Branching Out
Advanced Typography Workshops in Quarantine View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Thomas Girard
The argument is always that design isn’t about saving lives. Some people argue for its importance, for example with the historical example of poorly-designed election ballots causing American voters to be confused enough to vote for the wrong party or candidate. Teaching typography during the pandemic puts a new and interesting lens on it. In one sense it is the least of our worries, but historically it has been so important that it must not be allowed to gather dust.
Does Asemic Writing Signify?: And, If So, What Does It Signify? View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Laurence De Looze
The notion of asemic writing has known a certain vogue in recent years, and several definitions or descriptions have been offered, for example: “anything that looks like writing, but in which the person viewing can’t read any words”(Tim Gaze). Peter Schwenger is somewhat more precise : « [signs] that don’t belong to any familiar system…[but which] put themselves forward in the form of a sign system, recognizable as marks disposed on a page according to certain conventions.” But everything turns on a particular reader’s knowledge of a given semiotic system, and if a person is not familiar with a system of writing – mandarin, say – that person will not be able to know if a piece of graphic marks that look like mandarin are asemic or not. Asemic writing is thus located more in a viewer’s act of reception than in the marks made on a page or other surface, and what asemic writing puts into play are above all our institutions of writing and codes of reception.
A Study on the Lyric Essay Forging New Life Writing Possibilities View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hannah Macauley-Gierhart
The lyric essay has emerged from a long tradition of life writing that draws on material and discursive realities to forge new forms and ways of expressing self. This paper explores the trajectory of the lyric essay and the way its bricolage form allows writers to draw from our information-saturated lives to represent unique identity. In the context of care work, my research into and construction of my own extended lyric essay was undertaken to help make sense of parenting, caring for family members with disability, and navigating climate anxiety, in order to see how the multimodal, complex layering of textual forms and sources could render the multilayered, complex responsibilities of my life. Since its inception, the lyric essay has been known for its experimental style and transmutability. This allows my research to not only create new understanding of care work in my creative artifact but examine the scope and potential of the genre itself, having significant theoretical implications on the field of modern life writing. Through practice led research, my writing echoes the symbiotic relationship that the lyric essay has with the environment it draws from: my experiences shape my writing which influences my research. The fluidity of this connection is reflected in the segmentary form; literary research, social media posts, images, quizzes, and memoir are all incorporated to represent how identity is fashioned through mediation. Here, we see that exploration with the lyric essay form leads to experimental representation of self that holds great creative potential.
The Obama Phenom and the English Language: Reflections on the ‘Barack Obama Naming Marathon’
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zekeh Gbotokuma
According to an analysis released by the Global Language Monitor – GLM, the historic election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States topped all major news stories since the year 2000. Citations of Barack Obama in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, and throughout the blogosphere more than doubled the other main stories of the 2000-2009 decade combined (for example, the Iraq War, Beijing Olympics, the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Asian Tsunami). However, Paul J. Payack noted that “if you included ‘Obama-’ as a root word, Obama- in its many forms (Obamacare, Obamamania, Obamanomics), would have overtaken both 'change' and 'bailout' [the most popular words] for the top spot.” Undoubtedly, Barack and Obama-based neologisms have enriched the English language and inspired such books as "Obamanomics and Francisconomics." Their definitions are reminiscent of the mixed feelings about the first black president of the USA. These neologisms and many things named after the 44th POTUS are part of what the U.S. presidential historian Douglas Brinkley calls “the opening salvos in the Obama naming marathon” (Woodyard, 2019). More importantly, this naming marathon has resulted in such award-winning books as "Obamanomics and Francisconomics" (Gbotokuma 2022) and "Obamapedia," a special Barack Obama-based glossary (my work in progress).
