ConFusions: A Choral Ending
Ulmer
The purpose of the EmerAgency consultancy is to compose rather than receive . . . wisdom--to enlist netizens in the creative process of designing contemporary wisdom, and to relate wisdom with knowledge. The intended users of the wisdom are group subjects, which, as part of the political process, may grasp the cost-benefit consequences of their cumulative behaviors. The political impact on public policy formation comes from the awareness of those in power that their actions are being monitored by egents worldwide, witnesses of disasters-in-progress. (Ulmer, 2005, p. 258)
The next step of the EmerAgency is to move beyond the MEmorial, to develop a poetics capable of generating the Cha-Ching from the accumulative MEmorials. (Ulmer, 2005, p. 258)
Brooks
While Ulmer ends with a desire to move beyond the MEmorial, the Virtual Gardeners and I are not so certain what step to take next. Perhaps others will see the Cha-Ching value of our accumulated MEmorials, but we have ended with the choral concept of ConFusion.
- A ConFusion resists conclusions and acknowledges burning questions: Do MEmorials work? Do they have an audience? Do they generate interaction and lead to an engagement with the political process? Is the circulation of a MEmorial or peripheral idea really sufficient to relate wisdom with knowledge? Response to this webtext and the individual MEmorials will provide some answers to these questions.
- A ConFusion calls for further testing: which elements of a MEmorial, if any, are necessary, crucial, or vital? What else can be done with a MEmorial? What forms can it take? Where might it fit in curriculums? In research agendas? Mauer's (2008) "Lost Data 2" provides one example of how a scholar has successfully pursued a MEmorial project over three or four years. I would like to follow up my MEmorial for the Lost Boys of Sudan with projects that monitor that ongoing disasters in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Somalia, but I will have to find refereed venues for those projects, or continue the scholarly meta-analysis of writing about the electracy I am performing.
- A ConFusion acknowledges the synthesis or fusion that happened as we worked side-by-side on individual MEmorials. Even as individuals struggled with their own projects, they offered valuable ideas and sources for each other, and they found connections among the projects that suggest Ulmer is on the right track when he suggests that the accumulated MEmorials will become an oracle for consultation. The need for speed identified by Aaron and Bob is related to the dying birds in Niles' MEmorial and the degradation of the global water supply MEmorialized by Kathryn. Ulmer's work has long advocated the use of a "research ensemble" and our projects, especially as they generated ideas for peripherals and performances, would seem to benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration with scholars in architecture, computer science, and the arts.
I know that I am not ready to move beyond the MEmorial; I would like to linger and explore the genre further. I am still maintaining our class site, although I have moved from a Drupal host to Wordpress and only brought some of the material over in the transition to the new Virtual Peace Garden. The Virtual Peace Garden in Second Life, a parcel of land where peripherals can be realized and where we and our larger group subjects can gather on Dale Earnhardt's birthday to burn a virtual car, or where avatars can leave pebbles on a mourning wall to remember a stoning victim--or perform a virtual interfaith marriage--is under development, and will perhaps challenge those of us who have taken the turn from analysis to design to consider just how far we are going to take our design skills. The strength of our collective, The Virtual Peace Gardeners, needs to be tested, but Erik, at the very end of the semester, shared a shard from Farenheit 451 that might keep us gardening together: "'The difference between a [person] who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching,' he said. 'The lawn cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.'"
The students, of course, have their own ConFusions to share.
The Virtual Peace Gardeners
For Aaron and Bob, there was confusion and skepticism as to whether the MEmorial served a practical purpose or whether it was simply an unusual class exercise, but their personal reflections support the idea that it does have an impact. Aaron's comments internalize the advantages of the MEmorial project: "If anything, I think the building of a MEmorial benefits the creator most of all. It certainly has made me more appreciative and knowledgable about Dale Earnhardt (I am not a racing fan in the least), and also more informed about a problem that had always made me angry and bewildered: the abandonment of children in hot cars. So perhaps I am more convinced of its usefullness than I want to admit." Bob also sees the MEmorial as having personal benefits by challenging the usual perceptions of social problems "There is some practical value in our thinking about connections between ideas and issues in a different way." These different perspectives can then provide a way for scrutinizing one's own biases and beliefs....the process of self-examination, as well as the work of creating the MEmorial is inherently good for us. By forcing us to work through issues we are given the opportunity to think in a different way and take the conceptual leaps that Erik [Kornkven] would like us to take."
Examining the personal impact of the MEmorial was also a theme of Jennifer Roos's final comments, who felt her personal ties to her subject of interfaith marriage made it more of a challenge compared to the other students in class. Nonetheless, she was glad she persisted with her subject. "I do not regret choosing a topic so close to my heart. I felt connected to it in a way I have never felt connected to a class assignment. I have learned much about my situation, my husband's faith, and my own convictions."
Landon Kafka also acknowledged the complexity and confusion involved with the MEmorial project, but like the others, appreciates how it challenges preconceived notions and understandings. "This project involves higher-level thinking that can't really be taught or expressed in a book," wrote Kafka, "the thinking involved is complex and different and I think this is what allows this project to be both personal and socially active." He is concerned, however, that the confusion related in the creation of the MEmorial could carry on to those the MEmorial is trying to target. "It is a deeply theoretical project and one that makes students engage a discourse that is not fully understandable and perhaps not fully perceivable by a general audience."
For Niles Haich, the confusion with the MEmorial came from the many steps involved with the project: "My only misunderstandings and doubts pertaining to the MEmorial and my own MEmorial emerge when I try to break down all of the parts of the MEmorial and then try to see if each one of the components that Ulmer has outlined in his book Electronic Monuments has been met." In spite of this, Haich was impressed with the unique and various presentation styles offered by the MEmorial and the various topics that can be highlighted through them.
For all the students in the class, there was confusion over the terminology and procedures involved with the MEmorial. There was also shared skepticism over the broader impact that it can actually have on society. What most were able to agree upon, however, was that it benefited them personally by allowing them to consider a problem that matters to them with a fresh perspective. The "ME" in memorial is not narcissistic, but self-reflexive and motivating.
