[Air-l] invitation to participate (and apologies for cross-posting)

[radhika gajjala]

Project title "Theory Heads: Language, Society, Culture, Power and 
Discourse in Everyday Wrything"

This work is based in my larger body of research/practice that mostly 
explores technologically-mediated subjectivities (differing modes of agency 
made possible and/or impossible within various technological environments) 
- mapping intersections of theory/practice within diverse communities of 
production. Thus cultural production and agency in the contexts I examine 
(ethnographically and dialogically) are clearly linked to the economic 
modes of production and to political and social ideologies.
Central questions guiding this project
"How are subjectivities shaped in (multiple) technological environments 
across time, space and place?"
"What (discursive/material) agents are produced through the intersection of 
theory and practice associated with specific technologically-mediated 
contexts?"
My approach to the exploration of these questions in the MOO context is to 
performatively place various theorists (some not known to the western 
Academic world) in dialogue. I will be building various objects that will 
function to create environment and discussion and curiosity in various 
ways, inviting visitors (implicitly and explicitly) to engage with familiar 
(to them) and unfamiliar theoretical frameworks. Performatively speaking, 
they will be encouraged to inhabit a certain kind of subjectivity based in 
the context(s) I build. The project is cross-cultural and international in 
nature, for it draws on the philosophical and spiritual 
knowledges/experiences/explorations of various participants in this project 
(and there is an open invitation for people interested to participate) - as 
well as that of students and colleagues and family members participating in 
some way directly and indirectly.
The intention is to build objects symbolic of Eastern, African, European 
and American "theorists," poets, bards, singers, spiritual icons, fictional 
characters, mythological characters, hollywood characters, bollywood 
characters and so on - portrayed through interpretive lenses of personal 
experience and re-examinings of meanings in relation to postcolonial 
negotiations of the everyday. The goal is to eventually build a larger 
virtual space where other participants can come in and build into this 
multiplicity of dialogues - but that may not happen on PMC2 moo necessarily 
(to this end, Pratap Gajjala and I, with the help and advice of various 
programming gurus, are designing a moo space which we intend to launch 
sometime in the summer or fall of 2004).
This setting also functions as a pedagogical stage for my graduate students 
and co-authors working on related projects (they are also built in as 
objects and as theorists in various ways), and I get to explore the 
pedagogic potential of this virtual moo space in relation to various 
philosophical and epistemological debates about the virtual/real.
You may find me and my various homes on PMC2 -moo [feel free to sign on as 
guest and when you get there, type @go perhaps ; @go denise ; @go Robert's 
...], Linguamoo and Mediamoo
Should you wish to participate in this project - please apply by sending me 
an email describing how you see yourself fitting into this plan.

http://www.cyberdiva.org/erniestuff/theoryheads.htm