communism doesn't work in the classroom

I've decided to take a Rand-ian stance to the blog project that my professor has got us working on. I'm trying to walk the thin line between being cooperative and maintaining my own original ideas and research.

In class last week, Professor told us that he wanted us to try and write with a collective voice, meaning that we would all have the opportunity to write, edit each other's writing, etc. Ok, fine, whatever. We went to see the current Important Exhibition, and when we were talking about it, nobody really had anything exciting to say. Some of us (like me) were holding back because of the previous week's debacle.

In all honesty, there were things in the exhibition that sparked my interest, but I'm not going to write about them as part of the class blog. If I'm going to be doing all (or most) of the work, why should I contribute it to a project where someone else will share the credit for doing very little critical thought? I know it sounds like I have a superiority complex, but that isn't it. We are all in the class because we don't know how to use critical language to analyze art. It's no fault of the rest of the class (primarily made up of first-year grads) that they haven't had the instruction to do what they are being asked to do.

In a class where any concept that we don't understand (and that Prof isn't an expert on) is answered by being told to do the research ourselves and present it to the class so everyone (including Professor) can understand it, I'm loathe to bring up any critical discussion. So, I'm removing my thoughts from the discourse. At least about things that I think could develop into something. If I collaborate on a paper, it will be with someone who will contribute as much as I do.

very sad day

Robert Jordan has died. The Wheel of Time is unfinished. Whatever will happen to Rand et. al.?

overheard from a coworker

"I hate all this University Lecture Series stuff. I mean talk about a waste of money. All people do is throw it away."

When working in a department that has no connection to the academic side of things, I shouldn't be surprised to hear something like this.

[Update: Said coworker just received an email from the staffing director requesting a meeting this afternoon. Now I have to overhear this conversation: "Do you know what? I think I'm getting laid off...pisses me off." I've heard it 4 times already in the last 3 minutes.]

media art histories

While perusing Google Scholar, I found this nice site that has full-text papers that were presented at Refresh!, a conference on the history of media art, science, and technology. Looks pretty interesting.

Media Art Histories Archive