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Scylla Rhiadra

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Everything posted by Scylla Rhiadra

  1. Scylla Rhiadra
    I don't think many people care about overall reputation scores, or who "wins the day" -- none of that is directly visible now. But yes, of course people care about the likes, laughs, sad faces, and confused faces they receive for individual posts. It's a form of validation from the community. The degree people care likely varies from individual, but these are like a pat on the back or murmurs of approval. We care.
  2. Scylla Rhiadra
    I think we'd be safer (in lots of ways) if we kept the discussion immediately SL-related. So, as a sort of SL analogue to Tom MacDonald, or Rage Against the Machine, or whoever, consider things like in-world exhibitions and events that have an "intellectual" component (whatever that means). Now, I've done a number of these, but, as I'm a modest, shrinking violet myself, I will instead cite as an example the current installation by Debora Kaz "Invisible Cities -- Fighting Women" (the link takes you to Inara's review of the exhibition). It's a great installation -- really well done from an artistic perspective, and very engaging. But it's not obviously providing "new information" or analysis about its subject (which is violence against women). What it does do is reframe and recontextualize things we already "know" or that have been said at more length elsewhere in a medium that is both more pleasant to experience than a straight-forward polemic (the ancients called this utile dulci -- sort of "a spoon full of medicine" to make the lesson go down more easily) and "new" precisely because what art endeavours to do is provide new insights through an aesthetic experience. So, you won't get new "data" or information from Kaz's exhibition, but you may walk away with new insights or perspectives on a familiar subject, because that's one of the things that art "does." I think you can argue that things like Kaz's installation are contributions to public discourse. They are "public humanities" as well as art, because they raise consciousness about issues, they provoke discussion, and they enable new ways of thinking about them. And because they attract a subset of people who are there for the "art" rather than the "issue," they reach out into a broader public. Now, it's still a small public. I'm not sure how many people actually saw my "Virtual Toxic" exhibit, but based on the size of the crowd at the opening, and the number of pictures I sold, I'd guess a few hundred? Which is great -- but still not the kind of reach that can really impact upon SL's overall culture. But it's a start. And it's probably more than read my posts here.
  3. Scylla Rhiadra
    I totally would have been able to guess that. The theme to Dr. Who, right?
  4. Scylla Rhiadra
    Well, "guidance" is a tricky term -- does a teacher "guide" -- or "enable"? Probably a bit of both. And the teacher should be listening to the students as well. The examples you've provided seem to sort of undercut this point though: the intelligentsia who adopted and adapted punk, for instance, weren't merely "interpreting" it -- they were deploying it, and in the process changing it and making it something new and equally valuable, if somewhat different. And that re-deployment in turn affected other social, cultural, and intellectual movements and phenomenon. Unless what you mean by "interpret" is more or less the same as "adapt" and "redeploy"? It's certainly not, in any case, the role of an "observer": it's active rather than passive. The actual process by which cultural, political, and intellectual change happens is, of course, hugely complicated -- punk didn't just pop out of the heads of the street youth of the 70s, for instance: it couldn't have existed without all that had gone before it, including the work of the intelligentsia. Consider, for instance, the influence of people like William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, Patti Smith -- all arguably proto-punk to some degree, and all very much a part of what I'd call "the intelligentsia."
  5. Scylla Rhiadra
    I think that what you are describing is not so much the "intelligentsia" as academia itself -- which overlaps with, but is not synonymous with the former. Academics do exactly what you describe here -- they determine what is happening, and then try to explain it with reference to other phenomenon. And in that sense, academics are important because they inform the discourse of the intelligentsia. They provide much of the data, the raw lumber, for their ruminations. But, historically, the "intelligentsia" has included not merely academics, but also artists and writers, poets and musicians, labourers and students. And I think they do see their task as different from that of the scholars. Scholarship may, of course, conclude with suggestions about how to make something "better," but that is not its primary function, and the importance of objectivity and disinterested inquiry limit the degree to which they can intervene. THAT is the task of the intelligentsia. Putatively. And, again, the "democracy of voices" thing -- the intelligentsia can't, and shouldn't "dictate." They should, at best, guide and educate. To be effective, they need to have a foot in both worlds -- both as something like scholars, but also as members of the public themselves, engaged in public discussion, rather than passing down The Law on stone tablets. Again, that's the whole premise of the "public intellectual," who is someone in the public sphere, and not above or outside it.
  6. Scylla Rhiadra
    I totally agree. (See my second post on this!)
  7. Scylla Rhiadra
    To return to a point I made earlier here -- the "intelligentsia" can't really exist as a series of disconnected "smart people" or "thinkers": they need to be networked in an effective way that allows them to engage not merely with each other, but with the population whom they (putatively) serve. The last point is important, I think: in the past, coteries of the "intelligentsia" were often so alienated from their own cultures that they functioned, in practice, as little more than debating clubs. The whole concept of the "public intellectual" is built upon the premise that they are engaged with the public. If they seek to make change, it is not a change effected from the top down, but rather a more fundamental paradigm shift in how the larger public thinks. And that relates too to the point I made about "democratizing" this discourse: public intellectual, and the intelligentsia, if they are to have any relevance at all, must not merely talk at the public, but with it. The result should be, hopefully, a democracy of voices, even if the political and social mechanisms of a true democracy don't exist. If enough of a population are persuaded through well-informed and public discourse, then change can be effected even without democratic structures. Get enough people in SL sufficiently upset about something that they threaten the platform's bottom line (however minutely), and we can get action. That has happened on a few occasions in SL. So, how do we achieve that? SL's communication tools are awful. The suggestion that we should take such discussions in-world effectively reduces them to what I've called "debating clubs." The forums are the closest thing we've got to a platform for public discourse, but an utterly minute percentage of residents participate here, and a very small percentage of those get involved in these kinds of discussion. The SL blogosphere has contracted enormously over the years, and is dominated by (as you've said yourself) fashion blogs. By all means, let's have in-world discussions, or threads here concerning interesting issues. I myself partake in, and even sponsor, both. But without the kind of reach required to make this a truly public discourse, it's really all rather pointless at one level. This breed of intelligentsia is neither influencing, nor being guided by, the public they are supposedly serving.
  8. Scylla Rhiadra
    Fair enough. I'm wondering how useful the commentary of those who are not active members of the community is, though. As I noted somewhere above, I've known a great many educators in SL -- people who are "actual professors" as you put it, and who moreover are here because they have or had an interest in the kinds of potential that VWs has to offer to educators. (The answer, at the moment is, I think, not much, or at best, a highly specialized set of cases.) An awful lot of them never wander far from their campuses or regions. Many of them still use system avatars or ancient mesh: they take something like a perverse pride, some of them, in not participating in things like avatar customization, SL consumerism, RP, club life, etc. They are "on" the platform, but really not "of" it, and their understanding, not merely of what SL actually "is," but also of what it can be, is necessarily limited. How much more limited are the perspectives of "intellectuals" who've never been on the platform at all? How useful are the ruminations of those who have thought deeply about the theory of VW, VR, and "the Metaverse," but who have no conception of how it can play out in actuality? Somewhat useful, maybe . . . (One of the most interesting scholarly studies of SL I've ever read was a PhD thesis on the subject of consumerism in SL -- I know the woman who wrote it, so I was privileged to read it, and attend her public lecture before her defense. She was someone who did know SL very well, as she "lived" in it for about 3 years and explored a great deal -- but her thesis, for probably evident reasons, glossed rather lightly over the relationship of sexuality to consumerism.)
  9. Scylla Rhiadra
  10. Scylla Rhiadra
    Love this! Great use of overlays, June!
  11. Scylla Rhiadra
    Don't feel bad. I got over 80 hits, about 50% of which was me saying "hi" or "bye" to people. (Although apparently I was . . . topless? . . . for part of it? 😦)
  12. Scylla Rhiadra
    They have the BEST Twitter account. 👌
  13. Scylla Rhiadra
    Four Seasons Landscaping, famous for it's press conference, has announced on Twitter that they are running down to Wegner's (the grocery store at which the Learned Doctor filmed his crudités video) to pick up some veggies platters for Dr. Oz's conference there. $6.99 each -- if you want the one with salsa.
  14. Scylla Rhiadra
    They do things differently in New Jersey, Ayashe. Oops. I mean Pennsylvania!
  15. Scylla Rhiadra
    Every. Tiny. Little. Mistake. Preserved for all time. Thanks Obama.
  16. Scylla Rhiadra
    You need to ask Dr. Oz. He knows all about crudités.
  17. Scylla Rhiadra
    Give me a break! I'm ON MY PHONE!!! Yeeeesh.
  18. Scylla Rhiadra
    This thread is a little sad. It's like someone threw a party for the "Intelligentsia," and no one came -- even the person throwing the party. Dig in, guys, looks like it's just us! Crudités, anyone?
  19. Scylla Rhiadra
    Ugh. Wrong thread. No wonder no one has ever proposed to me!
  20. Scylla Rhiadra
    Well, I was in a relationship for nearly a year, but he never asked me to partner him. (You don't have a tissue handy, do you?) I am of course being facetious. I wouldn't want to be partnered. And I am very happily uninvolved now.
  21. Scylla Rhiadra
    Pet Peeve. Ok, not a "pet" peeve, as I've only just found out about this. Apparently people receive gifts from people at Valentine's Day from "Cupid Linden"? Why have I never been the recipient of such a gift? /me sniffles a little Is this also a good time to point out (again) that I've never been asked to partner or marry in SL???? /me sniffles more loudly To adapt Charlotte Lucas's words from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice . . . "I'm 14 SL years old. I've no money and no prospects. I'm already a burden to my typist. So don't judge me, Maddy. Don't you dare judge me."
  22. Scylla Rhiadra
    Indeed. And that "intelligence" is not a singular, easily measured quality. There's a reason why we very seldom rely on multiple choice, true or false, or even "fill in the blank" tests in the humanities.
  23. Scylla Rhiadra
    Do you gleefully claim the credit (and blame) for doing nefarious things under the assumption that doing so will cast suspicion away from yourself? Well, yes, you have, and do. The answers to the rest of your questions are apparent by means of the application of analogy and inference.
  24. Scylla Rhiadra
    I have never done an IQ test, and never been invited to MENSA, so I've sadly never had the opportunity to splutter with laughter while ripping up the invite. Can someone send me one via DM? I'm suddenly feeling under-privileged.
  25. Scylla Rhiadra
    Not doing it, Arielle! Sorry. You figure it out.
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