A Poet with Tools Reflects on Fish

“Will the Humanities Save Us?” is the title of a column by the eminent scholar Stanley Fish published recently by The New York Times. In the column Fish states:

How does one justify funding the arts and humanities? It is clear which justifications are not available. You can’t argue that the arts and humanities are able to support themselves through grants and private donations. You can’t argue that a state’s economy will benefit by a new reading of “Hamlet.” You can’t argue – well you can, but it won’t fly – that a graduate who is well-versed in the history of Byzantine art will be attractive to employers (unless the employer is a museum).

The column has resulted in an avalanche of comments on the site (293 at present) and I can completely understand why. I respect Fish, his work is an important part of the background to my own research, but his text seems to indicate his preoccupation with a concept of the humanities that I have had only a marginal amount of contact with over the last few years.

Continue reading this on the HUMlab Blog

Not Blogging Here

The last few days have been busy with writing for me and having nothing much to say that suits this particular blog. Instead I have been making short entries on the HUMLab blog and posting a couple of cool videos on Soul Vlog. Maybe something will happen today that is worth inscribing........one never knows.

Reading the Collective Text: facing up to Facebook

From a long post I just made on the HUMlab blog:

About a week ago I was approached to help out in a project being developed as part of the annual awards ceremony here at Umeå University. I had blogged about the social network phenomenon Facebook and the post had given the impression that I was familiar with its uses. For this reason I was asked to give advice about the setting up of a Facebook group for the honored guests who will be attending the ceremony in late October. Since agreeing to do so I have been learning a lot about Facebook. In fact I have been close reading Facebook from the perspective of use as a collaborative text, investigating its contours and textures. Here are some of observations.
Continue with Reading the Collective Text: facing up to Facebook

Posted on the HUMlab Blog

Just posted some mumblings on Second Life over on the HUMlab blog. This is the intro:

Simulation and Critique in Second Life: Reading the Space for Wholes
By Jim on Digital Arts
I have been out of Second Life more than in it since returning to formal research after the summer break. However, my mind is still very much engaged with SL. I am planning some building for the HUMlab island, have tested out the new voice chat application (not so impressed but maybe I made mistakes), been watching the blogosphere dialogues and thinking about a.......

Google Blogging and Me

A post on the HUMlab blog about the mysteries of this blog.

Steina Vasulka in HUMlab 11 April.

Steina Vasulka in HUMlab 11 April.

Virtual Worlds Real Choices

Another notice of something posted on another blog. On the HUMlab blog I wrote an entry on the relationships between so called Virtual Worlds and the one that we believe ourselves to be living in...It reminds me now of Baudrillard's "desert of the real" which is a hot topic on the IDC list at the moment in relation to 3D worlds.:

Virtual Worlds Real Choices

The Trial

I just posted a long text and video on my other blog, SoulVlog. It concerns one of the founders of the Critical Art Ensemble, Steve Kurtz and his outrageous situation in regards to charges of bioterrorism. Please check out "A portrait of Steve Kurtz as he awaits trial for mail fraud". It reminds me very much of Kafka's The Trial.

Recent Postings on the HUMlab Blog

I have been making a few contributions to the HUMlab blog recently. I decided to link them here just to keep things rolling along during an uninspired moment of blogging.

The Del.icio.us Life Part 1.

The Working Life of Links

Creative Commons: Choice and Trust