Hello all,

 

I think perhaps first I'd better introduce myself (Charlotte Frost) and
where I was initially aiming my contributions to this discussion and then
I'd like to try and respond to  few points/posts in particular and
separately. And before that I should like to thank Verina for inviting me to
respond to this theme and apologise to all that I'm coming in late due to
work over load and a brief spell of illness. 

 

I am a writer/researcher/academic (or however it should be described) with a
focus on the intersection of art and technology and a particular interest in
web tools and their impact on art critical/historical thinking. In my PhD
thesis I used Net art to develop a theory which indicated the ways in which
archival technologies are expressed culturally. I claimed that art
historical discourse, for example, reflects the prevailing standards through
which it can be stored and transferred. (This came from adding together
Foucault, Derrida, Kittler and Stiegler). 

In this respect, my focus has always been on knowledge platforms and the
ways they respond to technology. For example, I find myself often using
Furtherfield.org's project the VistorsStudio (http://www.visitorsstudio.org)
to demonstrate how internet-based standards of archival technology produce
alternative models for experiencing art. I've described this project
variously as: 'a teachy-learny-arty-makey-discussy-space all rolled into
one' and 'the ever-changing play that becomes not just the theatre, but a
history of storytelling.' Another area of interest for me has always been
the mailing list itself both in terms of the way it has supported knowledge
about Net art, for example, and for the way it constitutes an early-ish
online challenge to existing structures for knowledge storage and transfer.
In the case of both the list and VisitorsStudio, I am making comparisons
with exhibitions, books, class rooms, while analysing the type of knowledge
they foster. 

Now, it seems to me that a lot of what contemporary knowledge platforms are
structured around is this educational element, or at least that, via these
technologies, a prevailing cultural theme is precisely that of the
educational. And if I were to dig through the theory I used in my thesis
(which usually takes me into discussions of the contemporary relevance of
notions of the performative), I would end up with a set of examples showing
the contemporary relevance of the educational - and possibly of the analysis
of the performance of the educational (and I think the platforms I've
mentioned and the ones referred to in posts before this fit that theory),
which is where we're at now, right?!

But where I had indented to enter this debate was by inviting some
discussion on books. I have recently begun to extend the theoretical model
from my thesis to encounter several intertwined areas of my thinking. 

1)      I have set up a web resource (http://www.phd2published.com) that I
intend to use in order to discover what the educational system requires
currently (and what it might require in the future) in terms of book-related
knowledge products. Of course I'm thinking here of where ebooks take
learning, but I'm also thinking of how the educational system might take on
different types of output (and indeed how early-career academics can be
ready to lead in this). 

2)      I am setting about writing a history of mailing list culture, but in
doing such, I am preparing to use lists very directly to research the
history and to discuss what the final (if final is the right word) format of
such a research project might be. Would a book be even remotely acceptable
and if not, does an ebook or some sort of multi-media platform work better
for this type of knowledge?

3)      I am trying to synergise my theory about the cultural expression of
the technicity of knowledge platforms within the themes and metaphors of the
discussion they collect in a practical test.

And I wanted to kick off by asking the list how they feel about this idea
that the technicity of the knowledge platform is represented in the nature
of knowledge it supports, and perhaps ask for more examples of projects
which demonstrate this - particularly if they relate to the notion of
published knowledge.  I myself am attending a seminar at the British Library
on Tuesday on 'The Doctoral Thesis in the Digital and Multimodal Age', and
will report back. 

However, I recognise that this discussion has headed off on multiple
directions all of which have completely opened up my thinking on this area.
Already, I am thinking of my own research into book-based knowledge transfer
versus networked knowledge transfer in a number of different ways: I
recognise my own pedagogical turn (or myself/my thinking as being born
within the pedagogical turn); my own three point project as very directly
shaped by the need for academics to quickly get a purchase on the knowledge
economy and its basis in technological developments; how my own affection
for certain learning rituals has enveloped my learning and thinking on
learning....

As I say, I want to go back to other people's posts and have a think and a
type and see what I come up with, but hopefully this introduces me for now?!
[waves furiously at computer screen] ;-)

Charlotte