Me [returning 1968 issue of Time Magazine]: this is really delicate. Are you sure you want me to put in the returns chute? Library employee: Yeah, put it in and don’t worry about it. We’ve got that in digital and microfilm format. I had originally gone to the issue because the digital version lacked some …
Continue reading “Things You Don’t Want to Hear at the University Library”
I had occasion to read the October 4th, 1968 issue of TIME magazine (Canada edition!) cover to cover last night.* There is something magical about reading periodicals from another era, where what we experience as history is rendered as quotidian life, and you get a glimpse of how your own moment, as it is rendered …
Continue reading “UNIVAC is saving a lot of people a lot of time”
Steven Shaviro recently posted about pulling out of an Oxford University Press collection because they wanted to define his contribution as “work for hire.” This is objectionable for lots of reasons, but in particular because academics should retain the right to be associated with the ideas we produce, and so long as we’re above board …
Continue reading “Work for Hire and Oxford University Press”
But first, more institutional politics. I’ve agreed to be on a committee out of the vice-provost’s office which is organizing a 1-day symposium on academic freedom in April, which could well lead to a written policy on academic freedom for the university, to be submitted for approval to academic senate and the board of governors. …
Although I’m not doing any classroom teaching this term* (I am, however, doing plenty of teaching), it somehow started off with a sprint. It’s taken me until week two to get together a plan for the term. Maybe others are more organized in thought and action, but I always have a moment after completing major …
Continue reading “Projection: A Word for Future-Orientation with “Project” In It”
I realize I should say something in support of the internet blackout going on today. You can learn more at Wikipedia. Yes, we should be terrified of these initiatives, which place a few companies in the position of judge and jury, and further enshrines the profit motive as the first principle of public policy on …
Continue reading “Not blacked out, but I won’t post on anything else until tomorrow”
(coauthored with Tara Rodgers) “The Poetics of Signal Processing,” Differences 22:2-3 (Summer/Fall 2011): 31-53. Audio examples here. The electronic copy’s not up on any database to which McGill gives me access, and the hard copy has a binding error where pp 61-76 appear between pages 44 and 45. That’s a first. This is a very …
