Ethnograpgy Group Project

Today my group met to talk about the hidden literacy in sculptures around UNCC's campus. We decided that we would all pick an individual sculpture and find out a little bit more about it. Since I had already done the Cyrillic Projector I decided to continue with it. Our group choose to interview people to find out what their takes on the sculptures were..


It was pretty cold this morning and since it was during class time there were not a lot of people walking by. I interviewed two girls walking together and this is what was said...


Interview

Me: What statement do you think this piece is making?

Hallie: I think the piece is probably a metaphor for something.

Samantha: I don't really know? I don't think I've ever even noticed this

Me: Have you ever seen this peice lit up?

Hallie: No, it lights up?

Samantha: No

Me: What message is the artist trying to send?

Hallie: I think all the different letters are a representation of different cultures coming together

Samantha: With the different letters and symbols it might mean something more, maybe there's a hidden message he was trying to give?

I also asked myself the same questions and this is what I came up with..
I think the piece is making a sort-of incognito statement, when you see it during the day you would probably over look it and not think twice about what it is. When you see it at night it seems to "come alive" and you cant help but see it and wonder what it is. I would say that the theme of this piece is mystery, after all it is a secret code. This piece leaves me feeling curious and wondering more.

Cyrillic Projector

Located in the plaza between Fretwell and Friday is the Cyrillic Projector. The projector is a sculpture created by Jim Sanborn with a secret message encrypted on it.

 

I noticed the sculpture one night walking through campus. I had passed by the same exact spot many times before during the day and never really payed much attention to it, however at night it is almost impossible to miss. I was very intrested in it, it seemed to be in a odd language with weird symbols and letters. I went back to my dorm and decided to try and figure out what exactly this sculpture was all about, and this is what I found...

 

"The Cyrillic Projector is an encrypted sculpture at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, that was created by Washington DC artist Jim Sanborn in the early 1990s. It was inspired by the encrypted Kryptos sculpture that Sanborn created two years earlier for CIA Headquarters. The message on the Cyrillic Projector has turned out to be in two parts. The decrypted first part is a Russian text encouraging secret agents to psychologically control potential sources of information. The second part appears to be a partial quote from classified KGB correspondence about the Soviet dissident Sakharov, with concerns that his report to the Pugwash conference was being used by the Americans for an anti-Soviet agenda.
Sculptor Sanborn created two codes -- One for the CIA's Kryptos sculpture, and another lesser-known one related to KGB operations. The CIA's Kryptos sculpture attained international media attention in 1999 when it was announced that the first three sections of the Kryptos code had been solved independently by two different cryptographers. Part 4 of Kryptos remains uncracked to this day, and was what sparked the creation of the Kryptos Group in May 2003. The group currently has about 70 members from at least four different continents, and includes cryptographers, mathematicians, game developers, academics, and other interested hobbyists. Along with investigating the Kryptos code itself, the group is also closely examining other elements related to Kryptos, such as other sculptures created by artist Jim Sanborn, including the Cyrillic Projector." http://elonka.com/kryptos/CyrillicProjectorAnnouncement.html

I visted the sculpture at night when it was lit up so I could get another look at it now that I had a better idea of what it was. Since I was there at night I did not see many people walking by, there was not a lot of action, no real noise besides the common noises you would hear at night. To me the work itself speaks enough about literacy. The encoded message that took so long to be decrypted, and the secret message it holds. A secret message in a different language is literacy.

literacy narrative struggle

My literacy narrative is for sure not a "success story" now don't get me wrong I did the best I could but I wont be bragging on myself here...

When we were assigned this assignement I was not at all excited, I had no idea what I was going to write about. Luckly we did a lot of work in class preparing for this paper and that helped me alot. Through the activites we did in our daybook I got an idea of what I was going to write. However I did not think I would be able to write three to five pages about it. This was a hard assignment for me, I mean obviously I know im literate but I didnt at all know what to write about it..

first edition

second edition

third edition

The first draft of the paper that I wrote, I thought was pretty decent. I made the minimum length of three pages and I talked about being literate so I thought I was good. I was wrong. My paper was not what I would call bad but it was not quite good enough, it was not my best work. I was challenged in class to change my paper, to play around and switch things up. I tried that, but I didnt change things that much.

In my third "edition" of my paper I really tried to play around and "mix things up" based on Lacy's suggestions in my review. I switched up the order of my essay, added new things and changed/edited it as much as I could. I tried my best to come up with new ideas, I still am not one hundred percent confident with my revision but I tried my best and I think thats all that matters.

literacy narrative struggle

My literacy narrative is for sure not a "success story" now don't get me wrong I did the best I could but I wont be bragging on myself here...

When we were assigned this assignement I was not at all excited, I had no idea what I was going to write about. Luckly we did a lot of work in class preparing for this paper and that helped me alot. Through the activites we did in our daybook I got an idea of what I was going to write. However I did not think I would be able to write three to five pages about it. This was a hard assignment for me, I mean obviously I know im literate but I didnt at all know what to write about it..

first edition

second edition

third edition

The first draft of the paper that I wrote, I thought was pretty decent. I made the minimum length of three pages and I talked about being literate so I thought I was good. I was wrong. My paper was not what I would call bad but it was not quite good enough, it was not my best work. I was challenged in class to change my paper, to play around and switch things up. I tried that, but I didnt change things that much.

In my third "edition" of my paper I really tried to play around and "mix things up" based on Lacy's suggestions in my review. I switched up the order of my essay, added new things and changed/edited it as much as I could. I tried my best to come up with new ideas, I still am not one hundred percent confident with my revision but I tried my best and I think thats all that matters.

MIDTERM MISSION

 

GROUP MISSION:

Go to Adkins Library

Find mentor text

Write beside the text

Document the mission

 

 

 

We met at the Adkins Library at 4:00pm on Sunday to begin our mission.

 

We proceeded inside and approached the information desk to find out where we could find a book/magazine/newspaper similar to what we were looking for. There was however no one at the information desk to help us. We continued to find the text alone.

 

We walked up to the second floor and searched down many isles to find what we needed. At first we could not find anything like what we needed. We were lost in the isles searching for something that would be of use.

 

 

Finally after much searching we approached this       ^       isle.

 

 

 

Where we found two magazines by the same publisher with articles we thought would be helpful.

The above magazine was a fail, we decided to use the other one instead.

(the above pictures are of the article we read)

 “Up and Away” in the June 2012 magazine of Quality Progress. The article talked about adding creativity in your work. The audience was business related, however we learned a lot about the group creativity and how to build off of others ideas and thoughts.

After choosing our article and reading through it we began to “write beside it” in our daybooks. The five minutes flew by, we were done before we knew it.

The article was written about creativity and it inspired me to be more creative in my writing. I used the same writing style in conjunction with the creativity idea to improve my narrative writing.

We proceeded to read back over our work, return our magazine to its proper place. Leave the library and terminate our mission.