Week 2

Hello all,

Thanks for the feedback in your first minute papers.  As we go along, you may find it interesting to check out what your classmates are saying here at our group blog ( futurejamming.blogspot.com).  You also have the chance to comment to posts that anyone else makes (or augment, or clarify your own posts as you think more about them).  I encourage you to take advantage of these opportunities, as your minute papers / blog contributions count towards a significant chunk of your grade.  (Note that an updated syllabus will be available next week, with clearer breakdown of your work schedule during the semester.)

The first assignment, 600-900 words on "A day in my life in 02038", was due yesterday.  The next assignment, to be emailed to me (no attachments, please) before class this Tuesday 22 January, is 600-900 words on "My community in 02038".

There is no set reading in the syllabus for next week.  But, for those of you who would like to follow up on our introductory discussion of the "mental environment", here are links to the articles covered:
Terry Rossio, "Mental Real Estate", Screenwriting Column 42, Wordplay, 02000 (N.B., this online version is longer than the extract you were given)
Kevin Arnold, "Tragedy of the Mental Commons", Adbusters #51, Jan/Feb 02004

Have a great weekend,
Stuart

Minute Paper 1/17

Class was interesting today. Since we were able to meet new people in our introductions today, it will help in the future since we know these people a little and it won't be awkward to talk to them for a project or talking in a discussion. The two columns that we read in class today, i would say are slightly true if you think about what they both are saying. The first about Mental Real Estate and the other the Tragedy of the Mental Commons. They were both very interesting to read and think about.

Minute Paper 1/17/08

In class today the articles we read discussed some interesting points. The first article brought to light the idea of "mental real estate" and the ability of people to really stake their hold in a part of our brains. This made perfect sense to me, as it was clearly displayed that there are certain figures in entertainment who clearly have a stake in everyone's minds. Even just the notion of "Harry Potter" can bring forth an entire list of ideas and feelings about the story or characters. I found both of the readings to be pretty interesting and thought provoking.

Minute Paper 1/17

Today's class was quite enjoyable. It was nice to meet some new people from class and learn some interesting things about them. I personally liked the first article. The thought about "mental real estate" was really interesting because I never thought about that idea before. It was easy to relate to because it mentioned names that I heard of before. I didn't really understand how that was written for screen writers though. Overall today was a lot less embarrassing than the first day because it didn't involve any rapping. I barely had enogh time to do this blog because of work so I hope it comes out okay.

minute paper

I enjoyed class today and the group activity was fun. Both articles are
very interesting and it relayed opposite idea. I find Terry Rossio’s
“Mental Real Estate” column to be very interesting, because I never
would have figured or know how to describe or define what Mental Real
Estate is, but it is almost similar to, mind you, a game of
pictography. One word and you will automatically have a mental picture
of what that subject or object looks like. The idea of wordplay seems
really fun to take part in, and the way Terry Rossio described it
relates to the world of Hollywood and he calls it “Mental Real Estate.”
He used the elements, celebrities, and characters from Hollywood as the
basis and reference of his column, just to give his audience a ‘mental
picture’ of what Mental Real Estate means. It sort of correlates to
what we are doing in class, because of everyday issues that revolves
around us that we does not care about. "Tragedy of the Mental Commons"
reflects problems that we faced everyday that people never pay
attention to it.

Ruta Fogavai (via email)

minute paper.

Today in class, we did some pretty interesting stuff. I thought getting to knowing the neighbors were pretty fun thing to do. And the reading articles I received in class was a well written article by famous guy that got me real interested. I liked it because the author was displaying his point of view very clearly in most interesting way. I thought the term 'mental real estate' was something really interesting because I thought it was clever to name it like that. I once again realized the power of mental image people have on stuffs and how Hollywood can buy our mental real estate so easily with their products.
On second article, The author was talking about the 'tragedy of commons' I have heard of this term before on economy class and I have experienced it first hand by the experiment economy professor conducted. I think human will never come to fully understand this concept because even if some of us understand the concept, there will always be many others who would not care about others and try to take more. It really made me think how can we stop this destructive cycle that humanity is stuck in.

Minute Paper 1/17

In my personal opinion, today's two reading assignments combined to give an excellent illustration of the extremely commercial society that we live in. Both of the essays we covered in class today dealt with, if not in so many words, the simple fact that in today's world the promotion of products and ideas have reached a point where attempts to lay claim on part of our mental real estate have become nearly inescapable in both our mental and physical environments. Both essay touched on the subject of mental real estate and how people, products, and concepts stake claims on that mental property, but one thing that I found interesting about having our two in-class reading assignments physically separate was that it allowed us to have a better defined look at opposite sides of the battle that is constantly raging around us for a stake in the minds of us the consumers. In our first reading, "Wordplay", we where given a general look at the advertisers side and how they try to make themselves relevant and interesting enough to become a permanent part of our consciousness, this is in stark contrast to "Tragedy of the Mental Commons", in which we where given a look at the side of the consumer, through a pair of eyes other than our own, and at how the common spaces that we move through on a day-to-day basis have become massive marketing tools.

 

Mark Alexander                 

minute paper 01.17.08

i found both of todays articles very thought
provoking. the idea of mental real-estate and a
"commons of the mind" is a crazy one in the sense that
much of what we currently have stored in our minds is
not up to us. Yes, we as individuals get to decide how
much time we wish to allot to certain things, but much
of the information that is floating around in our
world waiting to make its way into our minds, was
placed there by someone to influence and affect us in
a certain way. There are an infinite amount of
possbilities for the information the we could
potentially have stored in our minds, yet everyone
has heard of britney spears, tom cruise, star wars,
johnson & johnson, etc. creating a commons of the
mind. This is because someone, somewhere, decided to
put that information out there to float around and
stake a claim on our mental real-estate, usually to
make some money. Its crazy to think about what kind of
things we would have on our mind and stored in our
brain if there was no such thing as advertising.

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Minute Paper for 1/17

Two things really struck me about today's class. The first thing was that all that mental space is being taken up, and yet we all seem to take it for granted that people know these things. The other thing that I really noticed was how opposite the views of the two readings were. On the one hand we had the writer teaching writers how to exploit the valuable "mental real estate." However, on the other hand in "Tragedy of the Mental Commons" we are acquainted with the view of such things being overly present, or our minds being "over-grazed." And even as I realize this, I sit here listening to music, letting the bands and songs make their own claim on my "mental real estate."

Andrew

Minute Paper 1/17/08

I thought that the concept of mental real estate to be very interesting. I never really thought about it the way the author of the article had put it, but now after reading it I realized that there are many useless information that are being stored mentally. For an example, you may hear about some celebrity you don't care for and immediately you automatically think about all the things she or he has done recently in the spotlight. It is funny to see the correlation between one person's name and all the detailed background information just to one name. I also thought that the article on the commons was interesting as well. The advertisement industry does use many clever ways in getting people's attention even as going far as plastering bus benches.

minute paper [1/17]

Both of the articles read in class today were really interesting. I thought that the "Mental Real Estate" article was especially thought-provoking because it was written in such a casual, friendly, easy-to-read way. After reading it, I thought to myself, "how true!" So many things take up my mental real estate just because they have been introduced to me through popular culture--movies, music, products, etc. I could probably be filling those prime lots with more useful information, like class lectures.
Unfortunately, we are such a consumer driven society that these things matter a great deal to us and we pay attention to them, whether it be what new movies are coming out or who is starring in one of the millions of new reality tv shows featuring already known celebrities (tila and bret michaels? come on!) Although we don't realize these useful bits of info are taking up hot real estate in our minds, they creep in there and can be recalled in an instant! Very sad, indeed..but at least it comes in handy during Trivial Pursuit 90's. :)

January 17, 2008- 1st minute paper

Todays class started off with another introductory exercise, which was quite entertaining. Then, we went on to read "Tragedy of the Mental Commons" and "Mental Real Estate." To be honest, I thoroughly enjoyed "Mental Real Estate" better for I found it somewhat enlightening, an interesting prospective on things. The idea that each person, place, or thing, etc, actually takes up, I suppose what would be considered a portion of your memory or thought process, to be able to visualize that in a physical sense, makes you really think about it. Think about the fact that somewhere in your head you have memorized, in some storage space in your memory, stuff like the names of thousands of people or places, and locations of destinations. Whether they be trivial things or urgently important, they're there, possibly taking up space that can no longer be used to store the list of dates you needed to memorize for your history final or something. That only a possibility, if the fact that each person only has a certain amount of brain or memory capacity, happens to be a true...of course. Actually, the instant I realized what the article was saying I recollected the idea of subliminal messages, used in commercials, movies, TV shows, etc, to lure our naive minds into buying (cause for obesity, diabetes, and countless other health problems) fast food, (get tired of it in a month or so) random junk, and other crap. Thus, I was reminded of my favorite book, Night Chills, written by my favorite author, Dean Koontz. So basically I was sitting in class reminiscing on how great and intellectually mind-boggling that novel was and so on. But yeah, class was...great! I'm now going to work on purging my mind of all the trivial things it contains so I can make room for English readings.....

1 Minute paper 1/17/2008

I think the correlation between advertising and our mentally capability to decide for ourselves is slowly coming down to what each individual chooses to do. whether that being to support a product,person, or franchise, etc...or to step back from the influences of television and the media who are constantly telling us what to eat,or whats good or whats bad and to make decisions on our own.Our country is in a turmoil where everywhere you look you see a billboard advertising Victory secret, or every magazine cover telling us that Britney Spears cant take care of her children. I dont care about these thing but our social system has made this Hollywood lifestyle envyable.

minutemen post #1 1-17

Today the readings were thought provoking. I enjoy reading articles that challenge ideas and actions that are commonly accepted as 'just the way things are.' The first article, "Mental Real Estate," was an interesting point of view to take on advertising and the media's influence on our thoughts. However, I don't necessarily see mining for mental real estate as a negative thing. Company's, people, or animals can vie for mental real estate all they want, but if a person does not want to engage they can separate themselves from a majority of conventional forms of media; such as television, radio, art, etc. I think most people aren't motivated enough to seek out things that will interest them and they allow their 'mental real estate' to be taken over by large or small corporations seeking followers.
The ' Tragedy of the Commons' was also an interesting read that I thought made a few good points, but ultimately I do feel as though people should be held responsible for the way they choose to be or not to be influenced.
thank you, virginia*

minute paper

Mental real estate and mental commons... The word mental comes up a lot. we are talking about things that are in our own minds. it scares me that we have lost control of what is fed into our thoughts. there are so many unpleasant and unnecessary inputs that we cannot avoid. just as it says below, i don't want to know about brittany spears, but its not my choice... the advertisers really are getting desperate. i feel like the ad campaigns, especially the ones that target my age group are taking advantage of us. aaah i love consumer culture... its just an overload of information at this point. desensitization is a word that come up for me... or numb. makes me wonder why my attention is focused where it is right now. Prof Candy mentioned the word consciousness. i guess we should keep consciousness in mind...

homework minute paper 1/17

Today in class we discussed mental real estate, and how the bombardment of advertising and the media occupies precious space in our mind. I agree with the articals, and even though i feel that i am the least affected and threatened by this phenomenon i wish that i could have a moment of true clarity and unraped thought. I would like to learn more on how i can achieve this clarity and practice pure self enlightenment.

minute paper 1/17

I thought both of the articles that we read in class today were very interesting. In regards to Mental Real Estate, i thought the concept was very easy to grasp and relate to. It made me, personally, think about what has been marked as mental real estate in my mind and why, along with what hasn't really been marked as mental real estate. The example of well-known actors and unknown screenwriters and directors was a great example of how this can be true for an entire group of people.
The article about the tragedy of the commons was an interesting perspective. I thought the point about people losing capacity to focus and losing mental clarity due to the need to progress was a very good point to bring to light.

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Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.

One Minute Paper 1/17

Today in class we learned about mental real estate... how it is basically a spot in your brain where if something or someone is mentioned, you will recognize what it is. I found that article really interesting. I also thought it was interesting how Stuart did the example of that with the whole class... where he named off famous people. One thing that was sort of confusing to me about this class was the second article that we went over (Tragedy Of The Commons). I didnt really understand what they really meant about the commons.

minute paper Jan 17 2008

THe mental real estate is an amazing concept. But I don't think it is
completely true. In the example of LOST, we know the name and that it
is filmed in Hawai'i but that is about it, well for me at least. Even
those famous characters real names dont stick in my mind, i only know
them as what they go by on the show. I dont know if that makes any
sense. I just thought the concept was a little flawed. okay. Thanks!

1 minute paper 1/17

Today, in class we learned about mental realestate. We learned how our society, uses just about anything and everything to publish advertisement, and to fill our "mental realestate," with advertisements. The first article was pretty self explanitory, and we did a study in our class, where Prof. Stuart, would ask us a variety of question, and we would raise our hands if we had heard about it. For example he said Jennifer Gardner, and the whole class raised their hand, but then he said J.J. something and nobody raised their hand, because J.J was a producer of a show. The second article basically talked about how we are losing the common ground, because the advertisors need space to advertise what they are trying to sell. In doing this billboards, are put up and natural ground and common ground is being lost. In conclusion, todays, class was not only interesting, but was an "eye opener," as well.

Minute paper 1/17

01/17/2008

Today's class was certainly interesting. I didn't realize that such things were happening on a subconscious level. The example that was used for seeing a man with a bandanna on his head really did seem true. In the world we live in today, we begin to associate things with others. Using the example provided in the reading, the man wearing the bandanna is easily associated with gang related actions because of the things we know about gangs from movies, tv shows, the news, and such. Another thing that I thought was interesting was what Hannah brought up in class about how big corporations were trying to make money off of our mental real estate. Which is quite true if you consider the fact that in today's world, commercials are a thing of a past. Hardly anyone reads the newspaper, we now have DVR to record the shows we want to watch and fast forward through the commercials, and we also have commercial-free radio. These big corporations are getting desperate to selling their products because of the fact rarely anyone is paying attention to the old ways of advertising. The only way to get things to sell is to "rent out" a spot in our mental real estate in order to grab our attention and advertise through word-of-mouth. I would really like to find out more about this mental real estate because I'm a Psych major and find that this topic is quite interesting.

- Ry

Adam Barker Minuet Paper 1/17/08

In the first paragraph of Tragedy Of The Mental Commons Kevin Arnold is
talking about an advertisment that was on a bus, and how it infiltrated
his mind before he could react and chose if he wanted that information
in his mind or not.
When I read this I started thinking about how much I dislike knowing
what happens in Britney Spears' life. I know what Britney Spears is
doing because I buy my food at a grocery store. Everytime I go to the
check out stand I am bombarded by an update of Britney Spears' twisted
life. If I had a choice I wouldn't even know Britney Spears existed,
but since I watch TV, listen to the Radio, and buy food I know all
about her. I have never met Britney Spears, and yet I know who she
married, that she got tired of having hair on her head, she's been to
rehab, divorced, lost kids, met with Dr. Phil, and the list goes on. So
I relate to what Kevin Arnold is talking about.

Minute paper 1/17

This class was amazing.

Getting started

Hi everyone,

Here's a quick reminder of what's required for our next session, Thursday morning.

First, sign up as a contributor to the class blog ( alternativity), which requires you to have a google account.  I'm sending you an invitation this afternoon to join as an author.  If you don't have a google account, you'll need to sign up for one.  It's free.  We'll talk more about what the blog is for -- but becoming an author is all you need to worry about for now.

Second, produce a paper of 600-900 words (which is 2-3 pages of double spaced text in 12 pt font, if you're composing it that way) on "A day in my life in 02038".  I'll explain the zero before the year, at our next meeting.  It doesn't affect the assignment -- which is to simply describe a scenario of a day in your own life thirty years from now.  That needs to be *emailed* to me any time between now and the start of class this Thursday, 17 January.  Regular email will be fine, although if you prefer, you could send it as a word doc or pdf attachment instead.  Include your full name, email address, and UH student number (8 digits) at the top, please.

Third, and this is just a heads up: from now on, you'll need to produce after each class a "minute paper" -- a quick paragraph in response to that class.  It needs to posted to the blog by midnight on that day.  Tell me what you learned (what was new to you), and what you would like to examine or discuss further, either because you found it interesting, or confusing, or unclear (whatever).  Any other observations (for example, things that the class made you think about or that troubled you) are also welcome.  I will say more about how to post these when we meet.

Again, you don't need to do a minute paper for today's class -- just focus on items one and two, for now.

One more thing. My office is in Saunders Hall, room 632 (that's the sixth floor).  I'm there every day.  Please email me if you'd like to arrange an appointment for any reason, at least a day in advance would be best.  The office phone number is 956-2888, but email is preferred.  (Emergency or drop-in visits are welcome too -- my door is always open, in principle -- but you'd be running the risk of coming all that way only to find that I'm not available.)

Thanks for your participation today, I'm looking forward to a great semester with you all.

See you Thursday,
Stuart

Other worlds are possible