New Media Writing

Issue survey
“For myself, I want to be alive and thus I want more words, more controversies, more
artificial settings, more instruments, so as to become sensitive to even more differences.
My kingdom for a more embodied body!”
—Bruno Latour, “How to Talk About the Body?”

Assignment Introduction
This 1,000-word document briefly surveys the issue you plan on researching.
The survey should define the contours of your issue (i.e., locations, actors,
histories, sensitivities etc.). This isn't yet a research proposal or plan, but it
should lead you to the research questions and methods you subsequently
develop. Devote roughly 200-words to each component.

Survey Components
1. Issue: Describe the overarching issue that your project (potentially)
addresses as well as that issue’s stakes. For instance, one might research
the issue of lead poisoning in local schools; investigate issues of water
management; trace the distribution of green spaces in urban environments.
2. Sensitivities: Denote, in the spirit of Latour (in the adjacent epigram) with
what words, instruments, artificial settings and conceptions are you
sensitizing yourself? For example, one might use the Environmental Project
Agency’s (ADA) list of violations, video cameras and time elapse
photography, the live sounds of nonhuman animals, and archival records to
investigate the health of local ecosystem.
3. Location: Define a specific location to help you concretize your issue. One
might investigate nonhuman animals not simply on campus but in either
classrooms or campus housing. One might explore flora and fauna in the
isolated green spaces on West Pine. One might research the insects and the
lives they lead in dorm rooms.
4. History/Context: Dive into the history and contextual surrounds of your
located issue. How old is the location you’ve defined? Who constructed it
and for what ends? What surrounds the location and so bleeds into it? This
surround can be conceptual and/or material. What material conditions/
constraints in-form the location, and what sorts of attitudes (e.g. racism,

Nathaniel A. Rivers, 2023

ageism) shape perceptions of and possibilities for the located issue? For
example, the age of building, its operating budget, and assumptions about its
inhabitants might either constrain or afford environmental justice.
5. Actors: Detail who and what plays a role in the located issue. Actors here
include humans and nonhumans. Are there identifiable actors that own or
operate in that location with respect to the issue? What material things
likewise play a role? The health of a particular green space might be a
function of the presence of particular species, soil type and/or quality
alongside human actors and organizations.