I was in my office, which is where I hold my office hours. These are the regularly scheduled times which I have made myself available to students. Students don’t really understand the advantages that can come from making use of office hours, so this is usually a great time to get work done. Sometimes you have a chat with a colleague. One of them stopped by today to ask me if I know something about a particular class. I do not know anything about that particular class. And so I got to use the little sign I keep on my desk. And I was able to use it unironically.

My mother-in-law got that for me as a joke Christmas gift some years back. She’s lovely, and has a wonderfully wicked sense of humor. I’m not sure why I have that sign, but also that’s the point of the thing.

I never get to use it unironically — not because I know anything, but because no one asks. Maybe they see the sign in advance.

In class we talked about Dr. Jenny Davis‘ affordances.

Affordances are the ways design features enable and constrain user engagement and social action …

“How Artifacts Afford” introduces the mechanisms and conditions framework of affordances in which technologies request, demand, encourage, discourage, refuse, and allow social action, varying across subjects and circumstances. Underlying this mechanisms and conditions framework is a sharp focus on the politics and power encoded in sociotechnical systems.

We’re going to be using them in class through the rest of the semester. These verbs will haunt someone before we’re done.

It’s all about the structure of digital platforms. What do the buttons and tools of a platform request of us? What does a site demand of us? And so on. Also, since we’re getting down to Election Day, and since I like media literacy and we all need media literacy, I showed them this video. First of all, don’t use an LLM for this. But if you must, I guess …

I had to walk from one part of campus to another part today, and that involved crossing the very busy highway that carves through the heart of the place. Both have grown a lot. And, over the decades as the campus got bigger and the road got busier, there have been plans to move the road, but it hasn’t happened yet, and it seems improbable, really. Not that it can’t be done, but car culture, ya know?

Anyway, the campus has solved this problem by adding crossing guards at key places. It’s kind of charming. I’ve made use of this a few times, but always in groups. This was the first time I’ve gone across alone. The man walked out, did his thing. The motorists dutifully stopped. It felt much more powerful than when done in a gaggle.

On the other side of the street, where I had to go, is the Student Center. In that wonderful building there was a college fair prep session. I went over to take photos for social media. Somebody’s gotta do it. There was a place where people could critique a student’s resume, help with the elevator pitch, talk about interview wardrobe, and take a professional headshot.

I used the negative space of the light diffuser to write the promotional text in our social media promotions. The actual career fair is next week, and everyone is promoting the thing endlessly. Dozens and dozens of potential employers will be there. Everyone at the prep session was happy and eager to help students. I’m forever telling students to take advantage of these things. I hope a lot of them do.

But what about the statues? We’ve been looking at Seward Johnson works that are in place next to campus. First, there was Contact, that sits on the walk between my office and a classroom I’m in this term. I wrote about it here. Over several weeks I looked at some of the many interesting details of that trompe-l’œil painted bronze statue.

Now we’re on to Photo Shoot. The first few shots are here. This was completed in 1989. The curator of this little collection wanted you to notice that. It was commissioned for the grand opening of the Giorgio Armani building, on Rodeo Drive, in Beverly Hills. You’ll soon see a nod to to the designer in just a moment.

And here’s the man taking a quick snapshot, decked in his best pastels of the era, and holding an old film camera. He’s wearing a wedding band, so that explains a lot.

It’s 12:42 on his watch, not the best time to take a photo, really. I shot this one at 3:27, and look at how much sun and little shadow there is.

He’s very happy to be taking this photograph. I’m not sure why these characters are not in a human complexion, since the earlier statue we saw was of two white people. The others we’ll see in the coming weeks are, too. But not these guys.

Here’s the rest of the family. Posing with the family puppy.

But, really, you need to see the details. Remembering this is a statue of bronze, look at the work that went into this character’s sweater. It looks like you could take it off the statue and wear it yourself. Cableknit so real you can almost feel!

Also, she, too, looks like she is full of regret. She’s looking off to the side of nothing. Maybe there was a butterfly. Maybe this isn’t the right dog. Maybe it isn’t the right son. The right husband. Maybe it’s the wrong sweater. Maybe she just realized they can’t afford Rodeo Drive.

The day I took these photos, a professor I know scurried past when I was right about here. He was running late to a class, he said. Real life had caught up to him and put him off his schedule. Maybe the statue was looking at him. She isn’t wearing a watch, but she’s seen some things. Maybe she knew.

What I know is that I have to give a lecture on conflict tomorrow, and there’s other stuff to grade and do besides, so I’ll go do some of that now.