Discordia || Sleep-Out

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[- Sleep-Out
By katrienjacobs, Section whatever... Posted on Fri May 2nd, 2003 at 10:17:20 AM EURODISCORDIA TIME
Even though I am new to weblogging I sense its power to generate a kind of intellectual freshness. I am an academic, writer, performer and based in the USA. I have been experimenting with writing styles and performative modes, sometimes in collaboration with my students, and notice that the web can generate unusually sharp ideas and conversations in very short amounts of time. It has been daunting for me to observe the clash between academic quality and other qualities of the mind.

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I believe that intellectual conversations can glow when you make a slight shift to intellectual identity, adjusting perception and communication mechanisms, pampering the body and the environment in which you work. Since most of my own writing is about sexuality and integrates my own embodied and forthright sex writings, it has been a bomb for academic establishments. I intend to use the blog to develop ideas and writing styles that are suitable to my current state of mind. As academics we feel an acute pressure to make observations from `outside' the object of study. To challenge this point of observation, I would like to write from within myself and sex cultures. Where am I located now? I believe that I am currently sitting in the `s/out'. `S/out' is short-hand for `sleep-out,' a self-made home-depot style `veranda' that is added to an existing building. People build sleep-outs when they believe that their homes are becoming too small. Sleep-outs are small, entrepreneurial spaces where you may find a comfortable couch amongst piles of trash and discarded magazines. It is where the edge of the household is located, not a ghetto nor fancy bureau, but an improvised space connecting main room to the garden. What else? I just think (hope) that many of us web academics feel a need to make a shift in language, gestures and as we sit here playing with ideas. [editor's note, by TreborScholz]

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Sleep-Out | 4 comments

[new] inside, outside, in-between? (Avg. Score: 3.00 / Raters: 1) (#1)
by Aileen on Sat May 3rd, 2003 at 03:13:42 AM EURODISCORDIA TIME
(User Info)

As a drop-out from the academic world, your description of making observations from "outside" the object of study sounds very familiar. Once upon a time, I used to be a theologian, a field of academic study, where any kind of personal stance is possibly more suspect than in other fields.
I'm not sure what you mean with your description of a "sleep-out", though. Is that a physical or a mental space or both at once? Are you sure it is wise or "safe" to occupy a space like that?
After I "blew a fuse" and abandoned the university environment, I continued to work as a feminist theologian for some time, doing workshops and seminars on liturgy and ritual, which always took place in improvised or "leftover" spaces, because I was invited by women, who wanted to work with me outside a conventional academic environment. With a ball of string and bits of wire and paper and scarves, I was fascinated by the way it was possible to appropriate other spaces and change them, but in the long run, it seemed questionable to me to only be able to appropriate spaces that no one else was really interested in. It didn't seem to have enough impact to satisfy my anger at the slipperiness of so-called critical intellectuals, who remained inside the academic institution by remaining outside embodied, lived experience.

Is it safe? by katrienjacobs, 05/04/2003 06:47:04 PM EURODISCORDIA TIME (none / 0)
- Blowing a fuse by Aileen, 05/06/2003 02:34:37 AM EURODISCORDIA TIME (none / 0)

[new] <no subject> (Avg. Score: none / Raters: 0) (#2)
by PipShea on Sun May 4th, 2003 at 06:22:00 AM EURODISCORDIA TIME
(User Info)

I am also intrigued by the concept of the sleep out room. I like how you've claimed one for your headspace. I want one too.

Also, I'd be interested to read some of your work. Could you post some URLs?

Sleep-Out | 4 comments

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