I’d like to say I’m looking forward to it, but it’s an unashamed truism in my family that we look gift horses in the mouth. In fact, we’d look any form of gift animal in the mouth, because animal dentistry is expensive. They just don’t see the positive sides.
Back when I had a tv, I saw a program where Cheetah – the monkey from the 1940′s Tarzan – was in his ape retirement home. He wears pants and smokes cigars, which means it’s a significantly better retirement home than most of the one I’ve been to. Like cats and dentistry, there is no way that you can convince Cheetah to stop smoking those stoogies.
Hey, smoking’s a right.
You can, however, communicate with Koko, the gorilla fluent in sign-language. She’s even demanded that she sees the dentist before; she’s also demanded that people show her their nipples.
I’m not expecting any nipples in my Basic Techniques module, but I do expect the same sort of cross-species confusion. How are those with artistic backgrounds going to get on with the logical thinking processes expected of programmers? Badly, I suspect, from knowing some of my cohort.
Personally, I would like to completely avoid any timewasting with patcher languages. I’m going to nod wisely at your arguments and then point to the smoking chimp wearing a diaper, because there is no way on earth you’ll ever get me to use a patcher language out of choice.
Continuing on, I’d also like to say that I feel this module is going to eat my time right when I don’t have any. I think this should have been the first module in the course, and Theoretical Foundations of Digital Media should have been either special sessions or otherwise shifted. Why?
When I finish this course, people aren’t going to ask me about my views on cyberfeminism. They are going to expect me to work some kind of art-magic, which is what this module is heading towards.
Comments
One Comment so far. Comments are closed.sweet pete…
agreed on the sequence of the techniques and theory classes. has been remedied for next year. for now, this is what we have.
i like animals in people clothing as much as the next guy, so i’ll look at your chimps, i will. that doesn’t get us away from the idea that Basic Techniques is intended to develop working with a near-standard set of tools in a way that exposes them as the interoperable, comparable and complementary set that they are.
you don’t have to use a ‘patcher language’ out of choice ever again, although i would say that’s a little like saying ‘i don’t like Lithuanian carpet jazz.’ you’re categorically cutting yourself off before even really knowing what the category is…
in any case, why not try out a few things with one for Basic Techniques? no one’s asking you to ‘believe’ in it – just do it.
as far as your time goes, your time will expand to fill those tasks you choose to fill it with, as you have every opportunity to make everything you’re working on help you reach the same goal. if you’d like to talk through how to better make this happen – let’s chat.
oh, and work hard. ask for help. then work harder.