iPad Invention: Reflections on "A Thrilla in ManiLA"

by Geoffrey V. Carter

The following Inventio webtext reflects on "A Thrilla in ManiLA" in the Spring 2013 Issue of Kairos. Specifically, this work examines the challenges and pleasures of composing a work on an iPad 2, a device that is not often recognized for its digital composing potential. This Inventio piece features a voice-over narration that talks about the process of composing and collects a series of related links (gathered below) that reveal earlier stages in the composing process. Please download the transcript, if you'd like.

First-time viewers will note that the video quality of this Inventio piece emphasizes the original boxing videos that were imported into the iPad, which were done so through a live-mic process. That is, the glare from a window in the basement—a glare that is roughly the size and shape of a glowing iPad—is used to show the live layers used in the composing process. This is all a deliberate choice in Inventio style.

Viewers may also note a few visual clues to pinball machines placed throughout this reflection. These references are to a follow-up panel called MLArcade that I was working on simultaneously with this Inventio piece for the 2013 MLA Conference in Boston.

 

References

Arroyo, Sarah J. (2012, May). The choric swipe. Video presented at the Computers and Writing Conference, Raleigh, NC. Retreived April 4, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCjTHU_IzSE

Carter, Geoffrey V. (2008). PlatesPleatsPetals. In Virginia Kuhn & Victor Vitanza (Eds.), From gallery to webtext. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, 12(3). Retrieved April 4, 2013, from http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/12.3/topoi/gallery/index.html

Carter, Geoffrey V. (2011, October). Expatriating place. Video presented at the Western States Rhetoric and Literacy Conference, Tempe, AZ. Retrieved April 4, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avsxR7WU264 (part one) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDOUnXDDuck (part two)

Carter, Geoffrey V. (2012, January). A thrilla in ManiLA. Video presented at the 127th MLA Annual Convention, Seattle, WA. Retrieved April 4, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYa8lDhGFSQ (part one), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxddAjLjVUY (part two), and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_D1O2n68ck (part three)

Carter, Geoffrey V. (2012, April 29). Rocky redux 2. Retrieved April 4, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBehAx6ctWQ

Carter, Geoffrey V. (2013). A thrilla in ManiLA. In Victor Vitanza & Virginia Kuhn (Eds.), MoMLA: From panel to gallery. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, 17(2). Retrieved April 4, 2013, from http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/17.2/topoi/vitanza-kuhn/carter.html

kyburz, bonnie lenore. (2013). screencube. In Victor Vitanza & Virginia Kuhn (Eds.), MoMLA: From panel to gallery. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, 17(2). Retrieved April 4, 2013, from http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/17.2/topoi/vitanza-kuhn/kyburz.html

 

Geoffrey V. Carter is an Assistant Professor of English at Saginaw Valley State University, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses ranging from Memory and Digital Writing to Sound and Music. His areas of interest include video and participatory cultures, histories and theories of rhetoric, and the history of writer's block.