Here's the back of Kris, one of the people on the program. <3 (sorry grandma it's powerful)
One of the things I'm realizing on this trip is that a lot of feminism is either academia or activism, and it's hard to find a balance. Kris, pictured above, I think embodies a radical feminist activist anarchist and probably a bunch of other -ist's that I don't know about. Cool stuff. Now on to the updating:
Sunday night I ate a delicious dinner of stir fry prepared by Sharon and Kalena. Some people on the program went to see a play called "Up Your Ass" in Amsterdam, but I stayed and did a lot of phone-talking and reading and sleeping. Fell asleep with my laptop on my lap (again) with the readings for the NOISE summer school in Adobe Reader and luckily when the peeps came home from the play, some of them took my laptop down and set it in a safe place. I'm on the top bunk so that could have been bad (repeat of freshman year first semester when I fell asleep and woke up to a crashing noise, only to find my shiny blue Dell laying on the floor with no bruises except a slight chip in the corner which still remains and I think gives my computer character).
Monday morning was the first day of feminist summer camp!! Just kidding. It's the week-long NOISE summer school. It's not a summer camp but it's a feminist conference of all Masters and PhD students (Antioch students are the only undergraduate students who are allowed to be included each year). All I could think of before it started was an introduction of a bunch of feminists running into the room enthusiastically chanting "let's make some NOISE!!!!" with "baas in eigen buik" written on their exposed feminist stomachs (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolle_Mina) and throwing matching pink bandanas into the crowd. Didn't happen :( It's much more professional than that. Some would argue it's too professional. That's where the problem in the "academia vs. activism" distinction comes in I think. A lot of us Antioch students have been finding the manner in which the NOISE information has been delivered quite problematic. It has been kind of a repeat of what I talked about in the last post, when some of the lecturers seemed to be talking "at" us and feeding us a bunch of feminist theory, instead of viewing us as just as valid as they are and giving us examples of how to implement these theories into society. The atmosphere is just pretty conservative and a lot of the questions or critiques that we undergrads have posed don't seem to be being taken seriously and are responded to in a rather condescending and hopeless (for the asker) manner. It's creating sort of a common enemy for us, which I also don't think is good. I agree that we shouldn't just automatically praise authority because of their position behind a podium, but I do think there is value in respect. I think that, just as there should be reason in order for people to respect authority, there should be equally valid reason for brushing off authority, instead of simply ignoring authority figures solely because they are authority figures.
Anywho. Monday was the first day and we had a lecture by Iris Van der Tuin in the morning, followed by a bus ride to the Hague for a stroll through a museum exhibition called Ja Natuurlijk! or Yes, Naturally! The whole theme of NOISE this week is Naturecultures, which (if I'm picking up on it correctly) refers to the idea that the natural elements of the world and of society are not separate from the cultural aspects of the world. It sort of breaks down the previous idea that society is made of things in either the natural category or the cultural category. Like "nature vs. nurture." Naturecultures takes away the "versus" aspect and instead brings the two categories to attempt to help humans realize that there is an equal-planed relationship between things like dogs and humans etc. The art exhibit was awesome. I just really love museums I think, and I never have as much time as I want to go through it all carefully. One of the installations at this exhibition was a series of garbage cubes, which didn't have an explanation plaque that I could see, so I'm just assuming it has something to do with how much waste is created by humankind. They reminded me of the cubes of garbage in Monster's Inc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j1OeqabbYQ) so I sat on one:
Sunday night I ate a delicious dinner of stir fry prepared by Sharon and Kalena. Some people on the program went to see a play called "Up Your Ass" in Amsterdam, but I stayed and did a lot of phone-talking and reading and sleeping. Fell asleep with my laptop on my lap (again) with the readings for the NOISE summer school in Adobe Reader and luckily when the peeps came home from the play, some of them took my laptop down and set it in a safe place. I'm on the top bunk so that could have been bad (repeat of freshman year first semester when I fell asleep and woke up to a crashing noise, only to find my shiny blue Dell laying on the floor with no bruises except a slight chip in the corner which still remains and I think gives my computer character).
Monday morning was the first day of feminist summer camp!! Just kidding. It's the week-long NOISE summer school. It's not a summer camp but it's a feminist conference of all Masters and PhD students (Antioch students are the only undergraduate students who are allowed to be included each year). All I could think of before it started was an introduction of a bunch of feminists running into the room enthusiastically chanting "let's make some NOISE!!!!" with "baas in eigen buik" written on their exposed feminist stomachs (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolle_Mina) and throwing matching pink bandanas into the crowd. Didn't happen :( It's much more professional than that. Some would argue it's too professional. That's where the problem in the "academia vs. activism" distinction comes in I think. A lot of us Antioch students have been finding the manner in which the NOISE information has been delivered quite problematic. It has been kind of a repeat of what I talked about in the last post, when some of the lecturers seemed to be talking "at" us and feeding us a bunch of feminist theory, instead of viewing us as just as valid as they are and giving us examples of how to implement these theories into society. The atmosphere is just pretty conservative and a lot of the questions or critiques that we undergrads have posed don't seem to be being taken seriously and are responded to in a rather condescending and hopeless (for the asker) manner. It's creating sort of a common enemy for us, which I also don't think is good. I agree that we shouldn't just automatically praise authority because of their position behind a podium, but I do think there is value in respect. I think that, just as there should be reason in order for people to respect authority, there should be equally valid reason for brushing off authority, instead of simply ignoring authority figures solely because they are authority figures.
Anywho. Monday was the first day and we had a lecture by Iris Van der Tuin in the morning, followed by a bus ride to the Hague for a stroll through a museum exhibition called Ja Natuurlijk! or Yes, Naturally! The whole theme of NOISE this week is Naturecultures, which (if I'm picking up on it correctly) refers to the idea that the natural elements of the world and of society are not separate from the cultural aspects of the world. It sort of breaks down the previous idea that society is made of things in either the natural category or the cultural category. Like "nature vs. nurture." Naturecultures takes away the "versus" aspect and instead brings the two categories to attempt to help humans realize that there is an equal-planed relationship between things like dogs and humans etc. The art exhibit was awesome. I just really love museums I think, and I never have as much time as I want to go through it all carefully. One of the installations at this exhibition was a series of garbage cubes, which didn't have an explanation plaque that I could see, so I'm just assuming it has something to do with how much waste is created by humankind. They reminded me of the cubes of garbage in Monster's Inc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j1OeqabbYQ) so I sat on one:
After the museum, we had a little discussion with the curator and all of the students about what we saw and relating it to feminist topics. Then there was a little NOISE social mixer under tents in the garden with snacks and drinks. Quite lovely.
Monday night, Lauren and I (met later by Michelle) went to that "Up Your Ass" play in Amsterdam (Lauren saw it the night before, but they described it as a religious experience for them, so of course they had to see it again). It was really great. It was a play that was written by Valerie Solanis, who was apparently a very radical feminist in the 60s whose only surviving works are this play, and her book, Scum Manifesto. Lauren is an avid Solanis fan, so I learned all about the life and death of Valerie on the train on the way. I guess Valerie Solanis wrote this play, gave it to Andy Warhol to produce, Andy lost the play, and Valerie unsuccessfully tried to assassinate him. I think there's also a movie about that event, called I Shot Andy Warhol. I don't think the play is performed often because it's kind of impossible to get it, but these people acquired it illegally so I got the privilege of seeing one of the only performances of "Up Your Ass" and you should all be jealous.
Today (Tuesday), we had more lectures at NOISE. One was by Maaike Bleeker, whose article we had to read before. It was about reenactment of art pieces like dance, historical events, song covers, etc. I loved the reading because I kind of covered that topic in my Philosophy of Art class last year so I knew what I was reading about (a rare occurrence it seems these days). However, Ms. Bleeker turned out to be another member of the read-straight-from-your-manuscript-and-never-look-up-to-notice-that-we're-all-yawning club. Bummer because it could have been a cool presentation given the topic. The next presenter was Dr. Roger Kneebone, a surgeon who puts on simulations of surgical procedures sometimes to reenact how they were done years before, when the process was different. He was a phenomenal public speaker and totally captured everyone's attention. The critique of him (of course there has to be one! duh) was that he was an older white male in the field of science giving a lecture to a crowd of mostly women in the humanities whose whole goal is to change the white male patriarchy. Interesting. I found a good way to connect what he was saying with what we've been discussing in feminism terms was to look again at the academia vs. activism idea. One thing that Roger stressed was that one can't learn everything he or she needs to know about surgery from a book. He gave the example of, during one of his surgical reenactments, the older surgeon who was the subject of the simulation, had a younger surgeon helping him out, sort of acting as a mentee to the older surgeon. At one point, the older surgeon is showing the younger one how to feel inside an incision if everything is right. The older surgeon feels around in the open wound and explains to the younger that he just has to "stick your finger in there and feel the... uh..." and he never finishes or gives a term to what the younger surgeon is supposed to be feeling for. What's interesting is that the younger surgeon seems to understand, and even Dr. Kneebone (I'm convinced that's not his real last name and that he and Alicia Keys are on the same wavelength with the whole giving yourself a pseudonym to match your passion in life) attested to the fact that there is indeed just something that you can feel, which doesn't need a term or explicit phrase, but every surgeon can do it. This is an example of needing to have that embodied experience in order to fully be able to perform surgery. The same seems to be true for feminism. One can't simply sit and listen to professor after professor reiterate theories and referencing old philosophers or feminists and be a well-rounded feminist. He or she must actively insert him or herself into the world of activism to truly have it all covered. There needs to be that balance between study and action. I think this balance applies to all aspects of life.
After the lectures, we broke off into our small groups to discuss even further what we all got out of the lectures. This was really helpful to me because I loved hearing what others had to say about it, especially these graduate and PhD students who undoubtedly have so much more experience and knowledge in the field than any of us do. I actually even participated quite a bit in the discussion and even volunteered to pose our question to the entire NOISE group once we all convened into the plenary session, which I think is just a European thing and it means everyone meets after meeting with smaller groups and has a giant discussion. It was fun.
When everything was over, we all came back to Strowis and ate dinner. Then I took my surveys and went to the park to ask some peeps about feminism (finally). It went really well I think! I got a bunch of responses and a bunch of "good luck!"s so that's exciting. People were pretty interested and willing, which is reassuring. I also leaned more towards handing the surveys out to girls around my age, which is a problem. I need diverse results. What I did end up with is very interesting though. Some responses were kind of funny. One pair of girls didn't want to fill out a survey, but were okay with me asking them the questions and transcribing their answers myself. That was actually really fun and I think probably more productive because they didn't restrict their answers to the space provided. And it was nice for me to chat with some girls outside the realm of WGS, even if the topic of conversation was WGS... I can't escape it. After gathering a few surveys, I went back to Strowis (got some ice cream on the way which rocked), trying to make it in time to leave with the group for an evening lecture back at the NOISE place. When I got back, however, everyone had already left. I tried to find the place on my own but got lost and ended up coming back to Strowis and going for a really long, really nice night time run.
Off to bed. Gonna meet Lucy (UD friend who's also studying in the Netherlands this semester) in Amsterdam tomorrow to go to the Anne Frank museum! Super stoked.
xx
Monday night, Lauren and I (met later by Michelle) went to that "Up Your Ass" play in Amsterdam (Lauren saw it the night before, but they described it as a religious experience for them, so of course they had to see it again). It was really great. It was a play that was written by Valerie Solanis, who was apparently a very radical feminist in the 60s whose only surviving works are this play, and her book, Scum Manifesto. Lauren is an avid Solanis fan, so I learned all about the life and death of Valerie on the train on the way. I guess Valerie Solanis wrote this play, gave it to Andy Warhol to produce, Andy lost the play, and Valerie unsuccessfully tried to assassinate him. I think there's also a movie about that event, called I Shot Andy Warhol. I don't think the play is performed often because it's kind of impossible to get it, but these people acquired it illegally so I got the privilege of seeing one of the only performances of "Up Your Ass" and you should all be jealous.
Today (Tuesday), we had more lectures at NOISE. One was by Maaike Bleeker, whose article we had to read before. It was about reenactment of art pieces like dance, historical events, song covers, etc. I loved the reading because I kind of covered that topic in my Philosophy of Art class last year so I knew what I was reading about (a rare occurrence it seems these days). However, Ms. Bleeker turned out to be another member of the read-straight-from-your-manuscript-and-never-look-up-to-notice-that-we're-all-yawning club. Bummer because it could have been a cool presentation given the topic. The next presenter was Dr. Roger Kneebone, a surgeon who puts on simulations of surgical procedures sometimes to reenact how they were done years before, when the process was different. He was a phenomenal public speaker and totally captured everyone's attention. The critique of him (of course there has to be one! duh) was that he was an older white male in the field of science giving a lecture to a crowd of mostly women in the humanities whose whole goal is to change the white male patriarchy. Interesting. I found a good way to connect what he was saying with what we've been discussing in feminism terms was to look again at the academia vs. activism idea. One thing that Roger stressed was that one can't learn everything he or she needs to know about surgery from a book. He gave the example of, during one of his surgical reenactments, the older surgeon who was the subject of the simulation, had a younger surgeon helping him out, sort of acting as a mentee to the older surgeon. At one point, the older surgeon is showing the younger one how to feel inside an incision if everything is right. The older surgeon feels around in the open wound and explains to the younger that he just has to "stick your finger in there and feel the... uh..." and he never finishes or gives a term to what the younger surgeon is supposed to be feeling for. What's interesting is that the younger surgeon seems to understand, and even Dr. Kneebone (I'm convinced that's not his real last name and that he and Alicia Keys are on the same wavelength with the whole giving yourself a pseudonym to match your passion in life) attested to the fact that there is indeed just something that you can feel, which doesn't need a term or explicit phrase, but every surgeon can do it. This is an example of needing to have that embodied experience in order to fully be able to perform surgery. The same seems to be true for feminism. One can't simply sit and listen to professor after professor reiterate theories and referencing old philosophers or feminists and be a well-rounded feminist. He or she must actively insert him or herself into the world of activism to truly have it all covered. There needs to be that balance between study and action. I think this balance applies to all aspects of life.
After the lectures, we broke off into our small groups to discuss even further what we all got out of the lectures. This was really helpful to me because I loved hearing what others had to say about it, especially these graduate and PhD students who undoubtedly have so much more experience and knowledge in the field than any of us do. I actually even participated quite a bit in the discussion and even volunteered to pose our question to the entire NOISE group once we all convened into the plenary session, which I think is just a European thing and it means everyone meets after meeting with smaller groups and has a giant discussion. It was fun.
When everything was over, we all came back to Strowis and ate dinner. Then I took my surveys and went to the park to ask some peeps about feminism (finally). It went really well I think! I got a bunch of responses and a bunch of "good luck!"s so that's exciting. People were pretty interested and willing, which is reassuring. I also leaned more towards handing the surveys out to girls around my age, which is a problem. I need diverse results. What I did end up with is very interesting though. Some responses were kind of funny. One pair of girls didn't want to fill out a survey, but were okay with me asking them the questions and transcribing their answers myself. That was actually really fun and I think probably more productive because they didn't restrict their answers to the space provided. And it was nice for me to chat with some girls outside the realm of WGS, even if the topic of conversation was WGS... I can't escape it. After gathering a few surveys, I went back to Strowis (got some ice cream on the way which rocked), trying to make it in time to leave with the group for an evening lecture back at the NOISE place. When I got back, however, everyone had already left. I tried to find the place on my own but got lost and ended up coming back to Strowis and going for a really long, really nice night time run.
Off to bed. Gonna meet Lucy (UD friend who's also studying in the Netherlands this semester) in Amsterdam tomorrow to go to the Anne Frank museum! Super stoked.
xx
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