Forum - Week 1 - Introductions and... Uhh....
Did you know Thursdays really suck for me? I have classes 9am till 4pm without a break, meaning I have to eat in the theory lecture. Anyway, the first forum of the year started out the same as first and second semester last year, with no real plan of what to do or how to mark us. All we know is we present anything on a given topic for an unspecified amount of time, and it will somehow be worth 25% of our music tech grade. I don't know why it is necessary have 8 people on each topic, I would think 1 or 2 people could cover a topic quite sufficiently. Perhaps we could present a topic based around Music Technology that we feel needs discussion. I am to discuss the lack of women in our discipline, which to me is inconsequential to the future of Music Technology. If women were not allowed to join, then that would be a topic worth discussing. Are we supposed to force people into a study area, because their 'type' are a minority? If the heads of Music Tech feel that the lack of females is an issue serious enough that it needs investigation, I might wonder whether a woman may be accepted into the course for that reason alone. I would assume the lack of women is due to the lack of female interest in any technology based course. Who knows why? Who cares? Aren't they allowed to do whatever they want? What do they hope to achieve out of this topic? I suppose I could make my presentation on how irrelevant the topic is, but that sort of thing only floats with Mark "MC" Carroll. Maybe I'll invite him along...
Something I always enjoyed was David Harris' mind-expanding electronic music appreciation class in Sem 1 last year. I would prefer to have that class again, and perhaps be graded on an essay about Music Technology in Contemporary Society, or our interpretation of it.
In any case, this Forum ended 50 minutes early as we ran out of things to do/teach. Would I be right to assume that a lecturer teaching a 70 minute class gets paid for 70 minutes? Surely not 2 hours pay. You wouldn't think so.
5 comments:
I agree wholeheartedly on your comments regarding the David Harris component of forum last year. That was my favourite lecture of the week... it's healthy that we are all exposed to new music in such a way. That is not to say we shouldn't go and discover this music for ourselves, but I like to hear someone else's perspective on a composer like Milton Babbit or Cage and why it's being played to us! Then a bit of healthy controversy can of course follow....
By the way, you've outdone yourself again on the Whittington pic. Well done.
I agree with your views on the forum, it would be much more productive if we could present on topics which we find to be important, rather than the one about women in music tech.
Thanks for the advice on the dead room by the way, ill keep that in mind.
yeah, david harris's mind-expanding music appreciation class took my mind on an adventure every time. bring it back!
women cough i mean GENDER in music tech, what an uninteresting topic. the only way i think this topic could be more annoying is if i was one of the few girls who study music tech, and had to be singled out during these sessions.
hey whatdyaknow im in your group. we can team up for some mayhem here and destroy this topic...
hey thanks for the advice i appreciate it! I also think the topic is stupid, like they're doing it just because, oh my god, there are girls int eh course, shock horror. We might not know much, but does that really count? Surely we can learn... oops sorry to ramble on your blog... But yeh, I agree that its a stupid topic. I'd be more interested in doing something with sound in films or something. Oh well.
Have a good one!
OH MY GOD, there are GIRLS in 1st year? Gross, I better get my cooties shot. Although I never caught anything from Jake (BAAZING!!). When you say we might not know much, I think there wouldn't be much point to studying something if you did know much. Me fail English?
Yeah I would like to present a topic like "The Effect of Technology on Music Education", and not just because it was an essay I wrote last year and would save time. Okay that is why.
I just had an idea for my next Photoshoppery- A "David Harris and his Mind-Expanding Music Appreciation Class" poster, with all psychedelic colours and musical notes, and floating faces of influential artists like Cage and Zap. I might put his head on the body of one of those Cirque De Soleil acrobats. I think there's a picture of him somewhere on the Uni website...
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