CRV: Concerned Citizen - My Mom

Spencer Plewe

Mitch Clark

The Concerned citizen project was particularly difficult to find a workable subject for. At length though, Spencer decided on filming his mother working at a high school library. In searching for her personal motivation towards this position, she also said getting the job was mainly her searching for a school teaching job, but most the unexpected one to her was a high school librarian. When she talked with Spanish Fork High School’s principal, he told her about that job, and it interested her the most. The result was her enjoying it more than any other place because of the involvement with the students and helping them find the literature they want.

The fortunate thing is that being a librarian compared to a standard subject teacher is the freedom that comes with it. Her collaboration with the school requires her to put her creative juices and personal preferences on display to make certain books seem interesting to check out. These guide or redirect the students’ own paths of what artistic tastes they themselves have. Part of that was how she showcased books to be made into movies the following year, to raise awareness of what’s happening in the bigger world of art outside her community. In this modern world where youth are more and more inclined to movies, the librarian reveals the connection between that and physical literature.

The library is an interesting and exciting place for people.  There are so many stories and knowledge available, and we often don’t understand that.  One thing that was really cool to hear was how the librarian liked hearing if people liked a book, but also if they didn’t.  In a place where we can learn and read so much, we still have our opinion.  We can decide if we liked to classic novel that has been received so well, or if we want to learn from a book about the common elements in our solar system.  We have control of the flow of knowledge that we take in.  This might be possible without a library, but the library is like a Mecca of books that are available for anyone.

The mix of observatory and asking some questions throughout the video helps to put us in the shoes of the librarian.  It is after hours, and some of the more mundane tasks are being done.  We don’t always realize the minutia that is involved with keeping something like a library running smoothly.  This might be because we don’t visit one enough, or because we just simply haven’t bothered to think about it.  Anyway, this is a look into that somewhat unknown area of our world.  

Here's the video!

CRV: Game for Change - What To Do With News

The Game for change was a ton of fun, especially since I found a good subject early. It didn’t take long to decide that I would base my game on the common problem of major news being presented out of context and then that news would be blown out of proportion. Not that quickly jumping for news when it happens is bad on the reporter’s end, but it can turn out to be unprofessional when they don’t gather the necessary additional research. As this was once explained in the Jackson Free Press: “…adding the necessary context to a story is time-consuming, painstaking work.” (http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2014/apr/02/importance-context/) This article goes on to give an example of a numerical statistic that was reported to support an argument, but no additional statistics or sources were given to back it up. We can tend to think that one simple thing can represent a bigger idea, especially one that falls in our favor. Another great example of this is in religious arguments, like this example, where a woman posted bible verses that, on their own, seem to excuse Abortion, but a separate Christian journalist proved them otherwise. (http://www.news-press.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/11/04/text-without-context-prove-bible-pardons-abortion/75150952/)

Alternatively, the writer would care more about what the readers get more than what side they are trying to argue for. The American Press Institute says, “Another virtue of asking ‘what does my audience need to know?’ is that it can create new entry points into stories – such as asking, what background would a newcomer who is affected, or has a stake in the story, need to know so that they might care about it? (http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/makes-good-story/good-stories-provide-context/). This is very true as I have heard countless online articles going this way and that over one story, until sufficient evidence is brought forth that narrows it down to one version, or the readers just don’t care anymore.

This game I developed places one in the shoes of a reporter who is presented with what seems like a major news event about to happen. Your job is to choose the right directions to take in acting upon it. You can get very unprofessional and even idiotic, or you can get hands on and do some work. The multiple story lines definitely separate from the "single story" perspective as presented by Chimamanda Adichie in "The Danger of a Single Story". Through multiple play-throughs, we get to know this issue from multiple sides.

Here's the game!

CRV: World Building - A World of Tangible Memories

Spencer Plewe
McKinley Stauffer
Celine Anderson

The cultural artifact we collected from our world was a scrapbook kept by a young girl, Emery Long.

In our world memories are manifest in physical forms (for example: rocks, tied string, scraps of paper, any object the owner chooses). When you lose the totem, you lose the memory attached to it. If you acquire one, you gain the memories attached to it. Because of this information is extremely valuable, but so is concision in communication because everyone wants to maximize the amount of information and memories they are able to retain. Scrapbooks like the one Emery Long had would have been common in this world, a sort of external hard-drive to store memories they would want to keep. Additionally, the newspaper clippings Emery collected were fairly short in order to save space. In this world, flowery language literally adds weight. From journal entries to published articles, everything is clear-cut and to the point. The goal is to become a minimalist in this world in order to increase memory capacity. Emery’s journal entries are minimal commentaries on her world and where she fits within it.

The world aesthetically reflects the political need for prudence and conservatism in information (kept as well as spread), because there is no modern technology. You cannot simply download your memories onto a flash-drive; subsequently, paper products and trees become extremely important in the world. Blue collar jobs like the paper industry (from tree to recycling bin) are more important than white collar, informational jobs. With everyone trying to simply hold on to personal memories, mass information and organization is not in demand. So we have a political climate stuck in a sort of industrialism, but never quite able to settle into consumerism. This economic state ultimately leads to a sort of pack-rat syndrome in the population, they don’t have much, but everything they have is extremely valuable to them. Thus we have scrapbooks like Emery’s.

Memories also come in all shapes and sizes, the more physically fit you are, the more memories you can carry around with you. In this world, alzheimer's is basically the same, as people grow older, they are no longer able to physically carry the memories they used to be able to. But, uniquely, in this society grandparents can pass on their old memories to their posterity. Museum’s, like the one Emery had visited, often have memories from ancestors and people of influence. Aesthetically there is a focus on history and heritage--old family pictures kept around houses and other memorabilia.

This charming, industrial, and family centered community also needs a political structure and law enforcement system. In this world, punishment generally involves taking memories. The world generally believes that nurture affects the individual more than nature, so if you take away the memories that constrained the individual to commit a crime, they would no longer be inclined to commit it. Emery writes about this in her scrapbook; what are the ethics of removing another person’s memories? The government could conceivably completely control people by confiscating memories. Can free speech truly exist in a political climate like this? This is yet another reason why people so desperately cling to their memories: they don’t want to lose who they are. Their aesthetics are meant to express and preserve identity and personality that could be so easily stripped away.

Designing this world was an interesting process. A quote from the reading was “design makes things for people.” We could have approached this world from how it literally functions: drawn up a political system, made laws, discussed the natural resources, etc., etc. But in designing a world--fashioning it for the people that lived there--we got a very interesting perspective. Emery Long became the girl we designed the world for; in asking about what her day and life was like, we discovered the other external factors of economics and politics. The Newspaper clippings especially sculpted her outside world and gave her the motivation to write her opinions. Her aesthetic object of a scrapbook with bits of memory and information colored the political world we designed. Information was their art and it informed their world, how much of the art in our world informs us?

By designing this fictional fantasy, we were able to draw unique perspective and opportunities for reflection on our social reality. What is most valuable in our society, maybe the thing that is most easily lost? Do we take our memories for granted? The world we designed had to struggle with limited information. This world is a commentary on limitless information. With ever growing memory space, will we ever remember moments, or just collect them? Perhaps carrying memories is physically tasking and emotionally unbearable as we must pick and choose what will define us, but at least we will remember something rather than a whole lot of nothings.

Transcription:  I posted the ad two weeks ago….still no reply. I do not expect one anyways. After the Fall Ball, Trevor and I decided to make duplicates of our memory from the night. His dad let him drive the Jeep Wrangler and my dad, for once, did not assign a curfew. He twirled me exactly 31 times during the chorus of Ed Sheeran’s “Photograph”. We wrote the memory, twice, on two separate sheets of paper--one for keeping and the other for rolling up in a bottle and throwing it into the Long Island Sound. Not only did I somehow roll both of my memories into the bottle, but I forgot to cap it. Trevor swam in the Sound to try and retrieve it, but the water had claimed it. Trevor lets me hold the memory when I’m sad or whenever I ask. But one day Trevor might not be there, and one day I might never have that memory. Maybe it will wash up on some beach unscathed? Maybe.

Transcription: Met an old man today who ties strings all over his fingers and person. The strings are white, but he remembers each memory they represent without fail. It is as though he had permanent gloves on! I just thought that could be a good idea for one day. String isn’t heavy. It’s manageable. And when he cannot keep them on any longer because they are frayed, he cuts them a bit shorter and keeps them in a shoe box locked up in his house.

Recipe for Grandma Tuttle’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. She would always make them for me when she was alive, and that’s what I remember her smelling like: pumpkin spice and things that were nice.

Transcription: Today we went to the grand opening of the Children’s Memories Museum. All memories were either donated or collected from Lost and Found’s after remaining unclaimed for 2 years or more. The one exhibit that resonated with me was a picture of a young boy giving a homeless woman a picture of himself  and his 1 year old puppy. In the 80s, it was legal to give the homeless or unhappy folk fond memories and light and cheer in their life. A journalist captured this moment with his camera as it was occurring. Today, it isn’t illegal to give memories to the poor and needy, but it is frowned upon. People were collecting memories rather than creating their own--creating a burden on the working class of society. Or at least that is what my dad says after dinner when he reads the paper to mom aloud. After seeing the exhibit, I wanted to be able to go out and give one of my memories to the homeless man who sits under the tree two blocks from the schoolyard, but I still cannot decide what happy memory I would be willing to give up. It was probably easy for that young boy, because he was only three. His memories were probably only happy. He had no idea how much his memories were worth. They were just photographs to him. He probably went home and made another memory with his puppy right after giving it away. Why would I let someone else remember something that I cannot? That’s the ticket Mayor Read ran on last year and he won. No one really gives memories anymore. That’s probably why we only have one homeless man in town.

Transcription: People are no longer scared of death. They will no longer have to collect, pick, or choose memories if their mind can rest. The government decided the only way to get to the people was by taking away that which they did not want to give up and make them start anew. I walk past the rioters on my way to and from school, but I don’t talk to them. A girl who sits behind me in History has a dad who is on memory wipe row. He was laundering memories and got caught in the act of fabricating reality. Kids tape newspaper articles on her locker door and ask her what it is like to have a father who will never remember her. Her name is Anne, and she just sits there. After changing for gym today, I asked her if she wanted to be on my basketball team. She said I was the first person to care to ask her about something that she wanted. No one cared to ask her if she wanted her dad to forget her forever, if she even wanted to try and establish a relationship with her father again. She looked at the ground and said, “Maybe I should just rid myself of all memories with my father once his memory has been wiped. Things wouldn’t be so heavy if I did. I wouldn’t understand what the kids are teasing me about.” I gave her the basketball and told her we shouldn’t be late. I wonder what she will do. I went home and hugged my dad after that. I wonder what I would do.

Faceless Cat: “Lucy ran away from home today. I never took her picture.”

Man Looking at Mountain: “Looking at the sunset: the only tie I don’t look at my watch.”

Tally Marks: “The # of times my dad said ‘I love you’ to my mom today."

Quote: “While they all fall in love with her smile she waits for one who will fall in love with her scars.” -The Dreamer