Costelloe-KuehnMemo1


 * topical area? || data sets? || social theoretical questions? || why now? || how prepared? || bias? || fields of work? || funders ||
 * permaculture || interviews and participant observation with urban community gardening participants, organizers (1,000 in nyc, then many bulldozed? the Two Coves community garden in Astoria is "under threat" right now and might be an interesting site to see politics of space play out and an important place for advocacy), WWOOF sites, proponents of || how can intelligent design and experimentation displace chemical and petroleum inputs?

how do experiences with non-commodified, non-standardized spaces and relationships affect people's worldviews, imaginations and notions of what is "possible?"

how applicable is permaculture in the world's most money-poor areas?

how is knowledge of permaculture disseminated?

how can insights and strategy from permaculture on cohabitation, networking, etc. provide a foundation for a political philosophy and ethics of collaboration living in the world together?

how to permaculture enthusiasts articulate an alternative to the problems addressed by the "green revolution" and subsequent changes in food production? || the "agrarian crisis"

running out of oil

drawbacks of chemical inputs are increasingly recognized.

global warming will change the contexts in which food production takes place. permaculture is good at turning obstacles and constraints into design criteria and advantages || i have little background knowledge of "rural sociology" and have not read widely or deeply about food production.

i have a rudimentary knowledge of permaculture principles and practices || yes.

i would have to resist a tendency to be "romantic" about the possibilities of permaculture. || WWOOF sites (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) as global nodes of permaculture knowledge production and dissemination.

rural sociology/anthropology, food production, environmental justice, STS (expertise, lay and indigenous knowledge...) || NSF? NIH? Fullbright? ||
 * media/art/tech || interviews, advocacy work, participant-observation with alternative media producers, "mainstream" journalists, policy-makers... || how is technoscience "democratized" in the process of "alternative" media production? how can excluded groups be included? is this a "social-theoretical" question, or "practical?"

what is the role of "media" in social movements?

what are the possibilities and limits of "new" media (Indymedia networks, Web 2.0, blogs, youtube, facebook, etc.) in contrast to (and in combination with) "old" media forms (radio, cable, print, satellite, film, documentary, etc.)?

how does the national policy context constrain and enable particular orientations and forms of "alternative" media?

how does the "dominant" discourse interact with "parallel" accounts in different media?

what is lost, and gained, in "translation" of technoscientific information?

How does alternative media production, and community-based initiative more generally, play into and contest neoliberal discourses and practices?

what double-binds do alt. media producers work within?

what is the role of anarchist ethics and practices in alternative/progressive media production?

how do alternative media and artistic practices link up with environmental justice causes? || increasingly consolidated, homogenized media ecology (in the U.S., especially since 1994's FCC legislation).

new ICTs harbor new potentials and this landscape needs to be looked at critically.

people watch, on average, something like 6 hours of TV a day! what?!

the "digital divide" scholarship needs to be problematized.

"globalization" provides the impetus for story telling (environmental destruction, uneven distributions of benefits and burdens) and the tools for telling stories (cheap video cameras, internet access, etc.) || i have skills in shooting and editing video and sound/music/radio production.

i have read widely and deeply about "alternative" and "progressive" media and have tried to bridge STS and communication/media studies in various ways. Still, I am a bit unsure if I am the "one for the job," compared to LLC type folks. || i have a deep resentment towards mainstream media, especially TV, especially children watching TV. their poor young minds warped by power in a box!

I also generally pay more attention to possibilities than constraints.

I have done trial ethnographies of community-based groups (the Sanctuary, Cap. District Community Gardens) || The Sanctuary for Indepenedent Media, culture jammers (i.e. Yes Men) Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN), Suro's projects in India (Pipariya), the Deccan Development Society, Italian pirate radio producers.

media/communication studies, community and culture, STS (the particular ICTs, networks, information society...). || NSF? Fullbright? Need to look into this more. || criticism of art history and criticism, interviews with artists, audience (reception studies), funders of shows || how do the boundaries (goals, methodology, etc.) between "scientific" and "artistic" production hold up or blur?
 * bioart || conferences and papers,

what notions of science (biology) are upheld or contested through artistic practices?

what are the effects, constraints, and ways around "preaching to the choir?"

how does satire and irony hold up as critical praxis? do people get the joke? || it was physics, now it's the "age" of biotech.

the artistic imagination might help us ask different questions and point to a new bioethics. || i've done a survey of essays on bioart and talked with many of the bioartists working at rpi. it feels a bit "hanger-onish" to study bio-art and not produce it myself. || compared to permaculture and alt. media production, i have a fairly critical eye for bioart. it often seems esoteric and sometimes has the opposite of the desired effect on audiences. || bioartists at rpi, conferences, galleries, and exhibitions.

STS (public understanding of science, science journalism...) || NSF ||