This Thus

Here it is . . .

I have just started writing a book review for my Materials & Methods class and realized, after making an outline, that I would be much better off if I had actually written that outline before reading the entire book. The next time I do a review (or present on a book for a class), I think I’m going to take a slightly different tack than my usual practice of reading the whole book, making notes in the book as I go, then returning to those notes to help me compose my thoughts and make a fuller set of notes. Instead, I think I’ll read the introduction and get a sense of what the author’s project is, what his/her materials and theories are, and the overall structure of the book first. Then I’ll create an outline of how I think a review of that material ought to be organized, whether thematically, chapter by chapter, etc. As I read the book, I can fill in the outline as I go with pertinent information, quotes, criticisms, etc. That way, when I finish the book, I’ll actually have most of the review in place and will only have to shape that material instead of going back and starting all over again trying to remind myself of the intricacies of the argument or evidence.

OMG this is so incredibly funny in a frighteningly-too-true way:

I don’t know why I feel there is something appropriate about this for a blog about pursuing a PhD, but I think it serves as a reminder that I need to be more diligent in finding a balance between work and play.

From Wikipedia, a pretty good working definition (in Performance Studies at least) of communitas:

Communitas is an acute point of community. It takes community to the next level and allows the whole of the community to share a common experience, usually through a rite of passage. Link

This post is, in some ways, an excuse to post a video of Ze Frank here because I simply adore his work and want to share it with people in every venue I can. However, while watching his recent TED talk from this past July, I found myself thinking about some of the issues raised in my Materials & Methods class. Specifically, issues of performance, media, the body, and communitas. It seems to me that Frank’s work is about building new ways of creating communitas through a kind of distributed performance that occurs in a new kind of space, but one that is as real in its own way as a physical theatre.

Seems like there might be a paper in this notion. Then again, professional hazard of Performance Studies: nearly everything around us, especially in the U.S. can be seen as fodder for the mind. Take the 18 minutes, please, and watch this video. If you haven’t encountered Frank’s work in the past, you will be, I think, amazed at his whimsical ways to bring people together and if you are familiar with his work, you’ll be reminded just how fabulous and inventive he is, as well as being genuinely concerned with the human expressivity possible through contemporary technology and media.