the room while I prep it
  • would there be interest in an optional paper-making lab on a Saturday?

Starting Prompt

If the disease described in Octavia Butler’s “Speech Sounds” were to actually infect the world, what would happen to the African “talking drums” described in chapter 1 of James Gleick’s The Information? Who would be able to use them and/or understand them—those with the ability to speak or those with the ability to write? To put the question another way, while they’re called “talking drums,” is this communications technology a form of speech, or a form of writing? Why do you think so?

Butler Convo

Historical/Gleick Convo

Pocket Exercise

Read “Phaedrus” aloud & discuss

Notes for conversation

The Information