Transcript Slide 1

Shaun Slifer, Obligatory Bird
Josh MacPhee, Plant Seeds
The dialectician…plants and sows…discourse accompanied by
knowledge- discourse capable of helping itself as well as a the
[wo]man who planted it, which is not barren but produces a seed
from which more discourse grows in the character of others. Such
discourse makes the seed forever immortal and renders the man
who has it happy as any human being can be.
Aristotle, Phaedrus
Beth Schaible, Take Root
Forms of Capital
Economic
Natural
Produced
Human
Social *
Cultural *
* Social and Cultural Capital consists of mutual
understandings, socially constructed and
valued knowledge, and cooperative
agreements among groups of people sustained
through discourse.
Discourse?
What is important to the sustainment
of social and cultural capital is not
language, and surely not grammar,
but saying (writing) - doing - being valuing - believing combinations.
These combinations are
"Discourses"...
Discourses are ways of being in the
world; they are forms of life which
integrate words, acts, values beliefs,
attitudes, and social identities as well
as gestures, glances, body positions,
and clothes.
James Gee, linguist
Aristotle’s School in Mieza
Imagine that you enter a parlor. When you arrive, others
have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated
discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and
tell you exactly what it is all about. In fact, the discussion
has already begun long before any of them got there, so that
no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps
that had gone before.
You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught
the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar.
Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your
defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the
embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending
on the quality of your ally’s assistance. However, the
discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, and you
must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still
vigorously in progress.
— Kenneth Burke, The Philosophy of Literary Form (110111)
Popular views of rhetoric ignores the shared dialectical nature
of communication by characterizing the rhetorical interaction
as moving in one direction--from the rhetor to the audience.
In contrast, rhetorical theory places us within complex
rhetorical ecosystems where we are but one small agent
within the ongoing system of exchange.
Discourse is not something that exists in our minds before
communication nor does it exists out there in the world for us
to use objectively. Instead, discourse is generated
transactionally in this larger system of understanding,
knowledge, and beliefs.
Earthrise, 1968, NASA
On Christmas Eve in December 1968 a turbulent world
gained a new vision of the planet Earth. This photo of
"Earthrise" over the lunar horizon was taken by the Apollo 8
crew …showing Earth for the first time as it appears from
deep space.
In a historic live broadcast that night, the crew-- Frank
Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders--took turns reading
from the Book of Genesis, closing with a holiday wish from
Commander Borman: "We close with good night, good luck,
a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you -- all of you on
the good Earth.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnyNXLXl8iA
NASA Zond 5 Image of Earth (September 18, 1968)
We are as gods and might as well get used to it. So far,
remotely done power and glory as via government, big
business, formal education, church has succeeded to the point
where gross defects obscure actual gains. In response to this
dilemma and to these gains a realm of intimate, personal power
is developing--power of the individual to conduct his own
education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment,
and share his adventure with whoever is interested. Tools that
aid this process are sought and promoted by the WHOLE
EARTH CATALOG.
Steward Brand, Whole Earth Catalogue,
1968
To see ourselves as others see us can be eye-opening.
To see others as sharing a nature with ourselves is the
merest decency.
But is is from the far more difficult achievement of seeing
ourselves amongst others, as a local example of the forms
human life has locally taken, a case among many [many]
other cases, a world among many [many] worlds [on one
earth that we must steward together].
Clifford Geertz, Anthropologist
It is perhaps not too much to say that, in the first decade of the
new millennium, humanity has entered into a condition that is in
some sense more globally united and interconnected, more
sensitized to the experiences and suffering of others [and our
shared planet], in certain respects more spiritually awakened,
more conscious of alternative future possibilities and ideals,
more capable of collective healing and compassion, and, aided
by technological advances in communication media more able to
think, feel, and respond together…to the world’s swiftly changing
realities than has ever before been possible.
Richard Tarnas, 2006
Taruja Parande, India
How can we effectively engage in DIALOGUE
with diverse WORLD VIEWS,
stewarding and inventing SOCIAL & CULTURAL CAPITAL
?
University of South Australia
NYC, June 7, 2006