In this Inter/Face, CDM 565 graduate students explored the ubiquity of gas masks in media and culture. We started our investigation of gas masks by extending the effort of Nathaniel Rivers's essay, "Tracing the Missing Masses: Vibrancy, Symmetry, and Public Rhetoric Pedagogy" in the March 17th, 2014 issue of Enculturation. In our work, we considered the various fears and possibilities evoked by gas masks. We decided our questions and conclusions might be best extended on a Weebly platform that would involve ourselves as well as possible future contributors.
Some of the links and videos that provided a starting point for our include the original inventor of the gas mask, Garrett Morgan (http://vimeo.com/87931201). (Morgan is a an important early Black American inventor.) We extended our investigation into the gas warfare of WWI & WWII (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QxtB6s-4oM). Indeed, our consideration of the ethics of the history of gas initially extended as far as Erroll Morris's horrifying portrait of Frank Leutcher and his denial of the Holocaust based on the pseudo-science surrounding the use of Zyklon-B Gas.
We see this collection as not only extending Rivers' work on materiality, but also the various storytelling narratives of networks that Jeff Rice explores in his Enculturation article, "Billy the Kid." As Rice writes, "To make up one's mind, so to speak, one would need some sort of catalog to search through. There exist events, moments, people, and texts to navigate and consult in order to address a given political story. The writer's task is to identify them in various archival places and to use them for composing. Narrative can serve as that compositional space."
For this Inter/Face, the catalog we are searching is that of the Gas Mask and it various manifestations, both non-fictional and fictional forms. Part of what we're attempting in this project is to come to an understanding of the various ways an "inter/face" might be showcased.
As you take in these various Inter/Faces, we invite you to contribute variations of your own.
Excerpt from Wilfred Owens:
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime. -
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
Some of the links and videos that provided a starting point for our include the original inventor of the gas mask, Garrett Morgan (http://vimeo.com/87931201). (Morgan is a an important early Black American inventor.) We extended our investigation into the gas warfare of WWI & WWII (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QxtB6s-4oM). Indeed, our consideration of the ethics of the history of gas initially extended as far as Erroll Morris's horrifying portrait of Frank Leutcher and his denial of the Holocaust based on the pseudo-science surrounding the use of Zyklon-B Gas.
We see this collection as not only extending Rivers' work on materiality, but also the various storytelling narratives of networks that Jeff Rice explores in his Enculturation article, "Billy the Kid." As Rice writes, "To make up one's mind, so to speak, one would need some sort of catalog to search through. There exist events, moments, people, and texts to navigate and consult in order to address a given political story. The writer's task is to identify them in various archival places and to use them for composing. Narrative can serve as that compositional space."
For this Inter/Face, the catalog we are searching is that of the Gas Mask and it various manifestations, both non-fictional and fictional forms. Part of what we're attempting in this project is to come to an understanding of the various ways an "inter/face" might be showcased.
As you take in these various Inter/Faces, we invite you to contribute variations of your own.
Excerpt from Wilfred Owens:
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime. -
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.