A word cloud showing top 100 popular words from a set of texts

Diving in the RIDE Blog: Indexing Avatar & Identity

The RIDE Blog connects the ideas of avatar and identity with many different aspects of incarnation and affinities. The following entries went deep to unwrap the associations. Here is just a glimpse—only five among MANY words that are being seen and used from different lights. They open innumerable possibilities. Consider this as a database and…

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RIDE in a Nutshell: A Blog Content Review

The Rhetoric in Digital Environments (RIDE) blog has facilitated thoughtful discussions and critiques around rhetorical concepts in digital spaces over the course of this semester. A diverse range of topics have been covered across different categories. This entry is a review of all the categories that summarize the correlational critical contents that have been submitted…

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Mashup Mirror: A Funhouse Index of Attention

Come one, come all, to the mashup mirror—and get lost in the discursive journey of your reflection. As a response to Brown, Jr.’s call for a “mashup” approach to composing as a “matter of tuning the dial appropriately” and finding synergy between scholê and dromos (89); and Ridolfo and DeVoss’ call to consider how “rhetorical…

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The Truman Show Embedded in our Reality of Smart Homes: Will We Be Held Captive Like Truman Burbanks?

        The concept of smart homes as modern panopticons and surveillance mechanisms is a thought-provoking perspective that raises concerns about the privacy and security implications of connected technologies within our living spaces. Han (2022) says that Google presents the interconnected smart home of the future as an “electric orchestra” with the resident as a “conductor” (5)….

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Narrative Ecologies: A Living Landscape Between Hyper and Deep Attention?

In response to Hayles, Ed Folsom discusses the interplay of narrative and database, noting that the most powerful narratives become like databases in themselves, their plethora of meanings and throughways—like the Garden of Forking Paths—always exceeding any singular account/interpretation. Notably, Hayles positions narrative as a potential “common ground between hyper and deep attention” (197).  If…

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