último proyecto de mi vídeo*

¡otra vez!

video creation.....a BIG FAT collage!

Howdy! Hope all is well in blogger land :D A note about the video in my previous post...

If you have never created a video before let me tell you, it is SO FUN! Although it can take a lot of time there is a system to it, as I am learning, and if you are a seasoned internet surfer you are already one step ahead of the gang. I learned in the process of making this video that having background knowledge about the internet and its wealth of knowledge can make collecting materials a tad bit easier. I have also learned that my issues with being verbose definitely carry over into video world...I found creating detailed story boards (with paper and pencil ;P) to be very helpful. For some videos it may work to just start putting things together but my personal experience was that I spent a lot of time looking with nothing to guide my search. It does help, of course, to browse the internet and other sources for materials that are available prior to the storyboard because it will give you ideas and hopefully spark something grand ;) Browsing (and collecting while you do so) is also great for loading your arsenal of amazing things to piece together your message with; something that you find interesting but you think may not be useful could very well be...you just don't know it yet! Other than technological issues (e.g. lighting & organization) these were the main things I took from this draft. Most importantly, allow the video to ebb & flow as you go through the process...keeping rigid guidelines will only hold you back!

This particular video is the first part of a larger more comprehensive video looking at theory (i.e. symbolic interactionism, looking glass self, and media ecology), development of technology/media, impact of written media and the history of anonymity as an aesthetic ideal and a cultural motif. With this first part I was hoping to shed light on the fact that symbols are more than we tend to think they are, from complex to simple, symbols are how we create our world. Understanding symbols in this role is essential to understanding everything else in my video. We communicate through symbols, construct our identities through symbols and since symbols are subject to interpretation there are endless possibilities for the creation of "the self" and how others respond to it. Enjoy*

What I'll do differently? For the final I will cut down this part on symbols, leaving enough to emphasize my point of course ;) I would also clean up the images and make them flow a little better, using the timing to highlight parts of the message (which I kinda did here but now that it's done I see room for improvement :) The "Lego scene" will have to be shot again due to the low quality most likely caused my bad lighting. When I shoot it again I will have better organization skills and hopefully a bigger table so that there is some consistency with how objects enter and exit (this will also for better effects when editing). The audio is in need of much help...the two main things are that I need to come up with a delivery method that doesn't sound so scripted (there are lots of quotes I was reading) and I need to incorporate verbiage using the word symbol so that the first part is better connected to this part. Any other suggestions kids?

THANKS!

"a digital ethnography of everything!"

(get it..."a digital ethnography of everything" because everything is a symbol and symbols are everything? taahaa!)*

video script to the best of my ability ;)

As indicated by my previous post, a new dimension has been added to my project piece...THEORY! woohoo \(^o^)/ This is definitely exciting because I love theory and find it essential to understanding anthropological works (amongst many other things ;) and I am happy to see that our project will now have this valuable component. While at the same time I am a tad bit overwhelmed at picking up such a loaded topic more than half way through the semester. As of right now I am currently undertaking two tasks simultaneously (i.e. gaining a better understanding of the relevant theories while at the same time determining how to share them through video format...with a vast audience...comprised of varying backgrounds). What I have included in this post is an extremely rough draft of where I see this video heading as of now. It lacks the details of a typical video sketch but it is my hope that it still paints a picture of the approach I am taking; keeping in mind it is difficult for me to know what imagery I want to use right now because I don't have a firm grasp on all of the theories just yet.

A quick note to help you make sense of my video sketch: Basically what I have been doing is gathering as much data as possible regarding the theories I'm covering (i.e. "looking glass self" & media ecology) as well as other relevant data such as historical references to anonymity as an "aesthetic ideal" and a "cultural motif". I have been toggling between this and gathering tools to make the video. Ranging from a multitude of audio/video clips, sound effects, music, and the like I hope to compile a video that pulls from these different areas (and more) to present each message in the most effective way possible. It is my intention to pool as many of these resources as possible so that over the next couple weeks I can manipulate it in a fashion that is well suited for my project piece.

Introduce "Symbolic Interactionism"

• As an opening scene this section will be colorful, energetic, and move quickly (but not too quickly ;)
• Taken directly from the three bullet points in the previous post under the "symbolic interactionism" heading.
• Using well known concepts of symbols prominent in Western culture (e.g. good/bad, ketchup/mustard, smiley face, heart, @ symbol, green check marks/red X's, etc.) I want to highlight this concept at the beginning here so the rest of my project piece, especially the theory, is not done in vain.
• A short portion of my project piece, this will be represented by the audio/image/video that I am able to find to support the message. I will be looking for audio/imagery/video that is playful and can present the message in a light hearted way, before I hit them with the theory.
  
• The lead in to the next section will go something like this: "Our communication and understanding of the world through symbols penetrates every aspect of our lives, we can't escape it. One area that is most relevant to us is how we use it to communicate with others. This has a host of implications that are often overlooked in the buzz of our every day lives."
  

Cooley's "Looking Glass Self"
Mead's "The Self As A Social Emergent"

• These two sections will be demonstrated using the common craft style so that the profoundness of the message does not get lost within the media presenting it
  
• Materials used will include "stick figure" drawings and a few other simple illustrations compliments of Microsoft clip art (e.g. mirror, props to represent development of self, etc.)
• The ideas presented in the previous post under Cooley/Mead's section will be the guiding framework.
• This section will begin with a blank tabletop and a simple voice over.
  
• One individual stick figure slides onto the table top` "This is you. But you don't know it's you. In order to know who you are there has to be other individuals around you."
• Other individuals slide onto the table. Voice over continues as each individual is 'given' a mirror` "Each individual that you interact with serves as a mirror, which bounces back the perceptions you assume others have about you."
  
• Cut to 1st individual alone again with thought cloud. Inside thought cloud simple illustrations of what people say about him/her. '
  
• "From these assumptions you begin to build your individual self" Shot of individual dressing up/acquiring props to define who they are as a person. '
• Mead's ideas of "generalize other" and "I"/"me" will also be incorporated in the same fashion to provide more detail to the skeleton above. I still need to pull out the main points to keep this portion clear, concise and effective. This will come to me as I continue my research on this portion of the video.
• Lead in will happen at the end of this section to Media Ecology theory.
• Shot fills with the 1st individual and piles up with the many individuals that he/she ends up interacting with to create his/her self. ` "How do you do this, though? How do you interact with others in a way that is meaningful enough to produce such profound change on your human existence?"
• Voice over continues as the people spread out and diminish as to represent only one social interaction taking place at a time. Props are added to the frame to represent various types of media (i.e. phones, letters, bicycles, etc).` "You produce meaningful social interaction through the use of media. This media is represented by both the simple and the complex. Anything that fosters relations may be considered media." Individuals leave frame and more types of media inllustrations enter (writing, airplanes, radio, TV, roads, factories/assembly line, computers).
• [Transition to different style could happen here. I can't decide if I should keep the common craft style or move into a different style using imagery found on the web and video/audio clips ]
  

Introduce Media Ecology
Media's Biases
Bring It Back To Cooley & Mead

• Keeping with the idea of a new style for this section, I plan to use a lot of audio clips from Marshall Mcluhan and Terrence McKenna amongst a few other random people I found through YouTube videos. The exact audio is unknown as I need to filter through the many minutes to find exactly what encompasses the message I want to present.
• The main idea here will lead in from the last voice over "Anything that fosters relations may be considered media." And this will begin with the idea that media function as environments, using video clips to represent this by making analogies between media environments and environments as we are more used to thinking of them. If audio to suit this in unable to be found simple text may serve the purpose of introducing this idea.
• This will lead into the biases of media. This part is tricky right now because it is one I am still trying to mentally grasp. As of right now I think it is important for each bias (i.e. intellectual/emotional, spatial/temporal/sensory/, political, social, metaphysical, and content) to be presented in the simplest way possible. It is my hope that these ideas can be represented through imagery with "talking head(s)" laid over it. I think the best way to obtain this audio in the form I want it will be through individual conversations with classmates, Professor Wesch, and personal friends.
• After these images and audio are compiled I want to bring it back to Cooley and Mead's ideas by doing a fast forward of the imagery/audio used, fast forward through some of the social interaction taking place between the stick figures, and freeze on the 1st individual there all alone once again on the blank table top. During this fast forward the audio will say something related to "All of these biases together add up to different epistemological biases and different ways of relating to one another. Since we know ourselves through our relationships with others, new media create new ways of knowing each other and therefore ourselves."
  

Other Cultural Factors?

• More data needed here to formulate how to relay this message. Most likely finding video footage of cultural relativism in action, that people can relate to and are somewhat familiar with, would be most effective for demonstrating that our project is accounting for this.
• This section will be short and sweet delivering the message of cultural relativism quickly while still allowing the viewer to ponder the idea that the circumstance we are presenting are variable depending on the context.
• I feel this section will be most effective if done with bold imagery and simple text.
  

Introduce Technology

• Introduction of technology is best demonstrated by what is familiar (e.g. assembly line, cell phones, computers) and then moves into technology as people don't usually think of it (e.g. politics, religion, etc.)
• As another connecting section, I want to incorporate the same idea of moving quickly with bold images and simple text.
  
• Getting across the point that these things (i.e. religion, politics, etc) are also media and that they are extremely important to consider when trying to see how media influences cultural change.
  
• Leading in from the previous section of cultural relativism it will be helpful to demonstrate this "other" type of technology/media as it relates to multiple cultures. Showing numerous images/videos that demonstrate the technology/media and the cultural change that followed.
  
• Nazi Germany and the techno/media used by Hitler and the nationalism it produced. The Industrial Revolution across Europe and how media such as the assemble line/mass production resulted in profound cultural changes economically and socially. The Renaissance and impact the printing press had on revolutionizing scholarship with its "typographical fixity".
• More examples will included but the latter will remain the latter so that it gives a lead into the next bit on written media.

Medium Of Writing: The 1st "Context Collapse"

• Leading into the next bit on written media I will use the Renaissance to put the spotlight on the medium of print (I will also discuss writing in general but the focus is on print).
• To depict this portion of the project I want to use "talking heads"/audio/images/video
• I will first present the idea of writing creating the possibility for the communicator to be separated from the communicated and thus allowing for a collapse in context.
  
• The concept of "context collapse" will be illustrated here using visuals of face-to-face interaction and pointing out the "herculean social calculations [made] almost unconsciously in the micro-second gaps of communication..." This can be accomplished by playing a video then freezing it on a frame and using editing tools to draw little pointers & add text to define how communicators are using the context to make adjustments to how they are presenting themselves in the interaction. Doing this two to three times for a given video (I will probably only use 1, maybe 2) and using the freeze frames not only to point out how they use context but also to predict how they will adjust accordingly. For this reason very basic, stereotypical interactions will be used (e.g. girlfriend catching boyfriend kissing another girl and him trying to weasel his way out of it).
• Leading in with this idea of using context to adjust the tone of a given interaction then presenting the idea of it collapsing by keeping the last frame frozen and having it shatter and the pieces fall to the bottom of the screen.
• After the screen shatters I am considering having the word "ANONYMOUS" or "ANONYMITY" being what is left behind with a voice over "leaving us with the ability to be anonymous".
• Highlight how printed items, and this ability to be anonymous, gave rise to the idea of "authorship".
• This may be a good place to throw some footage of the printing press in really quick like to demonstrate the exponential increase of sharing ideas across time and place. Nothing special, just some video clips/imagery of the printing press, what it produced, and who was taking advantage of it with voice over about the concept of this exponential increase.
• This is a good lead in for anonymity as an "aesthetic ideal"
  

Anonymous Communication As Expression: The "Aesthetic Ideal"

• Voice over: "With the increased ability to share information and ideas some sought the refuge of anonymity to express beliefs that fell outside the social norms. Others sought anonymity for different reasons." Jump to images that support different reasons.
• Using a similar idea to my tag cloud with the zoom in effect to depict the different reasons why anonymity becomes an "aesthetic ideal" and incorporating other images relating to the words in the tag cloud.
  
• This may run over a bit from uses of anonymity for good/bad so this will be determined once production has reached this point. It may be more effective to be brief in the earlier section and save being more explicit for this section.
  
• Using images of written works that went the opposite direction of anonymous expression (i.e. authorship) to demonstrate drop off in anonymous writings seen in the 20th century.
• Revitalization in "authorship" and recognition comes in opposition to the "aesthetic ideal" and this can be show as mentioned above in a format that at first balances the amount of the two and moving into the late 19th century begins to drop off in terms of anonymous writings. I want to figure out a way to make my own "graph" of sorts that is positioned above a time line and as the voice over talks about this drop off we can visually see it as the graph adjusts according to the time period.
• "What is essentially happening here is a shift from anonymity to individuality. What is more interesting than the shift in and of itself is the driving force behind it." BAM! Hit em' with a big fat image of modernity...most likely a stereo typical image of the Industrial Revolution (IR) (as a lead in to the following section).
  

Modernity = Increased Anonymity

• Images of cogs in the machine, large factories, mass amounts of people filing into buildings, assembly lines and the like create a feel for what was happening during this time period. No audible or visible words, just powerful music that encompasses the feel of the Industrial Revolution.
• Fade in with random voice overs regarding the IR and its many "virtues".
• So there is an opposition going on here...the voice overs are talking about how "wonderful" the IR is and how it will help society achieve progress while the video and imagery are saying the opposite, they are emphasizing a "forced anonymity"...anonymity as a "cultural motif"
  
• As music gets quieter and random voice overs fade out there is a fading in of what the IR has brought in terms of an increasing sense of anonymity. Most likely this will be conversations I have collected myself and they will explicitly talk about the lack of recognition individuals get when they are constituents of mass production.
• The quote from Henry Seidel Canby describing the longing for “escape from the deadly anonymity of modern life,” which generates the, “passion for nonanonymity” in the “general man who feels his personality sinking lower and lower into the whirl of indistinguishable atoms to be lost in a mass civilization.” is more than appropriate here.
• This pervasive experience of anonymity will be contrasted with the choice to express one's self anonymously, thus demonstrating the desire for individual expression. How to do this...not quite sure yet, I'm thinking repetition of what has led up to this point (i.e. images used to depict how anonymity was initially embraced, voice overs, etc.) in a mash up to demonstrate the conflict between authorship and anonymity as an “aesthetic ideal”.
• Slow fade in and out of text "Many authors confront this anonymity by seeking fame and recognition."
  
• fame & recognition = individuality
  

Individualism
Anonymity As An Experience: The "Cultural Motif"

• Voice over: "Individuality had already been increasing with the invention of the printing press," (making reference to 1.123 [social biases based on different types of social situations created by physical form ] and the ability of print to increase a sense of individualism. Imagery depicting solitary individuals reading printed materials and jumping to their thought processes resulting from this. Possibly different scenes related to whatever they're reading and withing each one emphasizing the "ME" mind-set by adding simple text to the image "ME here?", "How do I feel about this?", "Does this affect ME?", etc.
• Quick depiction of fundamental differences between "categorical" thought of writing and face-2-face interaction. Something here with still images flipping back and forth from written communication>F2F. Mostly images focusing on solitude and relationships.
• Come back to idea of anonymity as a "cultural motif" via the isolation of the IR. (i.e. work more, media of assembly line is biased towards individual focus and communication that serves as a means of production, not relation) Depicted via the images from IR introduction and then slowly phase into how people are combating this...so a movement of imagery from the "cultural motif" to the coping mechanisms. I am debating whether I want to stick to my large expanse of historical time periods or if I should use this as a segway [am I using this word correctly?] into the rest of our project. I am leaning towards the latter because I think it would be a good transition but I am going to peek at what kevinmonster is doing over there :P
  

brief outline of what my video wants to be when it grows up`

Identity Formation:

-Symbolic Interactionism

• Kenneth Plummer notes: What distinguishes humans is their extensive and creative use of communication through symbols. At one level symbols may seem fixed, but the symbolic interaction perspective emphasizes the shifting, flexible, and creative manner in which humans use symbols.

• Herbert Blumer's (1969) influential summary: People act toward things based on the meaning those things have for them; and these meanings are derived from social interaction and modified through interpretation.
• Thus, human interaction is mediated by the use of symbols, by interpretation, or by ascertaining the meaning of one another's actions, therefore "defining" each other's actions instead of merely reacting to each other's actions

-Charles Horton Cooley's "looking glass self"(1902)

1. We imagine how we must appear to others.
2. We imagine the judgment of that appearance.
3. We develop our self through the judgments of others.

• "...a person's self grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others...society is an interweaving and interworking of mental selves."
• Gordon Marshall (1998) reiterates Cooley: "Just like the reflections in a mirror, the self depends on the perceived responses of others."
  

-George Herbert Mead's "generalized other" & "I"/"me"

• "The self is something which has a development; it is not initially there, at birth, but arises in the process of social experience and activity, that is, develops in the given individual as a result of his relations to that process as a whole and to other individuals within that process"
• "taking the role of the other": a means of self-actualization and development of empathy for others
• the "generalized other": "an organized and generalized attitude" (Mead 1934) with reference to which the individual defines their own conduct.
• The "me" is the social self, and the "I" is a response to the "me"

Media Ecology:

-Media as environments (Casey M.K. Lum)

• 
  

-How media shapes social relationships (Joshua Meyrowitz)

Anonymity as a "cultural motif":

-Affect of the Industrial Revolution
-Idea of forced anonymity

text version of my project piece...(the real deal ;)

Human beings have the ever so complicated predisposition of being aware of their existence. Whether this is seen as a blessing or a curse is up to individual determination and even that varies depending on a host of factors (place and time, culture, pre/post daily coffee ;). It is safe to say, though, humans have pondered their existence for hundreds of years and continue to do so in ways that are congruent with the time, place and culture in which they are operating. As basic needs are accounted for (i.e. food, shelter and overall security) more time and mental energy are available for people to questions their existence and attempt to make sense of what it means to be human.

At the core of human existence is the individual. There seems to be a common tendency for individuals to seek out their place within the larger whole, whether consistent with or in opposition to, and identifying oneself is central to this desire. In the same sense, whenever we look at society and the resulting social behavior we are also looking at its constituent parts, individuals. In regards to this “corporate behavior” Ruth Benedict says, “It is the world with which each person is severally presented, the world from which he must make his individual life” (Benedict, 1934, p. 251). It is the fashioning of this individual life that calls for the need to create one’s own unique identity.

Identity has become a buzz word today in the field of anthropology and with good reason. The word has been designated to carry a hefty load and is bound to be used in the multi-purpose fashion it’s inclined to. Webster’s Dictionary describes it for our purposes as “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual: individuality; the relation established by psychological identification.” Dictionary.com defines it as “the condition of being oneself or itself, and not another.” Simply put, and a bit more applicable here, identity is the way(s) in which a person is, or wishes to be, known by certain others (Cohen, 1993, p. 195). This last definition is most appropriate because it alludes to the fact that identity is dynamic and doesn’t necessarily reveal a truthful representation and it also accounts for the fact that specificity matters when dealing with who is witnessing this identity.

Two components are of utmost importance when discussing identity and how it is created and upheld by individuals: culture and symbols. In his 1993 article, Cohen describes the two ideally as “the means by which we make meaning and with which we make the world meaningful to ourselves” and “inherently meaningless, pragmatic devices which are invested with meaning through social processes of one kind or another,” respectively. He goes on to say that symbols are the vehicles of culture and that they are potent resources in the arena of identity because culture is represented as identity through symbols: simple in form, complex in substance because of their malleability, imprecision, and multivocality (p. 201). These descriptions depict for us why identity is such a dynamic entity and they set the stage for our discussion of the complex relationship between identity and anonymity.

The Structuralist belief of binary opposition is appropriate in our
discussion because identity and anonymity can be viewed as such. While binary opposites assist us in organizing human thought, a bias is often present, giving privilege to one term over the other. In general, throughout history and in the present, anonymity has been the one to obtain a negative reputation. The reasons for this vary but an association of anonymity with socially “unacceptable” behavior (as defined by society) and the mere fact that people often fear the unknown, are at the top of the list for putting anonymity on the negative side of the fence.

Some of the earliest examples of how identity has been privileged historically can be linked not with identity as a subjective psychological process of finding “one’s self” but as an objective means of strict identification of a person; “who is this person?” (the latter) in contrast to the former,“what kind of person is this?” (Caplan & Torpey, 2001, p. 3). Caplan and Torpey note that the need for authentification and identification increased toward the end of the 14th century as the expansion of information exchange and use of written documents in administration accelerated well into the 15th century. This was demonstrated in the use of badges for pilgrims and the poor, need for journeymen and beggars to carry letters with them issued by a priest or bishop, and diplomats being required to carry patents of appointment and letters of recommendation. This highlights the second of the two fundamental categories of identification: 1) the individual concerned is absent; by what means can others recognize him and 2) he is present; who is he, and is he really who he claims to be (Caplan et al., 2001). Our current investigation into anonymous behavior will expound on the first category.

Stepping away from the objective aspect of identification for a moment we focus on the importance of creating an identity, whether its creation is conscious or unconscious. For our purposes the subjective aspect is essentially what matters most because as one becomes grounded in the identity they have created for themselves we are able to see relationships between the individual and their behavior. Although it does not give a direct cause and effect link between the two, a substantial amount of overlapped can be derived from these relationships. This provides useful for us because the reasons why people choose to be or not to be anonymous are of interest.

It is helpful to refer to the Utilitarian Philosophy (i.e. moral worth of an action is solely dependent on utility, or its contribution to happiness), particularly to the work of John Stuart Mill, when discussing why individuals take the actions that they do. In particular, he presents the idea “that which gives us pleasure may be opaque to us until we have experienced a range of alternatives” (Mill, 1921, p. xiii). Based on his idea that happiness is found typically in activity, and not merely sensations, we can say that the autonomous choice to partake in certain actions are more valid if the individual has experienced a range of options. After many reviews of Utilitarianism, Mill affirms in On Liberty “that our natures are diverse and complex, so that there is no one form of life, no one set of pleasures, in which we can all find happiness” (p. xiv). The implications of these statements are huge when taken in the context of the desire and practice of individual identity on the one hand and anonymity on the other, they allow for a reasoning behind the differentiation of individual's desires to be or not to be anonymous.

It is important to clarify what is meant when we use the word anonymity, or better yet, its parent adjective anonymous. It was brought into English from Greek and literally translates as “without name” but is further defined by Webster’s Dictionary as 1 : not named or identified, 2: of unknown authorship or origin, and 3 : lacking individuality, distinction, or recognizability. The implications go way beyond these clean cut definitions, though. They account for the possibility of identity to be concealed in a variety of circumstances but do little to exemplify the profoundness of a felt sense of anonymity, something we will come to shortly.

The state of being anonymous was put into practice long before the word appeared in English; through the works of Plato, in religious doctrines, and the like. It wasn’t until the invention of Europe’s first printing press by Gutenberg that we see it highly associated with authorship. In the midst of a communication revolution initiated by the printing press, anonymity becomes enveloped in, and at the same time a determining factor of, a major cultural shift spanning over hundreds of years. The “typographical fixity,” coined by Elizabeth Eisenstein, provides the opportunity for “scholars, artists, and scientists [to] increasingly take their dignity not from their ability to reproduce the old, but from the ways in which they introduce new articulation of meaning within the established forms” (Leed, 1982, p. 420). The ability to fix knowledge in print form allowed for the focus to be taken off the preservation of knowledge and freed those assigned the responsibility of preservation to focus their efforts on other endeavors. This was the revolution. This is what perpetuated “such a model, one that describes the ways in which a new means of communication alters the modes in which human beings fix, appropriate, and disseminate the resources of meaning provided them by their culture” (Leed, 1982, p. 414). How individuals view their place in the world and organize their symbols to produce meaning was changing.

The opportunities to contribute to the knowledge base, and have your name go down in the historical/academic record, provided the conditions for identification to be desired. At the same time the foundation that was being laid to exponentially advance European society academically and technologically would eventually lead to a desire for identification in an entirely different context. In contrast, this time period fostered an environment where anonymity is, what Anne Ferry calls an “aesthetic ideal”.

In her 2002 article, Ferry gives a brief historical time line of the uses of anonymity. Starting in the late 16th century it was considered socially unacceptable for people of rank to publish poetry, so in order to advance in courtly circles they would publish under pseudonyms that were easily seen though (Ferry, 2002). As we move into the mid-17th century there is a need for purely anonymous authorship as women begin to publish written works more often and individuals have an increasing desire to express their opposing political views. In all three instances anonymity, or pseudo-anonymity in the first case, serves the purpose of protection, allowing authors to publish controversial material (i.e. their identities, or lack thereof, of rank and gender and the written material itself). But as the 18th and 19th centuries approach there is a use of anonymity in a much different sense.

The traditional reasons for anonymity are still present but to a much lesser extent. New appearances are attributed more to fashion, publishing tactics, or private caution. This indicates to us that social changes are shifting and authors are also shifting what they believe to be important. The latter attribute of private caution sheds light on a new aspect of anonymity that takes away from the traditional purpose of poetry as objective and moves more in the direction of poetry as personal expression and confession. This becomes more prominent in the early 20th century as the “desire to escape over-personal interpretations of their poems added new reason for anonymous publication when the old ones were fading or had virtually disappeared” (Ferry, 2002, p. 197); with poetry taking the form of personal expression, anonymity as an aesthetic ideal still reigns and maybe in an even deeper sense. Individuals are now using anonymity to (re)create their identities with the only intent being for their own personal enjoyment, since the viewers are unaware of the author. Still in the 20th century we see another use for anonymity coming to the fore. “The Cult of Anonymity”, an article published in the Nation in 1930 by a group of unidentified writers in Paris, exemplifies this movement of withholding the author(s) name in order to emphasize the importance of the idea, or as Henry Hazlitt (1930) put it, “to curb the exploitation of personalities, and to establish ‘the art as an ideal, not the ego’”.

There are other cases of anonymity being the aesthetic ideal sprinkled throughout history. In her 1886 book, Terry Castle discusses the masquerades of the 18th century which functioned to break barriers of class, gender, and ethnicity by challenging social norms; like many anonymous happenings, both written and enacted, the masquerade had strong and vocal opponents. Thought to be a gathering of immorality attended by lower class, such as "Chamber-Maids, Cook-Maids, Foot-Men, and Apprentices" (Castle, 1986, p. 96). During the same century, social conflicts in rural England represent anonymous authorship in a more sinister light. E. P. Thompson (1976) writes on the “Black Act” (a package of laws designed to squelch poachers, timber thieves, and other rural misbehaviors). Practitioners of these anonymous acts wore masks and delivered threatening letters to landlords, wardens, and gamekeepers who they felt were unfairly gaining possession over land and crops.

Many of these examples demonstrate reasons for anonymity that are still present today; they have just taken a slightly different form, if at all. But what is strikingly interesting is that at the same time all of this “aesthetic idealism” is taking place (i.e. late 18th century into the 19th and 20th centuries) another type of anonymity is developing. This sense of anonymity that is counter to the aesthetic ideal, Ferry refers to it as a cultural motif, may also be thought of as a forced anonymity. We start to see this with the rise of the Industrial Revolution and continue to see it perpetuating itself today.

The drop off in anonymous writings seen in the 20th century can be attributed to the fact that the industrial revolution brought with it a sense of what Henry Seidel Canby in his 1926 article “Anon is Dead” describes as the longing for “escape from the deadly anonymity of modern life,” which generates the, “passion for nonanonymity” in the “general man who feels his personality sinking lower and lower into the whirl of indistinguishable atoms to be lost in a mass civilization.” (Ferry, 2002, p. 199-200). What he is describing here is the anonymity that is being forced upon people as they become cogs in the machine of mass production; anonymity as a “social evil”. Ferry references Canby’s (1926) description of this new way of life as “City living” which is “essentially impersonal,” but also with “standardized” feelings, with “science” and its “laws that…ignore individuality completely,” with all that to the writer constituted “mass civilization” (Ferry, 2002, p. 200). This shift from anonymity as “without name” to a “cultural phenomenon” completely transforms any definition of the word since documented. The turn of the century not only brought a revolution in the industry of production but a revolution in how individuals perceive themselves.

Anonymity as a cultural motif means that the desire for anonymity has taken a complete downturn and that the need for individual expression is at an all time high. This brings us full circle to where we first started with identity. At this point in time though it is more about personal expression of self, as in the “what kind of person is this” sense, more than it is about straight up identification, as in the “who is this person?” sense. This is fitting because if you consider the societal circumstances that were in place hundreds of years prior to the 20th century there was not as much time, if you will, for things of this nature (i.e. development of self as unique from the whole). Not to say it wasn’t happening, because it’s difficult to do ethnography in a time period that has passed with people who are no longer living, it calls for much speculation and imagination on my part, which is more difficult than it seems because proper representation is of utmost importance. What I’m trying to say here is that individuality was not as much of a concern in the past and if it was it was definitely not nearly as attainable as it is today. Those who sought out to be markedly different from the masses were often ridiculed if not persecuted. In this way it is easier to see how identity has transformed right along side anonymity and is doing so as I type this.

It is important to note, though, that despite the cultural shifts that have taken place over time there is an telling resemblance to the conditions and resulting phenomena that have manifested in our recent past and present. The events banned in the “Black Act” are similar in purpose and portrayal as the group Anonymous is doing today both in the virtual world and in “real life”. The use of anonymity as a tool for private caution by poets writing for self expression and confession, resemble the ideas behind PostSecret. Nothing is more apparent today than anonymity as a cultural phenomenon. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution we have done nothing but increase the desire for self expression as it seems we are loosing our sense of significance more and more each day. Hence the creation of the multitude of social networking sites that allow individuals to post their life story in profile format and the continual obsession with “reality” TV shows and those that are formatted as contests to determine who is the best at this or that. Bombarded with millions of choices in every aspect of our lives individuals strive to make meaning out of anything that allows for it.

This does not mean that anonymity is dead though. What differentiates this time period today from that of the Industrial Revolution is that anonymity and the need for individual expression are almost balanced. There is more opportunity to be anonymous today because of the internet and more reason to embrace it because of all the opinions we are able to formulate outside of the norm thanks to our endless array of intellectual choices. So at the same time we are striving for individuality we are also embracing a sense of anonymity, some more than others. What the internet allows us to do is create our persona into what we want it to be. Whether this matches up to what we really are is another story. So does this constitute anonymity? If I can create myself in the image that I want to be and I am no where near that in actuality does that mean my pseudo identity is essentially anonymous? The internet has created an obvious need to delve deeper into the working of our cultural framework and how it is manifesting itself in our global society in order to rework the definitions of not only anonymity but identity itself.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Benedict, R. (1934). The individual and the pattern of culture. In Patterns of culture (pp. 251-278). New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Caplan, J., Torpey, J. C. (2001). Documenting individual identity: the development of state practices in the modern world. Princeton University Press.

Castle, T. (1986). Masquerade and Civilization: the Carnivalesque in Eighteenth-Century English Culture and Fiction. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Cohen, A. P. (1993). Culture as identity: An anthropologist’s view. New Literary History, 24(1), 195-209. Retrieved from JSTOR database.

Ferry, A. (2002). “Anonymity”: The literary history of a word. New Literary History, 33(2), 193-214. Retrieved from JSTOR database.

Hazlitt, H. (1930). “The cult of anonymity”. Nation, 131, 350. Retrieved from Anne Ferry’s Anonymity: A Literary History of a Word.

Mill, J. S. (1921). On liberty and other essays. London: Longmans, Green, and Co.

Leed, E. J. (1982). Review: Elizabeth Eisenstein’s the printing press as an agent of change and the structure of communications revolutions. The American Journal of Sociology, 88(2), 413-429. Retrieved from JSTOR database.

Thompson, E. P. (1976). Whigs and hunters: The origin of the Black Act. Allen Lane.