Claims & Styles

"Transmissions From Camp Trans"
Claim: Camp Trans offers a safe haven for lesbians, every year, where they can relax, have fun, meet up with old friends and make new ones, and even fool around.
Style: Rogerian

"Dark Webs Goth Subcultures In Cyberspace"
Claim: Goths may be different in public, but online they act much life everyone else.
Style: Classical

"The Truck Stop As Community And Culture"
Claim: Often seen as brutes, truckers are mostly nice people who may seem intimidating but are actually very nice and talkative.
Style: Toulmin

"House For The Homeless"
Claim: Not all homeless people are lazy, penny-less, slackers. Many are respected foreigners, have Master Degrees, or trying to fix damages in their lives caused by drugs and alcohol.
Style: Toulmin


As far as the process of my paper goes, I am still waiting to receive and e-mailed interview and have another interview set up on Sunday. I have learned a great deal from visiting my field site and have even received a copy of the legal paperwork one must sign before they are allowed to join the cooperative. I will start an outline tonight or tomorrow and will try my best to incorporate the interviews into this outline. Due to my research topic, I will be using mostly facts I have seen in the field site as well as from the interviews. This use of data will make me use to Toulmin method in writing my argument. I intend to as my peer group if their are any strong flaws in my argument that can lead it to become weak. I also plan to ask how my paper can be bettered and if my evidence behind my argument does no identify my point in my argument strongly.

The B-Complex (An Art Cooperative)

When first entering the B-Complex, one question comes to mind, “Am I in the right place?” Located in a heavily industrial area near West End Georgia, adjacent to nearby and regularly used railroad tracks, the B-Complex seems to blend in with its surroundings. The walls are made of old brick and cinder block, and broken glass windows decorate the many buildings. The inside of the buildings seem run-down with broken ceilings and paints splatters covering the floors and walls. The artists whom focus on metal working own larger areas that seem almost like small factories. After gazing upon these dilapidated structures, one may wonder where the artists are. The stereotype of artists is that artists are either colorful members of society or social misfits that create strange designs and decorations that clearly give them away. At the B-Complex this is true, but one must look past the rusty symbols of industry and enter the world of the artists.
Inside the studios and gallery space of the B-Complex, one can finally see the elusive artistic flare. Each artist owns their individual studio which they may decorate accordingly. Jessica Marshall, a local artist at the B-Complex, has chosen to decorate her studio to create a home like atmosphere. Heidi Rolla, another artist, keeps her studio covered in art and a designed to be used solely for her work. The gallery space is a large, open building located in the center of the Complex that the artists often use together to create large art shows. A large blue swing hangs in the gallery along with furniture and artwork that has earned a permanent place within the gallery. A small coy pond is located directly in front of the gallery and one must cross a footbridge to enter. Bamboo decorates the entrance and various studios around the complex, creating an Eastern feel amongst the statues and art. These art shows are often created by groups of artists that may even combine artwork into one astonishing piece.
Although the art shows are often done cooperatively, the artists that occupy the B-Complex tend to enjoy their privacy. The artists will preoccupy themselves with work inside their studios and come out only if needed. This may seem suspicious to some, but in order to earn money and artist must create more and more art that people are interested in. Only a small portion of their art may actually sell, and since only about 1% of artists can sustain themselves on art alone it becomes a necessity. However, if a fellow artist ever requires assistance, help is always readily available. This is just a single norm of many that these artists practice.
The norms and values I noticed among the artists are often mixed between loner and enthusiastic neighbor. To make their studios more desirable, many of the artists bring their cats or dogs to work with them. When I arrived around 11:30, I spoke to Jessica who was working in her pajamas. The artists even pursue outside interests which they tend to work on by themselves. Jessica makes whips for fire spinners, while Lisa, another artist, actually performs fire spinning. Once night comes around, the artists whom haven’t returned home enjoy sitting outside and talking around the various fire sculptures created by Jeffrey Loy.
Due to weather, I wasn’t able to hear conversations amongst the artists and learn any peculiar terminology or get any in-depth interviews done, but I was able to e-mail my questions to one artist and set up an appointment to meet another later in April. These interviews will hopefully allow me learn more important information I may have missed in my observations.

Prisoners & Poetry

1) What makes this field site good for studying the subculture?

The prisoners being discussed are all convicted felons, so the play, Hamlet, becomes an excellent area for these prisoners to study. As for the field site, the actors must practice together in a small rooms within the prison's walls. The play itself is about a man worried about the consequences of his crimes. The actors portraying the roles within the play are living those consequences.

2)What observations does the author make that are useful in talking about the subculture?

The author begins his discussion by describing the prison yard he had to walk through in order to reach the actors. He described the safety cord that he should pull if he ever needed help, the glares from prisoners, confining brick walls. All of these things show how hard and dangerous life can be in prison, but at the same time, there are those within the prison walls that reach out intellectually.

3)What are the norms and values of this subculture?

The norms and values of this subculture are clear and precise. One should always respect those above oneself; meaning don't anger those with more authority. These rules are seen through out the entire prison block, but even amongst the actors, the rules remain the same. The only thing the actors tended to talk little about were the crimes they had committed that ended them up in prison.

4)What interview techniques, that the author uses, work well in helping to understand the subculture?

During interviews, the author tended to ask questions that could easily lead on the similar questions that delve deeper into the prisoner's minds. I believe the main ideas of the questions were meant to get intellectual and emotional replies from the prisoners. In the end, we learned that the prisoners, within this subculture, were using the plays as ways to better themselves. It was their way of being more human within a cage for animals.

Topic: the B Complex (subculture of the visual Arts)

Sources:

Nouraee, Andishee . "Strange Tales, Strange Tails." Creative Loafing 11 Dec. 2002. 14 Mar. 2008 .

Steele, Alicia. "B Complex." pbaonline. PBA30, Georgia. 14 Mar. 2008.
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The B Complex. 2000. the B complex. 14 Mar. 2008 .

more sources to come...

Reflection: The PBA website I was directed to has proven to be a very effective resource material. The idea of the B Complex being a cooperative is clearly explained and the overall description of the B complex is clear. A video is even available from the special PBA did on the B complex. I think that now I must focus my research into a less general area and begin to focus on the artists and their impacts they have brought to this subculture. The B Complex itself will prove to be a valuable resource in my paper as well as an excellent area to observe this subculture of the arts for my research journal. The complex will prove to be a safe and clear view into the world of these artistically different persons and give wonderful insight on their world and culture. Further research into these unique individuals and other similar artists will help influence my progress.

Heisenberg's Principle of Uncertainty

Werner Heisenberg, born in Wurzburg, Germany on December 5, 1901, was acknowledged to be one of the most important physicists of the 20th century. Goldberg made the statement, "Werner Heisenberg shook the foundations of a discipline that prided itself on the precise establishment of facts and laws about nature." One important principle he discovered was name after him, this Principle is the Heisenberg Principle or the "Uncertainty Principle." The Uncertainty Principle "made famous in 1927 asserts the improbability of knowing with complete precision the position and momentum of any subatomic particle" (Johnson). In lame man's terms, one cannot know the exact position of a particle and its momentum at the same time. This, however, made him a target of ridicule from fellow scientific superstars such as Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. A fellow colleague, Wolfgang Pauli, told Heisenberg, "It's much easier to find one's way if one isn't too familiar with the magnificent unity of classical physics. You have a decided advantage there, but then lack of knowledge is no guarantee of success" (Maslin). This was an open ridicule directed towards Heisenberg and his intelligence. Fortunately Heisenberg's name was not erased from history and his Principle of "Uncertainty" is still used today in everyday references.
Today, Heisenberg's name can be heard from computer programmers to politicians. Each group using there own variations of the Principle but still adhering to the Principle's main definition. Even simple tasks such as bird watching can be directly linked to the "Uncertainty Principle." In LaPlante's article, he states "the the inverse relationship between time and frequency is related tot he Uncertainty Principle. In this case...the less band limited the signal is the more frequency limited it is and so forth." This shows that the answer to a stable and calculated relationship between the two is unsolvable and thusly a perfect example of Heisenberg's Principle.
In the end, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle has yet to be disproved. Even the Albert Einstein, the greatest scientific mind known to man, was unable to crush this Principle. As the world continues to revolve into a new modern era, older scientific principles are still the building blocks of every scientific experiment and study. Heisenberg's Principle will forever be one of those building blocks.

Tricia Rose: The Sass Behind the Brains

Tricia Rose is, in fact, a very fascinating person. She has literary works published around the globe and covers a wide variety of topics ranging from hip hop to politics. Knowing this information, she was not very hard to track down. I searched a variety of websites ranging from magazines, Tricia's personal website, and even a fellow blogspot member. These different websites allowed me to take in the different views of Rose and see who agrees with her ideals and who does not. Fortunately for Rose, most of the world seems to agree with her.
By first viewing Tricia's personal website, I was able to see the different books and articles she published over the years gain some insight on her background and views on the world. One such view can be seen in her book, Black Noise, which is one of the first academic books that goes in depth into the often misunderstood world of hip hop. I later found myself at a fellow blogger's site. This man, simply named Bob, was able to attend a talk entitled "is hip hop dead?" He was able to take in that when one talks about hip hop, they will either be deemed a hater or a defender. Their is no middle man. This personal view of a lecture by Rose shows how much Rose is actually effecting her audience.
All in all, I was able to learn a great deal about Tricia Rose and was able to find enough information to understand her ethos and create a decent paper. In the end, I have learned a great deal about the hip hop community and now have a better understanding of just how much it has changed over the years.

Rap Music and Street Consciousness

Written by Cheryl L. Keyes, Rap Music and Street Consciousness shows the deep origins of rap and hip-hop within Africa. Keyes uses slave narratives to illustrate how tribal rhythmic story telling has evolved into a more musical rhythmic pattern. This led to the birth of hip-hop as civil rights began to incorporate their political views into music. As this style of music continued to develop, the rest of the world began to take hold and incorporate their own versions of hip-hop to the musical world. Rap Music and Street Consciousness is a very interesting view point into the hip-hop world, to me, because it does not just cover the basics of hip-hop, but rather shows the evolution of rhythm into what we now see as modern hip-hop.
Growing up in the culturally rich Baton Rouge, Louisiana Keyes was well versed in many different styles of music. During her senior year at Xavier University, her interest of African derived music was piqued. Since, she has followed a life of extensive research into the subject as well as a musical composer. Her musical abilities make her a superb critic of the music world with her own interesting view points on the subject. These strong points make her an excellent candidate to write this article. The book seems interesting to me because it shows the evolution of African music and not just the simple facts. In order to fully understand something, one must first know its roots.