[Xmca-l] Re: Article for Discussion
Peter Smagorinsky
smago@uga.edu
Sun Oct 9 05:15:24 PDT 2016
Mike suggested that I add in some work I've done on defectology, which David mentions in his note below. I'll paste in some things I've written in this area, which has become quite important to me in trying to reframe discussions of what are generally referred to as disorders and disabilities. I've used LSV's 1993 volume on defectology to contest these notions in considerations of what is inevitably referred to as "mental disorders" or "mental disabilities." Some of this work is still in development, and some from a forthcoming book, so I'll stick to what's already been published.
For another conversation I've taken part in, I've put together a set of readings, including my own, that are grounded in the "neurodiversity" movement, which challenges notions of "normalcy" in considering diagnostic classifications. Although my personal interest is in neurological diversity, I think that LSV provides a framework for considering the human potential that is available from any bodily configuration. His own interest, for instance, was in educating children injured, impaired, and maimed during the lengthy wars that ultimately produced the Soviet Union. His solution was always social rather than biological/material; the prosthetic industry was relatively primitive in his time.
So, here you go. The pieces are categorized so that you can read the shorter, more accessible pieces or the longer, more scholarly ones. Or none at all.
Further Reading
THINGS I’VE WRITTEN
Shorter essays for general readers
Smagorinsky, P. (2016, May 22). University of Georgia professor explains his ‘Asperger’s Advantage’ and disabling assumption of disorder. Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Available at http://getschooled.blog.myajc.com/2016/05/27/university-of-georgia-professor-explains-his-aspergers-advantage-and-disabling-assumption-of-disorder/
Smagorinsky, P. (2016, July 8). Is mental health strictly mental? Psychology Today. Available at https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/conceptual-revolution/201607/is-mental-health-strictly-mental
Smagorinsky, P. (2016, August 2016). Foregrounding potential, not disorder, in neurodiverse students. Literacy & NCTE. Available at http://blogs.ncte.org/index.php/2016/08/foregrounding-potential-not-disorder-neurodiverse-students/
Smagorinsky, P. (2016, October 5). A brief guide to neurodiversity. The Committed Project. Available at http://thecommittedproject.org/a-brief-guide-to-neurodiversity/
Longer essays for general readers
Smagorinsky, P. (2014). Who's normal here? An atypical's perspective on mental health and educational inclusion. English Journal, 103(5), 15–23. Available at http://www.petersmagorinsky.net/About/PDF/EJ/EJ2014.pdf
Smagorinsky, P. (2014, November 26). Taking the diss out of disability. Teachers College Record. Available at http://www.petersmagorinsky.net/About/PDF/TCR/TCR2014.html
Longer essays and research, more for specialists
Memoir
Smagorinsky, P. (2011). Confessions of a mad professor: An autoethnographic consideration of neuroatypicality, extranormativity, and education. Teachers College Record, 113, 1701-1732. Available at http://www.petersmagorinsky.net/About/PDF/TCR/TCR2011.pdf
Theory and Research
Smagorinsky, P. (2012). Vygotsky, "defectology," and the inclusion of people of difference in the broader cultural stream. Journal of Language and Literacy Education [Online], 8(1), 1-25. Available at http://jolle.coe.uga.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Vygotsky-and-Defectology.pdf
Smagorinsky, P. (2012). "Every individual has his own insanity": Applying Vygotsky's work on defectology to the question of mental health as an issue of inclusion. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 1(1), 67-77. Available at http://www.petersmagorinsky.net/About/PDF/LCSI/LCSI_2012.pdf
Cook, L. S., & Smagorinsky, P. (2014). Constructing positive social updrafts for extranormative personalities. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 3(4), 296–308. Available at http://www.petersmagorinsky.net/About/PDF/LCSI/LCSI_2014.pdf
For readers with money to spare
Smagorinsky, P. (Editor). (2016). Creativity and community among autism-spectrum youth: Creating positive social updrafts through play and performance. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
BOOKS BY OTHER PEOPLE
Memoir
Cheney, T. (2009). Manic: A Memoir. New York, NY: William Morrow.
Higashida, N. (2013). The reason I jump: The inner voice of a thirteen-year-old boy with autism. (K. A. Yoshida & D. Mitchell, Trans.). New York: Random House.
Hornbacher, M. (2009). Madness: A bipolar life. New York, NY: Mariner Books
Jamison, K. R. (1995). An unquiet mind: A memoir of moods and madness. New York, NY: Vintage.
Kayesen, S. (1993). Girl, Interrupted. New York, NY: Random House.
Page, T. (2009). Parallel play: Growing up with undiagnosed Asperger's. New York: Doubleday.
Saks, E. R. (2007). The center cannot hold: My journey through madness. New York: Hyperion.
Solomon, A. (2000). The noonday demon: An atlas of depression. New York, NY: Scribner.
Stossel, S. (2014). My age of anxiety: Fear, hope, dread, and the search for peace of mind. New York: Knopf.
Styron, W. (1990). Darkness visible: A memoir of madness. New York, NY: Random House.
Tammet, D. (2007). Born on a blue day: Inside the extraordinary mind of an autistic savant. New York: The Free Press.
Research, Theory. and Practice
Arendell, T. D. (2015). The autistic stage: How cognitive disability changed 20th-century performance. Boston, MA: Sense.
Baron-Cohen, S. (2008). Autism and Asperger Syndrome: The facts. Oxford University Press.
Baron-Cohen, S. (2011). Zero degrees of empathy. New York: Penguin.
Baron-Cohen, S., Tager-Flusberg, H., & Cohen, D.J. (Eds.) (2007). Understanding other minds: Perspectives from developmental cognitive neuroscience (2nd Ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Cohen, D. J. (Eds.) (2007). Understanding other minds: Perspectives from developmental cognitive neuroscience (2nd Ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Davis, L. (2008). Obsession: A history. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Deisinger, J. A., Burkhardt, S., Wahlberg,T. J., Rotatori, A. F., & Obiakor, F. E. (Editors) (2012). Autism spectrum disorders: Inclusive community for the 21st century. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Hadwin, J., Howlin, P., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2008). Teaching children with autism to mindread: A handbook. Washington, DC: Wiley.
James, I. (2005). Asperger's syndrome and high achievement: Some very remarkable people. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Jamison, K. R. (1999). Night falls fast: Understanding suicide (1st ed.). New York: Knopf.
Kennedy, D. M., & Banks, R. S. (2011). Bright not broken: Gifted kids, ADHD, and autism. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Published review
Kluth, P. (2010) "You're going to love this kid!" Teaching students with autism in the inclusive classroom. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company. Published review
Leach, D. (2010). Bringing ABA into your inclusive classroom: A guide to improving outcomes for students with autism spectrum disorders. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing. Published review
Mooney, J. (2007). The short bus: A journey beyond normal. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Ortiz, J. M. (2008). The myriad gifts of Asperger's syndrome. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Pearson, P. (2009). A brief history of anxiety...yours and mine. New York: Bloomsbury USA.
Saks, E. R. (1999). Interpreting interpretation: The limits of hermeneutic psychoanalysis. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Saks, E. R. (2002). Refusing care: Forced treatment and the rights of the mentally ill. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Thomas, M. D., & Campbell, C. A. (2008). Special ed is down the hall: Disabled & proud. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, Inc.
Volkmar, F. R., & Wiesner, L. A. (2009) A practical guide to autism: What every parent, family member, and teacher needs to know. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published review
Wilson, E. G. (2009). Against happiness: In praise of melancholy. New York: Sarah Crichton Books.
Teaching Resources
Information and Opinion Links
How Colleges Flunk Mental Health by Katie J. M. Baker (Newsweek)
Wikipedia's List of people who have suffered from depression
Mental Illness
PS Links for Exceptional Learners, Mental Health, and Students with Disabilities
A photographer & writer struggling with mental illness
Talking About mental illness: Teacher's resource
Bipolar Disorder
Perceptions of Mental Illness
Can you call a 9-year-old a psychopath?
Complete Units of Instruction (works best with Chrome)
Mental Illness (2004) by Emily Lancaster & Christopher Warren
Speaking Up: Alienation and Social Responsibility (2009) by Katie Crowell
Understanding Holden: A unit for 11th grade students (2009) by Michael Nickolai
Who's Cuckoo? A look into the stigma of mental illness in society (FSU) by Lauren Niemeyer
“Life Inside The Music Box”: Understanding Various Mental Abnormalities (FSU 2011) by Charise Kollar
Online Lesson Plans
Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute: By Reason of Insanity An Exploration of the Mental Disease/Defect Defense
Writing by Teenagers
Merlyn's Pen search engine for writing by teens about child abuse
Merlyn's Pen search engine for writing by teens about depression
Merlyn's Pen search engine for writing by teens about eating disorders
Teen Ink writing by teens about health issues, including mental health
Art and Literature: Articles and Book Lists
Wikipedia's List of Mental Illness in Art and Literature
Mental Health 3: Mental Health Through Literature
Linking about: the Victorians and Mental Illness
Erika’s List: YA Novels That Include Mental Illness
Can teen fiction explain mental illness to my daughter?
Using Young Adult Fiction Literature to End Discrimination Against Mental Illness: An Annotated Bibliography of Young Adult Literature about Anorexia, Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Suicide and Other Mental Illness
Robert Rozema: The Problem of Autism in Young Adult Fiction
Novels
Faulkner, William: As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William: The Sound and the Fury
Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Heller, Joseph: Catch-22
Kesey, Ken: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird
Salinger, J. D.: The Catcher in the Rye
Vizzini, Ned: Kind of a Funny Story
Plays
Miller, Arthur: Death of a Salesman
Short Stories
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins: The Yellow Wallpaper
Biography
Nasar, Sylvia: A Beautiful Mind
Memoir
Cheney, T. Manic: A Memoir
Cutler, Eustacia: A Thorn in my Pocket: Temple Grandin's Mother tells the Family Story
Hornbacher, M. Madness: A bipolar life.
Jamison, K. R. An unquiet mind: A memoir of moods and madness
Kaysen, Susanna: Girl, Interrupted
Mills, Bruce: The Archaeology of Yearning
Plath, Sylvia: The Bell Jar
Page, Tim: Parallel Play: Growing Up With Undiagnosed Asperger's
Robison, John Elder: Look Me in the Eye, Raising Cubby, Be Different
Solomon, Andres: The noonday demon: An atlas of depression
Styron, W. Darkness visible: A memoir of madness
Wurtzel, Elizabeth: Prozac Nation
Essays
Fry, Stephen: Only the Lonely
Film
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Take Shelter
Rain Man
Adam
Mary and Max
Harvey
Lars and the Real Girl
Dirty Filthy Love
The Informant!
Silver Linings Playbook
Temple Grandin
Autodocumentary Film
Fry, Stephen: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive
Television programs
24 (Chloe O'Brian, autism spectrum; Brady Hauser, autism spectrum)
All My Children (Lily Montgomery, autism spectrum)
Bones (Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan & Zack Addy, Asperger's syndrome)
Boston Legal (Jerry Espenson, Asperger's syndrome)
Criminal Minds (Dr. Spencer Reid, Asperger's syndrome)
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Gil Grissom, possibly autism spectrum)
Eureka (Kevin Stark, Autism)
Heroes (Matt Parkman, dyslexia and learning differences)
House (Dr. Gregory House, possibly autism spectrum)
Law and Order: Criminal Intent (Bobby Goren, possibly Asperger's syndrome)
Monk (Adrian Monk, obsessive-compulsive tendencies; Monk's brother, Asperger's syndrome)
Numb3rs (Charlie Eppes, Asperger's syndrome)
ReGenesis (Dr. Bob Melnikov, Asperger's syndrome)
The Shield (Mackey Children, Autism)
Wire in the Blood (Tony Hill, Aserger's Syndrome)
Songs
Barenaked Ladies: Brian Wilson
Barenaked Ladies: War on Drugs
Graphic Novels/Manga:
Tobe, Keiko: With the Light
Video Games
American McGee's Alice
Podcasts & Talks
Undiagnosed Asperger’s Leads To Life As An Outsider
Asperger Love
Ted Talk: The Forgotten History of Autism
Images
Mental Illness
Mental Health
-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of David Kellogg
Sent: Friday, October 07, 2016 12:24 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Article for Discussion
Mike, Zazza:
What high resolution technologies seems to refer to is the ability to produce exact copies, e.g. a breast prosthesis with simulated skin, simulated nipple, and other "nice things", the sort of thing that Angelina Jolie had with her double mastectomy rather than the low-fidelity prosthetic devices in Zazza's article, which allowed Zimbabwean men to enjoy breast-feeding for the first time in their cultural history.
I think Mike is right and "high resolution technology" is too narrow for the phenomenon, but maybe "technologies that require high levels of socially coordinated action sustained over long periods of time to create"
is a little too wide: temple-building, language, and literature all qualify, but they do not necessarily involve disinheritance. I think Zazza is really just looking at a diachronic dimension of good old fashioned alienation, like making Louis Vuitton handbags in Hunan province, where nobody has a real sense of commodity as a serious social signifier).
High fidelity prosthetics need capital intensive technology, but capital intensive technology can also be very low fidelity (a welding robot, as opposed to a flesh-and-blood welder). Contrariwise, labor intensive technology can be surprisingly high fidelity: handwriting, for example, or pronunciation. Halliday says that the differentiation of the content plane of thinking between "meaning" and "wording" is what essentially created the human brain. But the differentiation of the expression plane, between phonetics and phonology, is what created writing, and writing made it possible to turn culture into history.
"Ontogeny recreates history" is a gross oversimplification, of course:
what ontogeny really does to history is to slow it down and continue it by new and more volitional means, just as history was able to slow down evolution and continue it without killing off everything that doesn't quite fit. True, life gets shorter and shorter the more you get into it, but with writing it hardly matters: other people will continue my thoughts far better than I can, precisely because I have to think them in a time and place where we starve the thoughts that don't quite fit.
I am always curious at the sharp intake of breath that you get from people when they hear the term "defectology". The very same people will not bat an eye when you say "disabled". Functionalism? Or just another spin the euphemistic treadmill?
David Kellogg
Macquarie University
On Thu, Oct 6, 2016 at 11:13 AM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:
> Hi All-
>
> This conversation has sparked some really interesting ideas already. I
> wanted to highlight two of your comments, David, that struck me as
> worth digging more deeply in to before they fly away into the past.
>
>
>
> The first was from yesterday's initial note and the second from
> today's responding to Zaza's note.
>
>
>
> Each got me thinking. Regarding the first pausing points for me was
> where you wrote toward the end of your note
>
>
>
> *I wonder if high resolution technology isn't intrinsically
> disinheriting*
> *..*
>
>
>
> So here is provoked thought #1. Might it be useful to answer your
> question in the affirmative, and generalize it beyond high resolution
> technology to "technologies that require high levels of socially
> coordinated action sustained over long periods of time to create."
> Maybe something as general as "very valuable technologies" might be intrinsicially dis-inheriting.
> The social processes involved in creating those technologies are rife
> with existing inequalities of rank/status/role........ and, except in
> exceptional circumstances (?) those inequalities are increased with
> the introduction of new higher resolution/more valuable,
>
>
>
> Anyway, i believe the answer to your question is yes, even if I think
> so for confused reasons (!)
>
>
>
> Second
>
> Making the analogy between LSV's (and ARL's) insistence on the
> importance of the study of decline and such regressions in Zimbabwe
> and elsewhere was really thought provoking for me.
>
>
>
> And linking this to his defektology is also helpful.
>
>
>
>
>
> *that is, seeing the decay of higher functions as an example of their
> development in reverse motion (a stripping away of layers to reveal
> how they were laid on in the first place). *
>
>
>
> In my view, the revival of interest in Vygotsky's defektology as a
> methodological commitment as well as a moral commitment seems like one
> of the potential growing points of contemporary CHAT studies.
>
>
>
> To make the parallel with historical change provides the other side to
> Luria's optimistic view of 1931.The first entry that comes up under
> Fergana Valley, a site of his work in Central Asia on google is the following:
>
>
>
> http://enews.fergananews.com/index.php?did=2&bracket_flag=1
>
>
>
> Plenty of kukiya-kiya going on in that area of the world these days, I
> suspect.
>
>
>
> Are we back to the view, which Dewey implemented as part of his
> curriculum, that ontogeny recapitulates history? For better and for worse?
>
>
>
> Thanks all for all the thought generation.
>
>
>
> mike
>
> On Wed, Oct 5, 2016 at 1:57 PM, David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Zaza:
> >
> > When you say that all agricultural production ceased in Zimbabwe
> > during
> the
> > land reform, I take it that you mean that agricultural commodity
> production
> > ceased. But one of the things that usually happens during big upsets
> > like this is a reversion to subsistence agriculture: people grow
> > stuff and eat it instead of selling it. This happened in China in
> > the late fifties and
> is
> > still happening in North Korea. Isn't it possible that is really
> > what happened?
> >
> > It's also not clear to me how complete the collapse of the
> > infrastructure really is. One of the things that struck me in
> > reading your article was that the workshop takes place in a well
> > equipped conference room, where there are apparently video
> > facilities and working electricity. There's
> also
> > no mention of something that is often even more basic than
> > electricity, namely running water; presumably if the mother is going
> > to be producing formula, she has to have access to clean water.
> >
> > Vygotsky talks a lot (at the end of almost every chapter in "The
> > History
> of
> > the Development of the Higher Psychological Functions) about a kind
> > of pathogenetic analysis: that is, seeing the decay of higher
> > functions as
> an
> > example of their development in reverse motion (a stripping away of
> layers
> > to reveal how they were laid on in the first place). We often forget
> > that over two thirds of his written work--and almost all of his
> > published work--was either pedology or "defectology" rather than
> > psychology or cultural historical theory.
> >
> > It's possible to think of what is happening in Zimbabwe (and similar
> > instances of kukiya-kiya in Cuba and even China after the Soviets
> > were
> > expelled) as an instance of cultural-historical pathogenesis: the
> > "nice things" of colonialism and mercantilism get stripped away and
> > the layer
> of
> > subsistence agriculture on which it all developed hundreds of years
> > ago
> is
> > revealed again. Use values predominate over exchange values, just as
> when a
> > stroke victim loses control of the "znachenie" of words but retains
> > their "smysl".
> >
> >
> > David Kellogg
> > Macquarie University
> >
> > On Thu, Oct 6, 2016 at 1:15 AM, Zaza Kabayadondo <
> > zaza.kabayadondo@gmail.com
> > > wrote:
> >
> > > Thank you David and Alfredo for being among the first intrepid
> > > readers
> > and
> > > for your positive comments on the article.
> > >
> > > I also want to thank Mike, Bonnie, Jen, Victor, and Natalia for
> > > their organization, support, and persistence in promoting this
> > > article for discussion.
> > >
> > > I want to introduce myself to you all and to address any questions
> > > and discussion points that come up in this thread.
> > >
> > > I am from Zimbabwe and have lived in Norway, Australia, and the
> > > United States (Massachusetts and California). I left Zimbabwe in
> > > 2003, years
> > after
> > > the contentious land reform program of 1999-2001. After all
> agricultural
> > > production ceased in those years, the country slid into a state of
> > economic
> > > free fall that persists and worsens today. The displacement of
> > livelihoods,
> > > and of a Zimbabwean diaspora, has forced new activities to emerge:
> > > kukiya-kiya, the everyday hustle that allows citizens to make-do,
> > > to
> > source
> > > food, money, and deals that can get them by for one more day.
> > >
> > > This research is inspired by the ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe.
> > > Because of economic collapse, Zimbabweans describe themselves as
> > > being on the
> > margins,
> > > or fringes, politically, geographically, historically. More simply put:
> > > these are not normal times for the country, and the crisis
> > > isolates its citizens from the rest of the world. One scholar of
> > > the crisis, Jeremy Jones, has referred to this difficult period
> > > for Zimbabweans as a "suspension of the spatio-temporal horizon."
> > > (referenced in the article
> > as
> > > Jones, 2010) Because the crisis translates to the collapse and
> disrepair
> > of
> > > everyday tools and infrastructure, I find it more helpful to look
> > > at
> the
> > > crisis as an environment of heightened sensory attention to the
> material
> > > that make the relationships between mind, culture, and activity
> > > more pronounced. The objects surrounding us, in their state of
> > > displacement
> or
> > > disgrace, don't only communicate affordances in regards to
> > > possible physical action, they also inspire a very productive
> > > questioning (and sometimes despair) and reimagining of who we are as social beings.
> > >
> > > David is very right in drawing attention to the concept of
> disinheritance
> > > as a marriage of Marx's alienation and Vygotsky's cultural heritage.
> With
> > > the concept of disinheritance, I am trying to embrace both, so
> > > that we
> > can
> > > think about the mind with an eye for processes that alienate or
> > > disenfranchise learners. What is going on in the mind when one is
> > alienated
> > > from present activity? In what ways can the activity of making do
> > > (resourcefulness or the hustle to survive in abnormal times)
> > > enrich the models we have for mind and culture?
> > >
> > > To Alfredo's last comment about the many connections and pursuit
> > > of
> open
> > > threads - what a pleasant and happy outcome! I have every hope
> > > that,
> > while
> > > this is indeed a case study from a very unusual time and place,
> > > the
> > concept
> > > of disinheritance can be useful for examining everyday activity in
> normal
> > > times too. Recently, a colleague who studies the history of
> > > segregation
> > in
> > > the United States, mentioned she could see disinheritance at play
> > > in "Whites-only" spaces and objects. I am curious to hear what
> > > other
> threads
> > > and connections XMCA readers find.
> > >
> > > Looking forward to more discussion,
> > >
> > > Zaza
> > >
> > > On Wed, Oct 5, 2016 at 7:13 AM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <
> a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > I could not agree more with David's remarks concerning the
> > > > beautiful writing and the sensory explosions that this article is replete with.
> > > > Indeed, as I was reading it, I was thinking that the reading had
> > > > a synesthetic aspect to it, as if moving through so very diverse
> concepts
> > > and
> > > > metaphors was like seeing lots of vivid colours one after
> > > > another,
> some
> > > > more enlightening, others almost blinding, but all forming an
> > incredibly
> > > > dense wave of topics on the intermeshing of culture and cognition.
> > > >
> > > > Among the many (not always followed-up) instances, I found the
> analysis
> > > on
> > > > the section "gendered intimacy" particularly appealing in that
> > > > the
> > > analysis
> > > > shows how the designers come to understand a prosthetic
> > > > prototype in
> > and
> > > > through reference to actual breasts and breastfeeding in a
> > > > culture,
> and
> > > by
> > > > the same token, come to understand actual breasts and
> > > > breastfeeding
> as
> > > > manifestations of a gendered culture in and through an inquiry
> > > > into a prosthetic prototype. The same goes for the contrasts
> > > > between younger
> > and
> > > > older generations, urban and rural...
> > > >
> > > > The connections are so many that invite to reading like those
> > > > books
> > that
> > > > offer different possibilities to continue the story, and where
> > > > you
> can
> > > > choose jumping from one page to a non-contiguous page depending
> > > > on
> the
> > > > thread you follow. I personally will go back to the text and
> > > > will
> > follow
> > > > some of the opened threads that, precisely because of their low
> > fidelity,
> > > > allow moving quite flexibly. But I also hope not to get lost, or
> > > > just disconnected, and so I guess some degree of fidelity will
> > > > also be
> > needed.
> > > > Thanks for a great read.
> > > > Alfredo
> > > > ________________________________________
> > > > From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.
> edu
> > >
> > > > on behalf of David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com>
> > > > Sent: 05 October 2016 04:44
> > > > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > > > Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Article for Discussion
> > > >
> > > > The first thing I notice about the paper is how "resplendent" it
> > > > is
> in
> > > > beautiful writing, e.g,
> > > >
> > > > "Given this symmetry between prototyping and kukiya-kiya, a
> prototyping
> > > bin
> > > > resplendent with objects of disinheritance would be a powerful
> > > > way to
> > see
> > > > the confluence of mind, culture, and activity."
> > > >
> > > > The very next sentence tells us that the prototyping bin is
> > > > really an
> > old
> > > > plastic tub "populated with a sensory explosion of" matter out
> > > > of
> > place.
> > > > Dear XMCA reader, if you haven't read it yet, you are in for a treat.
> > > >
> > > > The second thing I notice, though, is the sensory explosion of
> > > > new concepts, many of which are unexplained, but make perfect
> > > > sense if
> you
> > > sit
> > > > and think about them. Let me just take the new concepts that
> > > > appear
> in
> > my
> > > > example sentences, and see if I can gloss them; the author can
> > > > let me
> > > know
> > > > if I have him right.
> > > >
> > > > Prototyping means developing objects from "low-fidelity" (that
> > > > is,
> poor
> > > > copies) to "high resolution technology" (i.e. not copies at all,
> > > > but
> > new
> > > > objects). So prototyping involves the emergence of NEW
> > > > technologies
> > from
> > > > the inability to copy the old. For example, in China when the
> > > > old
> > Soviet
> > > > tractors designed for giant Kolkhoz farms all broke down, they
> > introduced
> > > > walking tractors (which you can still see everywhere, and which
> > > > have
> > now
> > > > spread to Korea).
> > > >
> > > > Kukiya-kiya means the exaptation of high resolution technology
> > > > for relatively low-fidelity purposes that are more suitable to
> > > > an economy
> > now
> > > > thrown back on a pre-imperialist and even pre-mercantilist
> subsistence
> > > > economy. For example, in the Korean countryside, when peasants
> > > > run
> out
> > of
> > > > washing powder for their washing machines, they use them to
> > > > store rice. It's in that sense that kukiya-kiya is the opposite
> > > > of
> > > prototyping; a
> > > > symmetrical process.
> > > >
> > > > Disinheritance means not simply alienation, in the Marxist sense
> > > > of
> > being
> > > > confronted by but unable to reappropriate the objects of your
> > > > own
> > labor,
> > > > but being written out of the cultural endowment altogether,
> > > > because
> the
> > > > artifacts you have "inherited" confront you as white elephants,
> > requiring
> > > > more maintenance than they can possibly justify.
> > > >
> > > > I wonder if high resolution technology isn't intrinsically
> > disinheriting.
> > > > For example, kids can still play board games that are thousands
> > > > of
> > years
> > > > old, but they can't use videogames that were made only decades ago.
> In
> > > > contrast, the finest extant technology for making sense of human
> > > > experience, namely language, is decidedly soft on hardware.
> > > >
> > > > David Kellogg
> > > > Macquarie University.
> > > >
> > > > On Tue, Oct 4, 2016 at 9:51 AM, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Dear Xmca-ers --
> > > > >
> > > > > Back in June I made a hurried attempt to make available for
> > discussion
> > > > the
> > > > > paper on the design process of Zimbabwean medical
> > > > > professionals
> > seeking
> > > > to
> > > > > create an unusual kind of prosthetic devices. Summer and some
> > > > communication
> > > > > came rushing up to overwhelm the effort.
> > > > >
> > > > > Zaza has been back in touch and is ready to discuss the paper.
> > > > > I am
> > > > cutting
> > > > > and pasting the title and abstract below. And I am attaching
> > > > > the
> > paper
> > > > > which was open for free access for a while, but if it is now,
> > > > > I
> > cannot
> > > > find
> > > > > where on the publisher's re-designed web page.
> > > > >
> > > > > Summer having passed other impediments will surely arise, but
> > > > > in
> the
> > > > > meantime, here is a very unusual paper about design for us to
> > > > > think
> > > > about.
> > > > >
> > > > > mike
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
>
>
>
> --
>
> It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an
> object that creates history. Ernst Boesch
>
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