DJ Spooky Response
Soundbite Fetish : “the new listeners resemble the mechanics who are simultaneously specialized and capable of applying their special skills to unexpected places outside their skilled trades.
Scholars, particularly professors who attend an academic institution choose to study a specific area of expertise. Once the necessary amount of skills are acquired to earn a certain degree, the scholar will seek other institutions (work or internships) to apply their skills. This is why a lot of teachers have expertise in only one area, but can find jobs in a number of related fields. Most people who perform scholarly research do not venture off into several fields of study at once, instead they earn special skills in a non-linear manner, a series of degrees at different levels, which are earned at different times. However, the places where an educated person is allowed to practice these skills differs from the number of areas of expertise has. Effects the way we search for sources to put into our scholarly work, sometimes resulting in settling for less.
Loop Perception= it’s a kind of search engine function that’s undergoing a crisis of meaning.
As research shifts from books to online catalogs and search engines, there is much more information available but it is difficult to obtain. Since the Internet has a lot of information readily available, people do not want to sit down in a library and cite information of dozens of different books. Galileo can research millions of articles via one search engine.
Software Swing: “material transformations through these linguistic means”
The world has unified itself since the Internet has come into wide use. Instead of using language as primary communication we use materials that are electronic. Scholars pass information down through electronics or books, but currently electronic means are preferred. We have “remixed” knowledge from traditional books to Internet.
December 7, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Most folks who pursue scholarly work, though, do so in a VERY linear fashion: bachelors degree, masters degree, doctorate, etc. I’m interested in the sense you have that there are more ways for scholarly people to apply their ideas. I instinctively think it’s right, because the ‘net opens up so many ways to write and communicate over distances and across lines of specialization.
If we wanted to be rhetorical about it, then we could be talking about changing the scene (and maybe the purpose) of doing scholarly stuff. We don’t just have to do it in the university for university-types.