Origami hassle and why students and professors alike should watch Ted
This one is about inspiration. And patience.
Ted Nelson once said that 'schooling systematically ruins things for us, wiping out these interests; the last thing to be ruined determines your profession' 1.
During one of the seminars in Utrecht University one girl (luckily, not from the Media studies) expressed her worries about online universities and online lectures. I'd like to know which corners of the Net she's treading and I could suggest a good few.
I adore sites like Ted.com or Fora TV and obviously the good old friend YouTube. Some of the talks on Ted are so remarkable (needless to say free) that I they should make any ambitious professor rethink the content of her lectures twice before even starting to prepare for them. One aspect that makes Ted particularly compelling is the passion that I savour in numerous talks available on the site.
During the past few weeks I realised I would like to learn to program - mainly after watching Jonathan Harris' projects. Which reminds me that in his 1995 interview Friedrich Kittler suggested that students researching cultural studies should know at least two software languages - only then 'they'll be able to say something about what 'culture' is at the moment, in contrast to 'society'2 (although that's quite a challenge when media scholars mostly are being trained within the faculties of arts or humanities...).
After Johny Lee's presentation on Wii Remote hacks I thought I should at least get better acquainted with the hacker culture and the ways their practises become quintessential examples of what De Certeau calls 'tactics' (2002)3, such as New York hackers turning iPods into drum machines or devices on which they play Doom. Mirko Schäfer just defended his PhD "Bastard Culture! User participation and the extension of cultural industries" in Utrecht University where among other issues he covers Xbox hacks as examples of participation culture.
Another talk I came across today cost me 4 hours spent in front of a square sheet of paper. I wish I was taught mathematics, computer science and arts the way Robert Lang talks about merging mathematics and origami! Talks like these are like watching the Olympics on the telly or listening to exceptionally good musicians performing - whatever they engage in seems so flawless, yet at the same time so simple, that I instantly consider becoming a figure ice skater or a pianist. I guess my idea of origami was similarly naive... While at first I was intending to make a water bug, for the moment it is a bit of rocket science, so with a bit of visual help, I rather chose to make a more basic beetle.
It's a bit beetle-tired, but it's mine... I wander if I can crack origami, can I hack something?..
Hope everybody is having as much fun this season :)
1. Nelson, T. H. No more teachers' dirty looks. 1970. In N. Wardrip-Fruin and N. Montfort , eds. The new media reader. Cambridge and London: The MIT Press.
2. Technologies of Writing/Rewriting Technology. An Interview with Friedrich A. Kittler about Cultural Studies in Germany, Literature in the Age of Technology and the Blind Spot in Media Theory by Matthew B. Griffin and S.M. Herrmann, available here. The interview originally appeared in Auseinander, Vol.1, No.3 (Berlin, 1995).
3. De Certeau, M. (2002) The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: UC Press.
Ted Nelson once said that 'schooling systematically ruins things for us, wiping out these interests; the last thing to be ruined determines your profession' 1.
During one of the seminars in Utrecht University one girl (luckily, not from the Media studies) expressed her worries about online universities and online lectures. I'd like to know which corners of the Net she's treading and I could suggest a good few.
I adore sites like Ted.com or Fora TV and obviously the good old friend YouTube. Some of the talks on Ted are so remarkable (needless to say free) that I they should make any ambitious professor rethink the content of her lectures twice before even starting to prepare for them. One aspect that makes Ted particularly compelling is the passion that I savour in numerous talks available on the site.
During the past few weeks I realised I would like to learn to program - mainly after watching Jonathan Harris' projects. Which reminds me that in his 1995 interview Friedrich Kittler suggested that students researching cultural studies should know at least two software languages - only then 'they'll be able to say something about what 'culture' is at the moment, in contrast to 'society'2 (although that's quite a challenge when media scholars mostly are being trained within the faculties of arts or humanities...).
After Johny Lee's presentation on Wii Remote hacks I thought I should at least get better acquainted with the hacker culture and the ways their practises become quintessential examples of what De Certeau calls 'tactics' (2002)3, such as New York hackers turning iPods into drum machines or devices on which they play Doom. Mirko Schäfer just defended his PhD "Bastard Culture! User participation and the extension of cultural industries" in Utrecht University where among other issues he covers Xbox hacks as examples of participation culture.
Another talk I came across today cost me 4 hours spent in front of a square sheet of paper. I wish I was taught mathematics, computer science and arts the way Robert Lang talks about merging mathematics and origami! Talks like these are like watching the Olympics on the telly or listening to exceptionally good musicians performing - whatever they engage in seems so flawless, yet at the same time so simple, that I instantly consider becoming a figure ice skater or a pianist. I guess my idea of origami was similarly naive... While at first I was intending to make a water bug, for the moment it is a bit of rocket science, so with a bit of visual help, I rather chose to make a more basic beetle.
It's a bit beetle-tired, but it's mine... I wander if I can crack origami, can I hack something?..
Hope everybody is having as much fun this season :)
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