Into the Neverlands

I am very excited to announce that after a few months of talking along with a few other students I study with in Utrecht, we launched a group research blog Media Mob. Stay tuned.

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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.

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A quote of the top of my head (getting into the habit of compulsively referencing interesting quotes I come across), but when one looks for a research subject, one should look for questions that trigger, that make one uneasy and pose even more questioning.

It is the approach cultural theorist Stuart Hall proposed and applied half a century ago. When explaining the reasons for the emergence of cultural studies in the UK in the crossroads of 1950s and 1960s, he said what was driving him and other founders of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham was the need for an answer what was post-war, post-colonial Britain and what was that umbrella term 'British', under which millions of people were huddling.

Slowly, with some detours, I am threading my thoughts through the hypertext and the dusty corridors of the library which seems to be preoccupied with drilling rather than providing conditions for peaceful scholarship. (Speaking of which - the Neverlanders built the country on the water, but I am not sure why they don't come up with an idea to carry construction works during the night in educational institutions, just like the road workers do, for instance.) On the other hand, scholarship is anything but peaceful and I think this is how we (particularly students) should keep it.

A number of complains have been hovering above Drift in Utrecht lately, where majority of the classes OGC students are enrolled in take place. My naivety that whatever is from the West is innately progressive, thought-provoking and challenging various status quo has been shattered a number of times lately. Juvenile hopes of a girl from European suburbia. However, I am not suggesting the superiority of our Alma Maters - oftentimes they claim profound history, yet they could definitely work on their present. Obviously, over there, in the far East of the Western world, in the plateaus that for decades remained within the footnotes of the former Soviet Union, much is influenced by the factor that is not an issue here, in the Neverlands, at least nowhere as near an issue as it is there. In other words - the finances, that mostly, quite frankly and sadly, are singing romances. But let's leave the East for the meantime and focus on the West.

There have been a number of complaints during the past block among my fellow students and I enjoy the fact that the content and the quality of the studies are open to discussions here - at least there are certain professors who understand that the ultimate threat of education lies in stagnation. Yet these discussions could be much more feisty and I wonder why only a number of students try to stir debates and show the initiative in implementing changes. When a respected professor in front of 60 research master students used the word 'negro' a month ago, nobody questioned her on the usage of the word in the auditorium of one of best European universities. Latter on I found out the professor came from a well-to-do family. She said the 'negro' was her cook. Some professors emphasise we should aim to become public intellectuals, but we don't have the guts to question matters among 50 people or so.

On the other hand, some professors still wonder whether we should aim to become public intellectuals. As a friend of mine said yesterday, here we are discussing epistemologies, while a million of children in Kongo are facing disease, hunger, sexual abuse and recruitment by armed groups.

The owner of a health shop asked me a few days ago whether I will become part of a movement when I finish my media studies. 'What movement?' I asked. He thought I was studying journalism and I tried to explain in plain words that it is not that kind of media I am studying. 'So what can you do afterwards?' A seemingly simple question, yet whenever I face it I think that I probably won't invent the cure for AIDS or cancer and might not produce a very utilitarian scholarship. The more I think of the answer, the more I understand that the question is drilling to the very core of my brain and soul. And I believe this is exactly what we ultimately should engage in - drilling. It is the act that does not and should not have geographical restrictions. Because the West needs it just as much as the East does. Peaceful scholarship doesn't exist.

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A friend of mine thinks that "The Netherlands" is a euphemism for "Denmark". It doesn't really sound like the name of the country, does it? Besides, for most of the foreigners it does seem somewhat surreal: they smoke dope without the fear of getting caught and one of the main attractions of the capital is a Red Light District, where again everybody can wander and wonder without the fear of getting caught. Overall it sounds like the ultimate island of liberty. Hence the title of the blog.

My experiences of the past few days only serve as a proof that it will not be as easy as I was expecting.

Starting my Master's studies in Utrecht in September, moving from Dublin. The International Admissions Office is on holidays. Just in time I'd say - when everybody is looking for accommodation. So do I. Thus I'm coming accommodation-hunting for a few days in the end of July.

Charming 26-year-old.
Female.
Enjoys W.Wender's movies, N.Simone and a peace of mind now and again.
Has a soft spot for lomography.
Loves big Aussie reds.
A night owl rather than an early bird.
Currently reads U.Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" and ponders whether to finish A. Burgess' "Clockwork Orange".
Pays on time, cooks well and to her knowledge doesn't snore.
Has reservations about the success of this ad (in the accommodation hunting department).

For any questions please contact me at lina[dot]zigelyte[at]gmail[dot]com

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