Alan
Thanks for this articulation of
"beginning elsewhere, within a mixed field and what conceivably might come
out of it"
That very closely describes my hopes for this list, and others' too I
suspect. And you're right, the positions from which we speak are extremely
important and easily forgotten at times. We have to be on our guard. And
it's also true that part of my motivation for figuring out the
interdisciplinary issue is to help me articulate it for the purposes of
writing grants. But then, I've chosen to work within the system and must
therefore, at times, work to the agenda it sets me. I think we also have on
this list people who work in commercial companies, working to yet another
agenda, and probably people working in local government too etc etc.
I would like to broaden it further though, and I'm about to send out another
invitation email. I'll post it to the list for circulation when it's ready.
Although sometimes it's difficult to have these trans/cross/inter
conversations (!) that's what this list is about, and the more varied the
makeup of the group the harder the discussion will get, but who knows what
will come out of it?!
sue
> From: Alan Sondheim <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 19:39:00 -0400
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [WDL] interdisciplinarity or weirdly out of sortedness
>
> <Sue>:
>
> As an aside, I think you need to accept that your practice is much broader
> than many because it encapsulates writing, coding, music, dance,
> composition
> etc in a way that few do.
>
> <Alan>:
>
> For me the problem is twofold - political and economic, the two
> intertwined. No matter what anyone says, academia is still canon- and
> discipine- bound; perhaps my problem with the initial question is that it
> came from the position of binding.
>
> Grants, teaching positions, etc. are the result of following the rules.
> Although I'm reasonably successful at this point, I'm not eligible say for
> film grants - since I'm not doing film; video grants - since I'm not doing
> video; creative writing positions - since I don't "Write" - and so forth.
> I'm not the only one in this situation. The world itself appears increas-
> ingly canonless as we all know; yet even _that_ position has to be argued
> from those with the PHDs who have initially followed the canon.
>
> Aside: The canon is not only racist/sexist; it is ageist as well.
>
> The result I think is a real crippling, not only of artists (whatever),
> but also of education systems themselves. For example, students may be
> taught _now_ television history, MTV history, etc. but by academics who
> have never made a video, much less a music video, in their lives. Muscle
> knowledge in other words, experience, isn't worth much. The same is true
> for most internet studies, which as I've said before, I find either too
> theory-bound (Marx? Lacan? Foucault? Butler? Spivak?) and/or too naive by
> a long shot. The net if it's anything is interdisciplinary, yet it must
> have its _approaches_ from god knows what, film theory / communications
> theory / marx - jesus christ these are inadequate!
>
> But that's where the money is, that's where the grants lie, that's where
> the jobs are. So the questions you're asking, at least for me, presuppose
> beginning at a canonic origin (even in the sense of a cartesianism); what
> interests me, here as well on this list, is beginning elsewhere, within a
> mixed field and what conceivably might come out of it.
>
> - Alan
>
> URLs/DVDs/CDroms/DVD+s/books/etc. - http://www.asondheim.org/advert.txt
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