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Technical Writing · Exposition & Argumentation · Non-fiction Creative Essays · Grammar and Usage of Standard English · The Structure of English · Analysis of Shakespeare
Analysis of Literary Language · Advanced Professional Papers · The History of the English Language · First Internship: Tutoring in a Writing Workshop · Second Internship: Advanced Instruction: Tutoring Writing
Visual Literacy Seminar (A First Course in Methodology) · Theories of Communication & Technology (A Second Course in Methodology) · The Writer's Guild
UMBC'S Conservative Newspaper: "The Retriever's Right Eye" · UMBC'S University Newspaper: "The Retriever Weekly" · Introduction to Journalism · Feature Writing · Science Writing Papers
Blackboard Weekly Posts (A Bulletin Board Community)
An Explanation of How to Read "This" Objective · Parameters for Re-contextualizing the Definition of a Word from the OED · Photos of the OED Annoy Artifacts · The Oxford English Dictionary Fairy Tale Radio Hour Archive Audio Tape and Script
The OED Annoy Process Narrative-Sketch · The OED Rolling Credits: Who Contributed to "This" Objective · The OED Word Definition Workshops One and Two: Brainstorming Ideas within a Social Context · The OED Blackboard Community Post
A List of OED Words that were Researched, Tested, and Abandoned
"Every project is constrained by three parameters: scope, cost, and time, every project."
Tasha Richburg,
UMBC Professor of Information Systems Project Management
"Everything is an argument, everything."
Nuel Belnap,
A.R. Anderson distinguished Professor University of Pittsburgh, Philosophy Department
Introduction
There are many, many things I could do with the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) database in reference to content and demonstrating the definition of a word. I could create a video clip, an audio clip, a 3D object that could be rotated by grabbing it with a mouse, an illustration, a word game, and/or an animation sequence. There is vast range of possibilities.
On the other hand, I am constrained first by the parameters of scope, cost, and time. After checking many words I quickly found that the assignment dictated more parameters and constraints such as a verb would work best especially if I would do any re-contextualizing with writing. Shipka said, "at least 750 words must be used from the definition of the word from the OED which creates another problem. A newer word in the English language would have less data to work with. Some data does not work well when one begins to frame the data within a concept. I found this to be true for the word "secret," which was my first choice for re-contextualizing. The word on the surface worked well but I had not read the assignment correctly. First lesson learned; analyze the assignment parameters.
As I began to insert OED data into the fairy tale I had created, the plan quickly self-destructed. In order to get the data into the fairy tale I would have to change my characters. In the original plan, every time the word secret was used in the fairy tale, the little girl would interrupt and ask "What's a secret?" or "What does the word secret mean?" I would stop my narration and recite OED data and then ask can we go on with the fairy tale. The little girl would say okay and I would proceed. As I tried to do this I quickly recognized that the neat little fairy tale was no longer entertaining and was becoming a multi-modal re-contextualization of other words. The initial argument of the fairy tale being an entertaining way of delivering the OED data was not working. Therefore as all researchers find, the data sometimes dictates the hypothesis and not the other way around. True discoveries are only made when the data does not support the premise. My pre-conceived notion of what I would find or demonstrate collapsed.
In a conversation with Greg Masters, I said, "My neat entertaining fairy tale was actually becoming annoying to the reader and no longer entertaining blowing my entire argument out of the water." I babbled on. When I gave Greg a word in edgewise he said, "What about the word 'annoy'? In other words, your goal and argument becomes to annoy your reader to the point to where they feel how annoyed you were becoming when the fairy tale self-destructed and other words were not working." I wrote down the word annoy in my notes and after consulting the OED, I found there was not as much data for the word "annoy" as there was for but it was over 800 words and met the 750 word parameter. I would have to use all the data but placing the data into the fairy tale would become annoying achieving my goal or argument. The possibility existed that some reader may have found the re-contextualization funny and consider this as humor because the audiotape of the radio show does boarder on ridiculous or silly. The game can still be used but now I have changed the project so the solution comes at the end and not step by step because people in general find word problems in mathematics annoying especially when someone is reciting them on radio and one is expected to follow along.
Why the word "secret?"
I had no idea what word to use and needed something. I was tired and had completed all the reading, posting, and what ever was going on at the time for 324 and 407. I receive my best inspiration from people and what they say: usually one or two words of what they say act as seeds in my mind which blossom and grow into concepts. This method began when I participated in an online adult bulletin board forum. People would say stuff that most times was just idle chatter about mundane ordinary everyday life things. As an example a woman once said that she or had baked a cake for someone's birthday and she would post again later because she had to go to an event. She needed time to put the frosting on the cake. My mind read this and the word "frosting" called out to me like a neon sign sort of like in the movie Beetlejuice when Beetlejuice was drawn in by the "Hen House." I wrote an entire erotic story revolving around "cake frosting." From that point on this would happen again and again. I wrote some 100 plus stories revolving around one or two words a person would say. This was not by force but by inspiration. Once a woman said affectionately, that I "suffered" from a "hyperactive fertile imagination." From then on I would actively seek out words that would inspire my writing. On campus the best way to do this is either to speak with peers or attend lectures.
Dr. S. Brent Morris, Mathematician and lecturer was giving a presentation titled "Magic, Mathematics, and Masonry." First off knowing a little, very little about magicians and what they do having seen Penn and Teller live, knowing enough about mathematics to be comfortable in a room filled with mathematicians, and masons, well I can relate that back to learning the basics of civil engineering, I couldn't see how Morris intended to connect the dots. I was intrigued but needed to get my work done too. At the same time I needed stimulation of some sort so at 7:55 p.m. I literally leaped off the computer of the 6th floor of the library and went to the 7th floor where the presentation was being held.
I am not going to recount the entire evening even though it was fascinating but will discuss the events that led to the word "secret." Morris talked about the fact that the Free Masons maintain 33 secrets which are really not that secret anymore because of the Internet but they do maintain one secret that is number one. He explained the number one secret and why the symbol of the Free Masons is the carpenter's square.
Free Masons back in the Middle ages were carpenters and like everyone else of the time were uneducated. The most important of the Free Mason's tools is his square because it forms 90 degrees. Constructions quickly become a nightmare when essence of squareness is not maintained. Stone blocks to not fit tightly, seams do not fit, and foundations are not rectangular setting up a situation for an engineering disaster: building collapse. The secret the Free Masons maintain is how does one check to be sure that their square is square and that they are ready for work? Well they do this through a geometrical proof, not that back in the Middle ages they understood that the geometry construction was a Euclidean geometrical proof but the Free Mason's understood by drawing out this particular geometric construction that they could check their square for squareness. A Mason, because of his line of work, once a town was built no longer had work. Therefore he would have to leave the town he just built to find more work. The Mason was free to roam the countryside to find work. Carrying his most important tool, the square, told others that he was a Free Mason, except to another Free Mason. Free Mason A knows he's a Free Mason because he knows his square is square. Free Mason B knows he's a Free Mason because he knows his square is square. The problem now arises that Free Mason A does not know Free Mason B. Free Mason is nothing more than a stranger to Mason A and Free Mason B may be a highway robber who just killed a Free Mason and took his square. Therefore not being a Free Mason and not knowing how to check the square still forms 90 degrees or is square, A highway robber would not know if the square is true. The square could be bent and not knowing the secret of the Free Mason's the impostor Free Mason B has no idea the tool is not square. So how does Free Mason A determine if Free Mason B is telling the truth? Free Mason A goes to a secret place and constructs the geometrical proof on the ground and checks the square by checking it with the proof that has been provided with this OED project. If the two corners of the square line up with all three points on the circle then the square is square, Free Mason B is a Free Mason and is ready for work. If it is not square, then Free Mason B needs to replace his square or he is a liar.
This was the number one secret of the Free Masons and the real life situation lent itself so well to a fairy tale, I just couldn't resist. I just followed along with my inspiration and tossed out my 407 Blackboard post because it was the next most important thing to do at the time.
The original argument was that the OED is neither entertaining nor engaging considering that the OED could take advantage of all the possibilities of the multi-modalities possible having a presence on the Internet. I am comfortable with the OED as it currently presents itself as an institution and authority in the English language, so I was taking the reverse position or the counterargument. My original design or intention was to weave the definition of the word secret into the fairy tale and demonstrate how the OED could provide the definitions of words in an engaging way and also make the site interactive. Next I intended to engage the reader in a drawing exercise and create the geometrical proof by re-creating the steps of the proof on line. The computer would provide feedback to the user whether the steps were correct or incorrect. This was meant to be learning by doing, a hands-on activity, and interactive learning. This idea quickly fell apart because of time constraints. This was quickly abandoned. The next thought was to have a series of slides as the solution and give the person the instructions on how to reproduce the steps on paper one by one. The first sheet would have the first instruction. The second sheet the next instruction and so on. I was not going to provide the solution and direct the user to flash-gear.com to see the steps of the proof and the solution done in real time. Flash-gear doesn't always play nicely with my computer so I abandoned this idea. I had to reduce my plan to a paper version and as I said each sheet of paper would tell the person what I wanted then to draw. The user would turn the page and then there would be the next instruction. The user would complete the steps, hopefully correct and would see the Free Mason's secret. This exercise would demonstrate through multi-modality what a secret was and would also re-enforce learning in the user's mind.
Possible Plans for Re-contextualizing the Data in a Multi-media Format
The plan became grandiose. I thought of doing a Saturday Night Live skit and video taping it but had to abandon this because I do not have a video recorder. I was going to play the father and ask one of the women across ENGL 324 or 407 to play a bratty 5-year old girl who would not go to sleep. I would negotiate with her to go to bed if I told her a bedtime story and that would be the fairy tale of the Free Mason. At the end she would still not want to go to sleep so I would bribe her to go to sleep if we played the game of drawing out the geometrical proof to see what the Free Mason's secret was. I would also ask the viewers to play along.
This was abandoned for several reasons:
1) I do not have access to a video camera.
2) This would be a visual thing and to make it entertaining and like a comedy routine the woman would dress up as a 5 year old in pajamas, pig tails, and act out like a child the whole time. I would have been drawn into the room because the 5-year-old was acting out bouncing on the bed and all sorts of commotion. The problem here was I have no place to shoot this. I live in a crappy rented room where I alone barely fit. I live with four other men, all close in age and I have a stipulation with my landlord that no women are allowed, or for that matter, no men are allowed over EVER. So I could not do a shoot at my place.
3) I do not know any women here well enough and this would have to be shot at their place. Now I get into a problem of trust.
4) If I had access to a camera I could have used the lame atmosphere of the Writing Center and its couch but with all the problems I already stated I abandoned the idea in its entirety.
The idea was still half-baked at this point and I thought what if I do the re-contextualization of the OED word as a radio skit? In the 60’s I was introduced to The Firesign Theater players who wrote a great deal of old style radio broadcasts that revolved around political commentary of the time, hippie culture, and marijuana. I used to listen to the Lampoon Radio Hour at that time also. Since then I have listened to the old radio broadcasts of the time and have developed an appreciation for radio entertainment. I have been told by several people throughout my life that I have a “radio voice” and they have said have you ever though of doing radio or voice-overs. At the time I didn’t think about doing voice-overs or radio but I have heard this suggestion from so many people who know little about me and have no knowledge for my love of radio as a media format and I cling to the old-style radio, I feel this is something I should investigate. Three years ago there was a seminar on how to break into voice-overs but I saw the ad too late and have never seen it again. Radio and voice-overs is something I would love to do.
When I was with my ex-girlfriend, I brought home some hand puppets from McDonalds. The kids found them and I had no idea what to do with them but I regularly play with different personas and voices privately: basically cartoon voices. The kids engaged me one night with the puppets and they thought this was a riot. They couldn’t believe that this dry looking scientific type would be into play, putting on personas, and acting out through a host of cartoon voices. Plus the dialogs were always at a fun, playful level they could identify with so they were engaged. This became a regular thing. Bringing this full circle, doing a radio skit, writing it, acting it out, and doing the whole production would be playing to my strengths. I could hear Shipka’s voice saying, “Forget about what you can’t do but put it in your goals and choices. Do what you love. Play to your strengths.” That has now been modified to “Luke, go with your strengths.”
I could make an audio tape of the radio broadcast telling the fairy tale. I could have an announcer, a sponsor, the OED man, and I could produce a commercial advertising the cereal and mention that there was a “secret” in every box. The secret in this box would be the geometry game and would also demonstrate the Free Mason’s secret. Kids love secrets, kids love prizes, kids love fairy tales, and kids love drawing. I’m crossing over all kinds of modes linking one to the next and then comes packaging. I create the audio tape because I have a tape recorder and the game is paper so I have that. I get a box of cereal and it came to me Monday, March 13 to re-design the box to “Mind Expanding Cereal” with the slogan, “Cereal that Expands the Mind,” put underneath by the OED then put a star burst on the cover saying, a “secret in every box.” I thought it was a cinch.
Me... at a Loss for Words?
I walked into the first workshop only to realize I had not read the assignment correctly. We had to re-contextualize the OED data and incorporate at least 750 words of the OED into the project. I wasn’t connecting the fact that the OED text had to be weaved into my text. I knew secret had a wealth of data but had forgotten to bring the data with me. I thought just having the word secret in there was going to work and I could just plug in the data. Wrong! I was so caught up in receiving a breakthrough from the night before for a word being thrown into my lap, that I missed the most important constraint of all. It was like taking a physics exam and forgetting that everything falls at 32 feet per second per second. Even if it is not said it is implied and always fair game to be used as a given if necessary.
Shipka then made another observation or suggestion. “Verbs work best, or so I have been told.” Yet another pin delivered to my beautiful bouquet of balloons. My word was a noun. I could not contribute at all in the workshop or brainstorming session because nothing was right. How do I go about rescuing this project where the idea seems just so “hot” to me? I can do all of this but now I have the data problem. I had to go back to the drawing board literally. I had to switch from a noun to a verb and data-wise, that was okay. I looked at the data again and decided on remaining with the skit. I then created a dialog between myself and the 5 year old. Every time the word secret was mentioned and it was more than a few times, the little girl would interrupt and ask, “What’s a secret?” I would then recite the OED definition and ask if we could go on. At first I thought I was on my way to a rescue attempt, but I was only kidding myself.
The italicized words below are other words I experimented with in the design of the re-contextualization of the OED. Nothing was working wherever I turned. I looked at other people’s words such as Chewning’s frame not thinking that constraints frame a project but his context was applying the word to education. I looked at frame and decided I did not see the argument nor could all the data be put into one frame, plus as Shipka warned us, only the noun had all the data. I was grasping for straws at this point. I looked at addition and menu but could not see a valid argument. I had no idea what my peers saw in these words but I didn’t see it. I was working into a tizzy thinking every waking hour of words to use. I began to consider the negative verbs that I could create an argument around. Abandon was one. I would like to abandon this project but cannot because I want to go to grad school. I need the grade and I came into this class for a reason. Not only because it is required but because on the first day of the fall I realized which professor would push me to the limit. I have never looked for the easy “A.” I dropped that fall because I knew I could not do the necessary work expected of me and decided to come back. With Dr. Carpenter I recognized where Shipka was coming from but Shipka was pushing out into virgin territory and from all the buzz all fall semester long I knew something was going on inside that classroom that was exciting but also grueling. Yes, I could have taken the other section with Naphtali. I have spoken with him and he is doing the same old lifeless stuff. He enjoys it. Where he is a good place for him. He doesn’t understand what I talk about in 407 so I no longer talk to him about inside the “black box.” I have a thing for “black, black boxes, experiments, and playing roles” so I know my decision has been correct for me. I am accustomed to putting my head through brick walls in solving problems and seeing different ways of thinking. So the word abandon was definitely not the right word nor could I re-conceptualize the word.
I was slipping into apathy and considered apathy as a verb. I also considered frustrate because that was what the project was doing to me and it wouldn’t be hard to create something that would be “frustrating” so the reader would feel what I went through as the designer. I abandoned that because I am dependent on the course, the reader is not and would simply throw it in the garbage. I was beginning to obsess over the project another verb I considered and that is when Brittany wanted data for a history. I gave her the entire story in semiotics. To my disappointment, none of this work showed up in the history when presented at the end of the semester.
The two projects were consuming me. Then I considered consume and the argument would be that the OED project was consuming me whole. I could string the data across and in consumed items such as jars, boxes, and other things we dispose of daily. I did a double take on this because what did that say about my project if I was placing the data in things we normally trash. That my project was trash? I took the word consume and threw “it” into the trash. I decided I came into this room to learn from Shipka for a reason and no matter what I would endure and prevail. I tried these words but could not see the neat package I had designed using the word secret. At this point the project was driving me crazy. I talked with Greg Masters about the project, all the words I tried, and the fact I was getting nowhere. I was still clinging to the idea of the entire package and did not want to let it go. As I was talking I though of another word now forgotten but in my dialog his mind focused on a word I used which was annoy. I said to him that trying to bring the OED into the fairy tale self-destructed its entertaining qualities and it also threw my entire argument out the window. Greg said, “Have you considered the word annoy, after all didn’t you say that this project has become annoying and that the fairy tale has become annoying?” I couldn’t say anymore. I wrote it down and said, “I’ll have to research the word.” This was Friday, March 10.
I looked at the data for the word annoy and “this” word and annoy had a little more than 800 words, perfect. I will have to use all the data. This word has possibilities. My goal would be to annoy the radio listener the same way I was annoyed with doing the entire project and trying to ground the project in some fashion. Then it hit me. Sarah Miller has a little girl’s voice and Caitlin Wychgram in our last discussion after Shipka’s history enjoyed play acting, so out went an email to both women. The problem is most people disappear from this place on weekends in most cases to make money. In the mean time I wrote up the skit anyway. I had to, there was nothing else left to do. Monday night I decided I had not heard a word and the skit was created so I cold do it Firesign Theater style: play all the voices and let the recorder roll. This I knew I could pull off, but “this” would either annoy the listener or would be so ridiculous that it would become humor because the listener would realize that the whole tape was being done by one person. This was what had happened with the OED sample Shipka showed us. The designer argued one thing and ended up delivering a completely different argument than he set out to deliver. The presenter was entertaining and the OED is not. I’m not sure how this is going to work now, if the skit will border on ridiculous and slide into the genre of comedy and end up entertaining or will the skit annoy people because it’s just so bad.
This morning there was an email from Sarah Miller and she said yes she would like to do the skit. Only thing was she had not seen the skit and did not know what she was agreeing to. When I walked into 324 Tuesday, March 14, I was wired. I have to be energized for 324 and 407 because I never know what to expect. I know we will in some way cover the readings but I also know that people are now working on presentations and histories and need my input for their projects. I have to be here for myself and for them. We are one big conglomerate Shipka Think Tank. If anyone now asked me what we did in these spaces it takes so long to explain I would have to say, “You’re not a part of this community, you would never understand the language, It’s a Shipka thing. We’re Shika-ites.” It has become totally impossible to explain to an outsider. (Since writing “this” text my outlook has changed. I have read various books in activity theory, articulation theory, new media theory, cyberspace community theory, social theory, composition theory, and various other books in “theory” and now have a strong position to articulate from. All I had to do was increase my background.) This has become a community and next semester there will be 45 more people entering the community. Then we will be a community of 90 and the community will continue to strengthen and grow. I swear I will never see anything the same again in learning, education, or communication.
What is the purpose of the Talking Heads Lyrics “Artists Only” after the Goals and Choices and before the Process Sketches?
This choice acts as a “transfer-boundary” from rhetorical text to image/sketch. “These” lyrics play nicely with the idea as representing poetry which is a completely different form of writing than prose and acts as a “heads-up” that the images are just up ahead. “I’m painting” as I draw my sketches and “I’m cleaning” out all the rhetorical choices I made in forming “this” communicative objective. For me, it is equivalent to doing a “memory dump.” I have to account for each decision made and each decision not made, therefore I am “dumping out” all the logic and showing others how the entire concept came about.
The process is anything but random as I demonstrate how connections are made crossing boundaries and crossing modalities and medium. “Pretty soon now, I will be bitter.” Bitter in the sense that whatever the final concept becomes I worked in tension between what I wanted the concept to be and what the concept reflected back to me what it actually was. Rarely does one achieve the actual concept that was in their mind. Along each step of the way a new constraint arises and the mode also reflects back what is possible.
“You can’t see till I’m finished.” “This" is typical of the process because no one wants someone to see the failures, we want one to marvel over the finished product. No one wants to admit that there were failures in between, that concepts were scraped or modified, that materials were thrown into the garbage because the designer did not achieve the intended effect. “This” part of the process is reserved to an elite few. Those who’s opinions we value. Those who look at our work not with negative criticism but positive criticism. We ask the rhetorical question: “Is it good?” Our beloved critics respond with “You need to teak here and there…” or “This is brilliant. I understand the meaning and it is this…” or the critics tell you the meaning they make and you find that their meaning is completely different than your intended meaning, i.e. “This is fucking crap, what does 'this' mean?”
“I don’t have to prove…that I am creative.” This concept is anything but random. Could have someone else chosen “this” word, annoy, and come up with a fairy tale radio sketch, a cereal box, a grab bag surprise, a geometric drawing game specifically designed to annoy the listener? Probably not, as I do not think someone else would have seen the specific boundary crossings from mathematics, to old time radio format, to geometry, to Free Masons, to the Middle Ages, reflecting back to the fairy tale, to Saturday Night Live, to the cereal box design of the late forties/early fifties. From text to sound to image to construction. Only the human mind could take items that seem totally unrelated and connect them together creating a congruent whole. My concept and my “pictures” are anything but “confused.” And so I have “taken (me) my mind to (you) your mind showing you all the processes that were involved in creating “this” communicative objective. Now you may read through the socio-political-ideological-historical-logical process that designed “this objective.”
After designing the audio tape, the fairy tale, and the game, the communicative objective begins to feed back to me the designer what this communicative objective should become. In the beginning, I as the designer, find myself stringing together a concept to develop artifacts communicating across modalities. Once the radio show, the Free Mason’s Tale, the geometric game, and the OED data has been flowed in, the communicative objective takes off and beings to dictate what “this objective is saying as a concept. The designer is no longer designing the project, the artifact is now feeding back or dictating what the communicative objective is. This implies the concept and demonstrates that technology and users of technology work together in tension. The user dictates to the technology and the technology dictates to the user.
Why was the communicative objective delivered in a blue “Mars” plastic grocery bag?
The blue “Mars” grocery bag begins the concept and containment of the communicative objective. The bag says to Shipka or the reader, “I had to go grocery shopping today before class and I was walking through the cereal isle, I saw ‘this’ cereal called ‘Mind Expanding Cereal’ by the Oxford English Dictionary, a cereal designed with your mind in mind. I had to buy ‘this’ cereal for you (Shipka) to see ‘this’ because you (Shipka) would never believe ‘this.’”
Why was the idea of containing the entire project inside a “Cracker Jack box abandoned?
Placing all the artifacts associated with the communicative objective into a “Cracker Jack” box was considered but abandoned. The “Cracker Jack” packaging would play with the concept of “this” objective as being a “grab bag” idea. In every box of the OED there is a “grab bag” prize designed to further explain the definition of the word the OED is communicating. This artifact would draw in a younger audience (children) by making the OED more entertaining making learning fun. The “Cracker Jack” box not only plays with the “grab bag” concept but also plays with the OED word annoy,”chosen to re-contextualize.
The older generation will remember that there was nothing more annoying than attempting to open a box of “Cracker Jacks.” "Cracker Jacks" packaging was practically impossible for a young consumer (children) to open considering children are the targeted consumer. “These” boxes were so over-packaged and over-sealed that the consumer (most likely a child) could not get to the contents and the simplest method was to cut the box open. This meant that an adult would have to intervene because most children are not trusted with a knife, plus children usually lack the motor skills to work with a knife as a tool. The “Cracker Jacks” packaging would have also played with the theme of the late 40’s early 50’s socio-historical theme of the radio show format and the children’s radio show chosen to re-conceptualize the OED data.
“Cracker Jacks" changed the packaging to easier to open plastic envelope type bags and did away with the annoying box. When “this” change was made is unclear. Evidently the change was made not only to remove the consumer annoying packaging but also because technology improved with time and this new packaging is more likely cheaper than past packaging with the added bonus of being easier to open. This is one reason why a “Cracker Jack” box was not chosen for containment of the project even though “this" packaging was considered. The second reason has to do with physical size.
“Cracker Jacks” is offered in two sizes. The smaller box would have never contained all the components or artifacts of the communicative objective. The larger box still would not have been a possibility because even though the box is larger, “this” box still would have not been large enough to contain all the artifacts which would have led to other design problems in spreading the artifact across other containment or framing. The artifacts could have been crammed into the box but what would this reflect to the user/reader of “this” communicative objective? In my mind, “this” would have said that I have little respect for my own work therefore why should the user/reader have respect or waste their time making meaning of “these” artifacts. These are the reasons why the idea of using a “Cracker Jack” box was abandoned.
Why the re-contextualized cereal box or what “work” is “this” box doing?
The cereal box draws all the various multi-modal components of “this” communicative objective into a conceptual package. I already described that I wanted to do video and because of constraints I reduced the re-contextualization of the OED data to a radio skit. Even though my goal demonstrate though various modalities of the meaning of the word “annoy” I also wanted to entertain which is something the OED does not do. My thought was if I was enjoying myself as a designer stringing together all these modalities of communication and doing “this” in an entertaining way, my hope is the reader/user will recognize that the author/designer is having fun therefore learning can be fun.
Cereals for kids are known for having little grab bag prizes in them to get kids to eat more cereal. The advantages of cereal in one’s diet was recognized long before the late forties and early fifties but children were an untargeted market. After World War II there was more money to spend converting from a “war” economy to a “peace” economy. The GI’s came back and everyone was anxious to move forward from a “war time mentality.” This becomes the beginning of the “baby boom” generation. The WWII generation or the “depression babies” wanted more for their children. The WWII generation wanted their children to have a better life. The assumption is that living longer will result in a better life and cereal was toted as a key ingredient for well-rounded diet resulting in a healthier lifestyle and longer life.
During this time, television had been invented but was not affordable by the common people therefore radio and newspapers were the two top communication modes to the masses. Radio was not only for the purpose of informing but also for entertaining. Radio entertainment for children was more common. Cereal manufacturers knew this and used radio as their main means for advertising their products to children. The best way to engage children was by offering little grab bag prizes in the box and then within the radio programming engaging the children by asking them to play along. Second, there would be “peer pressure” the next day in school. Kids would come in and begin to talk and play among themselves imagining themselves to be characters in the skits they heard the night before. To be a “part of the gang” and in order to “fit in” with your peers, you too would have to have the grab bag prize offered in the cereal I order to play or be left behind. So in order to fit into the social order, you had to pressure mom to buy the cereal, so you could get the grab bag prize to play along with the narrator on the radio, so you could talk with your friends the next day about how neat the radio show was, and so you could act out your own versions of the radio skits and have your own adventures all in the name of consumerism. All of “this” ties together with the theme of the course communicating within a social context. The cereal box ties together the fairy tale, the radio hour, the grab bag game prize. This entire theme also fits in with the hopefullness of the forties and fifties that WWII will be the final war and that life will finally be different. But “this” communicative objective was not composed in those hopeful times. These are times that most of us feel annoyed for all too many reasons and predominantly hopeless, therefore my goal became to draw in my user/with messages that on the surface glimmered of something hopeful and then to annoy them to the point of where they take the artifacts as a whole and throw them into the garbage. I was deliberately “false advertising.”
Why is the cereal box designed the way it was? Why this pattern? Why these colors? What were the design choices?
Describing why the particular design of this box is the most difficult question to answer. Here’s why. This was the last part of the project to be done and was done 12 hours before the publishing deadline. I have little experience with Microsoft Publisher. I have experience with higher end programs such as Adobe PhotoShop, Illustrator, PageMaker, and Quark Xpress but not Microsoft Publisher. I know that Publisher is not as powerful a program as the others but this reduction in power does not necessarily simplify the software but frustrates the user in not being able to do things that can be done with the higher end programs.
I had to quickly familiarize myself with the software and within the time constraints hunting, pecking, and playing with the software program was not my idea of fun when one is trying to produce an end-product. I would find things, try things to see what they would do but still hungered for more time and greater familiarity to exercise more control over the end product. I found myself browsing the portions of the software that would show me pre-designed backgrounds. I found “this” design with the rectangles and the electron orbits and thought this would work well with the late forties early fifties theme.
This background, mainly the electron paths, played with the hopefulness of entering the “atomic age” That the atomic bomb and atomic energy were our “friends” when maintained in the hands of the world’s humanitarians (The Capitalist United States) and not the evil Russians (The Communists). This design also plays with the theme that science is good for mankind and that only good can come from attaining more knowledge. Therefore, if one wants to be a part of this bright and shiny future science claims to hold the key for, what better way to attain “this” future than by increasing one’s vocabulary by learning new words from the definitive authority of the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary.
“This” background design plays with the theme of the atomic reactor Three Mile Island in a subtle way. The rectangle designs have a resemblance to the infamous smoke stacks of the nuclear power plant; friendly, but ominous. This plays with the contents of the box and the geometric grab bag prize game which has been deliberately designed to be as user-unfriendly as possible but also to attain its evil goal of annoying the user/reader.
Next, I found that I was able to quickly manipulate the color schemes through another software wizard that would show me color schemes. After browsing through all the background patterns and color schemes, I decided that the designs I used were the most attractive and performed the greatest amount of work towards my goal of drawing in the consumer. I did not want to repulse the consumer with an awful design or an awful color scheme. My object was to attract the consumer’s eye, to formulate eye candy to get them to pick up the cereal box. The message on the packaging had to be hopeful. As I said, most of the color schemes were awful but I did find that I could manipulate each individual object in the design and also its color. To make all these changes individually; matching colors and running test prints would be too time consuming and expensive, therefore this design option was dismissed. The problem with the colors was that I would have to go into custom colors, set them individually and print. Publishing experience has taught me that the color printer, especially the HP color laser in the computer science lab, will not interpret the color on the computer monitor or screen the same way. The colors are never as brilliant as they appear on the screen. I did not have time to experiment with this.
Once I had the background and color motif in place, the design was ready for text. My game plan was to insert text from the top down until I said what I needed to say and ran out of space yet without ruining the appearance and readability of the box. I browsed through the special heading text wizard and decided that I wanted the large curving text at the top of the box. I changed this to the stainless steel appearing lettering with the product name “Mind Expanding Cereal.” I chose the stainless steel color because “this” plays with the theme of a sterile, logical world dictated by knowledge, logic, and science, all of which fitted with the sterile, logical, elitist feel of the Oxford English Dictionary. After all how would one achieve this lofty goal of being part of the elite than through using the words within the OED?
The product name “Mind Expanding Cereal” continues to play with “this” theme in the sense as to what does one do by reading and using the words contained within the OED? One expands their vocabulary and means of communication, thereby expanding one’s mind through knowledge. Next, the text was rotated so the first word “Mind would be lower than the last word “Cereal.” This is typical in advertising, especially in automotive and science advertising. This is to give the reader/user the illusion that “this” product is the future. We look ahead when we think about the future and science looks forward as it envisions the future. Rarely does one look behind or into the past (history) unless attempting to determine what is not possible or when looking for an error in someone else’s thought processes. This also plays with the theme of current scientific knowledge that the universe is infinitely expanding and that our knowledge collectively can infinitely expand. The product name and graphic layout of the text ties together the two time periods: the late forties, the “Atomic Age” and the 21st century, the “Information Age,” where science and knowledge represent power and those who posses knowledge, science, and technology posses power and thereby those who posses “knowledge” can form the ideological goals for societal change to attain their own goals shaping the future.
The next text string on the box, “Cereal that Expands the Mind” is simply restating the product name, indicating to the consumer what is inside the box, the cereal, enforces the name of the product in the consumer’s mind and makes the claim that if one consumes “this” cereal then one will increase their intelligence. The reason the company can make this claim is because expanding one’s vocabulary allows one to comprehend more complex forms of written and oral text. “This” is the manufacturer’s claim, the OED, and the OED would like the consumer to “think” that the OED is the gateway to obtaining more knowledge playing with the theme of written text being the traditional means of communication, ignoring the fact that people communicate through many means and develop knowledge through those other modes. Spacing the letters within the word out further than the other words within the text string emphasizes the word “expand”. This once again “plays” with the theme of expanding one’s intelligence by using the Oxford English Dictionary.
The next text string “by the OED” simply announces the manufacturer of the cereal of is the Oxford English Dictionary. The acronym was chosen instead of the full spelling for three reasons. First, by using the acronym this plays with the theme of the “Information Age” that everything is reduced to an acronym and is used as a means of flaunting one’s knowledge of being “in the know;” knowing what the acronym means. In other words, “I know what the alphabet soup means and if you don’t then you do not possess the necessary knowledge to compete within the “Information Age” and an “information” based society.” Simply put, “You’re not a part of “this” culture similar to wearing clicky-clacky hard soled shoes versus soft soled, silent oxford shoes or wearing predominately black garments two sizes too large symbolizing to others that “I am an ‘artist’ and not ‘corporate.’”
The last portion of text is framed by a star burst or an explosion. This is meant to draw the consumer’ eye as is traditionally done in advertising. The OED wants the consumer to know that every box of cereal contains the treasured grab bag prize in every box and “this” is the main reason why one wants to buy Oxford English Dictionary cereal.
Considering the goal was to annoy the user/reader, why was the box designed with easy entrance to its contents?
The answer to “this” question is simple and should be rather obvious. Considering that “this” packaging is a prototype, one does not want to annoy the person-Shipka-who is the gatekeeper of the grades: simply put. The consumer edition of the cereal box could easily be triple sealed just like a “Cracker Jack” box with a little blurb on the back of the box in small letters explaining that the triple sealing is for the purpose of ensuring that the consumer receives a fresh box of cereal.
Why were all the paper artifacts and the audio tape placed in a plastic freezer bag?
The paper artifacts and the special “Shipka” edition of the archive audio tape of the radio show were placed in the freezer bag to simulate the packaging that the consumer edition would be delivered in. The paper artifact, the geometric game would be found in the freezer bag to keep the artifact clean.
The audio tape was a special version and an archive tape presented to Shipka because “this” artifact does the bulk of the work within “this” communicative objective; re-contextualizing the data of the OED for the word annoy.
Also within the box are two versions of the geometrical/mathematical proof game of the Free Mason’s secret. The instructions are clearly written differently with two opposing communicative goals. The Shipka Edition is written in a step by step, numbered format similar to a user’s technical document or assembly instruction sheet, so Shipka can follow step by step what is expected in solving the proof. Also, with the Shipka Edition of the geometric proof, the visual solution is provided at the back in case any step is misinterpreted, Shipka simply needs to look at the solution to find the missing step. The visual solution of the geometrical proof acts as another communication device for those who think visually and not textually.
The Consumer Edition of the geometrical/mathematical proof game of the Free Mason’s secret is deliberately designed with the goal of not communicating clearly with the user/reader by stringing all the text together as a paragraph removing the visual clues of step-changes thereby making “this” version an example of a poorly communicating text. Not only is the “Consumer Edition” of the game more difficult to read but also the visual solution or clue to the problem is not provided in order to further annoy the consumer.
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