[Air-l] >Anyone care to lessen my confusion?

Lachlan Brown lachlan at london.com
Thu Mar 14 20:23:05 PST 2002


>Anyone care to lessen my confusion?

Yes, I will do that. 

I am Lachlan Brown and I do Cultural Studies. Some people appear to have a problem with that. I have an introduction to AoIR. Thanks for:

"The Association of Internet Researchers is an academic association =
dedicated to the advancement of the cross-disciplinary field of Internet =
studies. It is a resource and support network promoting critical and =
scholarly Internet research independent from traditional disciplines and =
existing across academic borders. The association is international in =
scope."

This is a cultural studies mandate. ‘cross-disciplinarity’ 

I'm making an intervention, a long intervention it seems, perhaps a series of interventions covering a number of years, if necessary, into the state of Internet scholarship to identify productive lines of inquiry that scholarship in this field has
felt for one reason or another unable or
not empowered to take on. They are meant to inflect the course of Internet industry from
present trends (which I am sure Industry will welcome) towards ones more compatible with our culture(s) and to help inform our culture(s) at large about Internet.

 I have considerable experience in the field. 

It makes common sense to me to intervene here to highlight significant lapses, oversights, 
absenses, and indeed erasures in Internet scholarship.
The intervention may seem confusing, that’s partly the point, to de-familiarize or make what you think is normal (and what some people here think is normal is very odd indeed) seem strange, but given the subjects to be discussed confusion along with distress, followed by collective action toward a healing seem appropriate emotions and responses.

I have an introduction in the AIR-L. It would help if there was some way of
seeing other peoples’ names, research interests, links and a brief statement of interests, like they used to have (still have?) in MediaMOO. It is difficult to write to people’s queries or interests without knowing their work and affiliations.

Don’t feel bad about your confusion. Confusion is an appropriate way to feel given the nature of the field. I wonder what your area of expertise is.

I will summarise my queries so far shortly.

Best

Lachlan

Lachlan Brown
Cultural Studies
Golsmiths College
University of London

Thirdnet, Toronto
(416) 826 6937
(416) 822 1123

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