Connective Tissue--an adaptable, visual, and connecting story

While reading Susan Kozel's Closer: performance, technologies, phenomenonology, I first relayed connective tissue, in terms of topography and tomography, to empathy if one could only see it, could visually grasp it. Then, as the transition takes place to tomography, it would be as what we actually think of it--"nonvisual and nonlinear" (29). I felt this analogy worked well, for according to Kozel, "connective tissue is a metaphor for understanding how a phenomenology can be communicated from one person to another" (28). It is understanding how experiences and dealings with others can be communicated and come together in a "nonvisual and nonlinear" way, as it were. However, as I kept reading, I instantly started thinking of when I took Digital Literacy and learned many of Gregory Ulmer's ideals, particularly the MyStory. The MyStory* is essentially a way for one to explore four different areas--career, family, entertainment, and community--on a personal level, finding signifiers, images or ideas, that emerge throughout all four discourses. From those signifiers, an overall emblem emerges, something that represents the MyStory and individual as a whole.

Considering Kozel and her explanation of the connective tissue, the MyStory is, for the most part, nonlinear, and although it is in a visual format, certain ideas and feelings expounded throughout the creation process are nonvisual as well. According to Kozel, "connective tissue spreads throughout the body in a three-dimensional web without interruption...it surrounds and infuses all...down to the cellular level" (29). This means that connective tissue is interconnected and works with everything related to the body, even on the most basic and simple levels. Just like the connective tissue, the MyStory focus on the exploration of those four discourses, and ideally everything is observed and analyzed down to the most basic level as well, even to the point that one can see the signifiers emerge. Furthermore, everything is connected through the exploration of the discourses themselves, the signifiers, and eventually the emblem--it becomes like a "web without interruption."  Kozel also points out that in addition to this connectivity, "connective tissue creates separation within our bodies" as well (30). One can easily relay this to the MyStory in that there are four different discourses to be explored. It is given some structure and separation (from the others) in this regard.

In the end, connective tissue are "electric and transforming. they are channels of communication" (31). The MyStory will always change with the person, always "enduring but adapting" (30). That person will change interests, careers, and other characteristics of him/herself throughout his/her lifetime. That's a fact of life. Yet, the MyStory can adapt and change with that person, capturing the "channels of communication," or experience one has with other people, him/herself, and the surrounding environment and world.

* Keep in mind that this analysis and comparison is based off of my own experiences, learning, and understanding of Ulmer. I am in no way an expert on the subject.