MiT 5: share your heart out

I’m up at MIT this weekend, meeting people, being friendly, conferencing. One thing that I’m noticing is an eery symbiosis between older professors and hipsters. The former provides credibility and the momentum to actually have a conference. The latter provides the endless library of Internet clips, snippets, and pop cultural artifacts and remixes.
There is no way that Jenkins, to name one, has the cultural sensitivity to accumulate such a vast amount of hip materials. Nor the time. Instead, he has a squadron of grad students to obtain his examples and work them into a presentation. Possibly overheard: “Get me something on hiphop, quick!”

Of course, the hierarchic merit structure of the university stimulates a working relationship between seniors and juniors that is, to put it lightly, old-fashioned. Wouldn’t it be a true merit of remix culture if academic rank or standing would be rendered powerless? Clearly, the reliance of professors on students to harvest the cultural data, which is then translated into academic currency, is just as ‘for-profit’ as the modus operandi of the corporations they despise.

Alternatively, as we all like to belong, much of this collecting activity generates social currency. There seems to be an atmosphere in which knowing the coolest videos is now finally a way to become more sexually attractive. Finally. Repeatedly overheard: “Check this one!”

But beyond the obvious absence of a self-awareness about the fact that while we may be trying to change the world, we too are just human, this has been pretty interesting.

Note to self: less reading from the page, and instead more ad libbing with cue cards and cool slides. Customize the media to suit the man.