Tag Archives: extracredit

Extra Credit: Digital Humanities Showcase

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I went to the Digital Humanities showcase this morning as I had some of my photos being presented, and I got the opportunity to look around at other people’s projects. There was an educational VR project that involved putting on a VR headset and going on a ride into the paleolithic era. I thought this was a super innovative way to approach education. Another interesting project I got to see was one on transit in San Diego. There was a group of students in a journalism class that put this together, and the project looked into the transit system in San Diego. They analyzed a few different perspectives, such as corporate interests and comparison to other countries. I found this project to be interesting because of the differences between the U.S.’s public transit and other countries. When I traveled in Europe and Asia, the public transit was much more efficient, organized, and clean. The same presenter for this project also told me about a project she did individually about composting. Apparently, in 2022, San Diego passed a law saying all organic waste should be composted in the county. I found this surprising because I literally have never seen a green can in San Diego. Where I am from, in the Bay Area, everyone has composting bins along with their trash and recycling. The girl I was talking to also said that the city said they would give out green cans but then only followed through with about 200,000 cans, which isn’t enough for the population of San Diego. It’s interesting to see what’s going on in the county that I might be oblivious to.

Extra Credit Discovery Post

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For my extra credit discovery post, I chose the Sirena story from the Penguin Book of Mermaids. This story is based in Guam, and part of the Chamorro culture. I wanted to read this story because one of my closest friends is from Guam. This story is an important contribution to my learning in this class because of the different cultural perspective it provides through intergenerational oral traditions and curses. 

At the beginning of this tale, a scene is painted of a grand-mermaid spending time with her nieces. The two young mer-girls want to hear the story of how mermaids came around, and beg her to tell the tale even though they have heard it many times before. “An ancient grand-mermaid sits on top of her pearly throne, brushing her long white hair. Upon her lap perch two little mergirls, their sparkling tails twisting and twirling… ‘All right, sit down and behave. I’ll tell you the tale of Sirena,’ laughs the grand-mermaid. Looking at the two mergirls with their rapt eyes, she slowly nods. And so the story begins…” (p.234). This type of storytelling is important because it follows the route of oral storytelling, as opposed to written word. Often, oral storytelling is used to teach lessons, as it is in this story; it is a story about the importance of responsibility. In addition, oral storytelling is more common in indigenous cultures, and the Chamorro culture is an indigenous one. When I talked to my friend from Guam about this story, she immediately knew what I was talking about without me even mentioning the title, and said it’s a legend there, and that both her grandmother and mother told this story to her when she was growing up. She said there’s also a statue of Sirena on the island, which shows how important this tale is to Chamorro culture. 

Another important part of this tale is the use of curses. When Sirena does not keep up with her responsibilities, and her mother is left to do her chores, her mother becomes very upset. She curses Sirena, which shows the power that an elder holds, as well as consequences. “‘Sirena!’ Her mother’s face loomed out of the darkness. Her angry eyes burned with wrath. ‘Shame, shame, shame on you! Careless, idle child! Your own sister of six can do better! Shame, Sirena! I had to walk over to your auntie’s house myself for the breadfruit. Sirena, if you ever go in the water again, you will become an ugly, fat fish!’ her mother screamed. Sirena knelt trembling in a corner, her godmother’s hand on her shoulder. ‘No, please, no!” Sirena wailed when she heard her mother’s curse” (p.236). This is an origin tale of a mermaid, created by a curse. Even though Sirena’s mother says she will become “an ugly, fat fish”, Sirena transforms into a mermaid when she goes into the water next. Whether this is just a mishap of the curse, or nature being more forgiving than a human, is unclear. What I found most interesting about this passage was that her mother has this power to curse her child. I wonder if there is more respect for elders in Chamorro culture, like there is in some East Asian cultures (when compared to the U.S.). Does this respect give them the power to curse? Can they curse anyone? Or can they only curse their offspring? Since this is a legend on Guam, it also creates fear for the children who hear the story, who then feel they must be responsible children otherwise something similar may happen to them. 

EC – Snatching Joy: Black Feminist Approaches to Digitial Humanities

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This presentation with Catherine Knight Steele was an interesting presentation but also one that was difficult to follow. Steele was providing a significant amount of information and examples throughout the entire presentation but what I thought was the clear message was seeing how society views the life of Black Americans through a “white lens”, meaning we see things (movies, TikTok, videos, media, etc.) in a more concealed way, which results into encouraging Black Americans into taking back or “snatching” their culture back.

She provides a significant amount of information through the use of TikTok, which is relatable as it is something that is almost embedded in the younger generation. An example that resonated with me was the use of certain dances such as the “Renegade” dance that was originally made from Black Americans but only became popularized due to other “influencers” who are Non-Black Americans. Steele makes this comment as she was able to say something along the lines of not accrediting the rightful creators. This is an ongoing problem as many things today that originate from Black Americans are not getting the rightful credit they deserve, and only become popular or apart of the “trend” because other Non-Black Americans are able to popularize trends.

Overall, I thought this presentation was impactful as Steele was able to provide relatable examples that multiple generations would understand or even know a bit about, and it leaves you with thoughts of how majority of things can be seen through the “white lens” she speaks of. Speaking for myself it left me with a number of questions about how media is constantly using a “white lens” meaning, in some forms of media such as movies there isn’t an actual representation of stories but instead are made into a way that will satisfy and leave people on a good and uplifting note. I believe it does encourage more of rightful accreditation and to be properly informed to begin as it is something that is lacked when all forms of media are being produced.

Post Human Entanglements in Contemporary Poetry

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Dr. Antje Schmidt’s talk on post-human entanglements in contemporary poetry taught me several things. Still, one of the things I felt was most relevant to me and our class was regarding the importance of political and cultural situations occurring at the time certain things are written and published. During her presentation, she focuses on the work of Carla Cerda who is a biologist, poet and author of Loops. Loops is a series of poems all connected and intertwined with one another, where both the author and reader are included in this sort of journey up and down an elevator which seem to represent many different scenarios.

In one instance, Dr. Antje Schmidt pointed out the relevance of one poem and how Cerda took a real life issue that occured regarding lithium mining, and how it affected flamingos. In the poem, there is a line where she talks about the lithium shining on the feathers of flamingos. I felt its important because if I would’ve read this poem it might hav caught me off guard to see her talking about flamingos, but when looking at the context in which the world was in at the time it makes a lot of sense.

In learning this, so far it has helped me think and do some research on other literature I may be consuming, especially in our class. Since a lot of the texts we read, are not modern, i think this was helpful in showing me how important it is to look at the background of literature and see what important events were happening at the time to understand the relevance of said literature.

Extra credit: Antje Schmidt

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Dr. Antje Schmidt’s talk focused on close readings of the book written by Carla Cerda, which was filled with poems. These poems all related to each other, but stepped in and out of each other. Some of the main ideas in these poems were the effects of the lithium industry on the environment, the effects of the lithium industry on Chile, and human interaction with technology. 

This talk relates to our course through the commentary on the environment. Our class is focused on “literature and the environment”, as it is named. This book, written by Carla Cerda, often discusses the interactions of humans with the environment, and being a collection of poems, it is literature. The poems speak on how humans have caused destruction in the environment through lithium mining (disturbing flamingo populations, local populations, indigenous populations), which is similar to how we discuss human interactions with the environment through use of the mermaid as a symbol of the environment. Also similar to our class, this book uses a story to make commentary about the environment. The poems loosely follow the story of a tour group on an elevator, which stops at different floors.

Another important part of this talk that is relevant to our class was how it exposes the current society. Often, in class, we talk about the influence of historical society or historical events on the writing (themes of Christianity, attitudes toward the environment, marriage). This collection of poems reflects the technological times of this decade through random inserts of technology related words or graphics. It also reflects current political times by making commentary on the lithium industry in Chile and its effects on the people and environment.