REF Madness

Excellent column by David Mitchell over at the Observer regarding the madness of the proposed Research Excellent Framework and how it relates to arts and humanities research:

...this greater emphasis on making academics justify their work in terms that results-obsessed government bodies will understand is worrying.

And that's where the talk of research of social value comes in. It's a sop to the arts side. They're trying to find a way to quantify the usefulness of a greater insight into paintings, books or historical events because they know they're not of much economic value, other than to get the odd documentary commissioned, but have a vague memory of someone saying at a dinner that they mattered. They're trying to squeeze them into a plus column in their new spreadsheet of learning. Well, if that's their only way of according knowledge worth, then they're the wrong people to be making the decisions.

What separates us from the beasts, apart from fire, laughter, depression and guilt about killing the odd beast, is our curiosity. We've advanced as a species because we've wanted to find things out, regardless of whether we thought it useful. We looked at the sky and wondered what was going on – that's why, for better or worse, we've got DVD players, ventilators, nuclear weapons, global warming, poetry and cheese string. And it's for better, by the way.

The Research Excellence Framework is starting to ask what sorts of curiosity our culture can afford, and that scares me even more than the demise of the silly survey because it strikes at the heart of what it means to be civilised, to have instincts other than survival. If academic endeavour had always been vetted in advance for practicality, we wouldn't have the aeroplane or the iPhone, just a better mammoth trap.

Its that time of year again, you can taste the air

Back 2 Skool today: start of the new academic year. Its amazing how nervous we staff all get - I think the academic year become so entrenched in your psyche (lets face it, we loved school so much we never quite got round to leaving) that the first week of term looms large as an event. Who needs Hogmanay - we've got our own academic Janus looking forward and back over lecture notes here.

This years new set of pencils and pencil case, and new leather satchell, comes for me in the form of an iPhone. I have finally succumbed to a combination of necessity (I need to go online and get that piece of info NOW!), fear (how many emails have come in since I checked 2 hours ago?), lust (mmmm, shiny, beeping), jealousy (if they have one then why cant I?), and plain old peer pressure (everyone see when they can make the meeting on their shiny new iPhones! apart from Melissa, who has a filofax... na na na naaa naaa!).

Like I said, we liked the playground so much, we never left. Cover me, I'm going in....

Things that make you go hmmmm

Remember my letters to Sainsbury's, re the whole them-calling-Ms-Gillian McKeith-"Dr"- Gillian-McKeith thing? And the fact that they realised "how irritating this must be for me" and were going to change it?

Well, I was in at the weekend, and they havent changed it. To be fair, its only a couple of weeks later. But in two weeks time, if its still not rectified, do you dare me to contact the lovely Natalie Sweeney, Customer Manager at Sainsbury's, and take up the crusade again?

I'm sure she would be delighted to hear from me. Us? (I'll pass on any comments you make, dear reader....)

pics from the plinth

I've put up a set of pictures - highlights - on flickr - of my stint on the plinth. I took a lot of pictures of people just watching me - and this is my favourite. He Is Not Amused By My Plinth Antics.

I promise to shut up about it for a while, and return to the wonderful world of digital humanities! Although, as UCL tweeted me when I was on the plinth, it kindof was work...

wave to the tourbus!

Come on Down

Thats me up on the plinth in trafalgar square, that is.

Its going to take me some time to process it all! You can see it again here - I had a great time tweeting and talking and interacting with tweeters from the uk, the states, canada, ireland, australia... quite an experience.

Giving a coherent lecture whilst standing on a narrow bit of rock 8 metres in the air, in the rain and the wind, was more challenging that I thought - I hadnt factured in vertigo to the experience! But I had a fab time. Thanks to all who watched, tweeted, commented, and joined in!

I've taken a couple of hundred photos of people watching me on the plinth. I'll go through them tonight and edit them and post the "best of" soon.

And now... back to normality. (since "reality has jumped the shark", which is something I said that has been endlessly retweeted....)

The sun will come out.... tomorrow...

... actually, its forecast rain for my spot on the plinth. Nevermind!

I'll be up on the plinth in Trafalgar Square from 1pm to 2pm GMT.

I asked if I could take up some bird seed and feed the pigeons... but the Heritage Police said no. So instead, I'm going to be talking about my thoughts on streaming art, and creating my own content and posting it.

I cant get a decent enough signal there to stream video myself (we went down yesterday to see my friend Ann G up on the plinth) so I'm going to be tweeting like a demon at @melissaterras, #oneandother, and taking plenty of pictures of those who come to see me, and the environment, and posting them at the one and other set on flickr. Do virtually or actually pop by to say hello!