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TWO Extra Credit Opportunities

ASAP: Survey Participation by THIS FRIDAY AT NOON

For Veronica Droser's Quantitative Methodologies class:

"We are looking for people ages 18-35 to fill out a brief survey that includes questions about their experiences with relational maintenance, love languages, and romantic and/or friends with benefits relationships. Participation is completely voluntary, and responses are anonymous and confidential.

Survey link: https://udenver.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_cx2ps0IqbYqn4sR"

**The survey will begin (or end) by asking your name and what class you are expecting extra credit for, which will then be relayed to me. This part of the survey is completely separate from your survey responses so there will be no way of connecting your survey responses to your identity!


Next Thursday, February 25th, 12pm

• 10 points: Attend the event (sign in sheet will be available)
• 20 points: Post a 500 word blurb on the blog relating the event to performance studies
• 30 points: Give a 5- to 10-minute presentation in class relating the event to performance studies

Day Eleven: Performing with Media & Technology

Chris Salter, Entangled Preface, and Sarah Kember & Joanna Zylinska, Culture Machine Letter from the Editors

"[T]echnology is comprehended as an originary condition of our being in the world....It is in this sense that we have always been media(ted)" (Kember & Zylinska, p. 4-5).

"[T]echnological machines of information and communication operate at the heart of subjectivity” through memory and intelligence, sensibilities and affects (Salter, p, xxxiii)

• Is technology a part of what it means to be human?

"...technology’s transcendent embodiment of the gods..." (Salter)

Media is anything that alters the human body's relationship with time and space - Marshall McLuhan

• In a sense, the "superhuman" capacities that human's use of tools of technology delivers is what makes us human.
• Humans as worshippers of the divine

"Mediation, we suggest, is all-encompassing and indivisible. This is why ‘we’ have never been separate from ‘it'...our relationality and our entanglement with other human and non-human entities continues to intensify with the ever more corporeal, ever more intimate dispersal of media and technologies into our biological and social lives." (Kember & Zylinska, p. 2)

• In this way, what is the traditional approach to media studies and Kember and Zylinska are trying to challenge? (p. 1 second paragraph)

Board Exercise: How do the following objects expand our bodies' relationships to time and space?

If performance describes our experience being in and interacting with the world, and technology/media plays an integral role in this experience, then media must be an integral aspect of performativity.

Intermedia Assignment (200) - The objective of this assignment is to begin to utilize the synthesis of multiple senses to create a more immersive experience for your audience. Remember that "media" is anything that "expands the body's relationship to time and space" (McLuhan) - so when we talk about media, we're not just talking about videos, music, technology, etc. We might be talking about setting or physical artifacts that the audience can perhaps feel if they are passed around or interacted with, or hear as it encounters other objects within the environment.

For this project, please choose an event from your life or an event that was told to you that you feel is significant in shaping your personal/cultural/spiritual/political/etc. perspective. This can also be a story that was told to you by someone you know, if it had an impact on how you saw the world. Create an aesthetic text about this experience (it can be poetry or prose, narrative or persuasive, you can use cut n mix, but please have the end product be original). Gather at least two materials that add another "sense" to your text. For example:

• Tactile - you can find a physical artifact (object) to pass around to your audience
• Acoustic - you can use an audio clip or allow the sounds of a physical artifact to add to your performance
• Kinesthetic - you can integrate movement or you can invite your audience to move
• Olfactory - please no burning objects! But anything else that adds a scent to your performance :)
• Taste - you can bring treats that might be relevant to the issue you are talking about (for example, if you are talking about a specific culture, the audience can further connect by tasting some food from that culture)
• Visual - Pictures, physical artifacts and/or video

Timeline

• This weekend - I highly recommend writing your aesthetic text this weekend, as well as planning the conceptual framework for your performance
• Monday, Feb 22 - Please fill out this Media Techniques Request survey
• Tuesday, Feb 23 - Meet in the Digital Media Center in the Anderson Academic Commons (i.e., the library) for a media techniques workshop
• Thursday, Feb 25 - Intermedia Performances

Day Ten: Queering the Script

On Queering the Twelfth Night

"Queer theatre reflects the sorrow, anger, and fear of a community responding to patriarchal heterosexism, homophobia, AIDS, and threats of violence; yet at the same time, queer theatre can provide joy, pleasure, and fulfillment by questioning the concept of normal and celebrating difference" (Thomas, 2010, p. 101).

• In this way, queer performances are both affirmative and critical
• How have conceptions of queerness changed over time?
• How is something like Queer Shakespeare inherently political?

Queering the Media/Flipping the Script as an Activist Strategy

• "Queering" has become a term to describe any parody technique that reverses the power dynamics of the identities portrayed in cultural artifacts (i.e. the media, plays, art, music, folklore, fairy tales, etc.).
• The disruption of the normative order often results in humorous outcomes, prompting the audience to look at normalized social constructions as "queer" in and of themselves (in the sense that these constructions do not come from nature but are instead enforced by cultural institutions).
• No longer limited to the switching of gender or sexual identities, queering can happen when conventional roles are changed to reflect queer (or non-dominant) conceptions of race, age, class, nationality, ability, etc.

In-Class Assignment: Flipped Script
This performance will be your chance to not only interpret a literary work that has already been written, but to re-write a literary work. Therefore with your assigned partner you will be interpreting through writing and performing. You will choose a well-known narrative text (i.e. a fairy tale, folk tale, movie, TV show, comic, play, book, etc.) and re-write in such a way that makes visible a particular aspect of culture or identity. This is your chance to be creative and serious. Some ideas for how you might re-write the story include: silencing one character and giving voice to another, telling the story from a marginalized perspective, changing the ending, or rewriting the story so it highlights some issue of oppression or social (in)justice. You may also make visible (expose) previously invisible stereotypes or dominant ideologies. The performance selection does not need to be memorized, but you can’t hide your performance behind your script. After the performance, please turn in your script to me.
Rubric on Canvas

Day Nine: Power, Performance and Communication

Vocal Analysis Assignment (in class)

• This exercise will require both quantitative and qualitative analysis
• The numbers from the Voice Analysis program are there to give you a general idea of what is happening in your recordings
• The average human voice will be somewhere around 60-63 in the analyzer. Bear in mind that even a difference of a point is significant here (it's not like one voice will be 40 and another 70, even when varying between male and female).
• However, once you notice your vocal trends, you will need to do some deep listening to qualitatively interpret how it sounds, and apply those qualitative attributes to a critical explanation of how your two conversations contrast and differ.
• In Summary: you can use the numbers, but you must also use your ears and senses to make sense of what is happening!
• In-Class Write Up
• 500 Words
• 1.) Explain the contexts of both conversations - what is the contextual source of contrast here?
• 2.) What is the average pitch and loudness of your voice in each conversation? How do they differ from one conversation to the next?
• 3.) What is the average pitch and loudness of the other person's voice in each conversation? Again, compare both dialogue partners
• 4.) Take a moment to just listen to the conversations. What are the subjective qualities that you notice (without taking into account the numbers)?
• 5.) Did you tend to mimic the pitch and loudness (tone) of the other person's voice? Or did your voice take on an opposing role (either dominant or submissive) in relation to the other person?
• 6.) Please write a few sentences to critically analyze your conversations, combining both qualitative and quantitative data, and applying the data to the theory of what we have studied about how voice works as a tool in performance within a space/context, communication with another and in relation to an audience.

*Note: So I just found out that the developers of the software I used to program this made things a little easier. If you would like to download the program on your own computer:

• Download Max 7 at http://cycling74.com/downloads/runtime/ (PCs, 32-bit is good))
• To download the program, please go to https://www.dropbox.com/s/q6fm2dy6aiepobl/VoiceAnalysisFINAL.mxf and download the attachment VoiceAnalysisFINAL.mxf 

Linda Alcoff - The Problem of Speaking for Others

Debrief:

• Any questions?
• Reactions? Things you objected to? Things that resonated with you?

Individual Writing Reflections:

• What is the ethical dilemma of speaking for others, according to Alcoff?
• What are the typical responses to the dilemma that Alcoff thinks are inadequate and why?
• What does Alcoff mean by this quote: “there is no neutral place to stand free and clear in which one’s words do not ... affect … the experience of others... Even a complete retreat from speech is of course not neutral since it allows the continued dominance of current discourses and acts by omission to reinforce their dominance” (20)
• What are her four considerations, and how would you use them in a performance? Give specific examples

Small Group Exercise/Discussion

• Groups of 4
• First, discuss your responses to the four writing prompts
• Second come up with a polished definition that uses the context of the reading for two of the following key terms (I will assign):
• Crisis of representation: The ethical dilemma regarding the validity of speaking for others and truly representing others that we might not be able to understand 100%
• Rituals of speaking: The truth relative to the context and social location of the speaker, listener, and text - how someone says what they say and how they are positioned socially affects that they're saying - organization of their context.
• Discursive context: Speaking from only a specific context perceives a meaning as a one dimensional location, which isn’t true as it relates to the context on a larger scale.
• Retreat response: A retreat from speaking for anyone else allows for an individual to solely speak from their own narrow individual experience, therefore not learning from others and in essence allowing continued domination or unaddressed topics by way of not speaking at all.
• Hierarchy of civilizations: Suggesting that a group of people i.e tribe or country, is greater than another tribe or country. One civilization is greater than another civilization.
• Genealogy: Genealogy is the study of families and tracking or re-tracing a person’s lineage throughout history. In other words it is making a map of who and where you came from.
• Charge of reductionism response: The audience assumes that the narrator's performance is completely consumed by their location. Identity has different definitions and each identity interprets surroundings differently.
• Speaking to: Different from speaking for, not taking on identity, just presenting it. No assumptions, only performing.
• During this process, individual group members can come up and use my computer to make some quantitative observations about their vocal analysis recordings.
• You will turn in both your individual reflections and your group definitions

Weekend Assignments: Mid-Term Eval & Voice Analysis Assignment Prep

Mid-Term Course Evaluations:
Over the weekend, please take the time to fill out this anonymous (and untraceable) survey: https://udenver.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_4Vo1RCpmEY0Fw2N 

• As a reminder, here is the code of conduct that our class created as a guideline for how to critique someone in a constructive and respectful way.
• Please note that qualitative, written descriptions are the most helpful in guiding me to create meaningful changes to class structure that best serve your needs as students, and to ensure that I sustain teaching practices that you enjoy/find helpful.

Voice Analysis Assignment Prep
Vocal Analysis Assignment (to be completed in-class) (50 points) - This exercise is designed to analyze the tonality, speech patterns and inflection of the voice as it shifts in response to one's perceived audience, environment and social norms. Please use a personal recording device (the voice memo app on your smart phone is an acceptable option - or, if you don't have one, the library rents them out, see http://library.du.edu/services/computers-tech-availability.html) to record yourself participating in at least two different types of conversations. These different types can include:

• You talking to friends and/or peers
• You talking to someone you consider a superior/someone who has more authority
• You talking to someone you consider a subordinate (or a conversation where you feel like you have more authority than the other speaker)
• You talking to family (if the family member is considered also a peer AND a friend, please do not use this option in conjunction with the first one)
• You talking to someone you consider an adversary

IMPORTANT: The vocal analysis tool I programmed uses .wav files. Your recording devices will probably output a .mp3 or a .m4a file. Please convert your file before class on Tuesday using this website: http://media.io/ 

• Use only the content on the left-hand side bar
• Upload your file
• Select .wav as the output
• Select "convert" > it will appear for 30 seconds or so as if nothing is happening but then you will get an automatic download with your new .wav file, be sure to save it to somewhere you can find it
• Please email me your .wav files by NOON on Tuesday, Feb. 9th --> kate.d.hoyt@gmail.com

Day Eight: Butler's Theory of Performativity

The Judith Butler Reader (Salih)
*Short debrief -- reactions to the reading/reminder about critiquing structures versus critiquing individuals.

Key Terms
Sex versus Gender: Sex is a biologically-determined category (male/female) referring to chromosomes, hormonal makeup and sex organs; Gender is a culturally-manifested performance of characteristics that appear to be natural to sex categories but are actually socially conditioned.

Phenomenology: "the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Phenomenology emerged as a philosophical alternative to psychoanalysis, the body of work created by Freud, which pathologized, or treated as diseased, many experienced phenomena of consciousness.

• Why does the author pose it as unexpected that Butler would move from the study of phenomenology to the performativity of subject and identity?

Binaries: A pair of opposites that are mutually exclusive. A system of binaries gives no room for a spectrum of options in between the two poles.

Essentialism: The view that for every identity there is a set of attributes (or an essence) that is natural (i.e. biologically-determined) and essential for its existence as such. The opposite of performativity.

Telos: An endpoint, a final objective; Butler uses this word to describe how categories like "man" and "woman" are never "complete" -- we never reach "manhood" or "womanhood" but are constantly having to perform the characteristics that prove our masculinity/femininity. There is no telos of gender.

Discourse: Most of the time, discourse means written or spoken communication; when Butler uses it, she is talking about discourse as societal shaping forces that create norms, values and politics (with a small "p" - i.e. the politics of every day life, how power relations governs our behavior -- not political systems and government). Example: the discourse of drug use defines it as a criminal/law enforcement issue, rather than a public health issue.

Key Lessons from the Reading

• Gender is something you DO, not something you ARE. 
• "Gender Trouble describes how gender 'congeals' or solidifies into a form that makes it appear to have been there all along" (Salih, p. 46)
• "...gender is not something that one is, it is something that one does, and act, or more precisely, a sequence of acts, a verb rather than a noun, a 'doing' rather than a 'being'" (Butler, p. 25, cited in Salih, p. 62)
• Performativity versus essentialism: "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. No biological, psychological, or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society; it is civilisation [sic] as a whole that produces this creature, intermediate between male and eunuch, which is described as feminine (de Beauvoir, 1949, p. 281, cited in Salih, p. 45). 
• What it means to be a woman, or a man, or any other identity category changes over time because it is culturally determined.
• "All gender is, by definition unnatural" (Salih, p. 46).
• All genders are performative. All identities are performative.
• Importance of masculinity studies alongside women's studies: all genders are performative. If we pretend that the category of "gender studies" only applies to women we are saying that masculinity is the default and femininity is an abnormality (or, as Simone de Beauvoir puts it, "the second sex"). This tendency also encourages men and male-identifying individuals to think that anything with "gender studies" in it is not their issue, when men are disciplined into performing masculinity just as much as women are disciplined to perform femininity [see Emma Watson's UN speech on HeForShe]. 

• This also applies to other identity categories: race/ethnic studies applies to white people as well as racial minorities; sexuality studies applies to heterosexuals, etc.
• The politics of "[White] American History" versus "Cultural/Ethnic Studies" -- how does this reflect the discourse around race and (lack of) inclusion in the Academy?

• Social construction of the subject.
• The subject-in-process: "Gender Trouble makes trouble by calling the category of 'the subject' into question by arguing it is a performative construct" (Salih, p. 44).
• The subject is not a pre-shaped entity that exists before it DOES something: the doing is what makes the subject.
• While one's identity is "chosen" it is not a free choice because one can only choose from a finite menu of options offered by one's culture.
• "...by 'choice' Butler does not mean that a 'free agent' or 'person' stands outside its gender and simply selects it...Instead, Butler asserts that '[t]o choose a gender is to interpret received gender norms in a way that organizes them anew" (Salih, p 46). 
• Even if you resist gender norms, you are shaping your subjectivity in relation to that act of resistance. Your identity always refers back to the dominant social script.
• Freud, Foucault and the History of Sexuality
• "'Genealogy investigates the political stakes in designating as an origin and cause those identity categories that are in fact the effects of institutions, practices, discourse, with multiple diffused points of origin" (Butler, p. viii-ix; cited in Salih, p. 48). 
• Identities are disciplined: in this sense, I am not talking about disciplining as outright punishing (although sometimes this is the case). Foucault describes disciplining as the process whereby dominant power structures shape or condition behavior through the dissemination of norms (hence why Butler says that gender performances are located within compulsory frames, bottom of p. 62). Here's an example of gender disciplining:
  
  
• History of race categories: prior to the European colonization of Africa, the Americas and South Asia, there was no such identity category as "race".  "Race" became the means used to justify the exploitation of foreign lands and peoples by deeming certain populations to be "inferior" to white Europeans. Race is a socially-constructed category created by the dominant Eurocentric order. Yet we still see examples of social disciplining when it comes to adhering to performances "loyal" to one's race.

Ben and Candy Carson terrific. What about a real black President who can properly address the racial divide? And much else.

— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) October 8, 2015

to answer a question that's been blowing up my inbox: Cam Newton is not an NFL QB. At all. Great athlete. Heisman contender. That's all

— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) October 25, 2010

Group Exercise - Media Artifact Scavenger Hunt
Break into groups of three. In ten minutes, find as many media artifacts (photos, videos, graphics, commercials/advertisements, illustrations, songs, etc.) that illustrate the following:

• The performance of gender binaries (i.e. contrasting femininity and masculinity as mutually exclusive and oppositional)
• Socially disciplining children, babies, infants (fetuses??) to conform to gender normativity
• Framing gender as natural/essential/biologically-driven
• Questioning a person's identity authenticity
• "Types" of women; "types" of men
• Gender norms from other regions/time periods 
• Performing queerness
• Performing blackness
• Performing whiteness
• Performing straightness
• Performing [insert identity category here]