Academic Wasteland

I'm back this Fall...

2009-08-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

Academic Wasteland has been on hiatus. Thank you to all for your notes of encouragement while I have been finishing my dissertation: Action Architecture: Lawrence Halprin's Experiments in Landscape Design, Urbanism, and the Creative Process. This fall I'm back with a new house, new job, new baby on the way, and a finished dissertation.

More to come SEPTEMBER 2009.

Book Review

2008-09-15T12:34:00.001-07:00

I don't have much time to post to my blog these days. Here is a review that I just finished working on.
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Architecture or Techno-utopia: Politics After Modernism
Felicity D. Scott
MIT Press, hardcover $29.95

Living Archive 7: Ant Farm
Allegorical Time Warp: The Media Fallout of July 21, 1969
Felicity D. Scott, author and editor
Actar Publishing, paperback $ 54.95

Architecture or Techno-utopia and Living Archive 7: Ant Farm are the first two books published by architecture historian and Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation Professor Felicity D. Scott. Released within sixth months of one another, the texts provide students and scholars of art, architecture, urban studies, and American studies with a comprehensive overview of Scott’s theoretical and historical project on the subject of postwar American experimental architecture.

The loose historical time frame for Architecture or Tecno-utopia is the transition between architectural late modernism and postmodernism. And more specifically defined, Scott takes up as her subject the “experimental endgames” of Modernist architecture, which she argues require a more complex and nuanced consideration than traditional architecture history narratives. Scott’s insightful theoretical analysis of these self-proclaimed architectural “drop-outs”—artist collectives such as Archigram, Drop City, and Ant Farm—enriches the discourse surrounding the transition between architectural modernism and postmodernism, and provides the hopeful with a framework for reading and sussing out the historical, aesthetic, and political possibilities of a critical and radical architectural practice.

Borrowing the rhetorical “or” in the title from the well-known Le Corbusier phrase, “Architecture or Revolution,” Scott posits that the opposition set up by the French modernist is a simplistic reflection on the role/obligation/program of architecture. 1 Setting up the text to “undermine” such oppositions, Scott explains her approach as one that aims “to identify aesthetic, theoretical, and political topoi, no matter how buried by the victors of history, or how incidental they might seem” (12). Her subject then becomes the alternative— read “unsuccessful”—practitioners of an experimental architecture. These countercultural artists of the 1960s and 1970s, Scott argues, are similarly propelled by new technologies, the media culture of the televisual space age, and a growing environmental and survivalist do-it-yourself mentality. Additionally, they offer an alternative to mainstream practice with such activities as “dome-building and intermedia installations that pushed the discipline to its limits.” Scott introduces her project as a new trajectory that, “[traces] a different kind of borderline” (12), than those presented by institutions and traditional disciplines. By seeking inroads into the polemical battles of major art historians and institutions, Scott provides an alternative, destablilizing, genealogy of utopian practices. And with what is probably the most nuanced component of her argument, one need recognize that these artistic attempts shouldn’t be rejected for their wide-eyed idealism, but rather, she argues that their potential value and success is that they work to critically put into question the historical, institutional, and theoretical status quo. Arguably, this kind of historical project activates a progressive practice of what Henri Lefebvre referred to as experimental utopianism.2

The first two chapters of the book provide the historical context for the debates surrounding the modernist –postmodernist divide. Beginning with art critic Meyer Schapiro’s review of the 1932 International Style show at MoMA, and then moving to discuss the Grays versus Whites debate and the role of critics such as Manfredo Tafuri and Colin Rowe, Scott reveals the strong foundational myths of modernism and their institutional support. According to Scott, keeping architectural discourse tied up in debates regarding the resemantization of architecture (the emergence of postmodernism) decidedly placed an institutional barrier on the practices of radical political artists such as the UK’s Archigram. Scott argues that after the mythologized “end” of modern architecture and its failed politics the work of experimental architects were perceived as “committed to the authenticity of the modern movement’s social and political agenda in the face of its actual collapse,” therefore doomed to failure (45). What Scott provides in these first two chapters is a critical look at modernism’s historical and theoretical context as it stood from an institutional standpoint in its final days. Of these experimental practices she suggests: first, that they insisted on devising political projects for architecture, “no matter how conceptually cast or how impossibly imbricated within the system they remained.” And secondly, that they stood as counterexamples both to the gloom and disenchantment of Tafuri and to the desired detachment of form from politics sought by Rowe (51).

From here Scott presents a perspective from which to consider the rest of the book (and subsequently Living Archive 7: Ant Farm) whereby she proposes that “if we shift our attention, even just slightly, we can trace practices and discourses that pursued other forms of engagement with new social movements, new technologies, and new theoretical paradigms, as well as with the period’s emergent economic, administrative, and military logics” (56). The following three chapters—When Systems Fail, Designing Environment, Italian Design and the New Political Landscape— explore MoMA’s institutional role in the promotion of late modernist discourse and the integration of experimental or “visionary” architecture into sponsored museum activities—exhibitions, symposia, lectures— and publications. Important figures examined in these chapters are curators Arthur Drexler and Emilio Ambasz, the latter whom introduces Italian Design to the American museum-scape.

In Revolutionaries and Dropouts, Acid Visions, and Shouting Apocalypse, Scott moves the discussion away from institutions toward a “murkier zone” where off-the-grid communes and hippies were utilizing the momentum of the counterculture and its tactics (i.e. sit-ins, experimental drug use, squatting, and anti-authoritarian protests) toward attempts at radical politics. Drop City and Ant Farm figure centrally in Scott’s interrogation of aesthetic practices that “managed to negotiate, or at least politically engage, new modalities of power” (175). She pits these artists against the “revolutionary” vernacular architecture practice promoted by Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi (arguing that they effectively avoid political questions while supporting a middle class aesthetic), as well as the technocracy of Buckminster Fuller, and the space exploration of NASA. Besides sharing the common theme of “dropping out,” Drop City and Ant Farm explore methods of survival deemed necessary in the “realms of warfare, the media, and ecology, as well as under the rule of political management” (244). Drop City published the Dome Cookbook to promote a do-it-yourself instant city, while Ant Farm, taking up inflateables as their shelter of choice, followed with the Inflatocookbook. Scott’s careful archaeology here raises important questions about the efficacy of such radical aesthetic projects through which a discipline like architecture has the “ability to forge an ongoing political… practice” (345).

Scott’s careful historicization and theorization of Ant Farm’s work in the late 60s and early 70s in Techno-utopia prepares those readers who wish to explore the group more thoroughly in the text Living Archive 7: Ant Farm. Before all else, this book is a beautiful object: a sleek and shiny jacket, thick pages bound together with never before published color reproductions of Ant Farm material. Included in the volume is not only Scott’s archival research narrated in Allegorical Time Warp: The Media Fallout of July 21, 1969, but also the Ant Farm Timeline by Ant Farmers Chip Lord, Doug Michels, and Curtis Schreier. The volume also includes a dossier of archival materiel, the Truckstop Network Dossier, edited by Scott and an introduction to the Ant Farm Timeline, Timeline of the Timeline by Chip Lord. This volume is brimming with important historical and archival material. Published in correlation with the exhibition Ant Farm: Radical Hardware in the Arthur Ross Gallery in Buell Hall at Columbia University in Spring 2008, the book directs its focus toward Ant Farm’s early years (1969-71) and draws from a number of “drawings, collages, typescripts, manifestoes, publications, sketchbooks, 35mm slides, photographic prints, films, videos, and ephemera” most of which had been kept safe for 28 years in Chip Lord’s studio in San Francisco.3 Scott’s “reanimation” of the material is delicately balanced amongst the visual material and Ant Farm’s own self-narration of their early work, all of which comes together in a retelling through the context of contemporary events, such as the moon landing.

The work of such radical and experimental artists as Ant Farm and Drop City begs the question of the value of such radical projects both historically and in the present moment. While Scott cautions her reader that it would be a mistake to recuperate the work of these artists for contemporary architectural practice and as contemporary figures (she argues that they belong to a different historical moment), one can (and, arguably, Scott does) take the lessons learned from such groups in order to reconsider the possibility of politics within rcontemporary architecture practice. This consideration is what Scott addresses in the last chapter of Techno-utopia, Involuntary Prisoners of Architecture. It is here that she argues that an opportunity was greatly missed at the hands of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation competition for the World Trade Center site. She compares entries to the competition from such internationally renowned architects as Norman Foster, Peter Eisenman, Richard Meier, Gwathmey Siegel, and Steven Holl to current contemporary work such as Diller + Scofidio’s Blur Building, pavilion for the Swiss Expo, 2003. The proposals submitted to the LMDC competition sought to recuperate the deterritorialized condition of Lower Manhattan through efforts to “make architectural form legible again” (268). Scott theorizes this as a return to a New Monumentality or as the reinstallation of megastructures—an attempt to restabilize a disrupted city propelled ultimately in its resurrection by the forces of capitalism. Instead Scott proposes a practice of architecture that “forges conceptual and critical strategies” (275) and “[offers] precise… tools through which to engage contemporary social, political and economic parameters.” She continues, “The ability to question architecture’s relation to the semiotic and institutional structures of capitalism, to its official codes and their modes of subjectification, is the ability to destabilize those very codes, to make languages shake” (280). Scott proposes the possibility of a critical practice that would take advantage of architecture’s potential for encountering and negotiating political questions. She is here suggesting an understanding of politics that not only “refers to questions of power, of the state and its policies” but also one that relates to the organization of space and through the organization of time (280).

Through her complex readings of historical and aesthetic projects Scott proves that a radical politics can exist even beyond the “failed” counter-cultural practices of 1960s and 70s. Furthermore, her project reminds us of the necessity of an ethico-political project in architecture. Through the continued interaction of practice, theory, criticism and public discourse, resistance to the military-corporate-industrial complex can thrive. Both Architecture or Techno-utopia and Living Archive 7: Ant Farm, breathe life into a contemporary architecture practice that faces the daily challenge of resisting the status quo and experimenting with utopian dreams.

1 Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture, trans. Frederick Etchells (London: Architectural Press, 1946), 269. Scott’s explanation of her adaptation of the title can be found in Architecture or Techno-utopia, 18.
2 Henri Lefebvre, “Right to the City,” Writings on Cities, ed. and trans. Eleonore Kofman and Elizabeth Lebas. (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing) 149. On experimental utopia Lefebvre writes, “Utopia is to be considered experimentally by studying its implications and consequences on the ground… What are and what would be the most successful places? How can they be discovered? According to what criteria? What are the times and rhythms of daily life which are inscribed and prescribed in these ‘successful’ spaces favourable to happiness?”
3 Now housed at the Berkeley Art Museum and the Pacific Film Archive.

I detect a soft breeze...

2008-08-05T16:56:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here in my living room trying to feel a breeze. It isn't easy working in the heat. It especially isn't easy working in stale air, and so I am waiting for a breeze that will give me the support I need to write.

My summers are never as relaxing as I had hoped for, and this one is no exception. I have many deadlines approaching now so my stress level is slowly rising. On top of teaching an intense summer class on the City & Utopia, I have had to deal with a major advisorial crisis. Now that the crisis is past (at least for the moment), I need to get my shit together for my upcoming three-chapter deadline on Sept. 1. Yes, I said it- three-chapter deadline. Not a Chapter 3 deadline. Rather, I have created for myself a deadline for my first three chapters, and I will be making this deadline without question. The only unsolved denominator is whether I'll have slept at all the week beforehand.

My class is going incredibly well. I think it may turn out to be the best class that I have taught as of yet. I have 8 really fantastic students. And all of the dynamics seem to be working. We sit in a circle and have fun, easy-going, yet intelligent discussions about the material. And the best thing is that they have all read it and are prepared for class! It is absolutely fabulous. I am very impressed with them, and I'm trying to make a mental note of all the things that are working.

I'm sorry for the hiatus, but is is hard to type unless there is a breeze, and its been hot here for the past three weeks. Let's hope for a breezy few weeks.

In Memorium

2008-07-18T11:44:00.000-07:00

This week a tragedy struck UCI. Former Prof. Lindon Barrett was found murdered in his home (he had recently made the move to UCR). This was very shocking to everyone who knew him (I knew him only marginally by seeing him at talks and such on campus). But clearly, there are a lot of people I think who are still digesting the shock of having such a talented and brilliant individual extinguished so prematurely (he was only 46.) You can see from the tributes to him popping up on the web that he had a profound effect on many many young scholars.


> http://forlindonbarrett.blogspot.com/

Der Zeit ihre Kunst, der Kunst ihre Freiheit

2008-07-10T14:08:00.001-07:00

I recently ran into a past student of mine at a local coffee shop. We chatted for quite awhile and she mentioned to me that there was something in the class that she learned about that really stuck with her. We studied a number of different art nouveau movements in Europe including the Vienna Secession. Pictured above is the the dome of the Secession building by Joseph Olbrich. It was a center for a movement of artists looking to find a new art for their time. It included architects such as Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffman and the artist Gustav Klimt. In class we talked about the inscription on the base of the dome "Der Zeit ihre Kunst, der Kunst ihre Freiheit ." It translates to "To the age its art, to art its freedom." It resonated with her deeply enough that she got the phrase tattooed on her body (don't ask me where, I didn't see it). Pretty cool though, huh?

Back from Hiatus

2008-07-08T12:32:00.001-07:00

I've been on hiatus from blogging. There have been many things occupying my brain and my time that I have not had the time or the desire to blog. However, many interesting things have been happening. I am working on many different projects right now.

First, I am still working through the urban ecology chapter on Halprin though I did take a break to some archival research. The archivist of the Environmental Design archives in Berkeley introduced me to some history on the school and a group of designers called Telesis that formed in the 1940s in the Bay Area to conduct "environmental research." The documents I looked through are helping me to form the narrative of my story about Halprin's philosophy on urban ecology. I was also able to locate two articles written by Halprin published in the student journals at CED, Space and Landmark.

I also visited Anna Halprin's archive at the San Francisco Performance and Design Museum and Library. I found more correspondence from John Cage, Allan Kaprow, Merce Cunningham, and La Monte Young - to help support my "Experiments in Environment" chapter. I also watched an hour long KQED documentary called Inner Landscapes on the Halprins.

I am currently editing a 44 page article for the journal Octopus - which is very detailed and time consuming work.

And.... I start my summer class next week! Ach!! No more free time.

And, working on a Book Review of FS's books also for Octopus.

I will post some of my writing soon. (I promise).

In the office

2008-06-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

After loafing my way through San Diego coffee houses for the last two weeks I find myself back in my windowless basement adjunct office. And, I'm happy to be here. I love the campus during the summer, it is quiet, cool, and there are no lines for ordering coffee! There is also the convenience of having a library right around the corner so that when I'm working and come upon a book I'd like to consult I can simply go and pick it up right away - no waiting!

So I decided to camp out here this week and see how my work progresses. Next week I'll be going to SF to do some research at the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and the Library at the School of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley. Until then I'm working on elaborating on the ideas that I sent to FS.

The Laze of Summer

2008-06-19T12:20:00.000-07:00

So the mercury is climbing in good ol' San Diego and even though the meteorologists claim that it is a comfortable 83 degrees Fahrenheit - I find that hard to believe. The heat is definitely bearable (I don't want it to seem like I am complaining) but it does make working a challenge. The heat puts my body in conservation mode and even my brain activity is rationed in order to keep me cool and my overall mood agreeable.

So about a week ago (when I wrote my last post about my current chapter work) I also wrote an email to Felicity S. to ask her opinion about the ideas I've been tossing around. Since I am working diligently through her book for a book review to be published in December I have also become inspired to incorporate her ideas into my own work on Halprin and Ecology. So she has been in London and finally was able to respond to my email and she loved them!! I'm so excited. I was super nervous about this because there was always the danger that I was misinterpreting her work and/or expanding on her ideas in a way that she did not deem appropriate.

My summer laze needs to wear off quick because the work is starting to pile on and the deadlines are accumulating. I will be teaching a 6-week summer course on the City and Utopia, writing a book review (on two books), editing an article for a grad journal, preparing an abstract for CAA conference, and finishing up two chapters - all by Sept. 10. Lots of good stuff though.

however, first one musts focus on George Michael in Vegas this weekend. Yipeee!

Architecture or Eco-utopia?

2008-06-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

I am drinking way more coffee than usual today. I need to caffeinate myself beyond normal limits because today is the day that I am finalizing the thesis on Chapter I.2. I had been waiting for the lightening bolt to hit and I think I finally have it. For the past week or two (as you know from my other posts) I have been delving into Halprin's ecological side. This is a big part of my overall argument because I consider Halprin's ecological position on landscape architecture and design as part of his "west coast" affinity. Yesterday I had written out in my introduction to Chapter 1.2 that I will be discussing Halprin's ecological method and those of other designers he is in conversation with during the 60s, all the while keeping a close eye on the development of the more popular and vocal environmental movement.
In addition, considering environmentalism in conversation with changing theories of modern architecture is crucial because ideas of regional design and even experimental ecological design were completely "poo-pooed" (like my strong academic vocabulary? ) for the High Modernists. Considering anything beyond man's dominance over nature and his ability to form structures of the most formal aestheticism (ala early Le Corbusier) was considered pedestrian and quasi-medieval. Okay, we are getting to my point don't worry.
My advisor Felicity D. Scott recently published a brilliant (yes I'm biased, but yes, it's brilliant) book called Architecture or Techno-utopia which provides a new historical perspective on the discussion of late modernism and the beginnings of what is commonly known as postmodern architecture. In it she criticizes the staid debate of the "Grays" versus the "Whites." The "whites" are the "high modernists" and the "grays" the postmodernists looking to expand modern architecture to re-include signs/symbols/historical styles...etc. She explains that keeping this dichotomy undermines other trajectories of architecture history and other work by architects not included in this debate. Her book looks closely at experimental architecture which had been disregarded at the time as not being "successful" at least in the commercial sense. However, she argues that these examples serve "to reveal the contours of other modes of engagement and negotiation." These other modes of engagement include utopian and experimental projects that focus on rapidly changing and advancing technology, hence the title "techno-utopia." She argues simultaneously that bottling the debate of late modernist architecture in a "grays vs. whites" paradigm "disassociates architecture from both its historical and political context as well as from its dreams of a better world to come."

OK. So where does my work fit in here? I am tentatively calling my chapter "Eco-scores and Eco-utopia." In my chapter I follow another trajectory of experimental architecture of the 1960s and early 70s that attempts an ecological utopian project. This is a project that is focused on the decontamination of humans and the redevelopment/rearticulation of urban living out of the spoils of Modern architecture and increased jet-age/atomic age technologies. In essence.... I could title my project Architecture or Eco-utopia? (but I won't) and this is not to outdo Felicity (couldn't possibly do that) but to merely add to her project, by providing a more nuanced look at the history of late modernist architecture. A look at an ecological project that doesn't fit into the debate.

Phew. Make sense? It will... give me a little bit more time to smooth out the edges.

CSA

2008-06-12T15:37:00.000-07:00

My husband and I just joined a Community Supported Agriculture program. Which basically means that we will be getting all of our produce from an organic local farm. You pay in advance and then pickup a box of goodies either once a week or once every two weeks (up to you). So today was our first pickup. We decided to start with once every other week to see how much we end up eating and to see how much we get. The box is enormous and full of good stuff! I was so excited to unpack it. We got:
lettuce
kale
radishes
beets
squash (a few different varieties)
apricots
apples
green onions
strawberries

I think this is really going to be good for us. Not only health-wise but I am also really looking forward to the experience of eating vegetables seasonally. We have been too spoiled at the grocery store and for no good reason. Now we will eat what the farm harvests according to the climate and conditions. We have a lot of vegetables to be eating over the next couple of weeks, and I'll let you know how we do. My first goal will be to cook kale so that it is delicious (I've never been a big fan) but I have some recipes I'm thinking about trying. I am missing tomatoes though - I was hoping that we might get some salmonella free.

Here is a website with a list of CSA programs. Just fill in your zip code to find the nearest one to you. Our farm is JR Organics.

Environmentalism and Design

2008-06-11T11:06:00.001-07:00

Thanks for your suggestions. I guess I was a little bit vague in my request. Let me try to explain.

For Chapter 1.2* I am looking at landscape architect Lawrence Halprin's relationship to the environmental movement emerging in the 1960s (his work 1960-1976). In doing so I need to define environmentalism from the perspective of environmental design professionals (architects, planners, engineers, etc) and the popular political movement. I am trying to give myself a quick briefing on how the environmental movement is discussed or historicized in both political science/social science circles in order to make the correlation to the design/architecture field and then in particular Halprin's own work.

Since the 19th century urban planners and architects have theorized the importance of preserving the natural environment to ensure the well-being of humans living in the urban environment. One might consider early designers such as Ebeneezer Howard (inventor of the Garden City concept) and Frederick Law Olmsted (designer of Central Park) as early environmentalists. The importance of these earlier concepts of integrating nature into the urban environment was revived in the 1950s as Environmentalism began to gain momentum as a political movement; an example of this can be seen in the 1950s protests to ban A-bomb testing. And I'm sure there are strides being made in environmental science that went along to support these raising concerns in national policy. And while I am more familiar with Environmentalism as an idea as it developed in the design field, I am still wondering about specific discussions/events texts taking place in the scientific community.

Anyhow, I hope this explains my position a little bit. This topic is something that interests me not only for my dissertation, but I am also thinking of designing a class about the history of Environmentalism in architecture or Ecological design..."Green" architecture (still need to think of a sexy title to attract students). And like my dissertation I would like to provide some wider context for the course.

* Chapter One is for the time being Chapter 1.1 and 1.2 it will likely be changed to Chapter 1 and 2 and then the current Chapter 2 will be Chapter 3...etc. Essentially the original Chapter One that was written a year ago is being split up and expand to become the entire dissertation.
Cool huh?

Call for ideas

2008-06-06T11:11:00.001-07:00

Hey there readers! I need your help. I'm currently doing some research on the history of Ecology and/or environmentalism as we might call it today. I think that some of you have science backgrounds (myrrh?) and I need to call on your expertise. What are some pivotal texts? I know about Silent Spring, but that is pretty much it. I have a few others more specific to the design world like: Man-made America: Chaos or Control? by Chris Tunnard. Any suggestions from anyone no matter what your "expertise" would be helpful. Thanks!!

A good deal.

2008-06-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

Ok. Putting the "worst teacher" message behind me became a whole lot easier when I got an email on Friday accepting my proposal to speak at the Large Annual Professional Conference. The panel I will be on is literally perfect for my dissertation topic and I wasn't wholly surprised that they invited me to speak. But it felt good nonetheless.

And... there is even more good news. The invitation is not merely an invitation to speak on a panel, but also has a potential book publication attached to it. Yes, you heard me correctly a book publication! The organizers of the panel are also working on an exhibition and book to go along with the topic and they are hoping that I might be able to contribute to the book.

Wow. This could be really really great for me, since my dissertation has yet to be published anywhere. Let's hope I don't screw it up.

The dreaded student evaluation

2008-05-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

This week I have been averaging the numbers to figure out final grades for my class. Overall, I felt really good about this semester. It was my first time teaching this particular class and despite that, I think it went pretty well. I have been getting a lot of emails from students telling me that they really enjoyed the class.

Yesterday, after I submitted my final grades I asked to read my course evaluations. This is kind of unusual for me because I never have the nerves to read the evaluation immediately after a course has finished. But I decided to just do it.

As I read them I flip through each one my heart pounding. I don't know why it makes me so nervous! It's just that I know that these students really have the capacity to damage my ego. It is also that I know that these kids don't always have the grace or consideration to be kind and constructive in their criticism. So anyhow, I had some really great ones. "Outstanding Professor" "Really knowledgeable" "I would recommend this Professor to anyone who wants to take art history/architecture" and then there were some good but simple "Great class." I also really enjoyed this one, "It was boring at times, but I learned a lot more than I expected." And then there is always that one, perhaps disgruntled student, who is just plain cruel.

Every once in a while there is an evaluation from a student who for whatever reason did not enjoy the class and had a really bad experience. In this case the student called me the "worst teacher I ever had at Random University." Ouch. That really hurts. Yes, it did hurt. But looking at the evaluation more carefully there are things that I think quickly discredit this student's opinion. How many hours a week did you study for this class? Zero he/she writes in. Overall, how demanding was the class? Not demanding enough (this was the only student who checked this box). And how much of the course material do you think you learned? Most.

Huh. This is a bit confusing to me. You don't study for the class, meaning you don't do the reading assignments, written assignments, etc. And yet the class was not demanding enough? And you learned the material? How is that possible? Well, I have to respond to this anonymous student: I think that you may be the worst student that I've ever had at Random University.

OK. I'm officially over it. Instead, I will bask in the praises from students who learned something new in my class, who appreciated the material, and realize that knowledge is not something that is just given to you like a perfectly gift-wrapped little present. Rather, it takes effort and care from all parties involved. Onward and upward to the next one.

Does everything have to be about money?

2008-05-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

So my husband and I recently bought a Prius. And not surprisingly it sparks a lot of conversations with friends and family and even strangers about hybrid cars. With gas prices rising with no end in sight many people seem ready to jump on the hybrid bandwagon. One thing I have learned as a new Prius owner is that $$ is what is really the motivator for both the discussion and the decision to go hybrid.

Speaking with a family member who is considering purchasing a Prius, the bulk of the discussion is MPG, which equals money saved, plus tax rebates...and other monetary benefits. After debating this round and round ("Is the premium you pay for a hybrid worth it?") I finally just blurted out, "Well no matter what the financial benefits are, there are benefits to the quality of our air and ridding ourself of our dependency on oil." Phew. Geez. Is this the elephant in the room? Is there some reason why fixing our air quality, lowering green house gas emissions, and buying less oil are not all valuable reasons and ENOUGH reason to purchase a cleaner burning vehicle??

I'll be honest with you, I did not buy this car to save money. This car was probably more expensive than I could afford easily. But being in the market for a new car and NOT considering all of the ideological problems with gas-fueled vehicles was impossible. If I could do it again, I would buy a completely electric car. After driving the Prius for a few weeks I realize that there is no reason for anyone to drive anything polluting- except perhaps semis. The fact that the major bulk of the world is driving around in these dinosaurs just goes to show how innovation is all about money. We totally have the capacity to fix this problem. But change is slow, and minds are too narrow to widen. Especially when the view is fixated on dollar signs.

As my husband would say, "Why don't you all get your head out of your ARSE-holes." Heh. I know that is crude, but what else is there to say?

Teaching toward a specific audience

2008-05-14T16:18:00.001-07:00

I have finished grading the research papers for Architecture Trade School. It wasn't easy, however. For the first time in all my years of teaching I had about 4 or 5 students with major English language issues. In the case of at least one student I believe that his language skill acted as a huge barrier to his articulation of the course material. So much so that I could not understand what he did and did not learn.

The problem was also that I had asked these students to turn in a final research paper as a course project. The length of the paper was to be approximately 8-10 pages. Since this was my first semester teaching at this school I realize that my assessment methods may not have been appropriate for this particular group of students. In fact, most of my students had a really difficult time writing this paper. Even those without language issues. But, not having any familiarity with the school or its student population I had to go with my previous experience as a my only guide.

I have graded a series of papers some of which I worry are partially plagiarized because I know there is no way that ESL student A could have written this. Other papers are written in incomplete sentences almost as if in a note-taking format. I read proposals and met individually with each student to discuss their progress, but unfortunately no matter how I tried to get them to learn the process of writing a research paper I know that most of them probably did not start to take it seriously until the last week or two weeks of school.

So how do I grade these papers? What about student A who copies from Wikipedia because he can't see any other way to complete the assignment? I gave out a lot of C's on this paper. I figured that failing the project would be an exaggerated reaction because I know the student tried his best, but was probably very frustrated.

Overall, I feel like I failed this class. I gave them a project that was too hard for them and I didn't help them to work through it. It was clear in the end that they needed much more time dedicated to working through simple questions of how to conduct research. If I get the opportunity to teach at this school again (not that I'm clamoring for an opportunity) at least I will come much more prepared and with a more realistic understanding of we can and can't accomplish in the class.

Crunch Time

2008-05-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

It's crunch time. Grades for Architecture Trade School are due tomorrow. Unfortunately for me I'm stuck using their crappy online grading system. I don't know why I even opted in to use this thing. I have been saving after every grade I enter for every assignment. Half the time it goes through and the other half it doesn't and I have to do it again. At this rate it will take me all day and all night to get the grades entered. I guess I could just give up and use an excel spreadsheet like I usually do.

More interesting post to come soon...

A map of the near future...

2008-05-06T01:25:00.000-07:00

I can't sleep. Tomorrow's—no, make that today's—"to-dos" keep running through my head. Add this to what a very wise woman once told me—that every blog needs a list—and so here you have a blogpost. Here is my "to-do" list, organized the same way as my real-life "to-do" notepad.
On the top it reads: ACCOMPLISH
It is then divided into the following sections to which I add:

TODAY
WRITE/MAIL CAA conference apps/abstracts
GRADE remaining WU finals
GRADE WU presentations
PRINT/MAIL Chapter 2 to SS
PRINT Octopus articles for review
PRINT WU research papers
CALL MI about name spelling for wedding gift.
FAX gift lady name spelling for engraving
READ student research paper draft/email comments

TOMORROW
WRITE lesson plan and review for SU
TEACH
BUY JM shower gift
BUY Mother's Day gift
REVIEW Octopus articles

WEEKEND
DRIVE to lala land
ATTEND shower
ATTEND Mother's DAY celebration
REVIEW Octopus articles
DRIVE back

NEAR FUTURE
WRITE intro, rework chp. one
READ Liz Kotz, Scott
READ/GRADE Research Papers -

SOMEDAY
WRITE Chapters 3 and 4
ADOPT a puppy
ORDER wedding album

MAYBE NEVER
FILE dissertation
GO on vacation
GET a life

You mean we have to take this final without notes?!!?!

2008-05-02T09:24:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I started a post where I was bitching about my students. And then I stopped because I realized how whiny it had become. Right now I am sitting in front of my students as they take their final exam. What I was whining about yesterday was how tired I was of hearing their whining to me about all of their finals, how unfair the scheduling was, and how they wanted extensions for this and this, and that.

This whole week has represented to me the constant challenge I have of being a "nice" teacher and being a "good" teacher. In my mind these are two completely different things. Even though I want my students to like me, what I want even more is for them to learn and sometimes this requires some tough love. I cannot accommodate every single need of every single needy student and for some reason this particular class at random Architecture Trade School has provided me with a group of 16 needy wannabe architects. Part of the reason for this (I imagine) is because their Studio classes have been presented to them as being so much more important. And since I teach a history survey class, it falls rather low on their priority list. Nonetheless, all commitments in college should be given attention. And while I respect the fact that some classes might be prioritized over others for various reason, if you are to neglect a class, recognize your choice and live with the consequences.

It is very hard for me to feel sorry for the student with a very poor attendance record on the last day of class. The fact that the class is scheduled at 9am (so early!) is not my fault and neither is the fact that it is the day after Lost or Must See TV or Hip Hop night at Downtown Disco. I don't care.

Each time a student comes to ask me for an extension, or another test date, I think to myself how I would never get away with asking for extensions in my own work (and nor would I have when I was an undergrad). More importantly I realize how pathetic they look. It is totally unprofessional, especially when it becomes habitual.

So even if my students end up leaving here not knowing a thing about the history of architecture at least they should learn a lesson about honoring their commitments. And once again (because I always learn something from my students) I have learned how not to act in the face of stress.

An afternoon pause

2008-04-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

Today I had to grade like the wind. Remember all that procrastinating going on last week? Well, I had promised my students that I would pass their exams back to them today and of course I didn't start grading until - well, today. So I had my work cut out for me, but I am proud to say that I finished with two hours to still prep for class, and even a half hour or so to write up a quickie blog post. Go team me!!

On a completely different topic - I hadn't realized until today how much a creature of habit I have become. One of the reasons that I chose academia as a field for my career was because I used to dread having to be at work at the same time every morning. I would go to work (when I held a 9-5 job right after undergrad) and get dizzy with a sense of dread, and yes this was a literal existential feeling of dread. Like Jean Paul Sartre writes in Nausea, I literally became ill as I became to fear this office being the place that would define my existence. Yes, I used to be very sensitive, physically speaking. Sartre's nausea was something that I too experienced for a good two years or so... waking up every morning scared of living - so scared of my routine as if it marked the death of my existence. But then again, one of the reasons why the nausea was so strong was because of the sensation of claustrophobia. Although I knew that I was scared shitless of routinization - I could think of absolutely no other viable options because I was too frightened. And fear of course is paralyzing like nothing else.

So anyhow, here I am 6 or 7 years later. I have not only shaken the nausea, but have fallen into a routine - one that makes me happy. Today I woke up, showered, got dressed, went to Cream to grade, ate lunch quickly and was in my office by 1 pm. Then at approximately 5pm after my office hours but before my 5:30 class, I pick up an afternoon coffee iced nonfat mexican mocha - easy chocolate (i know, I'm a pain in the ass). But today, the barista asked me if the amount of chocolate was okay because she is the one that always makes them for me and wasn't sure if I was happy with the amount of chocolate. So I laughed, when I realized, wow - I'm here routinely enough that she recognizes my ridiculous order. It made me realize how I've slipped into new habits, but ones that don't make me feel sick to my stomach.

There was a time in my life when Kafka, Thomas Mann, and Sartre were authors who really spoke to me as I grappled to understand the purpose of daily life. But now, I have found new authors that satisfy my spiritual needs. Instead of existential nihilism and dread, I have found pleasure in stopping to reflect upon each day as unique no matter how routine it seems to be. Taking a moment out of the day to reflect graciously on all that you have, and to revel in the existence of just that moment helps your routine (even if you do the same things) to not feel the same at all.

I'm not an English instructor so don't ask me what poetry is...

2008-04-16T16:27:00.001-07:00

With about 45 minutes left until class begins, I am torn as to whether it would be any good at all to pull out those exams that are screaming to be graded. As of now, they stay silenced in my backpack on the floor next to me as I write this piece of procrastination poetry.

Or, I could flip through the book I just picked up at the University Library... Technologies of the Self, a horribly purplish book with a fragmented picture of Michel Foucault on the cover. I was so excited to find that the library had this in their catalog that I rushed over there about a half hour ago to pick it off the shelves, and now it sits lonely and confused on my desk with the look that wonders why I even bothered. Staring at me with those lonely eyes that speak what many of the books laying in piles around my house often do.... why me????

But I will get to it sometime no doubt - between bouts of solitaire, blogposts, and american idol recaps- there is only so much trash in the world that one can submit oneself to. Did you know that Ashley Simpson is preggers? You see!?! That doesn't help with the "I'm a professor" profile I'm trying to create. Speaking of which I read a funny article about profs who have myspace and facebook profiles because they think that it helps them seem less scary to their students. Ha! That is silly I thought that we are supposed to look scary! Isn't that what makes students learn... I know that until my advisor wrote me a very mean and scary email that made me cry for three days I was doing pretty well at twiddling my thumbs.

I do not want my students in any way, shape or form to have access to my Friendster or myspace profiles. ... they should not know how old I am, what I like to eat for dinner, or know what my dog's name is, my pet names for my husband.... what I like to rock out to (lately the Kooks).... I won't even tell them about this blog. It is called "professional distance" and it is sooooooo important (in the spirit of myspace profiles I added some Os) in academia I can't tell you enough. These kids are young, and I hate to say it but completely immature. They need to learn what professional distance is and they certainly don't need some adult to cross the line as a model.

Opening yourself up anonymously is one thing, crying, confiding, and procrastinating, in front of strangers is a healthy form of self-contemplation and self-reflection.

Thank you for letting me procrastinate in front of you.

Problems with Borders (not the bookstore)

2008-04-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

I am going to warn you off the bat that I might offend some people with this post. But please hear me out - after my thought process I might actually get somewhere productive.

So last night husband and I watched the 2005 film, Paradise Now. In case you are unfamiliar with this film, it is a film by a Palestinian director about two young guys living in Nablus who are called upon to go on a suicide bombing mission in Tel-Aviv. I usually do not comment very much on Palestinian-Israeli politics because it is not something that I know a whole lot about and I find myself completely under qualified to comment on such an intense problem. Anyhow. Suffice to say this movie was very disturbing, and it was difficult to watch these two young guys as they came to terms with what they were doing, what they had volunteered to do, and all the reasons that they felt that self-sacrifice was the only option.

What struck me about the film, and this is something that I feel more qualified to talk about, is the radical contrast between the occupied and non-occupied parts of Israel. Nablus in many parts has only dirt roads and is very medieval in its urban plan. Israel of course has beautifully paved streets, clear bus stops, skyscrapers, beaches with lounges and sun umbrellas. It is a striking difference and when the film ended — let me just say I am completely and totally opposed to the killing of civilians as any type of military or even resistance tactic — I was struck with this disgust for anybody who would allow themselves to live in such close and direct vicinity to such obvious inequality.
"Graffiti" art by Banksy on the Palestinian-Israeli wall

And then I immediately considered the view on the other side of the Mexican-US border which is about 15 minutes south of from where I live. And I realized that this view is not much different than the view in Nablus and it is perhaps even more desperate. And of course I don't live in constant disgust in myself... for allowing such obvious inequality to exist so close to where I live. Am I being hypocritical? But after all, Mexico is a sovereign nation - and a democratic nation at that - its citizens vote, elect leaders.. and have some kind of agency in the working of their government.

Okay - this problem is obviously not going to be solved by one humble attempt at articulation on one buried blog post. But let me pose the following questions — when we live in an increasingly globalized world - where it is clear that physical borders to do not determine the limits of a nation's influence or power - is it not time to start considering some larger, broader form of citizenship? Once, many years ago, an Italian friend mentioned to me albeit jokingly that the whole world should be able to vote for the US president since whoever is chosen will have a profound impact on the entire world. This is a funny idea - yet not a terribly inaccurate observation. How can we begin to think about citizenship outside of national boundaries? The EU is not a bad model... but perhaps we need something more global. Anyway just some things to think about.

P.S. Here is a blog I found that is in a small way trying to overcome this problem. Two citizens one from Gaza and the other from Sderot post a blog about their experiences on opposite sides of the "border."

La Citta' piu' Bella

2008-04-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

From Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about my city, Bologna. Bologna is very close to my heart indeed:

I don't recall now if it was before or after Lucca that I went to Bologna—a city so beautiful that I couldn't stop singing, the whole time I was there: "My Bologna has a first name! It's P-R-E-T-T-Y." Traditionally, Bologna—with its lovely brick architecture and famous wealth—has been called, "The Red, The Fat, and The Beautiful." (And yes, that was an alternate title for this book.) The food is definitely better here than in Rome, or maybe they just use more butter. Even the gelato in Bologna is better (and I feel somewhat disloyal saying that, but it's true). The mushrooms here are like big sexy tongues, and the prosciutto drapes over pizzas like a fine lace veil draping over a fancy lady's hat. And of course there is the Bolognese sauce, which laughs disdainfully at any other idea of ragu.

When I came upon this passage a big smile cross my face - she was describing my city. The city that I knew inside out and love even though we have been apart for almost 10 years now. I'd never heard the "Red, Fat and Beautiful" thing - though Bologna is known as the Red city - Red for the brick, the communist leanings, and the blood that its residents have shed fighting in many revolutions and wars. It is also a city commonly referred to as having the three 'T's : torre, tette, and tortellini (towers, tits, and tortellini!) I have had many relationships with cities over the course of my life: Berkeley, San Francisco, even Irvine... and Bologna was certainly the city where my spirit ran the most free. While living there I felt there was a part of me exuding from every corner. When I walked the streets I held a sense of pride. Gilbert focuses on the food in Bologna and yet there is so much more to this city than food: jazz performances in abandoned theatres, movies in piazza, anarchist gatherings, smoky lecture halls, hippies and communists, manifestazioni (demonstrations), and dance parties until 5 am.

I know the city goes on without me but she is very much in my heart and mind.

photo by michele gattuso

A Bug's Life

2008-04-09T13:18:00.000-07:00

There is something that has been irking at me the past couple of weeks or so and I have not posted about it because I feel like I am being a paranoid neurotic. I have been getting lots and lots of bug bites lately, and everywhere I go I feel like I'm being eaten up. At this point I know that it is becoming a psychological problem, but it is greatly distracting from my focus and let's face it - overall happiness in my day to day life.

My husband and I thoroughly cleaned our entire bedroom- washed the mattress pad, sheets and comforter, bought new pillows, and have sprayed bug repellent around. I get bites, he doesn't. I have been collecting specimens from our house - from little gnat/flying thingies to creepy crawlers that we both believe could or could not be bedbugs. I have my little ziploc bag of specimens by the computer for identification. It is an impossible feat. Then, after being in my office for 4-5 hours on Monday, I came home with more bites - so now I'm beginning to think that the infestation is there- where I do see little flies every once in a while. I hate to use pesticides but I'm reaching the end of the line here. I'm turning into an itching, bug catching, squashing, and cleaning maniac!!
And I know for a fact my husband is going to boot me out of the house if I mention it to him one more time.

Conference Re-Cap

2008-04-07T05:42:00.000-07:00

I'm up early this morning. After laying in bed for the past 20 minutes, eyes wide open, I decided to just go with it and to start my day. Perhaps it is a good time for me to process the experience of presenting and attending conferences this semester, which has finally reached its conclusion on Saturday (thankfully).

On Saturday I presented here in town at the big R1 public university. My paper was well-received, though I was a bit confused from the discussion following. I have been thinking about it a bit over the last day or so, and I think I've figured out why I've been so confused. First let me explain the gist of the discussions. After my presentation, which was the last of a two person panel, the faculty respondent spoke briefly about the two of our papers and then presented us with questions which we both took turns answering. The respondent didn't really directly address my paper so much except to pull out an essay that I quoted that discusses Jackson Pollock and begin to remind us all of the importance of Jackson Pollock in the discussion of Public Culture which is the topic of the day. I guess you could say that this is a good response as he sees the context in which I placed the quote relevant to the topic at hand. But at the same time, he was not so much addressing my paper as continuing the overall discussion of the conference.

Ok. I think here is my point. I guess i expected a more direct response to my paper, also from the audience. Instead, the paper provoked a lot of discussion around the topic of art and politics, historicizing the 1960s, and the institutionalization of art. These are all relevant topics of course, but I was just confused, because in my mind, I have dealt with these topics, some of which I deal with directly in the dissertation, and others that I find too general and time consuming to be worthy of addressing at all.

While all of these things are important, they have all been discussed at length in the discourse of art history and theory, and I'm not really interested in simply repeating a discussion that has already been had. I'm trying to take these discussions and say something new. So in the end I found some of these conversations very "grad student-ish." This is all fine, especially since it is a grad student conference, and it is a learning experience. Next year I hope to present my work at some professional conferences and it will be interesting to see if there is a difference.

After the panel was finished many people came up to tell me that they really enjoyed my paper, which surprised me because from the discussion, again I was confused. One woman who stopped to talk to me awhile said that she thought it was really well-written and very clear. She said that as she studies for her qualifying exams she finds it challenging to express difficult ideas in a clear way. I thanked her and then told her that I was confused by the discussion. And she assuaged my concerns saying, "Oh no, it was provocative and that is always really good." Huh. I guess I still have a lot to learn.