Finals Finals Finals. Networks?
Jenny is reheating her hoppin’ johns. There’s food all over the stove. “Say,” she says, “how come you are not blogging about the NBA Finals? Seems to me that you got a lot to say until your team is not doing so well! Boo-yah!”
Why indeed. Well….it goes like this…the Heat are stinking it up. You can go to Prosportsdaily.com and read all the feeds to hear that point again. Not that I’m surprised. Dallas has a deeper bench, is quicker, and poses difficult match-ups. Again, no surprise. Shaq only putting up five points in game two…that is a surprise. But mostly, the rest is falling into place. The Heat should win tonight at home, maybe twice at home. Then lose the next two (one at home, one in Dallas). Start the rodeo, Texans. You win.
In other news, I think I’ll soon start posting draft excerpts of the Detroit project I am working on, tentatively entitled Digital Detroit: Rhetoric and Space in the Age of the Network. Studies of space are hip right now, but this particular project stems from my interest in Lyotard, his contention that the computer age moves from narrative to database driven logics. the initial move, for me, is to shift attention from the narratives of Detroit (despair, renovation, on the verge of economic success, investment) which represent fixed locals of discussion (topoi) and which feel limited (no matter how many narratives we hear or generate, the city remains the same). Instead, I look to explore the choral spaces, the moving spaces which, like networks, link and disconnect. These are the database spaces: Woodward, Highland Park, The Maccabees, The Michigan Train Station, Eight Mile. They are fluid; complete with multiple meanings and usages. To navigate this database, I note, is to become more aware of network culture and the rhetorical power it poses.
This sounds like a great project. I’ll admit, though, I feel a bit scooped. I’ve been reading up on network culture/theory and its relevance to space/place and thought I was “on to something”. As usual, I’m about 10 steps behind everyone else (though I suspect–that is, I hope–this is somewhat common for grad students). In any case, can’t wait to read the excerpts and the larger project when it’s ready.
Comment by Scot — June 13, 2006 @ 6:26 pm
I don’t think it’s a matter of being scooped. It’s a popular topic right now…largely because of the time we live in and the media we work within. Shaviro’s Connected, Linked, Duncan Watts’ work, Latour, Mathew Fuller’s Media Ecologies, and so on. Many good texts in circulation. Plus the massive amount of work on space…and there are many intriguing ideas around. I did a short piece in Ctheory last year that really started me on this thinking.
Comment by jrice — June 13, 2006 @ 7:45 pm
Yeah, it’s actually saturating the air right now.
If you really don’t want to be scooped, I recommend “neo-sentence combining.” Nobody’s doing that anymore.
Personally, I’m putting all my eggs in what I’m calling New New Criticism: “A Closer Reading.”
Comment by jenny — June 13, 2006 @ 8:26 pm
I hear what you’re saying–definitely seems to be in the air right now. Jenny–I like your idea of neo-sentence combining. By way of revisiting old ideas, I’m thinking of a paper titled “Recovering the Self: Individuals of Genius and their Automous Creativities”. Should really shake up our Pomo assumptions regarding subjectivity and invention…
Comment by Scot — June 14, 2006 @ 9:27 am