Re: [-empyre-] Academic Aggression

[Christina McPhee <christina112@earthlink.net>]

Christian, and dear list,

 I have been a moderator at empyre since late in 2002 (at Melinda's
invitation)l   Though an independent artist (without current university
affiliation) I grew up in an academic family.  Accustomed since salad days
to the sparring styles of academia,  nonetheless I don¹t find the tendance (
( in the French sense of the word, the direction) of -empyre- towards an
academic game space although it can be that at times.

  Of the problems and opportunities  that -empyre- faces, one of the more
subtle is the submerged but persistent resist  between the ethos of the
academic debate and the etiquette of a dinner party.  This discord is a
source of creative energy for empyre.  The social dynamic of each fights
against and yet still integrates with the another.  For example,   academic
style aggression, at least as observed from here, seems to provide start up
fuel to a discussion but may not sustain it unless quiet lurkers are moved
into comment from their fresh, often practice or experientially informed
perspective.  That movement, to post, from amongst the lurking, seems to be
often provoked by debates over semantic differences (eg the recurrent 'is
the term 'new media' a legitimate way to describe digital arts and
culture?')- the sort of discussion of terms that has to be hot in academic
departments where definition of field is tied to preferment and advancement.

 This exchange between contrasting motives and styles of posts helps makes
empyre's form and content lively and worth being archived as the portrait of
an age.  

Finally, an important subtext in -empyre- is the fact that many readers and
writers to this list are not native speakers of English, and yet make the
significant effort to post in this language.  We will accept posts in other
languages as long as we can try to google a translation or better yet if one
of us moderators knows the language of the post!  Yet I think this is
important, the fact that people around the world care enough about this
conversation to contribute even when it is quite inconvenient because of
language barriers. That means a lot to me.


Thanks for the interesting questions.


Christina







 shiftsOn 8/25/04 4:59 PM, "Christian McCrea" <saccharinmetric@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Greetings all,
> 
> I'm struggling with a section of my thesis, which is largely on
> games/affect/social networks, and I've begun to find some fruit in
> comparing the behaviour of academics online to the behaviour of
> gameplayers in online environments.
> 
> (I.e. - the type of aggression and gendered authoritarian behaviour
> that is being talking about recently.)
> 
> I'm interested in how academics interact specifically on lists like
> f/c and empyre, and on each other's blogs, and at conferences.
> My interest is in game studies - that has enough manifestations of aggressive
> intellectual behaviour; the ludology vs. narratology question created
> as many questions about academic responsibility as it posed about
> interactivity. Recently, there has been some fascinating exchanges
> here about aggression, and even a couple of examples. I'd like
> to hear how people account for these phenomena and how important they
> are to the conducting of their arguments. Is it discouraging or inspirational?
> 
> I'm aware that posts starting with "I'd like to hear your thoughts
> about ____ " end up unanswered; I've included my own points of
> fascination here. Even if you have a comment about a particular stoush
> between thinkers, I'd like to hear about it, as research into
> particular events will naturally become part of the process of the
> section in my thesis;
> 
> - Fights and debates about the particular use of words; creation of
> authority over meaning.
> - Responding to an argument versus attempts to negate an argument.
> - The role of gender in academic oneup(wo)manship
> - Can collaborate projects create bridges?
> - Recent debates about "academics vs. activists"
> - Jostling for better job positions
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Christian McCrea
> 
> 
> 
> ----------------------------
> PhD Candidate
> School of Art History, Cinema, Classics and Archeology
> Melbourne University
> ---------------------------
> "Keep braiding one's wavelengths back into oneself. That way they gain
> all the more external power and surround us with a huge affective and
> protective zone. Don't talk about this. Never talk about our secret
> methods. If we talk about them, they stop working."
> ? Jean Cocteau, from "The Cocteau Diaries", Volume One
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre

-- 
 soundart performance videoinstallation multimedia painting theory


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