The Amish Project

I recently saw a play called "The Amish Project," and thought I should share the unique perspective that it presented. This play is a fictional story about a real incident that happened in 2006 in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Lancaster has a little pocket called the Amish country, hosting the people who prefer to live an Amish lifestyle. In 2006, there was a shooter who entered an Amish school and killed five schoolgirls, then killed himself. This incident is what inspired playwright Jessica Dickey to write a one woman show that depicts multiple characters and opinions.

The show highlights the response of the Amish compared to the response of the rest of the Lancaster community. The characters who are not Amish react as the audience expects: they are mortified and choose to pity the Amish, who, they admit, they do not really understand. One character even calls the Amish bizarre and weird in their ways. The Amish choose to react in a much unexpected way, which reminds me of the expectations derived from affect.

The Amish were shocked and distraught by the situation, and the playwright chose to create a situation that involved one Amish family in particular that lost two daughters in the shooting. The audience sees the pain that this family goes through, but they also see the family approach the wife of the shooter with kindness. The wife of the gunman is a main character in the play, and she goes through multiple episodes of struggling with how to deal with her horrific situation. Most of society is disgusted with her because they only associate her with the gunman. One woman even tells her that it is her fault that the girls are dead because she didn't "handle her husband as a woman ought to."

The Amish family, however, reaches out to the wife, and consoles her. They bring her food and attempt to comfort her. The audience is drawn to admire the Amish because most people would despise anyone that was related to the killer of their children, but the Amish chose to see the situation differently, acknowledging that the wife was not at fault for the killings, and they extended a helping hand for a woman that lost everything because of what her husband did.

This challenges the expectations of affects because of the reactions of those who lost someone they loved. The Amish behaved differently than what the rest of society expected, which may mean that affect behaves differently in the Amish society.

My paper will examine jazz music as a catalyst for social change, most specifically focusing on John Coltrane's role as a leader of the combined social/musical revolution of the 1960s. I will parallel performances of Malcolm X's speeches with live performances of the John Coltrane Quartet, examining the affects evoked between the two, and touching on performance theory and cultural contexts to compare the two figures' roles as leaders of the civil rights movement. I will also look at the affects displayed by the audiences of each performance, and how their reaction helped spur the national movement to social change.

In future research and essays, I wish to continue to look at jazz as a catalyst for social change, perhaps looking at hip-hop's role in a later cultural revolution, and how modern jazz as the emergent, is attempting to blend jazz with hip hop in a new cultural and musical revolution now called the Stretch Movement. I would like to examine how the politically and culturally revolutionary work of modern musicians such as Christian Scott, Robert Glasper, Chris Dave, and Avishai Cohen pushes the barriers of both music and society.

I would also like to explore, throughout, the affects found in music, looking at music as a "universal language" spoken fluently by the best of musicians. Jazz is all about feel, and the dynamics and phrasing used to play a sad song versus those used to play a triumphant one are parallel to the facial expressions we use when we tell a story. The dynamics create a range of intensity, and the phrasing, a tone. The way a groove fits a section, or how a syncopation creates a hiccup in the feel are all relevant in looking at the message a song tries to send. In these, we should find accurate characteristics of the musical tendencies (the musical facial expressions) respond to each affect, as experienced at low and at high intensity.

Paper Topic

In my paper, I'd like to explore the idea of affect and the concept of terrorism. After the events of 9/11, we labelled our stance against terrorist threats as the "War on Terror." How does this labeling effect our interpretation of affect? Is the war on terror actually, to quote Massumi, a "war with affect as one of its weapons?" I'm planning on really thinking through Tomkin's definition of fear/terror as affect and how that may translate to some of the decisions America has  made in a post 9/11 world. I'd also like to throw in some of the ideas that we discussed concerning mourning and melancholia to address the way that we approach the idea of war and terrorism. How does this epochal event and its labeling affect our collective psyche in dealing with the threat of terrorism?

Paper Topic

For my paper, I will be examining the governess from “The Turn of the Screw.” If it can be assumed that she is hallucinating the ghosts, the question that gives meaning to the text is: why is she imagining them? I’m going to argue that her loneliness is the “hook” affect, kind of how we’ve been discussing “interest” to be in that it leads to other affects. In this case, her loneliness leads to fear and anxiety. The relationship all three have to each other determines the governess’s decisions, and thus, creates the apparitions she sees. 

PAPER TOPIC

What I am doing for this paper is taking the affect of interest/excitement and enjoyment/joy and learning how to dissect, create and maintain both interest /excitement and joy/enjoyment in an audience for a circus show.

Paper topic

My paper is focusing on the affect of interest involving attraction to the unknown or misunderstood. I will be focusing on Riquet's attraction to Rosetta compared to the narrator's attraction to Bartleby. Both Riquet and the narrator are fascinated by a character that does not seem to make sense; almost an enigma to what is considered a normal person. Once I discover what this affect of attraction is doing to these characters, I will extend it beyond the individual, trying to sort out where the attraction to an unknown or strange subject can be seen as a common thought for a general population.

Paper Topic: Lauren

For my paper, I am focusing on how affect is seen and interpreted when observed with the subconscious infatuation with capital gain and one’s status in the economy. Much focus is placed on the idea of obsession with the specific affect of excitement. I am concentrating on how setting, surroundings and upbringing (more oriented towards Rosetta) influence this affect. The two main pieces I am referencing to support my argument are Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street and Lauren Berlant’s Cruel Optimism. If I am able, I would also like to compare this desire to popular culture as discussed in the Grossberg article.

Paper Topic

My first paper is on the affect of cruel optimism in Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech as well as the affect of optimism regarding his career.

In my paper, I explain the affects of cruel optimism and optimism, and I also compare the two against each other. I also explore the various events throughout King's civil rights campaign and attribute cruel optimism or optimism to those events. There has been many instances of either throughout his campaign, but ultimately, I have concluded that King's end goal had been a result of optimism and also displays the affect of optimism as well, regardless of how much cruel optimism there might have been in his campaign.

Liberation as an Affect

The topic I will be writing on is a look at Liberation as an Affective state. Here is a rough draft of the first paragraph of my essay. 

Liberation is the affective perception experienced in a state of extreme environmental change. Affect defined as the identifier of “the strength of the investment which anchors people in particular experiences, practices, identities, meanings, and pleasures” and “determines how invigorated people feel at any moment of their lives, their level of energy or passion” (Grossberg, 80) provides the basis for understanding Liberation in terms of Affective scope. Liberation in itself is a reestablishment of the “anchor points” in which one derives their “experiences, practices, identities, meanings, and pleasures”.  It is a transitional Affect. Particulars to these basic anchor points include the perception of the self through any given moment of Affective consciousness. The reestablishment of these anchor points effectively reestablishes the perception of self-identity, through means of recreating self-perception of the world. Whether this reestablishment is entirely beneficial is determined by the stable anchor points and their relation to the concept of self. If those new points determine a self worthy of redemption, a better self, then the Affect of Liberation passes without any detrimental effects. But if the Affect of Liberation leads to the creation of a new self, through means of environmental factors, that is in any way worse than the self prior to the event that created the initial Liberation then that new self will feel immensely conflicted within the core concept of the self. A Black slave, for example, defined their self through the many different anchor points in their life: the level of contempt the free world had for them, the harsh hello of a bull whip on their bare skin, the dehumanizing gaze forced upon them. All of these environmental factors shaped the affective state of the slave, and thusly shaped the slaves outlook on life, liberty and the concept of the self. 

My Paper Suggestion: Sean Hulse

     I'd like to begin discussing affect theory through a meditative procedure. Starting with Descartes' principles of "mind and body", which are essentially the separation of "pure understanding" (the notion of epiphany or complete comprehension of an idea) and "imagination" (the derivation of ideas we gather through our senses), respectively. Thus, I am utilizing Descartes' foundation of knowledge in order to begin my studies of affect, and possibly discuss my own affect: the affect of pure understanding.
     I have also been tying in the ideas of art into my research. I am inclined to use pure understanding and imagination to dissect art. Specifically speaking, I will utilize abstract art because it is so "fundamental", that it seems to produce affects as opposed to emotion. Such research has brought about articles discussing the idea of mimesis in art. Clement Greenberg began a comparative study of abstract art and -- essentially -- realism, claiming that if art (and music) is produced for an effect (to produce an affect) it is kitsch. Kitsch is considered low-brow, mass produced, art or design. Thus, abstract art is not produced for the reader but it is intended to be read. So, I will borrow from his notions and attempt to grow the idea that abstract art is part of the imagination and pure understanding and by reading art and having a reaction to art, one is having the affect of pure understanding. 
   Furthermore, studies of Descartes discuss that he believed affect was partially a "the perceptions, feeling or emotions of the soul which we relate specially to it [the soul], and which are caused, maintained and fortified by some movement of the spirit" (Descartes, 21). So, here we have a connection to the imagination and pure understanding through affect. Thus, it partially solves a major issue in Descartes' meditations about how the mind and body connect.

  So, these are the ideas I am playing around with for my paper: the affect of pure understanding, the way abstract art becomes a perfect example of affect, and the way affect is defined through art forms and memisis. I want to discuss the validity of affect and possibly my own affect mentioned above. Please help me work through some of my ideas or ask my to explain something better so I can work through my ideas more meticulously! (P.S. Hannah, I mentioned this in class for help on your own project so if any of these ideas are overlapping too heavily, I'll certainly revise my main points to be more original).

Vijay Course Contract

Student Name: Vijay Sachdev                                  Course: ENGL-361-01

Instructor Name: Sheila Lloyd                                 Semester: Fall 2013

Advisor Name: Leela MadhavaRau                           Unit Value: 4

Course Description:

         What are the implications of our being affected by others (i.e., to be acted upon), and what are the implications of our capacity to affect others (i.e., to act)? These are two of the primary questions that in the last two decades or so literary critics have taken up.  In their studies of affect and emotions0 that is, of such states as depression, envy, optimism, grief, and anxiety—critics have pursued some of the connections linking aesthetics to politics and to circuits and systems of social attachment and belonging.

         Whether foregrounding the individualized or collectivized body as flow, system, and/or machine or capturing the “felt” of human life, critics have drawn attention to the omnipresence of affect and have contended with the notion that there has been a “waning of affect” (as Frederic Jameson argues about postmodernism) in contemporary culture.

         This course proposes an examination of what affect and affect theory are, a determination of the antecedents scholars drawn on when studying affect, an exploration of why affect has been such a compelling area of study in recent years, and an understanding of what affective studies helps critics to say about literature and art.

Course Contract:

            The question I hope to address throughout this course asks how theories like affect gain momentum in academia. I will gain a lot from reading required course material written by prominent figures in the field. In addition, I will bring in outside readings to be applied to affect. This will help me evaluate what I can explore in affect in relation to music, political economy, and radical egalitarian politics.

            I see anarchism as my thread for the course, incorporating punk movements, hip hop, and politics on the line. Thus, I hope to explore how anarchism can find its spirit within Affect Theory. This may be the topic I choose to address in my larger research paper for the course.

            This is the list of proposed literature I will bring into the course that will serve me in my research: Aberrations In Black by Roderick Ferguson, Anarchism and the Black Revolution, Capitalist Realism: Is There no Alternative? by Mark Fisher, From Black Power to Hip Hop by Patricia Hill Collins, and Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain.

            The direction of my final research will become solidified as I become more exposed to the literature in Affect Theory. Thus, I will complete all required course literature in addition to my proposed list of books while actively participating in classroom discussion.

            In place of the first paper and class presentation, I will attend a punk show at the Blood-Orange Infoshop in Riverside on 10/18.  I will use still photography as a medium to capture a story about punk in the Inland Empire.  Because this show will happen well after the date for submission of the first paper, I will create a balance by submitting my research proposal on 10/09.  I will turn in my artist statement on 10/24. Instead of doing one of the proposed presentations on affect, I will present my photographs during the twelfth week of the semester, applying punk to Affect.

          As the direction of this course will be metamorphic, this contract will remain open for negotiation throughout the semester.

Also,
I was wrong about Mr. G. I guess it was an old billboard.  Either way the picture is still good enough to carry out an affect theory capstone.  http://www.sanmanuel.com/index.php/events/event/kenny-g/2013-09-12.

361 Erik Course Contract

Course Contract

I signed up for affect theory with the intent of contracting the class in order for it to adhere to my Johnston studies in business and film analysis/production.  I plan on doing all assigned readings, attending all classes, and participating actively in all discussions.  In lieu of completing the midterm paper, the final research paper, and the assigned presentation, I will be creating a short film with one other peer.  This film will exhibit our knowledge of class material as well as formal film production and brand/market analysis.  Instead of the midterm we will draft various ideas and present them to a focus group, give a survey to our affect theory class, and investigate other valid sources pertaining to our thesis (along with everything else necessary for pre-production).  Instead of completing the final research paper we will do research through secondary sources on how affect is created and displayed through the medium of film, as well as how branding and marketing affect either the singular or group's perception of their standing in society, and express this through the visual rhetoric of our film.  Rather than completing the assigned presentation, we will present our ideas and the final product to the class for other ideas, discussion, and critique.  Seeing as we do not yet have a consensus on what our thesis will be, we plan to develop this within the next few weeks and meet with Sheila Lloyd to discuss our findings.   We will turn in the final product with a written artist statement detailing how we portray affect, what research is pertinent, and an explanation of other film nuances.  At the end of this course I will submit a self and faculty evaluation in exchange for a written evaluation of my performance in class and the overall quality of the film.  This contract is subject to renegotiation at any time by either student or faculty.

My Johnston Course Contract

My primary field of study is film and other visual media, and I’d like the opportunity to integrate film into the course as often as I can. As opposed to production, however, I’m more interested in criticism and analysis. This semester, I’d like to write two papers, both of which will aim to analyze the ways in which affect functions in particular films. For the first paper, I’d like to analyze the ways in which the films of Mike Leigh implicitly refute the claims Tomkins makes about the agency that affect permits in his book Shame and His Sisters (as well as illuminating the ways in which the protagonist of Leigh’s film Naked displays melancholic affects as Freud describes them in his paper on melancholia and mourning). I’m not sure yet what the topic of the second paper will be, but it will almost certainly integrate film studies in a similar way.

I would also like to be held accountable when it comes to class discussion and participation. My goal is to participate very frequently, and I’d like if my evaluation reflected whether or not I achieved this learning goal.

As always, this contract remains open for renegotiation by either party at any point over the semester.

This is a sample test post for our class' new blog for discussing affect theory.