[iDC] Re(2): REFRESH! conference, some impressions (panelism + powerpoint)

[Jon Ippolito]

Lily,

Thanks for your question. Marxism and Feminism were revolutionary discourses that nevertheless failed to change the way history and other academic disciplines "do business." By that I mean that even in universities where Marxist or Feminist
influence scholarship, the broadcast paradigms are still in place: professors "instructing" students, scholars competing for publication in prestigious journals, antisocial media like print and PowerPoint enforcing the one-way flow of information.

I think new media hold out the promise to topple these behavioral hierarchies, rather than merely change the subjects taught according to them. Whether this effort succeeds I think has a lot to do with whether we as a group of scholars and activists
point out the hypocrisy of preaching decentralization from PowerPoint slides or closed-access journals.

Joline Blais and I describe our work in Still Water as teaching students to cheat productively. Much of this work consists of awakening our students to the broader political potential of the everyday technologies they currently use for pirating
software or meeting friends on Saturday night.

That said, I'm also curious how others on this list see the question you raised.

jon

>Dear Jon,
>
>I did not attend RE-FRESH... However in reading 
>your post one sentence caught my attention:
>
>>"If new media are going to be assimilated into the discipline of history
>>without changing the way history does business, then I'll
>>find something else to do..."
>
>I would like to hear more your thoughts about 
>this maybe engage a in discussion, if others are 
>also interested. What do you mean by this 
>"assimilation"? How do you think that history 
>"does business"? How could new media change this? 
>Why it is needed?
>
>I look forward to hearing comments and thoughts about this topic.
>
>Regards,
>
>Lily