Practice Strategic Contemplation

This episode highlights methods to “practice strategic contemplation,” the 16th HardTruth for my online primer on digital media literacy. This is one of six “principles of feminist filmmaking” represented in Alexandra Hidalgo’s video book, Cámara Retórica: A Feminist Filmmaking Methodology for Rhetoric and Composition. Hidalgo is an award-winning Venezuelan filmmaker, theorist, and editor. These methods of attention to and care for others, the self, and the world inspired connections across the project, which will form the words and methods of this episode.

The very first Fake News Poetry Workshop was held at the Ammerman Center 16th Biennial Symposium on Arts & Technology. It was co-led by Kyle Booten, a poet, digital scholar, and programmer. We worked with participants to generate forms and methods that might improve our engagements with the world and social media. Kyle called these psychotechnologies of care. Lisa Moren and Maro Perez wrote one of many poems that took the form of scripts, or algorithms, that could regulate, or better yet, open out to others our attention. Their words had been inspired by Alexandra’s. We seek such tender connections.

Practice Strategic Contemplation

1. create a list of activities (with an alarm) to go off every 5 minutes for 2 hours

2. Go for a walk

3. Observe the truth of your surroundings

4. Allow for associations that relate to your observations and record during or after walk

5. If vibrations occur, then answer phone and follow your own prompt

6. Forget Associations

7. Repeat until two hours are up

The episode ends with a poem that I wrote with my boyfriend and project participant, Gavin McCormick, as we follow this script through the streets of Brooklyn. Take a walk. Write a poem. Change the internet by writing yourself and others with attention. Or volunteer to read a poem or hardtruth found at the online primer of digital media literacy, #100hardtruths-#fakenews or fakenews-poetry.org.

Organize your own Fake News Poetry Workshop.

Reach out with questions or content @ 100hardtruths@gmail.com.

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