The Tree and the Planets of the Digital Age

I've been playing around with several ideas in regards to creating a visual element for my topic (what is the primary text?)  With the help of my cohort (Emily and Whitney) and my professor, I have heard a couple that I rather like.
ONE:  The Tree
Think of a tree, and the base of the tree as long as the printing press had been around, was the "primary text" in its traditional sense-->the original textual piece of literature.  Everything else stemmed from that core, that center.

With the emergence of the digital age, that base has been changed.  Well, let's say moved.  Literature has moved up and out and has become an appendage (a branch).  What is at the core you ask?  What is holding this tree together?  An idea, a truth, a piece of beauty and humanity that Hugo said was encompassed, during the Middle Ages, in architecture (see my previous post).  That architecture became an appendage when literature kicked it out of its place, and now literature is moving out of the center, too.  It resides as a branch, along with architecture, art, and all these other mediums (audiobooks, blogs, movies, drama, opera, musicals, comic books, foreign translations, you name it).  These are all branches that link back to this embodiment of humanity at the core.  The more the art work represents this idea of humanity, the closer it is to the trunk, but no one medium exemplifies and embodies all these truths any longer.

TWO:  Dynamic Solar System (contribution of Dr. Burton)
Ok, with that vision in mind, let us "boldly go" out to space next.
We have the solar system, with the sun in the middle and all the planets rotating around this center of gravity, all on the same plane.  The sun representing literature (as it once was), and the planets representing all the other mediums aforementioned).

I propose that the digital age has taken that center of gravity and has made it moveable.  Sure, at one point, everything revolves around literature, but depending on your purpose and aim, that center of gravity to change to film, and everything revolves around that medium, or music, or drama.  Different "planets" get their turn in the spotlight.  The orbital system becomes dynamic.  All these modes become a primary text in their turn.

I'm trying to come up with a way to actually make these ideas into an animation, but I will need the assistance of someone much more technologically savvy than myself.
Tell me what you think!

My Experience With a Webinar

I wanted to write about my experience listening to my first webinar.  I listened to Steve Hargadon's webinar with Mark Bauerlein entitled:  "Mark Bauerlein on Arguments for and Against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking."

I liked the set up Hargadon had.  He would show occasional pictures as he and Bauerlein would talk. He showed a picture of a world map and had all listeners put a star next to where they were tuning in from.  It was really cool.  There were people in China, Korea, Australia, Singapore, and all over the US listening to this webinar.  There was also a chat feature set up so anyone could chime in and say what they were thinking about the speaker, or whatever.  There were so many layers of information being presented.  Many people put up links to what the speakers were talking about, or to their own blogs or research, etc.

As amazing as it all was, it was hard to try to wrap my head around all the different layers of conversation that were going on.  I would be paying attention to what people were chatting and totally miss what the speaker was actually talking about, and then I would go to one of the links and again lose the conversation.  If I could go back, I would have prepared myself a little better for that part.

One really interesting thing I saw was that there was a lot more hesitation with merging traditional literature and social/digital media than I originally anticipated from those listening to a webinar.  There was a lot of talk about the psychology behind reading a physical book you hold in your hand vs. looking at a computer/ebook screen.  I had thought everyone would be avid digital literacy advocates and liberal with the world of technology and literature, but there were a lot of conservative comments made on the subject, which was surprising.

All in all, it was a really great experience to be involved in a live webinar, chatting with people from all over the world.  I wish I had been on the ball enough to connect with some of the people participating, but I was too absorbed in trying to find my way through all those layers of information to add yet another layer of social networking.  I would definitely recommend that anyone participate in a webinar, if only to have the experience.