#SINGItForJapan - A Reflection on Composition
Originally, I was going to make a separate entry to talk about #SINGItForJapan, but the more I reflect on it, the more I feel that the project offers me a kind of touchstone for discussing a number of issues and concepts that have been significant to me over the course of this semester.
A brief description of the project:
When they heard about the recent earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan, rock band My Chemical Romance wanted to help. They noticed that many of their fans on twitter had started using the hashtag #SINGItForJapan, in reference to their recent single, "Sing," which contains the lyric "Sing it for the world." Inspired by the hashtag, they decided to release a new version of the song with proceeds going to the relief effort in Japan. They also wanted to release a video. For the video, they requested that fans submit artwork, video, or photographs to send messages of hope to Japan from people all over the world.
This is the video:
Collaboration and Community:
Perhaps the most obvious composition concepts that I think of in connection to this project are collaboration and community. Bartholomae, Harris and others have considered the university as a kind of community. The university writ large, of course, is not a single university, but the larger community or communities of academia where knowledge is made. Here the idea of community also transcends geographical boundaries. Broadly, the community that collaborated on this project would be My Chemical Romance and fans of the band (as well as, potentially, family and friends of fans who were asked to help). Of course, the project wasn't collaborative in the truest sense. The band had the ultimate control over the final product of the video - how it would look, which pieces would be included, etc. But there were also multiple levels of composition on which different kinds of collaboration took place. In recording the audio, a lot of musicians (mainly strings players) donated their time to record the new arrangement. Also, many of the individual pieces submitted by fans were collaborative, while others were produced individually. Those that were produced collaboratively doubtless exhibited many different models of collaboration. Some may have been led by one participant with others simply helping to execute. Others may have involved collaboration more heavily, in both the invention and execution.
I think the collaborative process here highlights some of the problems with thinking of any composition community in utopian terms. There were clearly people with more (exponentially more) power in determining what constituted an acceptable part of the final composition and what did not. In the same way, different participants and stakeholders have different levels of power to influence the knowledge-making structure and what kinds of knowledge and knowledge-making will be allowed in the university or in any field or discipline.
Local/Global Social Practice:
Brandt and Clinton's "Limits of the Local" was one of the most illuminating readings for me this semester. There are emphatic stars and exclamation points in the margin on the page where they make the connection explicit between Latour's theory and bridging the gap between local and global. I agree with your point from class discussion that perhaps "literacy" is not the thing that crosses boundaries, but the concept that something travels (texts?) helped me to conceptualize the idea of the global and the local and how they must be interconnected in a really helpful way. #SINGItForJapan offers a concrete example of exactly those interconnections.
This is the piece that I contributed to the project:
The product was affected in every way by my local context. I had to use the only kind of alphabet blocks that were stocked in the local Toys 'R Us. The guitar is one I borrowed from my brother that is about seven years old and won't stay in tune. The band had asked that each submission indicate in some way where it was from, so my location is on the mask. More practically, I put this together on the last day that the band was accepting submissions. I had intended to go out and purchase the elements early and take pictures while the light was good. Instead it poured rain most of the day, clearing up around five. When I looked at the weather earlier, I considered giving up on the idea altogether. After all, there was virtually no chance that it would be included in the video (it wasn't). However, ultimately, I wanted to make it because I wanted to contribute something to the effort, or feel like I had.
I rushed out to get the pieces I still needed to purchase. By the time I got home, the light was already fading. I rushed to set up the pieces and take as many pictures as possible. I stacked the blocks vertically and horizontally. I arranged the pieces in different configurations. Finally, I got the pictures uploaded to my computer, selected one, and submitted it with only minutes to spare.
I'm sure that the thousands of other submissions were equally influenced by the local situation. In some cases, elements of the local situation are evident in the submissions themselves. In addition, the band also had their own local context. The recording was done while they were on tour. You can see in the video that some of the recording was done in dressing rooms and stairwells. Hardly the recording environment that a successful band is probably accustomed to.
However, as a whole, the video is incredibly global. The different cities and countries represented are readily apparent. The explicit purpose of the video is to unite people across geographical boundaries in offering aid and encouragement to Japan. Where sometimes the connections that Brandt and Clinton describe can be hard to see, here they are easy to see and conceptualize.
Extracurriculum:
I had several other concepts that I wanted to discuss (multimodality, sponsors of literacy, gatekeeping, etc.), but I see that I'm running short on space, so I'll jump to the most salient point.
The concept that #SINGItForJapan most readily represents for me is that of the extracurricullum described by Gere. She was, of course, talking about extracurricular writing in a more traditional sense (words), but I think this and the many projects like it show the potential of extracurricular composition. As you point out in your reflection, it seems that the new materials, tools, and practices of composition are coming not from scholars in the field of composition, but from many other avenues.
I was troubled by our discussion in class when you indicated that there is not much work in the field being done on extracurricular or vernacular composition, and I think this is why. Of course I feel strongly about developing good theory and practice for the composition classroom, but my feeling is that composition (perhaps especially at this moment) is more than that. And in fact, many of the most exciting and innovative ways of composing are those that are not bounded by the walls (actual or metaphorical) of the classroom.
The driving force behind the #SINGItForJapan project was personal motivation. I can't say how many people were motivated by a desire to help the Japanese disaster relief and how many were motivated by the possibility of being noticed by their favorite band (I suspect a high percentage would answer both), but people wanted to participate in the project. So, despite the relatively short time frame, people contributed in much higher numbers than could be included in the video itself.
Much of what we've read this semester, and many of our discussions, have included to some extent, a consideration of how we might inspire this kind of motivation in our students. I have three main thoughts on this subject. First, and most pessimistically, I think no assignment can ever appeal to every student. We are bound, as are our students, by the limitations of the classroom. We must evaluate and we must assess. And I think there will always be students who, for any given assignment, will complete it only because we, the teachers, require it.
Second, more optimistically, I think there should be more consideration of extracurricular composition, particularly those that, like this project, seem to take full advantage of the affordances of new technology as well as motivating participation extremely effectively. Surely there is much to be learned from such a consideration about how we can reach students in ways that motivate them to compose authentically and from some kind of intrinsic motivation as opposed to solely the extrinsic motivation of receiving a grade.
Third, and finally, we have discussed whether "extracurriculum" is even the best term for these kinds of composing. Yes and no. When we wish to ask what connections we as scholars and teachers can make between these kinds of composing and our classrooms, then I think it's a productive term. But taken on its own, this video and all the various mechanisms surrounding it and its creation really have nothing to do with curriculum. It was created for entirely other purposes and with no reference to school of any kind.
In closing, I think a lyric from the song speaks to the future of composition studies and perhaps the academy more generally: "You've got to be what tomorrow needs."
References:
#SINGItForJapan Website
Guitarist Ray Toro's blog, where the original request and updates on the project are posted
Twitter account created to centralize updates and questions on the project
A brief description of the project:
When they heard about the recent earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan, rock band My Chemical Romance wanted to help. They noticed that many of their fans on twitter had started using the hashtag #SINGItForJapan, in reference to their recent single, "Sing," which contains the lyric "Sing it for the world." Inspired by the hashtag, they decided to release a new version of the song with proceeds going to the relief effort in Japan. They also wanted to release a video. For the video, they requested that fans submit artwork, video, or photographs to send messages of hope to Japan from people all over the world.
This is the video:
Click to viewCollaboration and Community:
Perhaps the most obvious composition concepts that I think of in connection to this project are collaboration and community. Bartholomae, Harris and others have considered the university as a kind of community. The university writ large, of course, is not a single university, but the larger community or communities of academia where knowledge is made. Here the idea of community also transcends geographical boundaries. Broadly, the community that collaborated on this project would be My Chemical Romance and fans of the band (as well as, potentially, family and friends of fans who were asked to help). Of course, the project wasn't collaborative in the truest sense. The band had the ultimate control over the final product of the video - how it would look, which pieces would be included, etc. But there were also multiple levels of composition on which different kinds of collaboration took place. In recording the audio, a lot of musicians (mainly strings players) donated their time to record the new arrangement. Also, many of the individual pieces submitted by fans were collaborative, while others were produced individually. Those that were produced collaboratively doubtless exhibited many different models of collaboration. Some may have been led by one participant with others simply helping to execute. Others may have involved collaboration more heavily, in both the invention and execution.
I think the collaborative process here highlights some of the problems with thinking of any composition community in utopian terms. There were clearly people with more (exponentially more) power in determining what constituted an acceptable part of the final composition and what did not. In the same way, different participants and stakeholders have different levels of power to influence the knowledge-making structure and what kinds of knowledge and knowledge-making will be allowed in the university or in any field or discipline.
Local/Global Social Practice:
Brandt and Clinton's "Limits of the Local" was one of the most illuminating readings for me this semester. There are emphatic stars and exclamation points in the margin on the page where they make the connection explicit between Latour's theory and bridging the gap between local and global. I agree with your point from class discussion that perhaps "literacy" is not the thing that crosses boundaries, but the concept that something travels (texts?) helped me to conceptualize the idea of the global and the local and how they must be interconnected in a really helpful way. #SINGItForJapan offers a concrete example of exactly those interconnections.
This is the piece that I contributed to the project:
The product was affected in every way by my local context. I had to use the only kind of alphabet blocks that were stocked in the local Toys 'R Us. The guitar is one I borrowed from my brother that is about seven years old and won't stay in tune. The band had asked that each submission indicate in some way where it was from, so my location is on the mask. More practically, I put this together on the last day that the band was accepting submissions. I had intended to go out and purchase the elements early and take pictures while the light was good. Instead it poured rain most of the day, clearing up around five. When I looked at the weather earlier, I considered giving up on the idea altogether. After all, there was virtually no chance that it would be included in the video (it wasn't). However, ultimately, I wanted to make it because I wanted to contribute something to the effort, or feel like I had.
I rushed out to get the pieces I still needed to purchase. By the time I got home, the light was already fading. I rushed to set up the pieces and take as many pictures as possible. I stacked the blocks vertically and horizontally. I arranged the pieces in different configurations. Finally, I got the pictures uploaded to my computer, selected one, and submitted it with only minutes to spare.
I'm sure that the thousands of other submissions were equally influenced by the local situation. In some cases, elements of the local situation are evident in the submissions themselves. In addition, the band also had their own local context. The recording was done while they were on tour. You can see in the video that some of the recording was done in dressing rooms and stairwells. Hardly the recording environment that a successful band is probably accustomed to.
However, as a whole, the video is incredibly global. The different cities and countries represented are readily apparent. The explicit purpose of the video is to unite people across geographical boundaries in offering aid and encouragement to Japan. Where sometimes the connections that Brandt and Clinton describe can be hard to see, here they are easy to see and conceptualize.
Extracurriculum:
I had several other concepts that I wanted to discuss (multimodality, sponsors of literacy, gatekeeping, etc.), but I see that I'm running short on space, so I'll jump to the most salient point.
The concept that #SINGItForJapan most readily represents for me is that of the extracurricullum described by Gere. She was, of course, talking about extracurricular writing in a more traditional sense (words), but I think this and the many projects like it show the potential of extracurricular composition. As you point out in your reflection, it seems that the new materials, tools, and practices of composition are coming not from scholars in the field of composition, but from many other avenues.
I was troubled by our discussion in class when you indicated that there is not much work in the field being done on extracurricular or vernacular composition, and I think this is why. Of course I feel strongly about developing good theory and practice for the composition classroom, but my feeling is that composition (perhaps especially at this moment) is more than that. And in fact, many of the most exciting and innovative ways of composing are those that are not bounded by the walls (actual or metaphorical) of the classroom.
The driving force behind the #SINGItForJapan project was personal motivation. I can't say how many people were motivated by a desire to help the Japanese disaster relief and how many were motivated by the possibility of being noticed by their favorite band (I suspect a high percentage would answer both), but people wanted to participate in the project. So, despite the relatively short time frame, people contributed in much higher numbers than could be included in the video itself.
Much of what we've read this semester, and many of our discussions, have included to some extent, a consideration of how we might inspire this kind of motivation in our students. I have three main thoughts on this subject. First, and most pessimistically, I think no assignment can ever appeal to every student. We are bound, as are our students, by the limitations of the classroom. We must evaluate and we must assess. And I think there will always be students who, for any given assignment, will complete it only because we, the teachers, require it.
Second, more optimistically, I think there should be more consideration of extracurricular composition, particularly those that, like this project, seem to take full advantage of the affordances of new technology as well as motivating participation extremely effectively. Surely there is much to be learned from such a consideration about how we can reach students in ways that motivate them to compose authentically and from some kind of intrinsic motivation as opposed to solely the extrinsic motivation of receiving a grade.
Third, and finally, we have discussed whether "extracurriculum" is even the best term for these kinds of composing. Yes and no. When we wish to ask what connections we as scholars and teachers can make between these kinds of composing and our classrooms, then I think it's a productive term. But taken on its own, this video and all the various mechanisms surrounding it and its creation really have nothing to do with curriculum. It was created for entirely other purposes and with no reference to school of any kind.
In closing, I think a lyric from the song speaks to the future of composition studies and perhaps the academy more generally: "You've got to be what tomorrow needs."
References:
#SINGItForJapan Website
Guitarist Ray Toro's blog, where the original request and updates on the project are posted
Twitter account created to centralize updates and questions on the project