First article today – Hassan’s Towards a Concept of
Postmodernism. Actually we started with an Oulipo exercise in which the
students had to “rewrite” a sentence with all the vowels removed. I love the
idea of creating arbitrary rules or restrictions to work within. We discussed
that as a technique or tactic for developing artists – something to help you
see things a different way when stagnation sets in.
The conversation about the article went really well in both
classes. Having completed two projects before the article gave them something
to think about in connection with Hassan’s observations. I can see a bit
farther down the road since I know what examples we will see later, so there is
a kind of looped quality to the class where we move forward by reflecting on
where we have been. I have never been they type of teacher to call on students
for information – I figure if they want to offer it – fine. The projects are a
way of getting around this since each student is “called upon” for the
presentation. But with this class I thought I would try something a bit
different. We started the conversation with each student identifying one idea,
word, question, comment, etc they derived form the reading. I realize that this
doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone read it, but even scanning the text to
pull an idea out opens up the space of conversation.
I really need to work on removing myself from the center of
the conversation. Even though I ask for student input, which foregrounds
questions and ideas that I didn’t necessarily have about the article, I then
end up weaving it all into what I had planned to say. Perhaps this is the class
where I abandon writing notes out for everything and just listen to see where
the conversation ins headed.
Two subjects that I had not anticipated were contemporary
technology and irony. Although the subject of the course is “postmodernity,” I
feel that what we are really trying to get a handle on as what factors
contributed to the development of the society we now live in. I love the notion
of a palimpsest in which you can look at different layers of history at the
same time. With the technology we now have this is possible in ways previous
eras could never have fathomed. Virtually all of human history can be accessed
in an immediate way. With all of this at your fingertips the question then
becomes – what do you do with it?
A number of students commented on the fact that fashion,
style, music, etc seems to come and go with extreme quickness. Its not just the
ADD mindset, but the fact that the technology allows that. It’s the point that
Reynolds makes in Retromania about the accessibility of music. Rather than
tracking down sounds in a “shop” a few keystrokes and the entire history of a
genre is now available. His point is “the impetus behind record collecting used
to be: ‘I want to have something that no one else has.’ But with the advent of
sharity that’s shifted to ‘I’ve just got hold of something no one else has got,
so I’m immediately going to make it available to EVERYBODY” (106). I must admit
that my search for ever more exotic and hard to find books and sounds is driven
by the initial impetus, but facilitated by the second.
And so it is no wonder that irony has become a cultural
disposition of choice. Is there any other way to approach this wealth of
material. One need not be discerning if everything is at your disposal. How
else can a generation process this much information critically without taking
an ironic stance, which allows one to be engaged and disengaged simultaneously.
I keep referencing the film Sid and Nancy since I seem to remember something
about irony. I could be totally mistaken – I think the quote is “are you being
sarcastic? Yes. No. I don’t know anymore.” Somewhere there is an article about
Punks VS Hipsters and the ironic reinvention of sarcasm.
So – I was actually trilled with the conversation today –
wanted it to develop farther. In future on days like this perhaps I will step
back a bit and observe as opposed to trying to drive the conversation in a
particular direction.
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