I’ve been reading some “critical theory” and “media studies” books while here at Banff, and yesterday I decided to do some surfing on the Intermedianetweb about critical theory and postmodernism. Honestly, I wanted to learn more about the people and language cited/used, as I found it quite cumbersome (for me) to understand what people were talking about here. Instead of finding that, however, I noticed there is a big debate on its value and legitimacy. Richard Dawkins even gets in on the debate, and quite harshly takes sides.

I have to admit, for all the talk about Marxism, hegemony and power structures, the language of theory is quite a power structure itself. I’m finding it hard to tell what people here at Banff are actually talking about–I have to frequently remind myself that I’m an intelligent person; at times I just feel so stupid here. It’s as if people are speaking another language. I wonder why we can’t just talk about our ideas in plain English, to make them accessible to the “proletariat” of people like me who are not so blessed with the “wealth” of theory.

Reading Wikipedia, I read that philosophers such as Strauss intended to write esoterically in order to cause readers to stop and think; interpreting slowly instead of jumping to action. Perhaps the same use of cumbersome language continues today in theory, but I feel the whole field could be moved along much faster if it wasn’t so damn hard to understand what people are actually arguing! This goal of obfuscation is just so different from those I was taught in management and design: considering your audience, and coming to their level…

Today, I got to see two art projects at the Banff Centre. One was called “tracklines”, a project of the mobile media lab here at Banff. The other was called, “Dead In Iraq” by Joe DeLappe (who is also my roommate)

Tracklines is a “walkumentary” (their words) of the geology of the Hoodoo trail, delivered through a cellular phone and GPS receiver pair. I thought this was clearly technology for technology’s sake–what additional value did the cellular phone bring to the equation? Why not just use a map, paper cards or a cassette tape? The added value of the GPS (not being restricted to discrete, detectable waypoints on the trail) was totally unused–the map on the phone, for instance, didn’t show you where you were on the trail. Or how to get back on the trail if you got off. Honestly, I thought the project could have made better use of the technology, and delivered a better experience to the user if they would have user-tested this. It seems there are some glaring omissions.

Joe’s work is a critique of America’s Army, the US Army produced (and taxpayer funded!) videogame, distributed free on the Intermedianetweb. Joe systematically types in the names of the soldiers killed in Iraq into the game–much to the other player’s dismay. They often insult him or ask him to stop, providing interesting insight into the psychology of the typical AA player. Some tell him to keep going or thank him; there are people who recognize the real world isn’t a game. Anyway, check out his website for more.

Yesterday, we saw the movie “Brazil”. What a great movie! Honestly. It’s like a mix of Charles Dickens, Pink Floyd, 1984, The Matrix and probably others. Perhaps those works either influenced or were influenced by this movie? Totally great–I’ll have to see more of the director’s work…

Today Anne Galloway, one of the peer advisors took us on a walk to tell us about ways of “knowing”: more specifically, using anthropology to look at populations. We visited the cemetery (”Old Banff Cemetery”) as a case study. Things to look for were trends in dates, types of names (Anglo, Asian, etc.) and the like. From this, we could make assumptions about the culture and society that lived here. Very similar to what Susan Leigh-Starr speaks of in “Ethnography of Infrastructure”; looking for trends and making inferences by what is leftover (in the case of Susan, the telephone book specifically). Interesting, but nothing too new to me.

Today we gave a presentation about our work to the rest of the group. Mine went pretty well–I think people were interested. I’ve attached it to this post if you want to see. The design isn’t super–I ran out of time, so pardon my lack of sticking to the grid and some other inconsistencies…

art practice

There are people here with a ton of interests. From dance to “creative capital”, professors and department heads, to PhD students to people just starting out in the arts. Canada to England to the US, Illinois to Nevada. Should be an interesting group!