[Xmca-l] Re: Prototyping

Wed Oct 19 19:29:04 PDT 2016

Thank you for sharing Vossoughi, Harper and Escudé's paper on the
appropriation of "making" in schools. I'm adding this to my syllabus for
next semester!

I agree with Mike, Peg and Molly's suggestion that there seems to be a
natural affinity between the AT in CHAT and prototyping.

On the topic of production and consumption: the potency in prototyping lies
in the contexts for prototyping where learners/prototypers realize there
are alternative subject positions for them to occupy. Through prototyping
they start to shift from seeing their relationship to the material world as
one of consumption to seeing the role they can play as producers. Often
this role is subversive, and therein lies the difference between
kukiya-kiya (and the glossary of similar terms, jailbreaking etc) and maker
movement. So I guess, what I'm concerned with here is the difference in
subject positions associated with consumption and production.

Kukiya-kiya is a situated, emergent, form of activity that responds to and
evolves with political context of subjects who are excluded or disinherited
(kukiya-kiya) while Maker movement (making as a form of club activity
celebrated for its liberatory potential) at least in its present form,
mostly entails activity that is sanitized from all political inflection and
with little proffered in the form of recourse for justice, equity, access,
ownership of the material. If both are meant to equip learners with a way
of thinking about materials as a form of access to things, processes,
systems they do not have access to, kukiya-kiya does so without making to
much of itself while making (of the maker movement) is all pomp and little
sense of "how is this useful to me in my situation [of disinheritance]" for
individual learners.

On Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 6:15 PM, White, Phillip <Phillip.White@ucdenver.edu>
wrote:

> My off the top of my head, Michael, is that in part information is being
> consumed - as well as shared feelings of success, or frustration, or good
> cheer.
>
> Perhaps, even in a Batesonian-way. Imminent mind is being both produced
> and consumed.
>
> And of course, to consume can also be an example of full engagement
> (consumed with interest) and the root is "to take up".
>
> Some thoughts.
>
> Phillip
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
>   Original Message
> From: mike cole
> Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2016 3:45 PM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Reply To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Prototyping
>
>
> Hell, Peg -- I cannot get my tomatoes to grow in the odd weather we have
> had this summer, let alone get them to market. Pretty much can be said for
> my scholarly efforts as well!
>
> I have been mulling over why prototyping and CHAT appear to have a kind of
> natural affinity. I am speculating at the moment that both are focused on
> production, and the AT part of CHAT is very clearly focused on production.
> Just think of the activities of those who attend, say, ISCAR.
>
> But production is intimately (dare I say dialectically?) related to
> consumption. Where is the good CHAT scholarship on the Foodie movement?
> What is being consumed in an activity-centered classroom or a developmental
> work research change lab? Seems worth inquiring about.
> mike
>
> mike
>
> On Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 1:57 PM, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Thanks to Philip White for pointing me to the alternative (and preferred)
> > spelling "jury-rigged". In looking that up, I also found "jerry-built" as
> > another term.
> > (My dad was from Indiana and he always pronounced it "jerry-rigged").
> >
> > These all differ from the term "hack" which, for me, simultaneously has
> > connotations of elitism and cultural critique but I'm not sure I could
> say
> > why (maybe because I've heard it frequently used with Ikea - Ikea
> hacking).
> >
> > "Jailbreaking" is an interesting one too - as in "jailbreaking your
> > iPhone." That is where you take an existing technology and rebuild it for
> > some design other than what it was intended. (I had a friend who was
> > building an online educational credentialing website that used the phrase
> > "jailbreaking the college degree" - some real trouble there, but I
> support
> > the idea in principle).
> >
> > Really appreciate Zaza's paper as well as Shirin et al's paper...
> >
> > -greg
> >
> > On Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 11:58 AM, Greg Thompson <
> greg.a.thompson@gmail.com
> > >
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Oops, I sent this directly to Zaza and not to the listserve and it
> seems
> > > relevant to the Vossoughi et al paper that Mike just posted. It is in
> > > response to Zaza's list of kukiya-kiya equivalents in other languages:
> > >
> > > A personal favorite in English is "jerry-rig". Although I should add
> that
> > > this has slightly more of a sense of hasty and perhaps a little bit
> > clumsy
> > > assembly - suggested to have originated in WWII as somewhat derisive
> way
> > to
> > > refer to equipment slapped together by the Germans. Somewhat different
> > from
> > > other contexts where the sense of necessity is emphasized and haste and
> > > clumsiness are less emphasized - if at all. Maybe has something to do
> > with
> > > the tendency in the U.S. to (be able to) rely on "expert" manufacture
> in
> > > the U.S.
> > >
> > > And, I wonder if this might have something to do with different
> > > cultural-ideological contexts of the maker movement vs. kukiya-kiya.
> > > Whereas kukiya-kiya is an act born of necessity, the maker movement has
> > > more of a leisure-class bougie feel to it - an attempt to recover one's
> > > creative species being - if you'll allow the drive-by Marx reference
> (and
> > > Mike's earlier example seems some mix of the two - a kukiya-kiya
> attempt
> > to
> > > make ("Engineering") makers out of these kids (something that they
> > > certainly already are in many non strictly "Engineering" ways)).
> > >
> > > Zaza, I wonder if this kind of distinction between innovation of
> > necessity
> > > and innovation for pleasure makes any sense for what you see there on
> the
> > > ground in the kukiya-kiya case as compared to the maker case? Or if
> this
> > > distinction is perhaps a bit overdetermined and are there actually both
> > > things happening in both cases? (e.g., is there a sense of joy in
> > > creativity and making in the kukiya-kiya case?)
> > >
> > > Enjoying your lovely paper as well as the conversation around it!
> > >
> > > Very best,
> > > greg
> > >
> > > On Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 11:49 AM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > >> For those interested in pursuing the implications of Zaza's work on
> > Kukiya
> > >> kiya and the maker movement fashionable in affluent societies, I
> > suggest a
> > >> new thread with the title, prototyping.
> > >>
> > >> Attached is the paper by Vossoughi, Hooper, and Escudé suggested by
> > Molly.
> > >>
> > >> mike
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >>
> > >> It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an
> > >> object
> > >> that creates history. Ernst Boesch
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> > > Assistant Professor
> > > Department of Anthropology
> > > 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> > > Brigham Young University
> > > Provo, UT 84602
> > > http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> > Assistant Professor
> > Department of Anthropology
> > 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> > Brigham Young University
> > Provo, UT 84602
> > http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
> >
>
>
>
> --
>
> It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an object
> that creates history. Ernst Boesch
>
>