[-empyre-] the University, outside

[Johannes Birringer]

dear all

>>[elizaBeth schreibt]

Option One‚   Given what you have seen regarding the co-optation of
non-dominant cultures, whether they be indigenous, politically adverse
(punk!), or otherwise: *What are the offers and risks of seeking or
extending academic legitimacy to practices, ways of thinking, cultural
work, etc. that currently lie outside of the university's blessing? *

Options Two‚  One of the foundational questions of this Engineering the
University thread is: "What can the study of technology, ethics and society
offer a discussion about the research university's potential as a space of
social or political imagination?" *What do you consider to be the
contemporary university's potential as a space of social or political
imagination, broadly or in specific cases? *
>>


If one were permitted to jump into this wonderfully set up series of dialogue
partnerings ---   can i just mention a couple of things, somewhat
reflecting on the Option 1 above -- what if what lies outside the blessings
can continue to be productive, not needing all that blissful legitimacy?

A few days ago I listened to fieldworker Maria Kastrinou (Anthropology, Social Sciences, Media and Communications)
having returned from Syria, and about to go back there; she spoke at a new thing they
created at the place where I work (Brunel University, London), called Researcher Development Series.
Maria's presentation was: "An anthropologist at war: sectarianism, society and energy in Syria," and
it was a very thought provoking talk, and I didn't quite see what the School wanted to develop
here; Maria's research wound have happened without it, and the war in Syria and Northern Iraq does lie outside.
The researchers presented were introduced as exemplifying the vibrant interdisciplinary strengths of the
institution. 

Option 2 might be reconsidered as well, and broadly I wonder (having experienced
how our MA performance program was suspended last September due to lack of
money/enrollment), whether the space now opened up (after I started to
hold a weekly "Meta-Seminar/lab in performance and media" open to MAs, doctoral students, alumnae, former students
non students & visitors from outside the university and elsewhere abroad) 
is more interesting as an experiment, and well attended it is; one could see it in ethical terms as well, unconnected
to current imperatives (in the corporate university offering skills for employability in sectors)
and thus potentially more connected to interested people's questions about how to sustain
creative and artistic pursuits. an open university would be open, no? and if it's closed
down, the meta-lab can move somewhere else (potentially other zones
of conflict) and be fertile.


regards
Johannes Birringer
dap-lab
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/dap