Dissonance Day Twenty-six: In which we sit around and listen to records:

The last time I taught this class when we got to the post-punk/glitch section I really wanted to follow the impulse to just play records and listen. My initial idea was to try and recreate some sort of late 70s rec room in the gym, but lacking the necessary drive and supplies I settled on a kind of fort or nest – which was little more than a few blankets laid out on the floor.  I dragged over some furniture and an old mattress that was there and then tossed out a bunch of books on things like punk, post-punk, no wave, and glitch. Kind of like a reading nook at some library somewhere – probably the Pacific North-West.

I really wanted to keep my mouth shut and just listen, but I really can’t. I projected Wikipedia overviews of the artists, bands, and albums but interjected every so often. I knew once we got to glitch I would talk and talk. I am fascinated by this subject and having just finished writing a paper on it I have more info that I really know what to do with. I felt it was important to ground the contemporary dubstep stuff in its history – which I see at Yasunao Tone and Oval. But also the gesture to aestheticize the type of stuttering sounds Tone was making. So – I started by making some with a sharpied CD on portable player. Like Tone – I love the fact that I can’t predict what sounds will come out when I hit the machine or where the laser will hang up. Rather than use the go to “supatrigga” I really need to start recording stuff onto disk and then actually glitch it rather than the glitch-a-like stuff. Maybe I will work on that next week when the students are working on their projects.

I did have sort of a mild revelation about this kind of space though. It had an unintentional Montessori vibe to it. From what I understand, the Montessori classroom is filled with objects and activities that the students gravitate toward. The teacher’s job then is to work with each student on these activities while also helping them develop more complex activities. Wandering around I had a number of interesting conversations with students that had gravitated to one book or another (sadly I didn't get to have a conversation with each student). I wonder if this is a way to approach this type of subject. Lay out a variety of options and then work with students on developing there interest. There are of course always students that will take this as an opportunity to tune out, look at email or text messages, sleep, have a conversation with their friends, etc (although it is possible that these students were tuned in - doing what I was doing and finding info about the bands or songs online).

But I wonder what the attention span for something like that is. If class is set up in such a way where students that show interest in a particular idea are given attention and supplied with more ideas and materials whereas those tuned out are ignored how long would it last? Would ignored students eventually take interest or simply remain detached? In this scenario the teacher’s efforts are directed toward students who want those efforts and not squandered on those that are indifferent. I know this sounds elitist – but that is not the intent - it does how ever change the dynamic from dwelling on students uninterested in the material to focus on those who are. I am genuinely interested in the question “what makes you curious?” If rhizomatic teaching develops out of engaging each student with their interests and their knowledge base would this be an appropriate way of approaching this. I just don’t know. But it does provide something to think about. Perhaps as we move into the final week of the class I can tinker with these ideas and see what happens.

I do have to say that as much as I like these individual conversations I do miss the group warm up and group exercises. Don’t know if anyone else does too.