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Rhetor-in-residence

Total Eclipse of the Heart

9/26/2017

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I wanted to share a few 2017 Solar Eclipse VR videos with you - two were filmed here at Clemson. I love hearing the people in the background and seeing all of the embodiment - it is almost invigorating seeing yourself in a crowd in VR - isn't it? Keep in mind, the latest VR cameras will also have 360 sound. This offers more usability to the medium in that as a user you will be drawn towards the visual through aural cues. 

I took this one using a Fly 360. I like this camera because it uses only one lens...a super wide angle that is, I would argue better suited for shooting an eclipse. 

And this one, also filmed at Clemson, comes from the Columbia State University Coca Cola Space Science Center in Georgia. 

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So what am I doing with VR?

9/26/2017

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My work on the Clemson Ghost Tour examines the classic ethical concept of Aristotelian knowing, doing, making, and how this theory of being plays out in the context of Clemson University. In the ecological sense, our being is interconnected with myriad factors in different spaces and times, all leading up to the present experience of learning and making at Clemson University. My work is especially interested in the connection between technology and learning at Clemson University. While many philosophers are skeptical of technology, the reality is that we have passed a threshold in these last thirty-sixty years through which we can never return. We are forever changed by our technological practices, for better or worse. In fact, some of these same philosophers also see the potential for technology to help us better understand our relationality to other people and things. This project uses virtual reality camera technology to try to help make these connections between different times and places in hopes of discovering a more practical episteme that better serves our  present knowing-doing-making.
            The Savanah River Site and Par Pond are especially interesting in that the land, like us, has been affected by technology. While some of this has certainly been negative, there are also some very hopeful findings, especially in terms of ecological resilience. Healthy ecologies, whether at the SRS, or Clemson University require study, maintenance, and care. This is why my project connects to SRS.  
This project has been has been funded by a generous grant from the Clemson Humanities Hub. Additional equipment and assistance has been provided by the Clemson Center for Geospatial Technologies, Clemson Geopaths, the Clemson Center of Excellence, and Clemson CCIT.

Check out my intro below. You will need to view it in Google Chrome to access its VR features.
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A Good Day to be on a GeoPath

9/26/2017

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Sometimes it pays to ask. I was lucky enough to land a press pass to capture  VR images for my dissertation project, the Clemson Ghost Tour using my camera of choice, the 360 FLY. I wanted to share some of what I came up with from the day's shoot. I'll be posting soon. 
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"Look up, look down all around, hey satellite..."

9/17/2017

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I know, Dave Mathews lyrics really are lame, but in the 90s, having an extra DMB ticket was an automatic date for a geek like me. Had I only gotten into here, perhaps dating wouldn't have been so tough. 
 
Satellites are hot off the press! Check out an article in this week's New York Times Magazine about the Grace series of satellites and their role in the geosciences. The current Grace satellites are about to go offline - never skimp on quality name brand AAA batteries - and the replacements might not be ready before their demise. Any delay in orbiting  Grace's replacements will result in a data gap that will surely be a huge loss to science. 

What's great about this article is its exigency - its ability to convey a sense of urgency to its audience. As a reader, you will feel very scared about our current anti-science politics and the implications our current policies are having on us and our earth. Conveying exigency requires a savvy writer who can set an appropriate tone, in this case doom and gloom, without losing readers who might hold different values. Such articles are part of the important corpus of science writing geared towards general readers. 

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Seeing is Knowing?

9/13/2017

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Edward Burtynsky, Salinas #2, Cadiz, Spain, 2013
I first saw the work of Edward Burtynsky at a Canadian gallery around five years ago.
The images, large and small, pressed against me, held me in place, forced me to look,
to admire even, the terrible beauty that is of humankind's making. 

The literary critic Roland Barthes claimed to have been bored by landscapes. He preferred portraits and other human-focused stills. For Barthes, the photos worth looking at possessed something he called the punctum, what he called a "sting, speck, cut, little hole--a cat of the die." (Camera Lucida 27). The punctum disturbs, it lingers in dreams, it wounds. 

But for me, these pictures
linger also.
In this case, perhaps the punctum is
not in the smallness of a speck, 
but in each photo's infinitude. 

...these pict​ures want something from me... 

they enter my dreams. force me to acknowledge,
to know, to confess
that this making,
​is of my making also. 
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Edward Burtynsky, Shipbreaking # 13. Bangladesh 2000

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Edward Burtynsky. "Dryland Farming #7," Monegros County, Aragon, Spain, 2010
-Stevo Over and Out. 


Here is a nice article in the New Yorker if you you want to read more about Burtynski.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/19/edward-burtynskys-epic-landscapes

Sources

http://i2.cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/151119151814-edward-burtynsky-10-super-169.jpg

http://tasveerjournal.com/2013/05/13/shipbreaking/

http://v-e-n-u-e.com/Primary-Landscapes-An-Interview-with-Edward-Burtynsky

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System.out.println("Hello, World!");

9/7/2017

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Hello, World! My name is Stephen Quigley and I'm the Clemson Geopaths' rhetorician / artist-in-residence / something-or-other.  I'll be posting regularly to share what I'm doing with my composition classes, Clemson Geopaths, and my dissertation...entitled the Clemson Ghost Tour: Disrupting Stagnant Ecologies...more on that later. 

Why am I here? I want to help. I want to help you think about your research and how you might better connect with the public.

How'd I get here? For years I was a happy-go-lucky bicycle-commuting high school English, philosophy, creative writing teacher. But one day, I woke up and realized that the waters are rising and not enough of us are acting. Sure more and more of us are taking notice, but what are we doing about it? Instead of acting, we seem to be living in the present past, reproducing the same mistakes over and over again. How might we move into a way of being more focused on the present future?

So like I said, the waters are rising. As a rhetor, I think I'm in a unique position to help. As a rhetor, I'm always thinking about how I can use my writing, making, and teaching to help others think about the design of our world and how it, in-turn, designs us. But while our empiricism may help us unconceal the severity of our global situation, our communications must go a step further--are you ready?--they must help our audience realize their agency.

How do we do that?  I think this question should be the overarching goal of this blog: to seek out transformative examples of science communication. 

-Stevo



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    Author

    Stephen Quigley is a PhD student in Clemson
    RCID (Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design) He specializes in digital composition pedagogy and theory helping a wide range of individuals to communicate their message using digital tools.  

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  • Home
  • Activities
    • Geocaching & Other Activities >
      • Activity Map
      • Geo Docs
      • Ancient & Modern Environments
      • A River Runs Through It
      • Creepy Trees
      • Dam It
      • Death Valley
      • Don't Get Washed Away
      • If a Woodchuck Could Chuck Wood
      • It's All Your Fault
      • The Green Giant
      • There's Too Much Tension
      • Cemetery Weathering
      • GCX: Geologic Time
      • GCX: Hydrological Processes
      • Exploring Sea-Level Rise
    • Research >
      • Get Involved
      • Research Courses >
        • WISER CI - Fall 2016 >
          • WiSER CI Data Collection
        • Exploring Sustainability - Spring 2017
        • Exploring Sustainability - Fall 2017
        • Study Abroad
    • Geoscience Communication >
      • Communication Tools
      • Rhetor-in-Residence Blog
      • STEM Pop-Ups
      • Student Blog: We Probably Should've Waterproofed That
      • Clemson Earth Day Challenge >
        • 8 Days of Earth Day Challenge
        • Clemson Earth Day Challenge 2017
        • Application Guidelines
    • VR Experiences
  • Explore Geoscience
  • Who We Are
    • Contact Us
    • Industrial Affiliates