[Air-L] Free e-seminar on webcam ethnography, 9-23 Oct 2012

[John Postill]

Dear colleagues

I'm forwarding a recent post by Steve Lyon about an e-seminar soon be held
via the EASA Media Anthropology Network mailing list. These sessions are
free and open to all with a genuine interest in the subject.

For more info on the seminars and how to join the listserv see:
http://www.media-anthropology.net/index.php/e-seminars

Best wishes

John Postill
RMIT Melbourne

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: LYON S.M. <s.m.lyon at durham.ac.uk>
Date: 21 September 2012 18:34
Subject: [Medianthro] Heads up on the next e-seminar
To: medianthro <medianthro at easaonline.org>


Dear List,
This is just a quick email to let you all know that the next Media
Anthropology Network E-Seminar will be happening very soon. The next
e-seminar will be based around a paper by Daniel Miller and Jolynna Sinanan
and the discussant will be Daniel Taghioff. The abstract of the paper is
below. The paper itself should be available for everyone to download and
read on our website about a week before the e-seminar begins on the 9th of
October.

The 'old hands' can skip this paragraph. For people new to the Media
Anthropology e-seminars, they last two weeks and begin and end on a Tuesday
(though I'm not sure how that tradition got locked in). We begin with an
email from the discussant who provides some insights into what he or she
considers to be some of the most important contributions of the paper or
the most serious issues that would benefit from further clarification. We
then give the author/s a chance to respond to the discussant's initial
comments. After the author's response, the e-seminar is open to anyone on
the list. We don't do strict moderation, but if the conversation is
grinding down into an unproductive loop then I will contact people off list
and suggest moving on. These are a great opportunity to really examine a
piece of work and the ideas surrounding it, so be sure to put aside a
little time to read the paper in advance.

9 October - 23 October

WEBCAM AND THE THEORY OF ATTAINMENT
Daniel Miller and Jolynna Sinanan (UCL).

The seminar paper will begin with a summary of a book whose first draft is
near to completion, concerning the impact of Webcam (mainly Skype). It
provides a first introduction to what we call A Theory of Attainment, which
provides the conclusion to this volume. It shows how this theory builds on
earlier discussions found in the edited volume Digital Anthropology and The
Internet: An Ethnographic Approach.  The Theory of Attainment is intended
to facilitate the anthropology of new media generally, and not just webcam.
The theory is then illustrated briefly in relation to two themes:
self-consciousness and intimacy. The remainder of the paper is given over
to a discussion of our sense of place. It shows how webcam facilitates
projects that both de-stabilise and stabilise our relationship to location.
Juxtaposing these two opposed developments brings us back in conclusion to
the Theory of Attainment.

Discussant: Daniel Taghioff

Best regards,
Steve

---------------------------------------------------
Dr. Stephen M. Lyon, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology
Deputy Director of the Durham Global Security Institute
Department of Anthropology
Durham University
Dawson building
Durham
UK DH1 3LE

Telephone:
Durham: 0191 334 1597
Stockton: 0191 334 0246
Fax: 0191 334 1615

Web: http://www.stephenlyon.net/

History and Anthropology: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/ghan

Structure and Dynamics: http://escholarship.org/uc/imbs_socdyn_sdeas

---------- End of forwarded message ----------

Dr John Postill
Senior Research Fellow
School of Media and Communication
RMIT University
Building 9.4.45, City Campus
Melbourne 3001, Australia
Tel: +61 3 9925 5007
Email: john.postill at rmit.edu.au
Web: www.rmit.edu.au/mediacommunication