Author Archives: Katherine Wikoff

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About Katherine Wikoff

I am a college professor (PhD in English, concentration rhetoric) at Milwaukee School of Engineering, where I teach film and media studies, political science, digital society, digital storytelling, writing for digital media, and communication. While fragments of my teaching and scholarship interests may quite naturally meander over to my blog, this space is intended to function as a creative outlet, not as part of my professional practice. Opinions are my own, etc.

A Mondrianesque Elevator Shaft

Posted on November 4, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

I am SUPER BUSY at work right now, working crazy long hours and racing from one project deadline to the next. That’s what’s so funny about the current state of my phone’s camera roll: It is brimming with new photos … Continue reading →

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Moonrise over Yankee Hill

Posted on November 3, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

Taken while walking to a 5 PM meeting tonight, looking east on State Street just outside the Grohmann Museum.

Posted in Milwaukee, Photography | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Moonrise over Church of the Gesu

Posted on October 30, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

Took this photo in the early evening on Monday of this week. Church of the Gesu (is on the campus of Marquette University, on Wisconsin Avenue at 12 Street, in downtown Milwaukee. (By the way, Gesu is pronounced JAY ZOO, … Continue reading →

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Graceful Grasses

Posted on October 13, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

These slender, feathery grasses are part of the landscaping at Milwaukee School of Engineering, where I teach. I walk past these plants several times a week, but I don’t think I’ve ever noticed them quite as much as I did … Continue reading →

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Some thoughts on Taco Bell

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

I am informed by some spammy email in my Outlook that today is “National Taco Day,” which I have confirmed by checking in with Google. Ser Amantio di Nicolao, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Four_tacos_from_Santa_Rosa_Taqueria.jpg In honor of … Continue reading →

Posted in Food, History, Learning, Life, Popular culture | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

The Saga of My Pumpkin Illustration (aka, ChatGPT’s comical failure)

Posted on October 6, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

On Friday I posted my comparison of Public AI’s attempt at writing an autumn poem versus ChatGPT’s—a head-to-head challenge that ChatGPT won handily. Then to illustrate my post, I asked ChatGPT to create a quick, simple image of pumpkins for … Continue reading →

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Apertus (Public AI) versus ChatGPT in a poetry challenge

Posted on October 3, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

I love the idea of the Swiss AI Initiative’s Apertus and Public AI. As sort of the Linux of LLMs, Apertus, via the Public AI Initiative, aspires to democratize generative AI: Public AI refers to the development, deployment, and maintenance … Continue reading →

Posted in Creative Practice in the Age of AI, Creativity, generative AI, Learning, poetry, Writing with AI, Writing, blogging | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

Well. I’ve never cried in a museum before, but the Edmund Fitzgerald exhibition at the Grohmann Museum had me in tears yesterday afternoon. I was making my way through the special exhibit’s gallery, looking at photographs and paintings of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Life, Milwaukee | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Getting in on the discussion of F. Scott Fitzgerald and football’s two-platoon system

Posted on September 29, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

This morning, I noticed that a blog post I wrote 11 years ago was getting lots of views, and traffic seemed to be coming from both Reddit and Bluesky. So I did some quick digging and found that, for whatever … Continue reading →

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Sunset, Milwaukee

Posted on September 27, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

Heading east on State Street, stopped at the traffic light at 12th Street. I love the way the sun reflects off the glass of the Aurora Sinai hospital skywalk and, farther east, slightly left of center, the 1000 North Water … Continue reading →

Posted in Milwaukee, Photography | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment