Scribin' it up. 10/6/10

notes for ipad class: 10/6/10

Schaberg: we need to discover the path our course is taking, the goal we want to arrive at in the next few weeks

Schwartz: in last few weeks, we'll submit paper syllabus for next semester

Schaberg: let's hear from each of us, where would we like to go? what have we learned or want to learn?

Schwartz: utilize blog--very empty. formulate idea of what we're talking about.

schaberg: aphoristically! Each experience is different, expand on yours.

Rolando: wtf is up withevernote?

Bell: Mccay is using class login to post stuff, not her personal one.

Mccay: OHH SHIT. I'll get on that. How do I do it?

Schaberg, bell: ever note world. log out then log back in again.

Schwartz: satellite thing. I'll show you later.

Bell: Utilize blog, so much potential, we have limited class time, so use that space and don't let it go to waste. Ex: Borges.

Holly: I was confused, posted about it... maybe I was wrong, cause no one else did it.

Bell: wahhhh. nope, use it. not even as an assignment, but as a space to talk about it. Have no fear! use it! don't wait or hesitate.

Bell: Well what'd you think of the story?

Holly: was it a story?

everyone: pshh yeah. what'd you think it was.

holly: I was confused. I printed it out.

Schwartz: interesting that in discomfort, you printed it.

kalee: I was all wahhh!

Bell: Story was a bad word. "Text" maybe? He's even toying with the idea of "what is a story?"

Schwartz: why did you think we asked you to read it? did it relate?

rolando: I can think of one. anticipated information age on the part of borges. he mentions the suicides, etc influenced by the overpopulation of information. Search for the ONE BOOK. Though there is no evidence...

Schwartz: well in such a library, there must be such a book, right? parallel.

Amelie: there's got to be books that claim that they're that book.

everyone: right, yep.

Jeffrey: but then every book cancels everything else out, if so.

Schaberg: pyramid shaped e-book. Problem: in principle, infinite regress into informatic levels

Chris: the one book as a cipher, that will clear up all misinformation?

Schaberg: like dictionary definitions! think you're getting exact definition, but more than one may f/ with you.... cereal box mirrored endlessly on box.

schwartz: mirrors in room. Endless

bell: "to speak is to talk in tautologies" potential of an infinitely hypertext-text. infinite, everything you click on takes you further away.

All profs: IT IS!!!

Jeffrey: tales of WAC lab distractions online, examples of hyperlink adventures. Six degrees from Jesus.

Joshua: tales of bets on similar web exploits. Laugh laugh laugh

Schaberg: six degrees of separation? Interesting points...

Mccay: infinite possibilities.

Bell: So is library the problem for borges or is the quest the problem? Example: bing commercials. quest for origin or key? kabbalistic mysticism for text in a way, in borges?

don quixote-esque exercise

Schwartz: on what level is it quixote-esque? in the universe there are particulars, so is the universe something we cannot traverse, but what's within it we nevertheless have to?

Bell: something we can traverse, but cannot know. We must accept that inability in order to function in this reality and not go crazy.

schwartz: conceptualizing: how do you picture this library? Art of it?

all: there are some!

schaberg: shows one. How do you conceive of this new landscape of information?

mccay: well, it's not necessarily new. that old analogy, journey more important than object. No one can complete the quest. It's a kind of fable about living in a world of incompletion.

Bell: heisenberg's uncertainty principle. problem at the certain level, with the idea of knowing something b/c of our interaction with it. We know it, or our knowledge of the it?

Schwartz: experience is that which we create. the book we search for has to be created, it exists because we are searching for it... by definition, your thinking of it proves its existence or if not, then the thinking creates it.

Amelie: library should have been looking through and for the librarians. They are the needed mediation for filter, for usefulness.

profs: kudos amelie!

Bell: like our relationships with individuals, how we crave and relate to that personal connection.

Schwartz: And giving it to the librarians creates a network of control. LIKE google books, who decides what they can or cannot publish.

Amelie: shows necessity for gatekeepers.

Bell: If it's good that we have gatekeepers... well, is it?

Schwartz: Or maybe not good or bad, just necessary.

Bell: WOOWWW we need it! Bing, not google! puts onus on the individual to create.

schwartz: still about the journey, the librarians will put us on the path.

collapse simultaneously. wikipedia: "quine noted that information is finite...signification, cipher. everyone can recreate something in a matter of seconds." babel excerpt.

Jeffrey: Like in books and info search...no shuffling process... a program could do it for you.

schwartz: again, gatekeeper!

Jeffrey: Borges says people are doing this!

Schwartz: so are we making any progress on our own discursive journey? what do we do, ultimately with a story like this in a class like this?

rolando: like that cultural belief of that sphere of knowledge... It's a false one... when we think we've found it, we realize we cannot find it.

Schaberg: so what do we do with it in regards to real things like copyright law and such? There are real stakes here as people, creators, consumers. How do we use it? we are certain of some things, kind of... certain enough to have operative laws and regulations and be able to change them. How do we have civil society if not?

Mccay: you have to make a choice. existentialism. that's the only thing we have left, is choice.

Schaberg: why do we have that?

mccay: you could say we have none, actually, what with advertising and such. Something or someone is deciding for us...

Schaberg? Yes. so how would choice enter in?

JOsh: everything happens at once because everything happens. Infinity. all is eternal because it' all happening at once. opposing too because of infinite universe.

Bell: parallel universe? potential for multiple things occurring at once. I am certain that I am dead but also simultaneously alive. That's what we're settling on, which, in order to have conversations: infinite or questionable reality?

Schwartz: pg 87: he says, "infinite...the library is limitless and periodic." That's a way out of existentialist infinitude. WE encounter them in episodes. Copyright law: changes from death of the author, 20 years to 100 years.

Mccay: big fight over the books in 19th century, brendan and bishop. remember?

Maria: no.

Schwartz: SEE! Episodic knowledge!

(Bell & mccay fight over details)

Mccay: ANYWAYY that's where it all began.

Amelie: All of the books have the same number of lines and letters, etc, he says, so how does he see adding lines and stuff? how does he rule that out?

Schwartz: well, then why hexagonal shapes? he's trying to show finitude in infinitude.

BEll and Rolando: circular, sphere of knowledge and one book

Schaberg: brings it back to holly's question IS it a story? are we looking for a truth to graft onto or is there something methodological we can take from this?

Schwartz: I suggested we read this because while reading darn ton and trying to conceptualize what we're trying to communicate, this story kept popping up. Not sure why, but this is how I conceptualized THAT book, but now I'm trying to conceptualize this one and I'm dragging you along for the ride.

Schaberg: He sees the landscape of info in a finite, pragmatic sense. Borges piece undermines darn ton's project.

Schwartz: I see it as revealing it.

Schaberg: He wrote this long ago, but I don't see Borges as being serious. Absolutely parodic and ironic. absurdist.

rolando: Borges is on the border between wit and truth.

Schwartz: good way for learning, humor to show truth.

Mccay: I'm completely confused.

Profs: That's good! What's the confusion?

Mccay: pshh I don't know. That's why I'm confused.

Schaberg: Does Darnton avoid certain confusions? Skirt them so to speak?

Schwartz: well stuff is developing as he's writing. hard to keep up focus as all changes.

Schaberg: infinite regress: how oriented slash confused are you in this?

Jeffrey: I experience this a lot. Research papers lead to way too many dang books. too much information to utilize, I cannot possibly use all this info for limited paper space.

Schaberg: LIKE writing a book! How do you say confidently and w/ discipline say it's done? what's that point?

Schwartz: that's what Borges is saying!

Schaberg: I disagree!

Chris: everyone has a different stopping point.

Schwartz: right. distinct from Borges.

Bell: at some point we must decide, we can't just keep going.

Rolando: all phil is about why NOT to commit suicide.

All: mehhhhhh.... is class over?

Schaberg: All worked up about this! We can get worked up in it all, but the unfolding of life is not so dramatic. establish at what point do we decide, in day to day life, what am I saying, soapbox.

Amelie: At some point we will leave this and focus on what we're having for lunch.

Schaberg: Yes. Life.

Bell: This book is about life!

Schaberg: welllll... how are the darn ton and borges pieces in competition?

Schwartz: Someone else assign a story now.

Schaberg: I'll post it later this week on the blog.

DISMISSED