A narrative is a constructive format (as a work of speech, writing, song, film, television, video games, photography or theatre) that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled".^[1]

The word "story" may be used as a synonym of "narrative". It can also be used to refer to the sequence of events described in a narrative. A narrative can also be told by a character within a larger narrative. An important part of narration is the narrative mode, the set of methods used to communicate the narrative through a process narration (see also "Narrative Aesthetics" below).

Along with exposition, argumentation and description, narration, broadly defined, is one of four rhetorical modes of discourse. More narrowly defined, it is the fiction-writing mode whereby the narrator communicates directly to the reader.

Stories are an important aspect of culture. Many works of art and most works of literature tell stories; indeed, most of the humanities involve stories. Owen Flanagan of Duke University, a leading consciousness researcher, writes that "Evidence strongly suggests that humans in all cultures come to cast their own identity in some sort of narrative form. We are inveterate storytellers."^[2]

Stories are of ancient origin, existing in ancient Egyptian, ancient Greek, Chinese and Indian cultures. Stories are also a ubiquitous component of human communication, used as parables and examples to illustrate points. Storytelling was probably one of the earliest forms of entertainment. As noted by Owen Flanagan, narrative may also refer to psychological processes in self-identity, memory and meaning-making.

Semiotics begins with the individual building blocks of meaning called signs; and semantics, the way in which signs are combined into codes to transmit messages. This is part of a general communication system using both verbal and non-verbal elements, and creating a discourse with different modalities and forms.

In On Realism in Art Roman Jakobson argues that literature does not exist as a separate entity. He and many other semioticians prefer the view that all texts, whether spoken or written, are the same, except that some authors encode their texts with distinctive literary qualities that distinguish them from other forms of discourse. Nevertheless, there is a clear trend to address literary narrative forms as separable from other forms. This is first seen in Russian Formalism through Victor Shklovsky's analysis of the relationship between composition and style, and in the work of Vladimir Propp, who analysed the plots used in traditional folk-tales and identified 31 distinct functional components.^[3] This trend (or these trends) continued in the work of the Prague School and of French scholars such as Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes. It leads to a structural analysis of narrative and an increasingly influential body of modern work that raises important epistemological questions:

• What is text?
• What is its role in the contextual culture?
• How is it manifested as art, cinema, theatre, or literature?

• Why is narrative divided into different genres, such as poetry, short stories, and novels?
• Why are narratives put into literature?

Literary theory[link]

For general purposes in semiotics and literary theory, a narrative is a story or part of a story. It may be spoken, written or imagined, and it will have one or more points of view representing some or all of the participants or observers. In stories told orally, there is a person telling the story, a narrator whom the audience can see and/or hear, who adds layers of meaning to the text non-verbally. The narrator also has the opportunity to monitor the audience's response to the story and modify the manner of the telling to clarify content or enhance listener interest. This is distinguishable from the written form in which the author must gauge the readers' likely reactions when they are decoding the text and make a final choice of words in the hope of achieving the desired response.

Whatever the form, the content may concern real-world people and events; this is termed "personal experience narrative". When the content is fictional, different conventions apply. The text projects a narrative voice, but the narrator belongs to an invented or imaginary world, not the real one. The narrator may be one of the characters in the story. Roland Barthes describes such characters as "paper beings", and fiction comprises their narratives of personal experience as created by the author. When their thoughts are included, this is termed internal focalisation: when each character's mind focuses on a particular event, the text reflects his or her reactions.

In written forms the reader hears the narrator's voice both through the choice of content and the style — the author can encode voices for different emotions and situations, and the voices can be either overt or covert —, and through clues that reveal the narrator's beliefs, values and ideological stances, as well as the author's attitude towards people, events and things.

There is a distinction between first-person and third-person narrative, to which Gérard Genette refers respectively as homodiegetic and heterodiegetic. A homodiegetic narrator describes own personal experiences as a character in the story. Such a narrator cannot know more about other characters than what their actions reveale. A heterodiegetic narrator, in contrast, describes the experiences of the characters that appear in the story. A narrative wherein events are seen through the eyes of a third-person internal focaliser is said to be figural. In some stories, the author may be omniscient and employ multiple points of view as well and comment on events as they occur.

Tzvetan Todorov (1969) coined the term "narratology" for the structuralist analysis of any given narrative into its constituent parts to determine their function(s) and relationships. For these purposes, the story is what is narrated as usually a chronological sequence of themes, motives and plot lines; hence, the plot represents the logical and causal structure of a story, explaining why its events occur. The term discourse is used to describe the stylistic choices that determine how the narrative text or performance finally appears to the audience. One of the stylistic decisions may be to present events in non-chronological order, using flashbacks, for example, to reveal motivations at a dramatic moment.

Narrative aesthetics[link]

The art of narrative is by definition a highly aesthetic enterprise. There are a number of aesthetic elements that typically interact in well-developed stories. Such elements include the essential idea of narrative structure, with identifiable beginnings, middles and ends, or exposition-development-climax-denouement, with important inciting incidents, normally constructed into coherent plot lines; a strong focus on temporality that includes retention of the past, attention to present action and protention/future anticipation; a substantial focus on characters and characterization which is "arguably the most important single component of the novel" (David Lodge The Art of Fiction 67); a given hetergloss of different voices dialogically at play, "the sound of the human voice, or many voices, speaking in a variety of accents, rhythms and registers" (Lodge The Art of Fiction 97; see also the theory of Mikhail Bakhtin for expansion of this idea); possesses a narrator or narrator-like voice, which by definition "addresses" and "interacts with" reading audiences (see Reader Response theory); communicates with a Wayne Booth-esque rhetorical thrust, a dialectic process of interpretation, which is at times beneath the surface, conditioning a plotted narrative, and other at other times much more visible, "arguing" for and against various positions; relies substantially on now-standard aesthetic figuration, particularly including the use of metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony (see Hayden White, Metahistory for expansion of this idea); is often enmeshed in intertextuality, with copious connections, references, allusions, similarities, parallels, etc. to other literatures; and commonly demonstrates an effort toward bildungsroman, a description of identity development with an effort to evince becoming in character and community.

Narration as a fiction-writing mode[link]

As with many words in the English language, narration has more than one meaning. In its broadest context narration encompasses all written fiction, or simply "story-telling." As one of the four rhetorical modes of discourse, the purpose of narration is to tell a story or to narrate an event or series of events. Narrative may exist in a variety of forms, including biographies, anecdotes, short stories and novels. In this context, all written fiction may be viewed as narration.

Narrowly defined, narration is the fiction-writing mode whereby the narrator is communicating directly to the reader. If, however, the broad definition of narration includes all written fiction, and the narrow definition is limited merely to that which is directly communicated to the reader, what comprises the rest of written fiction? The remainder of written fiction would be in the form of any of the other fiction-writing modes, such as description, exposition, summarization, etc.

Psychological narrative[link]

Within philosophy of mind, the social sciences and various clinical fields including medicine, narrative can refer to aspects of human psychology.^[4] A personal narrative process is involved in a person's sense of personal or cultural identity, and in the creation and construction of memories; it is thought by some to be the fundamental nature of the self.^[5][6] The breakdown of a coherent or positive narrative has been implicated in the development of psychosis and mental disorder, and its repair said to play an important role in journeys of recovery.^[7] Narrative Therapy is a school of (family) psychotherapy.

Illness narratives are a way for a person affected by an illness to make sense of his or her experiences.^[8] They typically follow one of several set patterns: restitution, chaos, or quest narratives. In the restitution narrative, the person sees the illness as a temporary detour. The primary goal is to return permanently to normal life and normal health. These may also be called cure narratives. In the chaos narrative, the person sees the illness as a permanent state that will inexorably get worse, with no redeeming virtues. This is typical of diseases like Alzheimer's disease: the patient gets worse and worse, and there is no hope of returning to normal life. The third major type, the quest narrative, positions the illness experience as an opportunity to transform oneself into a better person through overcoming adversity and re-learning what is most important in life; the physical outcome of the illness is less important than the spiritual and psychological transformation. This is typical of the triumphant view of cancer survivorship in the breast cancer culture.^[8]

Narrative case studies in the social sciences[link]

Narrative is often used in case study research in the social sciences. Here it has been found that the dense, contextual, and interpenetrating nature of social forces uncovered by detailed narratives is often more interesting and useful for both social theory and social policy than other forms of social inquiry. Prominent social scientists have pointed out that a social science expressed in terms of narrative case studies would provide better access for policy intervention than the present social science of variables.^[9]

Narrative inquiry[link]

Narrative inquiry runs deeper than being a research tool used in case studies. "Narrative inquiry rests on the epistemological assumption that we as human beings make sense of random experience by the imposition of story structures."^[10] Narrative inquiry makes valuable contributions to the social sciences because of its "open-ended, experiential and quest-like qualities." ^[11] Narratives are not productions of individuals, but rather are "shaped by social, cultural, and historical conventions" and the relationship between the story-teller and recorder (even if it’s an invisible audience).^[12] Therefore, the details of story structures and contents reveal much about the social, cultural, and historical context in which the story-teller exists.^[10], ^[13] Narrative inquiry is conducted with the understanding that stories that people tell are often at the surface of a more complex underlying story.^[10] The qualities of narrative inquiry and the potential contextual information that stories may reveal make narrative inquiry beneficial to several disciplines including psychology, anthropology, and education^[10], ^[11], ^[12], ^[13], ^[14].

Narrative inquiry research, like any other research tool or methodology, has advantages and limitations. According to Bell (2002), the benefits of narrative inquiry include the following: narrative provides the researcher with an understanding of an experience; narrative gives the researcher access to stories or themes that the story teller may not even be conscious of; narrative highlights changing perspectives and understanding of people and events as a function of time in the evaluation of an experience^[10]. Another advantage of narrative inquiry is that the process is as important at the product^[11]. In terms of educational research, the stories investigated by teachers and graduate stories "became the objects of their research and the medium for their professional development," adding another dimension to the benefits of narrative inquiry^[11].

Limitations, according to Bell (2002), include the amount time needed to commit to extensive in-depth research, as well as the researcher’s (unavoidable) imposition of meaning on the subject’s story^[10]. "Hardened stories," or "narratives that become context-free, portable and ready to be used anywhere and anytime for illustrative purposes," jeopardize narrative inquiry by "killing the spirit of inquiry" and freezing the story in time^[11]. Because stories are complex, the story’s truth is constructed and the researcher is subjective, it is necessary to determine what the assessment criteria should be for narrative inquiry research^[10]. Conle (2001), in researching the role and rationality of narrative inquiry in teacher education at multiple levels--as a method and as a tool for personal and professional development, offers criteria for assessing the validity of narrative research^[14]. It is, she says, fair to challenge a narrative inquirer in four ways: the objective truth of the story, the emotional truth of the story, the social/moral appropriateness of the story, and the clarity of the story ^[14]. In challenging the narrative inquirer in these ways, a person is "asking for ‘more narrative,’ [which] is the ideal way to challenge a claim of truthfulness" and to determine if reader is interpreting the story according to how the narrative inquirer intended the story to be interpreted^[14].

Narrative in music[link]

Linearity, is one of several narrative qualities that can be found in a musical composition. ^[15] As noted by American musicologist, Edward Cone, narrative terms are also present in the analytical language about music. ^[16] The different components of a fugue — subject, answer, exposition, discussion and summary — can be cited as an example. ^[17] However, there are several views on the concept of narrative in music and the role it plays. One theory is that of Theodore Adorno, who has suggested that ‘music recites itself, is its own context, narrates without narrative’.^[17] Another, is that of Carolyn Abbate, who has suggested that ‘certain gestures experienced in music constitute a narrating voice’.^[16] Still others have argued that narrative is a semiotic enterprise that can enrich musical analysis. ^[17] The French musicologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez contends that ‘the narrative, strictly speaking, is not in the music, but in the plot imagined and constructed by the listeners’.^[18] He argues that discussing music in terms of narrativity is simply metaphorical and that the ‘imagined plot’ may be influenced by the works title or other programmatic information provided by the composer. ^[18] However, Abbate has revealed numerous examples of musical devices that function as narrative voices, by limiting music’s ability to narrate to rare ‘moments that can be identified by their bizarre and disruptive effect’.^[18] Various theorists share this view of narrative appearing in disruptive rather than normative moments in music. The final word is yet to be said, regarding narratives in music, as there is still much to be determined.

Historiography[link]

In historiography, according to Lawrence Stone, narrative has traditionally been the main rhetorical device used by historians. In 1979, at a time when the new Social History was demanding a social-science model of analysis, Stone detected a move back toward the narrative. Stone defined narrative as organized chronologically; focused on a single coherent story; descriptive rather than analytical; concerned with people not abstract circumstances; and dealing with the particular and specific rather than the collective and statistical. He reported that, "More and more of the 'new historians' are now trying to discover what was going on inside people's heads in the past, and what it was like to live in the past, questions which inevitably lead back to the use of narrative."^[19]

Historians committed to a social science approach, however, have criticized the narrowness of narrative and its preference for anecdote over analysis, and clever examples rather than statistical regularities.^[20]

Other specific applications[link]

• A narrative case study is a case study that tells a story.
• Narrative environment is a contested term that has been used for techniques of architectural or exhibition design in which 'stories are told in space' and also for the virtual environments in which computer games are played and which are invented by the computer game authors.
• Narrative film is film which uses filmed reality to tell a story, often as a feature film.
• Narrative history is a genre of factual historical writing that uses chronology as its framework (as opposed to a thematic treatment of a historical subject).
• Narrative poetry is poetry that tells a story.
• A narrative verdict is a verdict available to coroners in England and Wales following an inquest.
• Metanarrative, sometimes also known as master- or grand narrative, is a higher-level cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience you've had in life.

See also[link]

This "see also" section may contain an excessive number of suggestions. Please ensure that only the most relevant suggestions are given and that they are not red links, and consider integrating suggestions into the article itself. (May 2012)

• Applied Drama
• Case study
• Fiction-writing modes
• Folklore
• Knowledge management
• Literary technique
• Monogatari
• Narrative structure
• Narrativity
• Narratology
• Narrator
• Narreme as the basic unit of narrative structure
• Organizational storytelling
• Organization story
• Scenario
• Storytelling

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Kelley, Stephanie R, Rumors in Iraq: A Guide to Winning Hearts and Minds. Storming Media, 2004. ISBN 1-4235-2249-4
• Asimov, Nanette. "Researchers help U.S. Military track, defuse rumors." San Francisco Chronicle. October 14, 2011.
• Hardin, Jayson. The Rumor Bomb: Theorizing the convergence of New and Old Trends in Mediated U.S. Politics, Southern Review: Communication, Politics & Culture 39, no. I (2006): 84–110

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikiversity has learning materials about storytelling

• Manfred Jahn. Narratology: A Guide to the Theory of Narrative
• Narrative and Referential Activity
• Some Ideas about Narrative – notes on narrative from an academic perspective
• New cinema chair studies "narrative IEDs" SF State News. 09/29/11
• DOC Film Institute

Emily Barker
Background information
Also known as	Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo
Origin	Bridgetown, Western Australia, Australia
Genres	Folk, pop
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Years active	2003–present
Labels	Everyone Sang
Website	www.emily-barker.com

Emily Barker is a guitarist and singer-songwriter born in Bridgetown, Western Australia. With chamber-folk trio The Red Clay Halo, she has recorded three albums: Photos.Fires.Fables. (2006), Despite The Snow (2008) and Almanac (2011). The band is known for its rootsy ensemble playing, four-part harmony vocals and has been described as 'chamber-folk of the highest order'.^[1]

Musical career[link]

Emily travelled to the UK in 2002, and was first based in Cambridge where she collaborated with guitarist Rob Jackson. They formed a band called The Low Country which released two albums, Welcome To The Low Country (2003) and The Dark Road (2004), tracks from which enjoyed plays on John Peel’s BBC radio show.^[2]

In October 2005 Emily won Country Song of the Year and Regional Song of the Year awards at the annual West Australian Music Songwriting Awards. Also in 2005, Emily started work on her debut solo album, the critically acclaimed Photos.Fires.Fables. The release of this album saw the birth of The Red Clay Halo, an all-female trio of Anna Jenkins, Jo Silverston and Gill Sandell who collectively provide backing harmony vocals and who respectively play violin, cello and musical saw, and accordion, piano and flute.

The band’s second studio album, Despite The Snow, was recorded in live sessions in a 16th century barn in Norfolk. Self-released in November 2008 on Emily’s own label Everyone Sang, the album again garnered much praise.

In late 2008, the album's opening track "Nostalgia" was discovered by composer Martin Phipps who re-recorded it with Emily for use as the theme tune for the hit television series Wallander on BBC1 starring British actor Kenneth Branagh. The first series, which attracted over 6 million viewers per episode, won a slew of awards, including several BAFTAs^[3] and a Royal Television Society award for its theme tune.^[4] In 2010, the song "Nostalgia" was selected for the first independent labels' Storm The Charts campaign.^[5]

Emily and the Red Clay Halo filming the video for "Little Deaths"

February 2011 saw the release of Almanac. The release of this album was accompanied by sessions for Cerys Matthews on 6 Music and Radio 4’s Loose Ends, while the single "Little Deaths" was record of the week on Nenome’s show on 6 Music.^[1] Emily and the band again went on the road in the UK, culminating in a complete performance of Almanac at St Giles-in-the-Fields church in London. Almanac was jointly funded by spareroom.com, and a fan-funded campaign on pledgemusic.com.^[1]

The song "Pause" from Almanac was the theme tune for a major 2011 BBC2 drama serial, The Shadow Line, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Christopher Eccleston.^[6] Martin Phipps again adapted the song for the title sequence.

Emily performs in London and has regularly toured the UK with the Red Clay Halo. She has supported artists such as The Waifs, Jose Gonzalez, Mary Gauthier and Frank Turner.

Emily has been played regularly on BBC regional radio stations throughout the UK, as well as receiving play on BBC 6 Music.^[7]

She is currently (February 2012) working on an album with Vena Portae in Molnbo, Sweden. ^[8]

Discography[link]

The Low Country

• Welcome To The Low Country (2003)
• The Dark Road (2004)

Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo

• Photos.Fires.Fables. (2005)
• Despite The Snow (2008)
• Almanac (2011)

Roles of Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo[link]

• Emily Barker: songwriter, guitars, vocals.
• Gill Sandell: accordion, piano, flute, backing vocals, percussion.
• Jo Silverston: cello, saw, banjo, backing vocals.
• Anna Jenkins: violin, backing vocals.

Festivals and Live Shows[link]

2008

• Opening support act on Frank Turner's October 2008 UK tour.^[9]
• Cambridge Folk Festival.^[10]

2010

• London's Camden Crawl Festival ^[11]
• End of the Road Festival ^[12]
• Wenstock Folk Festival ^[13]
• The Lovers, The Dreamers and Me event at The Tate Britain, curated by Arctic Circle.^[14]
• The Arctic Circle Christmas show at Kings Place, London.^[15]

Press[link]

Uncut magazine

Photos.Fires.Fables is ‘sharply observed, original songs …adventurously embellished by gypsy flourishes and haunting desert echoes that’d be at home on a Calexico album’.

Q

Gave Despite the Snow a four star review, saying it was ‘stripped free of studio frippery and all the better for its carefree simplicity’.^[1]

The Times

Awarded her live performance five stars and compared her to Gillian Welch and Laura Cantrell'^[16] A review of Despite the Snow said 'the hills have yet to be emptied of gold if you know where to look'.

BBC music website

Of Almanac said: 'This is a dream of a record. A new Marling, then? No, Barker offers something else...'^[17]

Mojo magazine

Have also covered Emily Barker and her music.^[10]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Emily Barker on Facebook
• Emily Barker on iTunes
• Emily Barker on Myspace
• Emily Barker on YouTube
• Emily Barker on Twitter

Douglas Rushkoff
Born	(1961-02-18) February 18, 1961 (age 51)
Occupation	American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer graphic novelist, documentarian
Alma mater	Princeton University California Institute of the Arts
Influences Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman
rushkoff.com

Douglas Rushkoff (born 18 February 1961) is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture, and his advocacy of open source solutions to social problems.

Rushkoff is most frequently regarded as a media theorist, and known for coining terms and concepts including viral media (or media virus), digital native, and social currency.

He has written ten books on media, technology, and culture. He wrote the first syndicated column on cyberculture for The New York Times Syndicate, as well as regular columns for The Guardian of London,^[1] Arthur,^[2] Discover,^[3] and the online magazines Daily Beast,^[4] TheFeature.com and meeting industry magazine One+.^[5]

Rushkoff currently teaches in the Media Studies department at The New School University in Manhattan.^[6] He has previously lectured at the ITP at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and taught a class called Narrative Lab.^[7] He also has taught online for the MaybeLogic Academy.^[8]

Biography[link]

Background[link]

Rushkoff graduated from Princeton University in 1983.^[9] He moved to Los Angeles and completed a Master of Fine Arts in Directing from the California Institute of the Arts.^[10] Later he took up a post-graduate fellowship from the American Film Institute.^[11] He is currently a PhD candidate at Utrecht University's New Media Program, writing a dissertation on new media literacies.^[12]

Rushkoff emerged in the early 1990s as active member of the cyberpunk movement, developing friendships and collaborations with people including Timothy Leary, RU Sirius, Paul Krassner, Robert Anton Wilson, Ralph Abraham, Terence McKenna, Genesis P-Orridge, Richard Metzger, Grant Morrison, Mark Pesce, Erik Davis, and other writers, artists and philosophers interested in the intersection of technology, society and culture.^[13][14][15]

As his books became more accepted (his first book on cyberculture, Cyberia, was canceled by its original publisher, Bantam, in 1992 because editors feared the Internet would be "over" by the original scheduled publication date in Fall 1993 - it was eventually published in 1994 ^[16]), and his concepts of the "media virus"^[17] and "social contagion" became mainstream ideas, Rushkoff was invited to deliver commentaries on National Public Radio's All Things Considered,^[18] and to make documentaries for the PBS series Frontline.^[19]

Rushkoff was awarded the Marshall McLuhan Award by the Media Ecology Association for his book Coercion, and became a member and sat on the board of directors of that organization.^[20] This allied him with the "media ecologists", a continuation of what is known as the Toronto School of media theorists including Marshall McLuhan, Walter Ong, and Neil Postman.

Rushkoff was invited to participate in government and industry as a consultant ranging from the United Nations Commission on World Culture and the US Department of State to Sony Corporation and TCI.

Simultaneously, Rushkoff continued to develop his relationship with counterculture figures, collaborating with Genesis P-Orridge as a keyboardist for Psychic TV, and credited with composing music for the album Hell is Invisible Heaven is Her/e.^[21] Rushkoff taught classes in media theory and in media subversion for New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program,^[22] participated in activist pranks with the Yes Men ^[23] and eToy,^[24] contributed to numerous books and documentaries on psychedelics, and spoke or appeared at many events sponsored by counterculture publisher Disinformation.^[25]

Influences[link]

References to media ecologist and Toronto School of Communication founder Marshall McLuhan appear throughout Rushkoff’s work as a focus on media over content, the effects of media on popular culture and the level at which people participate when consuming media.^[26] Rushkoff’s colleagues in The Toronto School include Neil Postman and Lance Strate. Rushkoff worked with both Robert Anton Wilson ^[27] and Timothy Leary on developing philosophical systems to explain consciousness, its interaction with technology, and social evolution of the human species, and references both consistently in his work. Leary, along with John Barlow and Terrence McKenna characterized the mid-90s as techno-utopian, and saw the rapid acceleration of culture, emerging media and the unchecked advancement of technology as completely positive.^[28] Rushkoff's own unbridled enthusiasm for cyberculture was tempered by the dotcom boom, when the non-profit character of the Internet was rapidly overtaken by corporations and venture capital. Rushkoff often cites two events in particular - the day Netscape became a public company in 1995,^[29] and the day AOL bought TimeWarner in 2000 ^[1] - as pivotal moments in his understanding of the forces at work in the evolution of new media. He spent several years exploring Judaism as a primer for media literacy, going so far as to publish a book inviting Jews to restore the religion to its "open source" roots.^[30] He founded a movement for progressive Judaism called Reboot, but subsequently left when he felt its funders had become more concerned with marketing and publicity of Judaism than its actual improvement and evolution.^[26] Disillusioned by the failure of the open source model to challenge entrenched and institutional hierarchies from religion to finance, he became a colleague of Mark Crispin Miller and Naomi Klein, appearing with them at Smith College ^[31] as well as in numerous documentaries decrying the corporatization of public space and consciousness.^[32] He has dedicated himself most recently to the issues of media literacy,^[33] participatory government, and the development of local and complementary currencies.^[34] He wrote a book and film called Life Inc.,^[35] which traces the development of corporatism and centralized currency from the Renaissance to today, and hosts a radio show called MediaSquat on WFMU, concerned with reclaiming commerce and culture from corporate domination.^[36]

Awards and appointments[link]

Douglas Rushkoff has served on the Board of Directors of the Media Ecology Association,^[37] The Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics,^[38] and is a founding member of Technorealism,^[39] as well as of the Advisory Board of The National Association for Media Literacy Education,^[33] MeetUp.com ^[40] and HyperWords ^[41]

He is the winner of the first Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity, given by the Media Ecology Association, in 2004.^[42]

Themes[link]

General[link]

Douglas Rushkoff’s philosophy developed from a techno-utopian view of new media to a more nuanced critique of cyberculture discourse and the impact of media on society. Viewing everything except for intention as media, he frequently explores the themes of how to make media interactive, how to help people (especially children) effectively analyze and question the media they consume, as well as how to cultivate intention and agency. He has theorized on such media as religion, culture, politics and money.

Technology and cyberculture[link]

Up to the late-90s, Douglas Rushkoff’s philosophy towards technology could be characterized as media-deterministic. Cyberculture and new media were supposed to promote democracy and allow people to transcend the ordinary.^[43]

In Cyberia, Rushkoff states the essence of mid-90s culture as being the fusion of rave psychedelia, chaos theory and early computer networks. The promise of the resulting “counter culture” was that media would change form being passive to active, that we would embrace the social over content, and that empowers the masses to create and react.^[44]

This idea also comes up in the concept of the media virus, which Rushkoff details in the 1994 publication of Media Virus: Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture. This significant work adopts organic metaphors to show that media, like viruses, are mobile, easily duplicated and presented as non-threatening.^[45] Technologies can make our interaction with media an empowering experience if we learn to decode the capabilities offered to us by our media. Unfortunately, people often stay one step behind our media capabilities. Ideally, emerging media and technologies have the potential to enlighten, to aid grassroots movements, to offer an alternative to the traditional “top-down” media, to connect diverse groups and to promote the sharing of information.^[46]

Rushkoff does not limit his writings to the effect of technology on adults, and in Playing the Future turns his attention to the generation of people growing up who understand the language of media like natives, guarded against coercion.^[47] These “screenagers”, a term originated by Rushkoff,^[48] have the chance to mediate the changing landscape more effectively than digital immigrants.

With Coercion (1999), Rushkoff realistically examines the potential benefits and dangers inherent in cyberculture and analyzes market strategies that work to make people act on instinct (and buy!) rather than reflect rationally. The book wants readers to learn to “read” the media they consume and interpret what is really being communicated.

Religion[link]

Nothing Sacred: The Truth About Judaism explores the medium of religion and intellectually deconstructs the Bible and the ways that religion fails to provide true connectivity and transformative experiences.^[49] The book mainly wants readers to reflect on why things are a certain way and not attribute them to some predestined reality.

Currency[link]

Most recently, Douglas Rushkoff has turned his critical lens to the medium of currency. One of the most important concepts that he coins and develops is the notion of social currency, or the degree to which certain content and media can facilitate and/or promote relationships and interactions between members of a community. Rushkoff mentions jokes, scandals, blogs, ambience, i.e. anything that would engender "water cooler" talk, as social currency.

In his book, Life, Inc., Rushkoff takes a look at physical currency and the history of corporatism. Beginning with an overview of how money has been gradually centralized throughout time, and pondering the reasons and consequences of such a fact, he goes on to demonstrate how our society has become defined by and controlled by corporate culture.

Bibliography[link]

Books[link]

• 2010. Program or be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age Ebook ISBN 978-1-935928-16-4
• 2009. Life, Inc.: How the World Became A Corporation and How To Take It Back ISBN 978-1-4000-6689-6
• 2005. Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out ISBN 978-0-06-075869-1
• 2003. Open Source Democracy A Demos Essay
• 2003. Nothing Sacred: The Truth About Judaism ISBN 978-1-4000-5139-7
• 1999. Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say ISBN 978-1-57322-829-9
• 1996. Playing the Future: What We Can Learn From Digital Kids ISBN 978-1-57322-764-3 (Published in the UK in 1997 as "Children of Chaos: Surviving the End of the World as We Know it" ISBN 0-00-654879-2)
• 1995. Media Virus: Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture ISBN 978-0-345-39774-4
• 1994. Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace ISBN 978-1-903083-24-6

Fiction works[link]

• 2002. Exit Strategy (aka Bull) ISBN 978-1-887128-90-2
• 1997. Ecstasy Club ISBN 978-1-57322-702-5

Graphic novels[link]

• 2012. A.D.D. - Adolescent Demo Division ISBN 978-1-78116-019-0
• 2005-2008. Testament ISBN 978-1-4012-1063-2
• 2004. Club Zero-G ISBN 978-0-9729529-3-4

Documentaries[link]

• 2009 - 2010 Digital Nation, Life on the Virtual Frontier. Web site and documentary
• 2009 Life Inc. The Movie
• 2004 The Persuaders. This documentary examines the psychological techniques behind popular marketing and advertising trends, determines how these methods influence how we view ourselves and desires, and postulates on the future implications of these persuasive approaches at work.
• 2001 Merchants of Cool, a groundbreaking, award-winning Frontline documentary which explores the people, marketing techniques and ideologies behind popular culture for teenagers. This video attempts to answer whether or not teen popular culture is reflective of its population or manufactured by big business and related groups.

Radio[link]

• The Media Squat (creator and host): freeform, bottom-up, open source WFMU radio which examines similarly open source, bottom-up solutions to some of the problems engendered by our relentlessly top-down society.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website

• Works by Douglas Rushkoff on Open Library at the Internet Archive

Svitak in October 2010

Adora Lily Svitak (born October 15, 1997) is an American child prodigy and internationally published^[1] author, known for her essays, stories, poems, blogs, and full-length books. Adora first became known to the public when, at the age of 6, she was recognized on local news in Seattle for her writing abilities. Adora became an object of national interest at the age of 7 when she appeared with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America.^[2] Her book Flying Fingers describes Adora's abiding love of language and writing and contains tips and hints for other aspiring writers.^[3] In 2005, at the age of 7, Adora began writing blogs and keeping an online journal, where she comments on matters of both international significance and subjects of personal interest.^[4][5][6] Since Nov, 2005 Adora has been promoting literacy and interest in reading and writing.^[7] She has lectured before large audiences of both students and adults across the United States, and in the United Kingdom.^[8]

As of January 2007, Adora is completing her first full-length novel, Yang in Disguise,^[9] serving as a spokesperson for Verizon Reads campaign for literacy, and editing a novella, "The Pickpocket Princess".^[10] She has now finished her second book, Dancing Fingers — which her older sister Adrianna, who is a musician, helped write.^[1] In January 2009 she appeared in a Channel 4 documentary, The World's Cleverest Child and Me, presented by Mark Dolan.^[11]

In February 2010, Adora spoke at the TED Conference,^[12] saying the world needs "childish" thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups' willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.

On October 19, 2010, Adora spoke to the faculty and students of Full Sail University, on creativity in the classroom. Recently Adora created an online Literary Magazine called Write With Adora (WWA)"a place for the works of youth literati" as she says. It includes poetry, literary criticisms and reviews, short stories, and creative non-fiction.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Adora Svitak's Website

This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; suggestions may be available. (February 2009)

Edwin Kinji Ushiro (born June 7, 1977) is an illustrator and fine artist.

A native from the island of Maui, Edwin Ushiro traveled to California where he attended the Art Center College of Design and graduated with a BFA in Illustration with honors. From there he ventured onto a film career as an Art Director, Visual Effects Consultant, Storyboard Artist & Concept Designer on projects such as: CSI: Miami, Battlestar Galactica: Caprica, and Angel. Continuing an urge to explore of his own projects, Edwin has recently expanded onto the gallery scene. His clients include: Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, Sony Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, NBC, ABC, CBS, Disney, and the Jim Henson Company.^[1]

Exhibitions[link]

Solo shows:^[2]
2010 "At Night, Lights Fell and Loved Ones Returned Home" at Sloan Fine Art, New York, NY (opens 3.24.2010)
2009 "Softly Encompassing the Womb" at LeBasse Projects, Culver City, CA
2008 "While Tides Guide You Back Home" at Project: Gallery, Culver City, CA
2007 "The Cardboard Symphony" at Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra, CA

Selected group shows:
2010 "Erotic Show" at Insa Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2009 "Giant Robot Biennale" at the Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2009 "Kokeshi from Folk Art to Art Toy" at the Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2009 "Illustrative Berlin" at Villa Elisabeth presented by Swatch, Berlin, Germany
2009 "Art Amsterdam Fair" exhibited with Willem Kerseboom Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2009 "Nobody Walks in LA" at Atticus Galeria, Barcelona, Spain
2008 "Illustrative Zurich" presented by Swatch, Zurich, Switzerland
2008 "Amuse Art Jam" Museum of Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
2008 "Installation 5 Scion Art Tour" at Art Basel, Miami FL
2008 "Crazy 4 Cult 2" at Gallery 1988, Los Angeles, CA.
2008 "4th Annual Tree Show" at Giant Robot SF, San Francisco, CA
2008 "Power in Numbers 3" at Gallery Nucleus, CA
2008 "Toys" at Gallery 1988, Los Angeles, CA
2008 "Year of the Rat" at Giant Robot 2, Los Angeles, CA
2008 "Neulovers" at Compound Gallery, Portland, OR
2008 "Deep Pop" at Kenneth Chapman Gallery, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY
2007 "Happy Endings" at The Lab 101 Gallery, Culver City, CA
2007 "Bitters & Sweets" at Gallery 1988, Los Angeles, CA
2007 "Grafuck 3 Art Show" at Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra, CA
2007 "Youthful Indiscretions" 4 person group show at Project: Gallery, Culver City, CA
2007 "Power in Numbers 2" at Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra, CA
2007 "Project: The Reset" at Project: Gallery, Culver City, CA
2006 "Winter Wonderland" at Lab 101 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 "Imaginary Spaces" at Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra, CA
2006 "Toy2R DIY Tour" at the International Kaohsiung Art Toys Exhibition, Taiwan
2006 "Toy2R DIY Tour" at The Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2006 "Supernal" at Compound Gallery, Portland, OR
2006 "Bergamot Invasion II" at Copro Nason Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2006 "Cover to Cover" at Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra, CA
2006 "Zine Show" at Junc Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 "Young Los Angeles in Chicago" at Svenska Mobler Gallery, Chicago, IL
2006 "Power in Numbers" at Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra, CA
2006 "The Unicorn Show" at Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra, CA

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} Biography for Edwin Ushiro at the Internet Movie Database
2. ^ "Gallery Resume" Edwin Ushiro Gallery Resume, 2007

External links[link]

• Official website
• Blog
• Edwin Ushiro at the Internet Movie Database
• 2009 Solo Exhibition Teaser
• Solo Exhibition at Gallery Nucleus
• Hypebeast Interview
• A Thousand Stories Interview
• Edwin Ushiro on Kanye West blog
• "Edwin Ushiro's Fragile Memories" – 2009 Interview at Erratic Phenomena
• "Edwin Ushiro: Don't Look Away" 2008 Interview on Black Book