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May 2, 2001, 9:42 p.m. || it's your turn now

quote of the week: "The question of access has been co-opted by corporations. All we're doing now is freebie consultations for Microsoft if we keep talking about the question of access." Coco Fusco, in response to the wealth of presentations at the MIT conference arguing that more access to new media technologies for people of color would translate into "more democracy"
listening: The Ex, Scrabbling at the Lock CD, The Rondelles, The Fox CD
reading: The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective , ed. Arjun Appadurai

I've knocked out a rough draft of my third position paper, which all feels like redundancy because I've been on this kick for so long now. I'm turning it in sans coherent conclusion because, well, I put so much effort into the first two that I think I deserve a break on this last one. Especially since none of my papers are literature reviews, which I'm hoping (fingers crossed) made them that much more interesting to read. If they were even read.

Coco Fusco e-mailed me to "congratulate" me on my "strong presentation." I swooned like a lovesick teenager, especially because I was odd girl out on that panel, for real. The others had actually produced "digital art" and me, well, I didn't even mention this site and I had nothing to sell. (Not that I wouldn't have snatched up one of Alex Rivera's videos if I hadn't rushed off to the Harvard rally for the on-going living wage campaign.)

I was already low on cool points when I pulled a bait-and-switch -- after conjuring the unruly body of Karma from the New Mutants, I presented a condensed excerpt from my "drag race and digital space" paper, full of academic citations and argumentation. Hell, the fact that I even had notes was something of a freak occurance. Boy, did I ever feel like a dummy for preparing a scholarly essay.

Audience questions for my panel were thankfully directed toward the artists. I sat back and watched the sparks fly when Beth Coleman, responding to a question about collaboration and new media technologies, intoned, "Boys play, girls clean up." I though Beth and Spooky were about to come to blows over that one, Springer-style.

And Apple computers couldn't have paid for better plugs when, at the closing of the panel, we were all asked to identify our technologies of choice -- everyone cited their Macs except for myself. I felt obliged to speak up for the ignored yet so much more "democratic" low-technologies, i.e., "Um, I use copy machines."

April 30, 2001, 9:26 a.m. || selective tranmission

For the last few weeks I've been incoherent, scatter-brained, or curt. I know this, but as someone pointed out to me, perhaps some context would be nice.

But it probably won't get any better until May 14th, when I take my qualifying exams. I'm working on a presentable draft of my third position paper, to be turned in this week, and then I'll be reviewing everything I've learned (or failed to) in the last few years regarding: nationalism and the politics of citizenship; theories of embodiment; and transnational capital and the commodity politic. Two weeks and I'm ABD, All But Dissertation. You can call me Dr. Mimi, thank you.

The MIT conference held some revelations for me. One, Coco Fusco is a stud. Two, I don't think much of the existing scholarship on race in digital space. Three, I am resolutely and stubbornly not self-promotional. Four, I will have to reconcile the fact that I am a hopeless academic (who takes her work very seriously) with the fact that academia is full of shit. And five, damn, it's nice to get paid for fifteen minutes worth of speechifying.

I have more to say about all these things, but I'm off to the City to help with new issue day at Maximumrocknroll and later attend the GSI award ceremony. I have no idea what this will consist of, though I am hoping for a xeroxed certificate with my name written on a line in pseudo-calligraphy, like the ones I got in grade school, to put on my refrigerator proudly next to the Polaroids of Mark's cast.

In the aftermath of my exams, you can expect: 1) an updated look to this site, 2) the completion of the second Race Riot compilation, and 3) a new fuckin' zine, and about time.