Reading & Reflecting: Composing (Media) = Composing (Embodiment)

Reflecting

          Kristin Arola and Anne Wysocki argue for the need that students (compositionists) explore and engage with a variety of new media texts. The basis for this argument is the understanding that writing in new media is a composing of the body (or embodiment). After engaging with this collection of essays which interweave to support and explore how different texts (including new media) interact with the human experience- the body, identity (the self) and the writing processing/composing process, I have begun asking the question- what is writing?

          Or, what is not writing? How do we classify or define it? These essays have given me pause to re-evaluate the term writing. What am I doing as a "writer"?

          I am fond of the term compositionists because it implies that what we're doing with new media is not just writing (in the traditional sense- expository, creative, etc) but composing, creating, constructing, and contributing. In considering this shift in student identification (from writer to composer), I think back on my own research for my ethnography on fandom culture within Tumblr when CEO of Tumblr,  David Karp, was quoted saying,"Today there are millions of people making stuff and putting it into the world: that's become a part of our identity, and it shouldn't be limited to people who fancy themselves writers, or who are particularly witty or talented: curation is a new, more accessibly way to express yourself." [note: curating -according to Karp- is somewhere between creating and consuming: you pull together stuff you like... Tumblr is about using the found to say something different]

          What I'm trying to consider now is whether writing is composing (curating), or is the use of new media separate from the process of "writing"? Are writing and composing/engaging new media texts one and the same? Is this "embodiment" a new and fascinating process or is it something we've been doing all along- have we been utilizing our writing to create/assume our roles/identities this entire time, only to find new way of doing it through new media texts?

          I'm also interested in the issues surrounding the binary of public v. private as it pertains to new media texts. For example, when does composing in new media become private? Is it private? And was there anything such as personal writing in existence to being with? If identity is all performance, then how does that reflect on our "personal" writing? If we're always performing, then who is our audience? More specifically, if we are composing ourselves (body, self, etc.) using new media texts, then who are we composing for? Who is our audience? And is the use of new media texts (as an influence in the composing of our identity) inherent, required, inescapable?