Throughout this seminar Thursday morning, we learnt the foundation behind genealogy. Genealogy was described to me, and compared to a family tree; however rather than sprouting out with more of the family relatives, genealogy uses ideas and theories to show how they have developed. Creating a genealogy includes using a topic/condition to then trace an emergence. Comparing this to a family tree, means using one person as the main topic, and expanding into other generations.
The principles of genealogy:
Creative formation of histories from particular perspectives
Multiplications and often contradictory
Never about declaring absolute origins
Genealogies are resident - they are among many
The activity my group were given, was to identity a subject in small groups based on what could happen in the future, and project an emergence for the topic - which we could then try and solve/debate between us. My group decided on using the topic, ‘dogs are cats that talk’ which you can see above, we have used as a starting point in a small mind map. We came up with a range of emergences, such as the Ipaw (iPhone for dogs/cats) this then lead us onto this piece of technology being holographic, attached to the animals collar for various reason such as them having no capability of holding the phone. There were also negative possibilities of cats and dogs talking which we didn’t jot down on the mind map. Our thoughts lead on to animals demanding rights, being treated equally, and would most likely cause an outburst that drives humans and dogs/cats away from having a relationship with each other.
These somewhat ridiculous topics were given in the seminar as an ice breaker challenge and I think sharing thoughts and ideas was a very good way of bringing the class together. We voiced our opinions to other groups, had a laugh at a few ideas, and altogether made sure everyone got a chance to be involved.
