Reading Response 3 + Lens Possibilities (15-20 min)
Read through this Reading Response 3 from your classmate that I am passing out.
Underline parts that help you answer the following:
- How does this writer use the reading to inform their perspective on art?
- What is this writer’s perspective on art?
Let’s make a rough version of what a “lens” could be from this writer’s perspective, for art:
- There has to be human and emotional connection in art. Art is a meaningful expression of oneself.
How could we analyze a text about AI based on this writer’s perspective about art?
Image from: https://goldpenguin.org/blog/ai-vs-human-art/
Let’s try it out. First, what do you notice in the image above?:
- Machine watching an artist
- A bunch of different art supplies
- Woman is holding paintbrush
- Comfortable environment
- Pretty advanced looking robot
- looks clinical, staged, unused…art studios are usually messy
Apply the writer’s lens to what you notice:
- The robot looks kind and helpful in a comfortable environment. Why is the image depicted this way? From our lens, we would be critical of this depiction and suspicious about why it was created in the way it was created (where did this image appear? who created it?)
Making Arguments WITH Texts vs. ABOUT Texts (30 min)
Turn to page 127 of Join the Conversation and read “One Step Towards Equality, Two Steps Back for Asian-Americans” by Tristen Chau. Spend 15 minutes or so on this reading while thinking about what its main argument is AND what you would call its “lens” (i.e., the way of seeing a text informed by a theory or perspective).
When ready, turn to a partner and talk about the main argument AND the lens.
So, what do we think?:
- Lens: Orientalism, how the west stereotypes East Asians
- Main Argument: Media are still capitalizing on stereotypes of Asian-Americans
Now, does “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots” have an argument? What is it? Does it have a lens? If so, what would that be?
- Main Argument: AI may have a lot of negative effects (LLMs). Rushing the launch of LLMs without considering risks can have adverse impacts. Environmental impact, false information, discrimination, research resources wasted,
- Lens: Environmentalism, race, economics, technology and risk,
If we think they both have lenses, what is the difference that you find important in rhetorical analysis vs. the genre of writing “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots” is (a blend of social science research article, technical report, and white paper)?
If we DON’T think they both have lenses, why not? What’s the difference?
Lens Development with Groups (30-45 min)
Get into your groups. Those groups again are:
- Art. Wilson, Ethan, Garson, Lyric
- Environment. Yamini, Rachel, Abdel, Kory
- Eugenics. Nathaniel O., Luciano, Fernando, Natanael L.
- Risk. Kareem, Luke, Eva, Andre
- Truth. Deona, Kaitlin, Azrin, Bhavjit
Begin reading your assigned group article and feel free to start annotating for homework due on Wednesday.
One part of creating a a lens for analyzing texts is to come from some base of knowledge. Bender et al. (2021) was a start, but your group also has a reading assigned to you that more specifically delves into your group topic.
I want you to try out the activity we did with “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots” from October 15, where we read out loud together and took breaks after each paragraph to talk about things we were confused about, what we understood, and what we had to talk out and use our research abilities to learn more about. You already showed how well you mastered this complex article last week! Do it again with more complex material among your groups.
On Perusall, you’ll notice that there are assignments entitled “Group X Reading on AI and Y,” where “X” is the group number and “Y” is the group topic.
Spend some time previewing and reading around the text before reading out loud with your group. Let’s do this for about 15 minutes.
Group Lens Drafting
Once we have done this for about 15 minutes, I want you to start developing a draft of your lens, as a group using BOTH “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots” and your group’s reading. Use “Tools for Analysis” (pages 102-108) for assistance here, as needed. For instance, for a model, read “Postcolonial theory” on page 105 on how that operates as lens to analyze texts.
When ready, start writing a draft of your lens using the structure of examples from “Tools for Analysis.” When your group is happy with your draft, post it to this Google Doc so we can have a look at it.
On Wednesday, we will return to this and try to analyze some of the sample texts from the rhetorical analysis essay.
Next Time
-Read your group’s AI reading
-Complete required annotations for the reading
-Complete your weekly private writing