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New York, 11:55 PM
Sun Nov 29
18 posts in the last 24 hours
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I miss school sometimes.
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On a side note I think this is stellar! My city does an annual festival that features combinations of art and science including plays about Einstein, workshops on the physics of dance or the chemistry of painting, etc. I've been stage managing for it for the last several years and I get to see something different every year! So much fun!
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but I am another year out, I think.
also, see this exchange I recently had with a friend:
Me: "I realized I should probably go back to grad school around the time I began to obsessively comment on this website, and one night even stooped to debating Camille Paglia."
Friend: "Grad school might not be that different."
11/30/08
(One of the highlights of my getting my Masters Degree in Middle Eastern Studies was walking into my department's student lounge and finding my friends in the midst of a dead-serious argument about Star Wars. Oh graduate school, I miss you!)
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Oh my God. So many, many moments of utter awesome.
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Dr. Stephen T. Colbert is too awesome.
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PS How much do you think that he's wonderful in bed? I mean both great in the traditional sense, and wonderful, in the oh-so-sweet sense?
Ok, now I'm just being creepy. Sorry Mrs. Dr. Stephen T. Colbert (and, um, Mr. ellaesther).
11/30/08
Why aren't we allowed to make fun of art or an art form? Especially (I'm sorry) a very silly one...
11/30/08
Though, of course, said adoration is perfectly reasonable. (And yes lickittysplitz, I sure do wish I could be his friend...! If not, you know, his luvah).
12/01/08
m'am, you have made. my. day.
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I totally understand the way that, say, physical and social sciences are pitted against each other. But something that's so appealing about the arts in general is that it's democratizing and far-reaching, in my view, at least.
Anyhow, the point being that I DO see your perspective, but I wouldn't be so quick to assume that everyone views PA in the same fashion.
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But, I am also a huge physics geek so I am also quick to stand up for the physical sciences :-)
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This is entirely separate from the point you and PhD are making, which is extremely valid.
I think they ARE just having fun, but you're right that there is an air of self-congratulation about it. But, it could also just be a way to get out of the lab and express themselves in a different way.
I don't know, while I understand that frustration, I also can't seem to get angry about it, I guess.
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This may be my snobbery, but I don't believe for a second that "Dance your Ph.D" is anything other than a bunch of lab-dorks (NB: I count myself among dorks) noodlin' around, feelin' good about themselves for their creatin'!
They are well within their rights to do so, and I am well within mine to call it out for crap. Everyone is free to create art; but everyone's art is worthwhile.
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What this comes down for me, though, is.....is this art? The eternal question, I guess.
For me, PA is not always "art," but a means of expressing oneself. The former is not always the latter and visa versa. They could have written a synopsis, given a talk (as most do) but instead they laid out their thesis via performance art.
I am not ignoring the fact that the arts are sometimes belittled or patronized (are you speaking specifically to theater?). But, so are many other disciplines and areas of study.
I don't know, like I said, I can't get too worked up over this, but I respect your perspective and of course you are within your rights to call out what you feel to be patronizing. Just as others are free to argue that they feel it is not.
11/30/08
I agree with you fully here; this is actually sort of what I was trying to say in my earlier comment (but I have no talent for brevity). I suspect that many of the Ph.D. dancers see it that way too. I don't think they have any illusions/delusions that what they're doing is comparable makes them Performing Artists, just like I didn't imagine that building a butter-tub and plastic bag boat to carry Timbits (my first year engineering project) made me a naval architect/marine engineer.
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I mean, come on.
12/01/08
As a social scientist with a Foucauldian bent who hangs out almost entirely with engineering and science PhDs, I get the frustration with the lack of respect paid to other disciplines. But I don't share the assumption that this particular prize is patronising--in part because I don't equate having fun with lack of effort, or with being patronising toward the arts. I'm sure the winners put a hell of a lot of effort into their work, which can only be a good thing in terms of increasing awareness of the effort involved in creating performance art (even crap performance art). I just think that the dichotomy you've set up is too rigid and at times fallacious.
12/01/08
The dichotomy between science (serious, "hard," and masculine) and the arts (frivolous, "soft," and feminine) is hardly my invention, and I don't know quite what you read to make you thik that I'm trying to reinforce that divide. I'm not trying to keep scientists out of my rodeo; There are artistic scientists, and very "scientific" artists, too. I do not consider myself either.
That does not mean that I don't occasionally try to create art of one sort or another, and I'm not calling for a moratorium on amateur creativity; far from it. I simply stated that I think this this "Dance your Ph.D." thing is...well...crappy.
@StaceyofLiberty: To be clear, I wrote "not everyone's art is *equally* worthwhile," which implies that there is worth, to someone, in every artistic endeavor (whether experiential, financial, emotional, whatever). Clearly, I am not the "someone" they are concerned with.
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I would imagine that you could do interpretive dance for ANYTHING.
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As an English major, this is a sore spot.
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Heh. Sore spots all around.
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Marry me.
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Growing up I took ballet and one of my favorite things to do was position my dad across the living room and ask him to copy my moves (basically, 1st - 5th position) and it made me laaaaaaugh because he's 6'5" and not graceful.
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@FourInchHeels: Yeah, he's great.