I just listened to a very interesting Australian talkback radio program - ABC Radio National, Life Matters - on Fixing Things.

Catching up on activities I missed while away in Australia I recently traced through Goldsmiths Methods Lab website and stumbled over a very inspiring ethnographic/ literary/ visual/ sonic project: Night Haunts: A Journey Through the London Night (2007)

Written by Sukhdev Sandhu, (NYU, Associate Professor of English Literature/Social & Cultural Analysis), it is a sensual exploration of nocturnal London from the many perspectives of those who work its air, streets, sewers, roads, parks and rivers.

‘Sandhu brings his craft of literary writing, immersive wanderings in London and historical research to his publications’. (Methods Lab website)

Sandhu’s lyrical words are interwoven with a haunting soundtrack by Scanner and compelling visual design by Mind Unit. The piece was commission by Artangel and it is accompanied by a book published by Verso. It is timely for me to find such a rich composite, a vivid multisensory telling of stories as I dream up proposals for how I am to further bring to life the many ideas emerging from my PhD.

Hmmmm. nice.

I had my viva on Tuesday 5th May at 14.00 at Goldsmiths College. My doctoral thesis was examined by Dr Eric Laurier of the University of Edinburgh and Professor Les Back of Goldsmiths College. It was held in the Sociology Department at Goldsmiths and lasted just over two and a half hours, after which I was advised that I had passed with minor corrections.

It was an intense experience and of course a very very welcome result. I expected to be challenged on a number of theoretical and methodological issues and for it to be very hard work. They did and it was. But I was surprised by the stimulating conversation that ensued throughout. I honestly did not expect to garner such extensive feedback on all aspects of my work. My examiners literally went through my entire thesis, beginning to end, chapter by chapter, highlighting the weak and strong spots in my argument, where my ethnographic voice wavered and where it was clear and compelling and even the points where my photos and text were most effectively interwoven. Never underestimate how valuable it is to hear what other people feel is interesting about your work at this point in the process! Following the exam, there was champagne (thanks Nina!) and cakes (thanks Brit!), more talk and then tea. Needless to say I cycled back into the city to celebrate even more that evening. A few days later I was given a comprehensive report of my examiners responses to my thesis and necessary minor corrections, which is fortunate considering the scribbly quality of my nervous hand writing on the day.

Overall, it was a privilege to have the undivided attention of two engaged and committed examiners and to receive feedback that will propel me forward in my academic career. Yes, I did actually say that… academic career. I am now in the process of preparing various research funding proposals for post-docs and small project grants.

I not only want to thank Eric and Les but also Nina Wakeford, my supervisor, and my family, friends and colleagues who have provided highly valued support and encouragement over the past four and a half years. And of course, I want to thank Robert, Troy, Janet, Kim, Ryan, Brendan, Karl, Jacqui, Daniel, James, Dior, Duncan, Shawn, Chris, Paul R, Paul and everyone else at Air-Stream for showing an interest in my research, spending time with me, teaching me so many things and taking me places I would never have gone on my own. I also have to mention The Supreme Overlord Gravox, Tallbikes, The Chick from Hush, MudButt Monkey, Stitch, Sir Lighting Beard Query, Skeletor and the Bone Shakers who got me addicted to ridiculous bicycles during my fieldwork.

Oh and yes, once this is done and my minor corrections are completed, I am also planning a long awaited holiday!

Yay!

Some stats from the Thinker in Residence fieldwork:

13,5000 - (kms) total distance traveled
4,500 - digital photos taken, labeled and catalogued
1,277 - (kms) longest driving distance in one day
410 - people interviewed or presented to in community meetings
59 - days on the road
48.5 - (degrees celcius) hottest temperature
38 - rural and regional cities visited
20 - (litres) minimum water in the car at any time
14 - (hours) longest driving day
8 - (hours) longest drive to get to and from a single interview
4 - articles of clothing destroyed by red dust
1 - tyre blown and replaced
1 - tyre rim blown and replaced
0 - wildlife killed on the roads (some roo’s came close but we, and they, were lucky)

Priorities change when you travel roads like this for up to fours hours at a stretch with no other car sightings. When there is no standard mobile coverage and only the ocassional patchy and unreliable satellite phone signal, you think differently about where you are going and who you alert about your travel plans, the weather and what you take with you. For instance, we always had a full tank of petrol, a minimum of twenty litres of water, two spare tyres and tool kit for changing them, a high factor sunscreen and long sleeved clothes to avoid a ‘truckies tan’, wetwipes for cleaning the ubiquitous red dust from faces, glasses and lenses, an esky of ice and food in case we were stranded for a few days and fully charged phone, in the off chance that it worked where we were headed. Doing most of the off road driving, I was also prepared not to swerve if something ran onto the road. As much as I would have hated to hit a wild animal, the chances of rolling the 4WD in sandy roadside was a much larger concern and to be avoided at all costs. The roadside was littered with evidence of such accidents and it served as a constant reminder. We also knew never ever to leave the car if something went wrong.

There has been little recently blogging for several reasons. Firstly, I have been locked out of my blog. Boo. Fortunately, all weird ’server errors’ and so called ‘hiccups’ have been resolved with no loss of data. Secondly, I have been working as an ethnographer with Dr Genevieve Bell, who has been appointed South Australia’s current Thinker in Residence.

Mike Rann, the Premier of South Australia, invites two or three world-class thinkers to Adelaide each year to live and work. An invitation to appointment as an Adelaide Thinker in Residence is a prestigious award which recognises both exceptional talent and outstanding leadership. The Thinkers undertake residencies of 2 - 6 months, in which they assist South Australia to build on its climate of creativity, innovation and excellence. The Thinkers provide the State with strategies for future development in the arts and sciences, social policy, environmental sustainability and economic development. Genevieve will focus on the ways in which South Australians are using new technologies in their everyday lives. Through extensive research she will help to shed light on new opportunities for broadband and associated communication technologies in South Australia and beyond.

For two months we are conducting fieldwork across the state of South Australia. We are exploring how South Australian’s connect and to do this we are utilising a number of methods. A website SA Stories is designed to gather people’s stories online and thousands of postage paid postcards are being distributed. We are also traveling around the state working with regional and remote communities, Aboriginal people and people of culturally diverse backgrounds.

Further to this being an interesting extension of my doctoral research (community technology practices), I am also getting the opportunity to see much of the inner parts of this country that I have never before glimpsed.

In his analysis of hill-walking, Vergunst (2008) writes about how the experience of walking is not about successfully reaching the destination but about the dramatic scenery, unexpected weather conditions and all the other challenges that arise along the way.

The success and media coverage of the book and film Touching the Void (Simpson 1998) taps into a certain fascination with when things go wrong, telling the story of a physically and socially catastrophic fall into a glacier. Richard Storer’s popular book The Joy of Hillwalking similarly devotes a chapter to ‘hillwalking accidents’. As he writes, ‘the longer the fall, the more excruciating the pain, the greater spillage of blood, the more salivating relished the tale’ (Storer 2004:117). All these biographical narratives convey an intensity of experience, when something ‘really happened’ on the journey (2008:105, emphasis in original).

In Vergunst’s (2008) words, it conveys ‘an intensity of experience’. What draws me to his work is his interest in the routine happenstance of ‘trips’, ‘mishaps’ and ‘slips’. Although an integral aspect of walking, he notes how no one ever plans to slip or trip, yet it regularly happens and because it is so mundane, it ‘can easily be passed over’ (ibid). The central tenet of his argument is not about deliberate accidents as such but about how, together, these incidents produce the ‘actuality of walking itself’ (2008:106). Ignoring or overlooking them has the effect of distancing the walker from the character of the environment and their place within it. He writes, ‘by a tiny movement or disjuncture, a slip between a boot and the shale, and the character of the walk changes radically’ (2008:105). Focusing on these aspects of walking draws attention to the way the body accommodates changing conditions and affords a new way of thinking about and understanding an otherwise taken for granted experience. Here, an awareness of (accidental) mishaps serves to bring the walker closer to the experience.

I have submitted my phd thesis.

This pile of paper explains why I have been blog-silent for so long. I need sleeeeep right now, but a more comprehensive post is coming.

B I G thankyou to everyone involved. It’s been an amazing three year, eleven month and twenty day journey.