Class Notes - 12/04/12

Began with Group Discussions concerning Abstracts for the Work to Come

-readers are to provide feedback from the perspective of a professional evaluator

-attempt to learn what it takes to create a successful abstract and what it means to be a productive reviewer of such scholarly documents

After Group Discussions:

Amy: excited by the Abstracts for the Work to Come; let’s go around the table and briefly describe each of our projects and share some of the feedback that we received during the group discussion

Dorothy: abstract pertains to a film project that traces perceptions of blackness in America through comedy; Andrea’s feedback brought up the question of popular opinion and how it is affected through various objects of study

Andrea: abstract focuses on an 18^th Century poem cycle fraudulently claiming to be Medieval – reading this as a performative text, as the author set to reverse English perceptions of Scottish people by presenting the poem cycle as ‘old’; feedback pertained to finding an appropriate to integrate historicization into the scholarship

Derek: abstract centers on the 2012 Chicago teachers’ strike using many of the theorists discussed this semester; also drawing on Stuart Hall – see how representations of protest can close off meaning making and what strategies are used to combat that; Sara encouraged looking at an article related to the Rodney King beating

Sara: abstract looks at an alternative street theater movement in post-Soviet Poland; marked an instance of radical street performance as combating perception; how could such performance fight Soviet hegemony?; lots of newsletters are available surrounding the street theater (so know what the movement wanted), but not much exists concerning what actually happened and what change was effected; Derek pointed out that current viewpoints in Poland may be indicative of the change (or non-change) that was effected

Courtney: abstract concerning 1^st person character novels where the author is the protagonist; how does this position affect reader’s experience – if reader identifies with the narrator, is guilt felt in relation to that identification?; Cody helped clarify ideas surrounding identification and asked what it might mean if a reader did not identify with the narrator (would that be a source of guilt?)

Cody: abstract asks about performance as it relates to speechfulness or speechlessness and how these relate to audience response; speechless responses (eye rolls, sighs, etc.) are just as relevant as speech responses; suggestions involved looking at methodology (esp. concerning reader response) and considerations concerning gauging speechful or speechless response

Kelly: abstract relates to current concerns surrounding communication and its various occurrences; consider scene in the movie Bent; consider theater as a storytelling device – what happens if narrators explain what happens

Ming: abstract allows an opportunity to theorize about a past project; projects relates to the goal of selling an idea, but the idea must be defined clearly before moving forward; work has led to a question: is a safe space performed or enacted?; from feedback I now have clarity concerning what needs to be clarified

Jess: abstract continues research into the fat female body on stage (interest in ‘othered’ female bodies); does the actor’s body inform the character? (does a fat suit equate the fat body?); does what the actor looks physically matter if it does not match what is scripted?

Jenna: abstract gives an opportunity to follow up on thoughts generated during a trip to London this past summer; fascinated by the Tower of London which tries to manipulate visitors’ emotions (was Richard III guilty?); have an interesting way of organizing the museum product; Iris pointed out a dichotomy of thought within the project – must start in the middle space of the dichotomy and work outwards (dichotomy concerns traditional vs. new ways of organizing museum space)

Iris: currently writing a play dealing with issues surrounding rape and abstract deals with inspiration for this play that came from our reading of The Exonerated, which provided great ideas but did not have a clear call to action; Jenna talked about humor and how laughter can create an ‘in-group’ (does that automatically create an ‘out-group’?); must consider what creates sympathy

Jennifer: Whitney pointed out that the abstract idea is impossible but reflects a necessary area of study; want to know more about how we interact with texts; intrigued by a reverse-engineering of texts; consider a recent interactive version of Dracula; interested in texts created for specific spaces – how does a creative writer move into new technology?

Whitney: abstract explores the digital humanities; idea builds off the course and personal blogs maintained in class this semester; looking into how such blogs simultaneously construct the identity of their writers as well as an image of the digital humanities; Jennifer said to consider how blogs both use and replace traditional ways of doing scholarship and consider the options provided for editing in blog space that does not exist in traditional print media

Amy: like the idea of the possible vs. the impossible project; the impossible is useful to write down, as it can be equally valuable and lead to a thread that leads to the important project

Ellen: along with Amy, we are uploading comments to the abstracts directly to the course blog; encourage everyone to continue making comments on the blog; don’t forget, our next class will meet at Nick’s where we will talk about holes in the field.

Abstract for Work to Come (Jenna)

Voting on History: Richard III in the Tower of London

In her book Destination Culture, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett contemplates the future of museums. She writes, “What is the fate of the 'museum product,' however it is defined, in today's tourism economy? The presumption in some quarters is that visitors are no longer interested in the quiet contemplation of objects in a cathedral of culture. They want to have an 'experience'” (139). In her chapter in Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage, Andrea Witcomb presents multimedia as “an opportunity [for the museum] to reinvent itself and ensure its own survival.” (35). Both of these concepts, that the modern museum must make use of experience and multimedia in order to compete in an economy of tourism, are present in historical exhibits at the Tower of London.

One of the more popular tourist destinations in the Tower of London is the Bloody Tower, the tower in which the “Princes in the Tower,” nephews of Richard III, were housed during Richard's early reign. Their bedchamber has been turned into an exhibit in which the “museum product” is not an object but an experience reliant upon multimedia. The chamber is staged to manipulate the emotions of its visitors so that, upon exiting the room, they will vote to condemn Richard III as the princes' murderer. Through use of video and music, the exhibit performs an atmosphere of intrigue that capitalizes on the Tudor tradition of vilifying Richard III. While reading material discussing the historical figures of Richard, the princes, and Henry VII is present in the chamber, the experiential nature of the room counteracts history and propagates popular opinion of Richard III. Under the influence of tourist expectation, this exhibit uses experience and multimedia to allow its visitors the opportunity to rewrite history. Is this the future of the museum?