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.

Office Building Lobby

Posted on March 12, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

I had a meeting with a colleague this morning in a nearby office building’s large food court, which serves only coffee and prepackaged breakfast food in the mornings and is thus quite deserted during the 9:00 AM hour. While standing … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, Milwaukee, Photography | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

‘Chaos: The Manson Murders’ Review: All You Ever Knew is Suspect – The New York Times

Posted on March 7, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

My January 2022 post about Charles Manson and Dennis Wilson is getting LOTS of views today. And now I know why. There’s a new documentary on Netflix starting today, reviewed here in the New York Times: Errol Morris returns to … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Movies and film, Popular culture | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Writing exercise – “The Cat in the Rain” (a sinister prologue with ChatGPT assists)

Posted on March 3, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

This is a long post today, but I’m sharing the entire ChatGPT “chat” from a recent writing group exercise to show my process of completing a finished piece from the “assignment” through the end. If you’re curious enough to stick … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, generative AI, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer), writing exercises, Writing with AI, Writing, blogging | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sunlit

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

Just a photo from my day, taken of the atrium staircase in the Grohmann Museum shortly before my 1:00 class this afternoon. I liked the way sunlight brightened up the railings as it angled in through the glass. That’s all😀

Posted in Milwaukee, Photography | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Oh, the irony!

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

Because many of the courses I teach in the User Experience (UX) program at Milwaukee School of Engineering are subjects that didn’t even really exist 40 years ago and are still growing and developing domain parameters by the day (e.g., … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Digital society, Technology, UX (user experience) | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Sparkling snowfall on a brilliant, sunny day

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

Captured on Broadway outside the Campus Center at Milwaukee School of Engineering after class late last week on the way back to my office (in the Grohmann Museum, the building seen at the left of this video). Sadly my phone … Continue reading →

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

Success and Failure, Winners and Losers

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”  – Wayne Gretzky (MICHAEL SCOTT 😄) Great quote, of course, but even more intriguing and inspiring to me is the original context in which Gretzky said it. The passage below is … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Life, Popular culture | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Venus and Crescent Moon over Milwaukee

Posted on February 3, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

I wish I also could have gotten Red Arrow Park’s ice skating rink at the bottom of this photo, but it was windy and cold, and I was walking to my parking garage after work. Plus this was the first … Continue reading →

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Updated thoughts on ChatGPT’s “literary ending” to my novel scene

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

UPDATE (meaning that yesterday’s “last thoughts” weren’t quite that, apparently 🙂 ) – It struck me this morning (the next day, after posting about ChatGPT’s edit of my novel scene yesterday) that my own ending was kind of upbeat and … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, generative AI, writing exercises, Writing, blogging | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Writing exercise – “A Friend in Need” (Working ChatGPT from the other end)

Posted on January 30, 2025 by Katherine Wikoff

Another ChatGPT writing exercise to share today. Quick recap: Back in late September or early October, I began using ChatGPT to generate rough drafts of scenes for my novel in response to writing exercise prompts for my writing group’s bi-weekly … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, generative AI, Learning, writing exercises, Writing, blogging | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment