As one effect of the current global pandemic, teachers and professors across the world have moved their classes online. Namwali Serpell recently reinvigorated the notion of remote-teaching by “tweaching” — tweeting a lecture for a course she is currently teaching at the University of California-Berkeley, ENGL 145: Writing Technology.
Update: I twaught. https://t.co/HdjpdWCi31 https://t.co/3steOIrWe7
— Namwali Serpell (@namwalien) April 22, 2020
According to the course’s Twitter profile, ENGL 145 is about “essays, stories, novels, films, and television shows that speculate about current, alternative, dystopian, and future technologies.” The lecture Serpell tweeted was titled “The Sublime and The Zany: A Twitterish Lecture on the Aesthetics of the Network.”
The technical histories of the internet, the world wide web, and social networking are, well, Googleable. So, I want to focus on the figures, implications, and affordances of the NETWORK. How do we talk about and use this predominant twenty-first century digital technology? (2/)
— English 145 Writing Technology (@145Techno) April 20, 2020
We implicitly distinguish a network from other organizational structures in certain ways. Unlike a binary system, a network is multiple. Unlike a hierarchy, a network is horizontal. Unlike a mass, a network implies separation. Unlike a scatter, a network implies connection. (4/)
— English 145 Writing Technology (@145Techno) April 20, 2020
And these figures for the network have implications for how we conceive of ourselves: our bodies, minds, and societies. In her essay, “Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers,” N. Katherine Hayles explains: (6/) pic.twitter.com/tmUuESxIfA
— English 145 Writing Technology (@145Techno) April 20, 2020
Serpell explained that she prepped the tweet thread in a Word document, and while it “took longer than a lecture script,” it was “shorter than prepping a PowerPoint.”
Haha, no, I prepped in a Word document. (Created a key command for word count and noted images I wanted to attach). I broke it into twelve 5-12 tweet threads, then sent them in those groups every 5 minutes. It took longer than a lecture script, shorter than prepping a PowerPoint. pic.twitter.com/zT8Z4if1wc
— Namwali Serpell (@namwalien) April 22, 2020
Serpell’s “tweaching” is a brilliant exploitation of a social media platform’s capabilities that puts to work the very idea of “writing technologies.” Perhaps we will see more “tweaching” in the future?
For the full lecture Serpell “twaught,” which spans 75 tweets, click here.
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