From ZPD to WAGR: An Activity Theory Primer
An Activity Theory PrimerContextI recently gave a talk to members of Frontera Retorica, a graduate student chapter of the Rhetoric Society of America at the University of Texas at El Paso (and also my...
View ArticleVisual Research Methods: A Photo Essay
Visual Research Methods: A Photo EssayI spent some time over the Thanksgiving break building a new section to my primary website where I explore empirical visual research methods. [1]I realized,...
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Contexts, Image Making, and Understanding
Contexts, Image Making, and Understanding“Writing and picture making have, in many significant ways, replaced human memory and become the primary means by which twentieth-century Western humanity...
View ArticleContextual Ambivalence: Images + Inscriptions
Contextual Ambivalence: Images and InscriptionsIn my last post, I talked a bit about the potentially dizzying contexts of production and use that accompany nearly any photograph. I argued there for the...
View ArticleCraft Tweets
Craft TweetsWhat would craft tweets look like? I’m thinking here of an (admittedly poor) analogy between craft tweets and craft beer…I created an experimental Twitter account a few weeks ago. Called...
View ArticleDiary of an A1349
Diary of an A13492 April, 2013Awakened at 4:37 a.m., top-button depressed and face-down; flipped, mostly horizontal. Light-bringer mode; quick-check. Displaying 3 @replies from the previous 24-hour...
View ArticleScaffolding
ScaffoldingLast week, I attended a one day forum exploring intercultural education.Near the end of the forum, during an informal panel discussion, an audience member asked a question about...
View ArticleFound Photo Fodder
Found Photo FodderI haven’t commented much on the death of Google Reader, and while this post is marginally about RSS (and, really, about tagging within RSS), I don’t really have much to say about...
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Shanghai Selfies
Shanghai SelfiesFolks in cultural studies and related fields have been banging this drum for years: we are immersed in images. We have been, sure, but awareness of ambient photography has recently gone...
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Everyday Details
Everyday DetailsWhile I was in Shanghai, I spent half a day in and around Jing’an Temple, a key site of contemporary Han Buddhism in China.This is a fascinating place for many reasons, but what I found...
View ArticleExpressions
ExpressionsThis is the trailer for the film Visitors (from the folks behind Koyaanisqatsi).I appreciate photography and videography of human emotion, particularly the many wonderful expressions and...
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Shanghai Graffiti
Shanghai GraffitiI have a few more posts from my summer teaching in Shanghai on the horizon, including today’s on graffiti and stencil art.I spent much of my time on the Baoshan campus of Shanghai...
View ArticleThree Ontological Provocations
Three Ontological ProvocationsI was invited to give an Ignite presentation at SIGDOC 2013.This was my first try at giving a presentation in this format, and I must say, it's much more enjoyable than...
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Shanghai Street Food
Shanghai Street FoodDuring the summer, when I told people that I was going to (or recently returned from) Shanghai, I was often immediately asked about food, and sometimes specifically about street...
View ArticleGonzo Academicus
Gonzo AcademicusJustine Bateman—actress, entrepreneur, mother of two, and media consultant—enrolled as an undergraduate at UCLA in the fall of 2012, at the age of 46.She maintains a Tumblr about the...
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Picturing Writing with Visual Research Methods
Picturing Writing with Visual Research MethodsIn Academic Writing as a Social Practice, Linda Brodkey (1987) argued that composition studies needed a new cultural conception of composing, one that...
View ArticleVisual Rhetorics, Visual Methods
Visual Rhetorics, Visual MethodsJust before the Fall, 2015 semester began, I tweeted a link to my Pinboard collection of articles and blog posts related to visual research methods. My message was...
View ArticleWhat Camera Should I Buy?
What Camera Should I Buy?tl;dr— This is a long post, so here’s the gist: Cameras don’t really matter, because they all work basically the same way. What, how, and why you make photographs are more...
View Article2018 in Books
2018 in BooksTwo or three years ago I began to note my daily reading (books only) in a moleskine. For 2018, I decided to log books after I finished them. What follows is a list of all the books I...
View Article2019 in Books
2019 in BooksAs in 2018, I decided to log books after I finished them. Here are all the books I finished in 2019, with some brief comments after the list.Dark Matter— Aase Berg (Trans. Johannes...
View Article2020 in Books
2020 in BooksAs in 2018 and 2019, I logged the books I read. Here's the 2020 list, with some brief comments at the bottom of the post.Ghost Wall— Sarah Moss | 1.3 Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory...
View Article2021 in Books
2021 in BooksAs in 2018, 2019, and 2020, I logged the books I read. Here's the 2021 list, followed by some brief comments.Underground Airlines— Ben Winters | 1.2 We Are Never Meeting in Real Life—...
View Article2022 in Books
2022 in BooksAs in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, I logged the books I read. Here's the 2022 list, followed by some brief comments.A House in the Sky— Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett | 1.1 Warlight—...
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2023 in Books
2022 in BooksAs in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, I logged the books I read. Here's the 2023 list, followed by some brief comments.Young Mungo— Douglas Stuart | 1.3Slow Horses— Mick Herron | 1.10The...
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Engaging Ambience for Non-Specialists
My book, Engaging Ambience, takes a look at how we research the rich, everyday contexts of communication. It’s an academic book, so it’s written for a specialist audience—other researchers, like me,...
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