I yam What I yam

Published

April 22, 2021

Modified

December 1, 2025

Introduction

What are the identities / ethnicities of the two individuals in the photograph? Do you find something bemusing about their gestures / postures? Why? We will understand Pierre Bourdieu’s Concept of Cultural Capital(CC).

Cultural Capital

We will understand Pierre Bourdieu’s Concept of Cultural Capital(CC). CC affects our view of the world and helps us identify Problem Situations and Contradictions in Life. CC affects our view of the world and helps us identify Problem Situations and Contradictions in Life.

  1. Let us quickly read this short article: What is Cultural Capital? https://culturallearningalliance.org.uk/what-is-cultural-capital

  2. And view this video on Cultural Capital

Activities

Sharing

  1. Sharing of CC: we will each of us take turns to reveal some aspect of Cultural Capital that we directly possess: Objectified, Institutional, and Embodied Please share about:

    • Mannerisms, Traditions and Customs (Clothing, Food…), even Stereotypes and Superstitions (gulp!)
    • Festivals and Occasions
    • Recipes
    • Hobbies
    • Life Hacks and Quirks: How to Fold Clothes, How to Pack a Suitcase
    • Proverbs and Aphorisms
    • “What my Grandma used to say”.

Discussion

  • What is something that replicates from generation to generation, biologically?
  • Is there something that replicates “non-biologically”?
  • How would you measure that? In what units, so to speak?

Re-Inventing your Own Game

  1. You will be divided into Teams. Each Team needs to chose a wellknown parlour/household or board game from your childhood. Set it up and play it.

    • Where did you have to “bend the rules”?
    • When was such behaviour acceptable? Under what circumstances?
    • Even desirable??!!!???

  2. Then, you will be given a piece of Electronic Hardware called a Makey-Makey. You will need to include this hardware in your Game and extend the Game in a certain way.

NoteTRIZ Concept: Su-Field Analysis

We will later tie this activity to the TRIZ idea of Substance-Field Analysis. Perhaps you have a premonitory idea about this already?

Inventing your City

  1. Making a Street Intersection Logo

Let us take inspiration from this website: https://www.cartogrammar.com/blog/maps-make-the-best-logos/

  1. Here are some instructions:
  • Visit your home town on Google Maps
  • Select a specific STREET INTERSECTION there.
  • Copy paste the Shape of the Street Intersection into your favourite image making software
  • Create A LOGO for your city, using the Shape, such that you show off some interesting aspects of your City, based on your own CULTURAL CAPITAL.
  • Three sentences to describe your Logo.
  • See examples at the link above for inspiration
NoteSerendipity

This course is about nothing if not about serendipity. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/serendipity. We will connect this logo building idea with the idea of Metaphors in TRIZ.

References

  1. Web Apps for your Makey-Makey. https://makeymakey.com/blogs/how-to-instructions/apps-for-plug-and-play
  2. Make your own game with a Makey-Makey. https://www.instructables.com/Using-Scratch-and-Makey-Makey-to-make-your-own-gam
  3. Richard Dawkins. The Selfish Gene. https://richarddawkins.net/2014/02/whats-in-a-meme/

Additional Readings

  1. Andrea Ovans. (February 27, 2015). Is Innovation More About People or Process?. https://hbr.org/2015/02/is-innovation-more-about-people-or-process
  2. Arthur Koestler, from his book The Art of Creation:

The discoveries of yesterday are the truisms of tomorrow, because we can add to our knowledge but cannot subtract from it. When two frames of reference have both become integrated into one it becomes difficult to imagine that previously they existed separately. The synthesis looks deceptively self-evident, and does not betray the imaginative effort needed to put its component parts together.

In this sense, all knowledge seems to be a kind of loss of innocence, a new state being attained from where we cannot go back the old one. This is also similar to the idea of Path Dependence.

Apropos: the only place I know where we can, and indeed must, undo this momentary(?) tyranny of knowing is in Viterbi decoders for Convolutional Codes, but that is another world in itself!!

What do you need to do this? Memory.

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