LangeCommentMemo1-2Costelloe-Kuehn

Memo 1: I think all three of your projects sound very promising. I have only a few questions about each: Permaculture To me, your most interesting question here is about the effect of non-standaradized spaces on people’s imaginations. I wonder, however, how you will operationalize “non-standardized space?” Will you just asumme that you’re studying non-standardized spaces, or are you open to the possibility that these spaces are standardized according to different principals than the ones we are familiar with in our capitalist, advanced technological framework? Does this distinction even matter? Additionally, how can you measure changes in someone’s notion of what’s possible? Media/art/tech I think this is your most promising project, and I don’t have a whole lot to add to it (possibly because I know next to nothing about the media). I don’t know a lot about the digital divide scholarship, but I pretty sure there are already people problematizing it. How do you evaluate these attempts so far and how will your particular project add to them? Bioart I’m surprised to find that you have a more critical eye towards bioart than you do towards alt media. It seems that both projects are, first and foremost, about essentially the same thing, viz. translation, particularly by those at the margins of media and science. I wonder if a comparative study between the two might be a good idea. You might gain a more evenhanded vision of each component, or at the very least be able to better explicate the reasons why one is better than the other. It might be a drawback, since both these project seem to be potentially expansive in scope.

Memo 2: Are anti-capitalism, anti-statism, and anti-authoritarianism really neuroses, I would think their opposites would be? In reflecting on your list, it seems to me that several “habits” you’ve listed are actually neuroses e.g. procrastination, a dislike of clumping, while many of your neuroses aren’t really neuroses at all. I think the difference is for that the neuroses you’ve listed under habits, you’ve already been able to use positively (like how you aversion to clumping helps you interrogate categories). I think you just need to find out how to use disorganization, hedonism, etc. to your benefit.