Projectories

"Zizek!" is a feature length documentary that travels the world
exploring the eccentric personality and esoteric work of the most important
cultural theorist working today, the incomparable Slovenian philosopher Slavoj
Zizek.

The author of dozens of books on subjects from Hitchcock to September 11th,
from Lenin to David Lynch, Zizek’s work has been translated into
more than twenty languages. Innumerable reviews and analyses of his work
have been written, and glowing profiles printed in Le Monde Diplomatique
and the New Yorker magazine. In major cities around the world, lecture
halls overflow with those anxious to catch a glimpse of the frenetic and
iconoclastic style that has made Zizek so famous.

“Zizek!”

Via: Mymarkup.net

I have found a really great resource on discourse analysis! Stef
Slembrouck from Ghent University presents
and compares the major schools within discourse analysis in this neatly
compiled overview.

One thing that I’m starting to realize is that the conversation
analysis approach might be too narrow for me, since there seems to be
too little focus on social and cultural context but instead only the context
of the text itself is seen as crucial. From this perspective, the interactional
sociolinguistic approach seems more suitable, especially if one brings
in the work of Erwing Goffman under
this umbrella. Nevertheless, I quite like some of the ideas of conversation
analysis, as for instance the notion of sequential implicativeness – the
idea that “each move in a conversation is essentially a reponse to
the preceding talk and an anticipation of the kind of talk which is to follow.
In formulating their present turn, speakers show their understanding of the
previous turn and reveal their expectations about the next turn to come.” (From
the Conversation Analysis section in
Slembrouck’s resource.) I need to figure out if these different approaches
are combinable, and especially so from a multimodal perspective.

Emerging Communications

Time: 9th-13th May.
Place: Oslo, Research Park, Gaustadalleen 21, 0349, Oslo
Responsible: Professor John
Law and Ass. Professor Vicky Singleton both Lancaster University.
Curriculum: An abridged version of the Curriculum for the (2003
course) to be announced later.
Pre-registration: send mail with request to Håkon
Skogli

STS (R)Evolutions Conference Web Site

[Via: tmttlt.com]

I find the below quote very interesting – it connects to the discourse
on distance education creating flexibility for the individual, but also adds
something new I haven’t thought about, distance education actually removing
the physical basis for discrimination. In this case age, but one can easily
apply the same thoughts for gender, ethnicity or class. Incidentally this is
also one of the arguments used in relation to correspondence education: it
is the qualifications and competence that are supposed to stand out when dealing
with correspondence education.

But, needless to say, education is not only about learning professional knowledge
or skills, but also about “entering into a body of social conduct” what
Berner calls “savoir faire” – and this is something correspondence
education has a hard time providing, as there are no socializing interactions
in correspondence education classes.

I’ve just watched an amazing
documentary about gifted Swedish children on Swedish channel 4 – a
ten-year-old music genius composing his own postlude, a nine-year-old soccer
professional (almost), and an eleven-year-old chess master. The one making
the biggest impression on me, though, was ten-year-old Emma, the youngest
member of Swedish Mensa, who
always has been ahead of her class and is a real math genius. A recurring
theme during the documentary was how Swedish teachers not are sufficiently
prepared to work with gifted students, and how these students are often
held back in order to not disturb the rest of the class. Emma has found
a solution to this. She is enrolled in a class with which goes on excursions
and so on, but she takes her lessons via distance education. The principal
of her school (I unfortunately didn’t catch the name of neither
her nor the school) talked about the importance of seeing Emma as a person,
not as a child. I think that distance education can definitely be of great
help in this process – it should be much easier for teachers to treat Emma
as a talented and smart individual rather than as a child when communicating
with her via media that do not always remind them about her actual age.
A nice exemplification of the good old, often utopian view that the internet
can help break down our strongest prejudices.

Distance education for the gifted

The relatively new center for Science and Technology Studies at Uppsala University has started a STS newsletter.
STS Newsletter from Uppsala University

[Via Nita]

But your question was: ‘What can I do with ANT’? I answered it:
no structuralist explanation. The two are completely incompatible. Either you
have actors who realize potentialities and they are not actors at all, or you
describe actors who are making virtualities actual (this is Deleuze’s
parlance by the way), and that requires very specific texts, and your connection
with those you study requires very specific protocols to work — I guess
this is what you would call ‘critical edge’ and ‘political
relevance’.

Bruno
Latour: A prologue in form of a dialog between a Student and his (somewhat) Socratic
Professor

[Via: infosophy:
Socio-technological Rendering of Information]

On Sunday I enjoyed Katherine Hayles’ and Bruno Latour’s lectures at Tate Modern. Katherine Hayles lecture was about cellular automata and reminded me about chaos theory. Latour’s lecture was, as always, about science and politics. Both were well worth the time.

Our ideas of nature affect the ways in which we understand many aspects of contemporary life, in relation not only to the environment but also to science, technology, human nature and art.

Nature seems partly produced by social forces, and yet continues to act upon us in many ways (disease, the weather) that resist being reduced entirely to culture and society.

The Weather Project deals with the representation of nature today, how nature can take on social and spatial forms, and how images of nature can be produced by machines and contraptions.

• What is happening to the concept of nature in the world today?
• How is it being transformed through the impact of contemporary issues, from genetic engineering to climate change?
• How do we view the difference between natural and artifice, the authentic and the simulated?
• Does the difference matter any more?

Tate Modern: Nature Space Society

Via Tesugen.

http://orlando.women.it/cyberarchive/files/

Roland Barthes’ lectures and seminars at Collège de France are out on a 28 hour double CD. It would be a real treat to be able to listen and understand – but I’m afraid my french isn’t up to understanding academic lecturing.

Via: La république des livres