Spring
Week Two
6. Apr. 09
The Halls Have the Potential to be Alive With the Sound of Music... True to the spirit of COA in its ability to get things done, several terms have come and gone without definite music practice spaces available to the myriad of musicians in the community. Practice spaces were origionally slotted in Deering Common, which (understandibly) became a problem for the other offices, as the room was never adequately soundproofed. So students had to pack up their cellos, flutes, drums, harmonicas, accordians, and oboes and move into a state of limbo, never knowing when they could next express their creativity through intense jam sessions, or hone in on their Open Mic performance piece.
Students Patrick Davis and Stuart Weymouth try some alternative jamming techniques But the time is right! Change is upon us! CPBC has opened two old offices located in the hallway above Gates for musical use! Granted they have room for improvement, but this is where the greater community can rally together to make these spaces useable. Currently equipped with left -over office supplies and a toaster, these spaces can only get better!
Consider this a fomal call to all creative, enthusiastic, organized, and otherwise unabsorbed students to take this project on! Unsure of where to start? Luckily COA has multiple organized committees that can be of assistance. Not particulary sure of what exactly has to be done? Here are a few improvements that can get the ball rolling for these spaces to actually be useable and relatively comfortable to the average musician: -Whip out the old sharpie pen, grap a few colored pencils, some paper, tape, drink some creative juice, and then sit down and make up some spiffy signs to stick on the door. Something along the lines of “Music Practice Room” would be adequate. -Reach into the depths of your memory to the last time you used Microsoft Excel... (it has been a while). Take those skills and compile a music practice sign up sheet, or just hand Sections draw one and make a few photo copies (charge them to Student Life). -Contact Millard and ask about the soundproofing options for these rooms. A. Inside the Bubble -Contact Sarah Luke and Millard, CC: John Cooper, and ask about outfitB. Outside of the Bubble ting the rooms with “musicy” things i.e. music stands, appropriate seating. C. Op-Ed -Tote your favorite instrument into the room. D. Events -Encourage your friends to do the same. F. Human Ecology Essays -Grace the hallway with beautiful melodies, tight harmonies, sick beats, smooth G. Arts & Literature jazz, synthetic developments... H. Sound Docket Remember that the more students on board with this project, the more attention it recieves...and maybe these spaces will not go away.
Inside the Bubble Springtime for Hitler... ...and the COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC COMMUNITY BIKE PROGRAM - Phillip Walter
It’s warming up out there, and the time is extremely nigh to spring doings: flowers, and leaves, and growing things, and ... what’s that? OH YEAH, RIDING YOUR BIKE! For those of you who don’t know about us, the community bike program provides bikes for you! If you want to use a bike, just walk up to THORNDIKE LIBRARY and ask to see the COMMUNITY BIKE BINDER. Inside this binder you will find a handful of keys --you pick one and can check it out, just like a book. You can check out a bike for as long as you need --an afternoon swing into town, or for weeks at a time! If you know you’ll need a bike for a whole term, come talk to me and we can set you up with a rig that you’ll be comfortable with. Each bike comes with a helmet, lock, set of lights, and safety gear. When the roster of Spring bikes becomes settled, I will post a list detailing each availible bike. If you have a bike on campus, please feel free to use the tire pumps in either bike shed. If you have skinny, “presta” valves, you will need an adapter to use the pump in the new shed by the Davis Eco-Disney (behind the door). I believe the pump in the BT bike shed is dual-purpose. Air pressure for Fat Tire bikes should be kept above 30 psi, up to 50. depending on your preference. Air pressure for Narrow, road tire bikes should be kept above 50 psi, up to 70, depending on the tire. Check the side of your tire for its recommended inflation. Happy trails! Philip Walter COA Community Bike Program System Coordinator and Resident Wrenchead Questions? Comments? Need help with a bike or bikerelated problem? bikes@coa.edu
A1
The Aesthetics of Bill
- Compiled by Alicia Hynes
The Best of Bill Carpenter: Aesthetics of Violence, WI 09
A2
Look at this blackboard! It’s irresistible! I just want to write all over it. Ingrid has a wider range of entertainment value than I do. I have many stands, and they are all the truth. This is not the term for romance. Violent doo-doo? Maybe he’s dressing. (on the subject of where Zak Gowen is) That you, Ingrid? I can’t encourage you under the institution to get drunk. Bill erasing the picture on the board of the giant penis sculpture in A Clockwork Orange, and then drawing a smiling face on it’s outline. I can distinguish a Eurasian goldfinch from a Siberian goldfinch. Do you want me to play “Like a Dog”? You think she’s alive...in a snow globe? So in the next scene she’s going to get up and eat a hot dog. Well, he’s an albino, but maybe that’s politically incorrect. I guess he’s pigment-challenged. He’s a first class prick. You know, every teacher has a lot of experience with zombies. I would say that pedophiles need supporters-they don’t have many. We’ve had a few good prostitutes in here. What’s wrong with selling your body? I’d do it! But I haven’t had any takers since the recession started. I’m gonna save the world! I’m gonna be the greenest graduate and rid the world of methane saturation. They slit the penis all the way up-like a banana split. It sounds like a cross between ogre and orgy. Orgasm is thrown in there somewhere too. You can only sell someone’s virginity so many times. She had boobs of a sort, but they looked artificial to me. To read while you’re doing it...if you can. While you guys are in the clutches of romance on Valentine’s day, I’ll be reading your midterm papers! How lame, that’s my valentine. Ingrid: I’m having a cuddle orgy on Valentines Day at my house with strawberries and champagne. Bill: Wanna grade some papers? You are on
Cushman Media Center Up and Running New at Thorndike Library
A3
- Sarah Luke
- Thorndike Staff
The media has been installed in the Cushman Media Center located between Millard and Dority Houses in the KWD Village. We hope that the COA community will take full advantage of the space and yet exhibit good stewardship of these new shared resources. To facilitate this we have decided not to lock this space at this time. Our hope is that our trust in our community is well-founded and that users will be respectful of the needs of others.
1. New copiers - Your own special ID is now required to log into the copiers. B/W & color copying and scanning. (See New Copiers).
Also note that this space is adjacent to student residences and a student room, so please be conscientious about noise levels at late or early hours. Users should clean up after themselves and leave the space in the same if not better shape than how they found it. We would hope that community members would be careful about having food in the space and again will clean up after themselves- including appropriate disposal of any food waste.
2. Laptops for out-of-library use. (See Laptops). 3. Rosetta Stone - a new language immersion program. (See Rosetta Stone). 4. Audiobooks - available for download. (See Audiobooks.) NEW COPIERS We have two new copiers. They both copy and scan in black & white and color. The copy machines both collate and one staples.
Copying An ID is now required to make copies. Staff and faculty can ask for their personal 5 digit ID at the CirculaWhile this space is designed to be a drop in use space, tion Desk. For students, your ID is the last 5 digits of there is also a sign-up sheet on the door for those who the bar code number on the back of your student ID. Be would like to reserve it for a specific viewing or pre- sure to notify library staff if you experience any problems. sentation etc. Just like before, patrons will be required to log the numAs a reminder two other community use spaces are ber of copies made and pay immediately after making available in the KWD Village. Those are the Robinson the copies. There are no IOUs. Games Room, located between Miliken and Shorey We will regularly be able to print out from the copier Houses, and the Eliot Study Space (open all night), lo- a log of copies made with the various IDs. This will allow us to track how effectively this new system is cated between Eno and Hamill Houses. working and monitor paper usage, etc. If you have any questions or concerns about the use Instructions for using the copiers are on the machines. of the tech in the space please direct them to Zach, all Please ask if you need assistance. Copy charges are as follows: other concerns or questions can be directed to me. Black & White (1 sided) = $ .05 Black & White (2 sided) = $ .10 Cushman Media Center System Specs: Color (1 sided) = $ .20 Left, Right, Center and Sub speakers Color (2 sided) = $ .40 Receiver DVD player Scanning VHS Scanning is easy and quick and has a document feed52” flat screen TV er. Most common formats are possible (.pdf, .jpg, .tiff, Input for an i-pod and a computer Aux input on the front of the receiver for game sys- etc). The default is .pdf. Scanned documents can be sent to email accounts. tems Currently, scans can only be sent to a Groupwise email Inputs are accessed through the receiver and no cables account. If a scan is too large to be sent to an email account, it need to be changed. The subwoofer has a volume control which should not is possible to store a scanned image to the machine’s internal hard drive. The scan can be retrieved from on be changed. A manual is available in the drawer of the cabinet – or off campus via a specific URL. Please contact a staff member for more information. please put it back when you are finished reading it. There are three remote controls for the items in this Directions for scanning are on the top of the machines. system (DVD, TV, Receiver). Please keep them in the Please ask if you need assistance. Scanning is free. cabinet when not in use. This system will be locked during Summer, Winter and Spring Break Periods. For access to the equipment during these times please check out a key at the circulation LAPTOPS FOR OUT-OF-LIBRARY USE desk in the library. Below is our new laptop policy and our new laptop user agreement which you will be asked to sign at the library’s circulation desk. Cont’d on A4...
New Library, from A3: Laptop Use Policy The laptops available for checkout from Thorndike Library are primarily for enrolled student use as a supplement to the computers available in the Neva Goodwin Computer lab and the library computer lab. Computers for in-library use only. [Exception: class presentations (not preparation) such as an end of term presentation.] Four hour loan period. Dell Vostros (Dell #1 and Dell #3) Computers for in-library, out-of-library and overnight use; extended use possible with library staff approval. Default 24 hour loan period. Toshiba Satellite Powerbooks Mac iBook The library staff may also judge it appropriate to allow extended use by other college community members depending on timing, intended use, academic need and duration of use. All laptop borrowers must review and sign the Laptop User Agreement before borrowing laptops. The Laptop User Agreement is valid for an academic year. ROSETTA STONE Rosetta Stone is a language immersion program that the academic program is sponsoring and the library is administering. The languages covered in Rosetta Stone are Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain), and Swedish.
A4 are “library use only” laptops, the user will need to find a time when the Seminar Room is free to use them. The seminar room is a place in the library where other students will not be disturbed. Most Mac laptops have built in audio components (including a microphone). This is not the case with many PC laptops. You may wish to purchase a headphone with an attached microphone. We also will have two headphones with microphones available in the library for four-hour check out. If you are interested in language learning, but do not feel that Rosetta Stone is for you, consider these other options: Maine InfoNet Download Library (“http:// download.maineinfonet.org” http://download.maineinfonet.org) has a collection of audiobooks for language learning. You will need a library card number to use the Download Library. This is your 14 digit library patron barcode – the same number that is on the back of your student ID that begins with 25015. (Faculty and staff can contact the library for their number.) There will be printable instructions to help you with the Download Library later in the week. Contact Trisha in the library to get started. Language Visual Search in ThornCat allows you to easily see what we have in the library for language learning. ThornCat Search will allow you to do keyword searching about languages in our online catalog. Our Language Subject guide will be posted soon to the library’s Subject Guide page. Stay tuned… AUDIOBOOKS
Thorndike Library has partnered with other Maine libraries to purchase access to ~1000 audiobooks from the company Overdrive. The program is administered by Maine InfoNet and serves all participating libraries in Maine. All COA community members have access to the Maine InfoNet Download Library at http://download.maineinfonet.org. Access requires your Thorncat patron number. It is the Our license allows for 25 ids/passwords, thus only 25 14 digit bar code number starting with 25015 on the individuals can use the program at a time. Each id/ back of your student ID. If you are a staff or faculty password gives the user access to one language (all lev- member, just contact the library for your 14 digit numels). Since there are three levels and each level takes ~ ber. We are currently developing instructions so that 30 hours to complete, we anticipate a user having the you will be able to access these new audiobooks easily. These instructions should be available sometime by the id/password for most of a term. Currently, ~ 15 ids/passwords are assigned – most to end of this week. Until then contact Trisha in the listudents who are taking a language for academic cred- brary if you have questions. it. If you are interested in using Rosetta Stone this term, We anticipate having a couple of MP3 players for paplease contact Jane Hultberg or Gray Cox. We will be- tron use sometime in the next few weeks. These will gin assigning the remaining ids/passwords after Friday circulate and can be used to download and play the auApril 3rd. Priority will be given to those showing aca- diobooks. demic need. It is best if you have your own laptop to access Rosetta Stone. It is an interactive program, and it will be beneficial to find a place to use the program where you won’t disturb others. The library does have two Dell laptops which have the necessary hardware to view Rosetta Stone. Since these
Three COA Students Receive Watson Fellowships - Donna Gold
A5
search. We look for persons likely to lead or innovate in the future and give them extraordinary independence to pursue their interests outside of traditional academic structures.” Fellows have gone on to become college presidents and professors, CEOs of major corporations, MacArthur “genius” grant recipients, politicians, artists, lawyers, diplomats, doctors, journalists, innovators and researchers across a wide range of disciplines.
All three nominees from College of the Atlantic have been granted Watson Fellowships this year—despite the Watson Foundation’s reduction of the awards by 20 percent due to the economy. This prestigious fellowship funds a year of international travel to graduating seniors. In past years, 50 fellowships were awarded; this year, there were only 40, chosen from 177 nomiThe Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program was estabnees from 47 of many of the best colleges in the United lished in 1968 by the children of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., States. the founder of International Business Machines Corp., and his wife, Jeannette K. Watson, to honor their parIn his letter congratulating College of the Atlantic and ents’ long-standing interest in education and world afthe recipients, Watson Foundation Director Cleveland fairs. Johnson noted that, “the elimination of ten fellowship slots has made this year’s competition especially fierce.” Having awards go to all three COA nominees, he added, “is a high honor given the extraordinary strength of That’s why I’ve got the Lunchroom the national pool of nominees this year and the reduced Blues number of available fellowships.” - Alice Anderson The students are Brett Ciccotelli, Nick Jenei, and Michael Keller.
My cell phone alarm buzzes angrily into my left ear, rudely jarring me from a sound sleep. I roll out of bed and groggily throw some pants and a sweatshirt on, “The approach of the Watson Foundation matches per- grab my stuff, and trudge up to TAB for some morning fectly with the educational philosophy of COA.” said tea so I can function by 8am for my Bio 2 Lab. President David Hales. “Both invest in passionate learners, creative thinkers and motivated self-starters who But something dreadful has happened; my worst nightare encouraged to dream big but apply their ideas in mare has ousted the boundaries of sleep and followed practical ways. It is also a testament to COA’s academic me into reality. There are no longer bagels and tea in excellence, and effective and dynamic faculty-student TAB. In a mild confusion I look to Amy with tears wellrelationships, leading to a singular educational experi- ing past the dams of my eyelids. Luckily for me and the ence attracting some of the most wonderful students in rest of the student body, the friendly kitchen staff are the world.” around to guide us through the traumatizing first week Ciccotelli, a native of Blackwood, NJ, has had a love of rivers since childhood. He will be exploring river deltas and coastal wetlands in Canada, Mexico, Italy, Bangladesh and Egypt to learn from those whose, “prosperity, security, and identity are inseparable from their wetland or river.” Jenei of Westlake Village, CA, has been focused on sustainable business while at COA. He will be looking into sustainable entrepreneurship and the future of business in India and China, seeking to “explore innovative business models that value people and the environment as much as they do profits.” Keller, who in high school befriended and then worked with members of the immigrant population of his native Charlottesville, VA, will be looking at the experience of immigrants in Denmark, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, “to understand how refugees interact with environments to develop a new sense of place.” Each fellow receives $28,000 for the year of travel and exploration. COA has been invited to nominate students since 1982; 28 COA seniors have now received this fellowship. As interesting as the projects are says Johnson, “The awards are long-term investments in people, not re-
of term that inevitably yields a switch up in the layout of TAB food.
Said one concerned student “I never know where to find my fucking silverware...I understand the kitchen staff is trying to fight off Alzheimers, but really...” Another added, “In the morning I have to actually be awake to find the coffee and put cream cheese on my bagel”. I guess what I am trying to say is that I am growing tired of circling around the front end of TAB three to four times before I finally am able to pick up everything I need for a meal. Maybe I am a slow learner, but can some things just stay put?
Outside the Bubble
B1
COA Student Builds City’s Emergency gencies are not within cities, they happen in regions.” System
He’s not stopping there. Gehlot has also been working with Acadia National Park to create another web-based It’s not unusual for College of the Atlantic students to GIS map, this pinpointing and mapping all the beetles, do extraordinary work during their 10-week internships mayflies, spiders and other creatures found during the and 10-week senior projects. Students have created park’s annual bio-blitz, so researchers can spot microlarge gardens, conducted original fieldwork, completed environmental trends in the park’s fauna. novels, written business plans. But seldom does their Raised in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, Gehlot came to COA work make a difference for an entire city. from the Mahindra United World College of India. Senior Apoorv Gehlot has built a GIS emergency man- When college admissions officers visited the school to agement system for the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino, pitch their programs, he asked each of them whether CA, population 55,000. Should disaster strike, thanks to he would be able to bring his science or math ideas to Gehlot, the emergency operations manager will be able an economics professor to create a business. Though to see at a glance what buildings are safe, who needs he and his classmates were wooed by top US colleges, medical attention, where supplies are stockpiled, which only the COA representative said, “Of course you can roads are passable. As situations change, the manager plan to apply science to a real world activity.” - Donna Gold
will be able to update the map within seconds, so as to direct emergency assistance.
Sure enough, COA’s faculty member in economics, Davis Taylor, was Gehlot’s advisor, while faculty member The task evolved while Gehlot was working as an in- in math and physics, Dave Feldman, along with GIS tern in Cupertino’s GIS department. He was asked to Lab Director Gordon Longsworth, were his project adevaluate vendor proposals for a visual emergency pre- visors, helping Gehlot frame the project in a way that is paredness system using GIS. Gehlot looked at what as useful and universal as possible. Finally, Jay Friedcompanies were offering and judged them costly, cum- lander, who holds the college’s Sharpe/McNally Chair bersome and hard to update. He then offered to create in Green and Socially Responsible business, has asthe program himself, as a senior project—knowing that sisted Gehlot with other aspects of his work, so Gehlot is leaving COA with a business plan under his belt. But there’s no better learning than a real-life project. what’s most rewarding, he says, “is that it can possibly Using a GIS program that works with online mapping, help save lives.” Gehlot created a dynamic system that allows for numerous contingencies, even overlaying a contour map on the city street system—should, for instance, the emergency be a flood and so the question of higher ground become important. “You can’t predict what data you’ll need,” notes Gehlot. Knowing that, he worked to incorporate as many variables as possible. Gas leaks, impassable roads, severely injured citizens, supply caches and save havens all have their symbols on the map, making the disaster easy to see and so more possible to handle. The program relies on a satellite, so it will work even if electricity and phone systems are down. The system was tested during a planned emergency exercise—and reworked where necessary. His goal, Gehlot says, was to make a system “so flexible that after I Photo Courtesy, Donna Gold hand it over, my part is done.” According to Cupertino administrators, he was fully successful. “The application proved to be extremely functional,” wrote Teri Gerhardt, the city’s GIS coordinator. “The Emergency Operations Center displayed the map on the main projector screen giving the entire room a bird’s eye view of the disaster as it was happening in our city.” Armed with rave reviews for his “passion and motivation to succeed” by Cupertino officials, Gehlot, who graduates this month, is now the web mapping producer of the independent consultancy firm, G4 Global Tech. He hopes to interest cities around Cupertino in the program he’s already created, because, as he says, “Emer-
Op-Ed
C1
The Third Roll: Social Experiment or Act of God?
- Rev. Jeanee Dudley Our campus dining facility, TakeA-Break, has a few new additions. While I can’t speak personally for the men’s restroom, the stalls over on the ladies side have gained a new toilet paper dispenser each, with complimentary rolls of good old TP. The number of students has increased this year, especially those living on campus. With this phenomenon comes an increased number of thrice-daily diners to TAB. More customers means more toilet paper consumption, and so this must justify these fandangled new toilet paper dispensers, which (gasp!) without alteration, allow an occupant to use more than two sheets of toilet paper! First, I must mention that this is a terrible error in judgment on the part of the current COA administration. Do you really think we can be trusted to monitor our own toilet paper use? An environmental travesty, I say. Second, I must wonder if there are deeper social or spiritual reasons for these new rolls. Why toilet paper? Why now? Why was I, as a student, not consulted via Groupwise? Was this put to a vote in ACM? Is there an ethical rule about how many questions one may post in a single paragraph determined for print?
photo courtesy: Amelia Eshleman devotional rites of the Muslim faith, we have been missing one all along (or perhaps we are still missing thirty, depends on the formula really). Perhaps some highly devoted mathematician is working on a small-scale tribute to Pythagorean thought. Another alternative- if anyone The number three has deep spiritual ties within many else loved the shit out of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of belief systems. The first most obvious to my honkey Time, we have just plunged our swords into the toilet American mind, is Christianity. Have we obtained sal- paper triforce. Hell to the yeah. Now we can go back to vation via our own holy trinity of paper products? I our childhood days and go fishing on Lake Hylia. have to believe that the new dispensers are representative of Jesus Christ, if this is in fact the aim of the holy A final, more involved motive, could be the dreaded soroll. These new dispensers, much like Jesus, are more cial experiment. I know, I know, we’re all crazy hippies accessible to the common sinner. I will not lie to you, who want to understand and manipulate society. It is kind reader. I too am guilty of using in excess of four highly possible that someone in your statistics and/or sheets at a time. This roll forgives me. It does not serve psychology class placed that spare dispenser in there as a constant reminder of my sins against trees and tree- and visits every evening with a tape measure and a chart huggers alike. While our other, older holders abruptly and pencil to gauge what we use. Does the new roll stay halt in the process of dispensing, this new addition gives fuller? Are people afraid of change? Is it empty before and gives, and may be willing to wash my feet had it ac- lunch? Perhaps this new development is exciting for the cess to the sinks. “Father, forgive them; for they know community, and people can’t get enough of our new toy. not what they do.” (Luke 23:24). Christianity is full of Or maybe people are more primal than that. Perhaps the threes- wise men, days before debatable zombification, truth is that the patrons of TAB subconsciously underPeter’s betrayal, and if we are specifically looking at stand that it benefits them to use this new toilet paper Catholicism, we have finally found charity, the missing roll. It is far more efficient at dispensing paper than the others. Greater toilet paper use directly coincides with piece to our private-time theological virtues. Christianity is not the only place we find threes in spiri- better hygiene. Better hygiene directly coincides with tuality. If this is some gimmick by the Campus Buddhist increased ability to secure a mate, thus allowing said Coalition, I imagine the new roll would be Sangha, a patron to reproduce and ensure the survival of the speteacher who spreads the good word of proper, balanced, cies. middle-way hygiene. If our toilet paper rolls are the Anyone looking for an advanced biology project?
Events
Spring Term Playbill - SAC
Saturday, April 18th COA Palooza Alumni bands rock out At the Lompoc Sunday, April 19th Open Mic 8:00pm Great Hall, Turrets Saturday, April 25th Contra Dance: Big Moose Band 7:30pm lessons 8:00pm dance Gates Friday, May 1st Concert: Outsiders 8:00pm Gates Friday, May 8th COA Community Talent Show: Fandango 8:00pm Gates Friday, May 15th Open Mic 8:00pm Great Hall, Turrets Tuesday, May 19th COA Student bands jam: Jamberet 8:00pm Gates Friday & Saturday, May 22-23 Student Play: The Tempest Friday 7:30pm Gates Saturday 2:00pm Gates Saturday, May 23rd Contra Dance: Big Moose Band 7:30pm lessons 8:00pm dance Gates Saturday, May 30th Student Show: Cora & the Flora 8:00pm Gates Salsa Wednesdays Lucia Bonilla Lara will teach Salsa Dancing April 8 & 22, May 6, 13 & 20 6:30-7:30pm Gates April 15 7:30-8:30pm Gates ** All performances are FREE to COA community members. Enjoy!** Community Calendar: http://calendar.coa.edu
D1
Human Ecology Essays
F1
When cyborgs dance on top of the wall, we’ll know we’ve reached the next human revolution. (Or, A Fantastic Perspective On Being Human in this World) - Xander Karkruff ’06
This is not the last word: that one thing is clear in my mind. It is not the last word on myself; not on the world as I know it; not on my education. I’ve spent many hours laboriously, mulishly, agonizing over how to write this essay, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I will not come to any conclusions within the breadth and depth of these words. If, at the end, my words take on a concluding nature, that is simply an illusion, it is the ostensible closure. It is my nature to be ponderous. Yes, mulish too. And so my essay will take on similar qualities. Disagreeing with me is not the point. I know it’s not kosher to offer a disclaimer at the beginning. But I can’t resist. I feel I must adequately prepare the reader for what is to come. Or, at least, my mother. Alas, Ma, the following words will not assuage your mind or in any way give you a clear picture of what I’ve been studying over the past four years. That being said, I’m ready. I am becoming a cyborgologist. This has nothing to do - not much anyway - with the Terminator, nor does it have to do with Robocop, Replicants or C3-PO. I am not all that interested in the perks of being part human, part machine, though the metaphor is rich. The stereotypical cyborg - take, for example, the Replicants of Blade Runner - parasitically inhabits a humanoid body. We are educated to understand the cyborg as an emotionless deviation from the human. The cyborg, in this incarnation, wants to trick the real humans into thinking it is real, too. Such creatures are desperate to pass in a human world, and ultimately fail: destruction in a spray of sparks and crunching metal is usually their fate. We’re meant to feel righteously bad for them, like we pity the transsexual that can’t pass. And the soaring, profound music lets us know that humankind - man and woman - is divine and sovereign; there is only one REAL way to be a human... and the credits roll... As a cyborgologist, I am aware of the cyborg’s implicit genderqueer-ness.(1) In fact, it was the queerness of the cyborg and the cyborgian ethos that initially attracted me. Donna Haraway states in her forward to The Cyborg Handbook that “cyborgs are about particular sorts of breached boundaries.”(2) The cyborg body implies the ability to escape what seems like our biological destiny as men and women. What was once considered fact - that men have penises and women don’t, and that the possession or lack of such a member is adequate signification of a person’s gender - is now being questioned by gender theorists and biologists alike as the human population continually presents ever more confounding re-presentations of gender, sex and sexuality. The cyborg body’s synthetic-ness (that they synthesize), their agglomeration of the biological, mechanical, organic, the real, the hyper-real and the surreal, seems to imply a magical reality beyond the binary of man and woman. It becomes hard to discern which limb is real and which is prosthetic in the cyborg; their bodies are a canvas for the queering of humanity, and the un-doing of dichotomous relationships. Throughout the spinning, morphing web of history, humans have overcome a series of “discontinuities,”(3) given that name because we make artificial distinctions and we believe they are natural distinctions to make. The first of the discontinuities was the distinction we once made between ourselves and the universe. Copernicus weaned us of the geocentric, anthropocentric notion that at the center of the galaxy rests the earth; the domain of humankind was merely another unimportant blip in the Milky Way galaxy. The second was the distinction between humans and other animal life, and it was Darwin, our reverend of natural selection, who forced us to think less in terms of a hierarchy of organisms and more in terms of a continuously evolving web of organisms. The third was the distinction between humans and our unconscious, and it was Freud (phallus-obsessed though he was, perhaps he was responsible for some good, too) who unveiled the id in all its primal, impulsive glory. Finally, there is the distinction made between humans and machines. Who or what will finally overcome this discontinuity (that’s not to say it’s not being chipped away at as we speak) has not yet been divulged. I’m not sure how much I agree with the theory of discontinuities, but I appreciate what it is trying to say: humans create barriers between things that do not need to be there. We are forever erecting walls between things we think need to be distinguished, and over time, these walls become so taken for granted that we don’t even consider trying to see over the top. Most often, we are afraid of what’s on the other side - be it beast, man or heathen - because we are afraid of what the “strange” implies about our “normal,” and we’re afraid of seeing in ourselves the “strange” we fear. Cyborgology does not demand that we adhere to the human/machine stereotype. Instead, its life is that of undoing dichotomies such as human versus machine. Does this idea frighten you? Don’t be conned by my words into thinking that I am an advocate for an overly-technologo-electronical-ized world in which we’ve all stored our Cont’d on F2...
Cyborgs, from F1:
F2
consciousness onto our computers’ hard-drives. Nor do I want to do away with categorization. I love categories! They stimulate my brain and my senses when used in raw, startling ways. I like to make use of categories to order my personal world, but I’m always thrilled when something comes along to upset those categories. In no sense would I ever impose my categories on others. You might argue that we need categories! We need them to make sense of this rumble-tumble, up-down-and-side-ways world! You might claim with much ferocity behind your heart, “We need to keep human separate from animal! Man separate from woman! Human is divine and sovereign and to muddy it up would be somewhat blasphemous, like saying God is in the maggot as much as He is in me!” This is not an attempt to break down categories, but simply to try to see things in a non-dichotomous light. I want to say, “Where’s the harm in mixing your peas with your gravy?” What is the purpose in identifying urban from rural, black from white, man from woman, sentient from non-sentient? Does this give us peace of mind? How can urban be so distinct from the rural when we now have suburbia? How can we divide the human race into two genders - only two! - when there exist people like RuPaul and Prince in the world? I’m more of a man than either of those men! Are we supposed to feel comforted by the belief that an area that has tall buildings is “urban” and the place that does not is “rural”? Does that make our world any less complicated than it already is? The fact is, structure does not take to the streets.(4) Dichotomies structure our world only until we get to the level of those “streets,” of real human interaction between individuals and between individuals and environment. When we look closely, the world is too rich to dichotomize. Dichotomy refers to the division of whole things into parts. Through the process of bifurcation, something simple and unified at its roots becomes complex and chaotic. The more we cut into two, the more borders we create, and it is on the borders where chaos thrives.(5) The nature of dichotomies requires that nothing can belong simultaneously in both parts. The parts of a dichotomy are often described as “opposites.” What is key here is that there was once a “whole,” something that was once unified and cohesive. Biological dichotomy is explained in terms of a division of organisms based on a characteristic present in one group and absent in the other. This “dichotomous key” asks a series of questions that narrows down differences into specific subgroups. For instance, we might ask, “Does it have a backbone?” in an attempt to divide organisms into vertebrates and invertebrates. Similarly, many would ask, especially Freud, “Does it have a penis?” to distinguish man from woman. Riki Wilchins, in her essay “Queerer Bodies” from the book GENDERqUEER,(6) rips off the deceptively benign mask of dichotomy. Dichotomous structure is not about two things, she says. The dichotomy is about one thing! It is about presence versus absence. It is a form of classification based on the fact that I have something and you don’t have that thing. Our language is based on the structure of presence and absence. Lurking behind my words are the words that aren’t there. You are gleaning meaning from these sentences by the words that aren’t here. My words have meaning because we know what they are not. These words on their own mean nothing. I would argue that cyborgology is an attempt to describe the world not in terms of lack but in terms of a synthesis. Cyborgology, rather than splitting apart the whole into yet another dichotomy, synthesizes material into a new kind of whole. It is about different ways of thinking about and understanding what has already been spoken about. Rather than nothing belonging simultaneously to different parts, everything is melded, enmeshed, in one single body. We are beginning to look up and over the Berlin Wall, and now we’re dancing upon it, and now we’re taking sledgehammers to it and the cement is crumbling away...Eventually all walls fall.(7) In support of cyborgology is the earth itself. Sir James Lovelock, the atmospheric scientist and chemist, back in the last year of the seventh decade of the faded but not obsolete Twentieth Century, came to the conclusion that the atmosphere of the earth “was an extension of a living system designed to maintain an optimal environment for its own support.”(8) Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis claims that earth is not a random smattering of isolated ecosystems that function independently of one another. Rather, the earth has its own homeostasis: the earth, as a whole, is a living organism and all earthly activities effect its equilibrium. This includes organic, geological and technological activities. The activities of humans, of plants, of machines, are all “perturbations” of the biosphere, and these perturbations should be looked at as part of a “self-regulating system.”(9) The earth is cyborgian, and denies dichotomous structure by nature of the integration of all its parts. All of these descriptors: “living system,” “homeostasis,” “equilibrium,” “self-regulation,” were terms used by Manfred E. Clines and Nathan S. Kline in their paper, published in the 1960 edition of the Astronautics Journal, called “Cyborgs and Space.”(10) The cyborg, or cybernetic organism, was born of our desire to explore environments inhospitable to humans, and it was Clines and Kline who first used the term “cyborg” in their 1960 essay.(11) With what seems like a sincere whole-heartedness, Clines and Kline discussed the deeply concerning issue of the psychophysiological aspects of space flight. They believed, with no pretensions of flashy, high-tech science fiction, that the homeostasis of the human body could be altered to exist comfortably in deep space without altering the environment itself. “Space travel challenges mankind not only technologically but also spiritually, Cont’d on F3...
Cyborgs, from F2:
F3
in that it invites man to take part in his own biological evolu-49 tion.”(12) Here were two individuals most likely to be supporters of cyborgology, and un-do-ers of dichotomous epistemologies. I am becoming a cyborgologist. I am learning what it means to integrate a specific personal view with a broad world view. I am learning what it means to be emotional, hungry for everything this Copernican universe has to offer. I am learning to gather the perturbations under my skin and letting them change the way I observe and participate. The cyborg is not a deviation from the human norm. It is not an imitation of life, as is the common thought. Neither, explains Wilchins, is genderqueer drag an imitation of man and woman.(13) Citing Judith Butler’s work, Wilchins says we learn to be men and women by copying earlier examples. Every cultural gender norm is inherited from a former gender performance. Gender is always a “reuse of familiar stereotypes...all gender is drag.”(14) If all gender is drag, and the female impersonator is just as real and honest as the “true” female, then acting out a cyborg narrative is just as real and honest as acting out a human narrative. I can be cyborg without being a grotesque imitation of human, I can be cyborg without being hyper-technologized. Although technology is already part of my bodily functioning (some cyborgologists would argue that my glasses, my contact lenses, my car or my bicycle, my computer, are all extensions of my body and my consciousness, and that means all tool-users are cyborgs...), it is the “cybernetic” part of the cyborg that really captivates my attention.(15) Being cyborg is all about communication, the ways in which we relate to one another and our environment. It is about perceiving that there are certain limitations to being human, and that by altering our internal mechanisms, such as our pragmatism and open-mindedness, we can more easily adapt to new situations. Being cyborg is crucial to many issues we face today: it is crucial to understanding class struggles; to building livable cities; to political resistance; to space travel; to invention; to genderfuck, or gender presentation;16 to understanding the rich possibilities and permutations the world presents us with; to understanding our connection to and place in the network of the world. It is the cyborg that will show us how to live and cohabit effectively on our home, this swiftly tilting planet. Like the cyborg, I have been the agent of my evolution - my education - over the past four years. My education is something I’ve created by pulling the blood from the Arts, the bones from Science, and the bowels from the Humanities. Am I taking these things, ingesting things strange to each other...or simply dissecting myself and finding these organs and processes already within me? Truthfully, we are all more cyborgian than we think. This body, my body, is truly a Frankenstein’s monster. But it’s only a monster if we allow it to be. We are afraid of the monster because of what it might imply about ourselves, and if we become the monster - pull it hungrily into our mouths and swallow, our bodies absorbing and assimilating - we have nothing to fear: we can accomplish anything in the world. __________________________________________________________________________________________ 1 “Genderqueer” refers to the performative aspects of gender that deny the traditional binary gender system. Genderqueer people may or may not be any or all of the following: homosexual, transgendered, transsexual, crossdressing, intersexed, etc. Genderqueer is an evolving concept and the reasons for identifying as genderqueer vary from person to person. (Wikipedia.org) 2 Haraway, Donna. “Cyborgs and Symbionts: Living Together in the New World Order.” The Cyborg Handbook. Ed. Chris Hables Gray, et al. New York: Routledge, 1995. p. xvi 3 Hables Gray, Chris, Steven Mentor and Heidi J. Figueroa-Sarriera. “Cyborgology: Constructing the Knowledge of Cybernetic Organisms.” The Cyborg Handbook. Ed. Chris Hables Gray. New York: Routledge, 1995. pp. 114. 4 I have heard it rumored this was once uttered during the Paris revolution of May 1968... However, I can find few comprehensive references to it on the net. Interesting, how certain things fall through the gaps in the world-wide “web.” Perhaps this antistructuralist sentiment has yet to catch on in anarchist circles. 5 Lofting, C.J. “Dichotomy.” Symbols and Metaphors: Creating Reality. 20 Feb. 2006. <http://members.iimetro. com.au/~lofting/myweb/dicho.html> James Gleick explains, in his book Chaos: Making a New Science (Gleick, 1987), that the “bifurcation diagram” (71) is a way of mapping the parameters of a simple system, for example the fertility rate of a population over time. The bifurcation diagram shows how the ultimate behavior of the system changes by pushing one parameter. As one parameter is pushed - as the fertility rate goes up•the equilibrium of the system rises, eventually splitting in two and alternating between two different levels (i.e. the population goes up to 5,000, then drops to 3,056, then goes back up to 5,000, etc.). As the parameter is pushed even more, the equilibrium keeps splitting and splitting, so the population alternates between two, then four, then eight then sixteen...and eventually the system turns chaotic. Chaos and complexity does indeed rein on the borders between splitting. 6 Wilchins, Riki, “Queerer Bodies.” GENDERqUEER: Voices from Beyond the Sexual Binary. Ed. Joan Nestle, Clare Howell and Riki Wilchins. New York, Los Angeles: Alyson books, 2002. p. 43. Cont’d on F4...
Cyborgs, from F3:
F4
7 On November 9, 1989, East Berliners joined West Berliners in a celebration of the “falling” of the wall, which actually took place over the following weeks as civilians knocked it down with sledgehammers. “Irgendwann fallt jede Mauer,” or “Eventually all walls fall,” is a slogan written on a section of the wall.50 8 Haraway, Donna. “Cyborgs and Symbionts: Living Together in the New World Order.” The Cyborg Handbook. Ed. Chris Hables Gray, et al. New York: Routledge, 1995. pp. xi-xx. 9 Haraway, ibid. pp. xiii. 10 This article was reprinted in The Cyborg Handbook in 1995. 11 Clynes, Manfred E. and Nathan S. Kline (1960). “Cyborgs and Space.” The Cyborg Handbook. Ed. Chris Hables Gray, et al. New York: Routledge, 1995. pp. 29-33. 12 Clynes and Kline, ibid. p. 29. 13 Wilchins, Riki. “It’s Your Gender, Stupid!” GENDERqUEER: Voices from Beyond the Sexual Binary. Ed. Joan Nestle, Clare Howell and Riki Wilchins. New York, Los Angeles: Alyson books, 2002. pp. 23-32. 14 Wilchins, ibid. p. 28. 15 Ironically, my computer does not like the word “cyborg.” Every time I type it, that annoying red squiggle line that indicates spelling error appears cheekily beneath it to remind me the word doesn’t exist in Microsoft Word’s vocabulary. There seems to be a strange disconnect between what the program believes exists and what actually exists, because when I look up the word “cyborg” in the Microsoft Word dictionary, within the same document, there it is: “A fictional being that is part human, part robot.” I looked up “cybernetic organism” in the same dictionary, but found only “cybernetics”: “The science or study of communication in organisms, organic processes, and mechanical or electronic systems.” 16 “Genderfuck” is a term used in genderqueer circles similar in meaning to “drag;” however, a person who genderfucks does so not with the intention of “passing” as a man or woman, but with the intention of “fucking” with
More about Human Ecology Essays: By the middle of their senior year, all students must complete a Human Ecology Essay. The essay is a work of exposition, argumentation, extended description or narration. Students choose and develop a subject of personal or social significance through which they explore their perspectives on Human Ecology. Although separate from a paper done for a course, the Human Ecology Essay often evolves from coursework. Students occasionally chose to do a nonverbal “essay,” or write a piece of fiction or poetry. The essay is also an opportunity for students to reflect on their COA education and to synthesize multiple areas of their study.
Not a senior? Sounds good to us! Off the Wall is looking to publish essays which reflect on human ecology as a discipline, pedagogy, philosophy, etc. These can be written by first-years, second-years, third-years, fifth-years, and MPhil candidates. The word limit is flexible for the Human Ecology Essays, but make sure we don’t kill too many trees. Email: offthewall@coa.edu in .doc or .rtf
Arts & Literature
G1
Photography by: Louise Kirven-Dows
“Elephant Seals”
Drawing by: Patrick Davis Photography by: Alice Anderson
A note from the Editors:
Friends! Comrades! New and delightful transfer students! Here at Off The Wall we are partaking in some spring cleaning: we have some changes in the deadlines for submissions. For this term the deadline will be Thursday at 10pm (ohhh!) AND, y’all can wake up on Monday morning to Hot Breakfast AND an issue of Off The Wall hot off the press (really, life can’t get much better). That being said remember that you have the lovely opportunity to submit to Off The Wall ANY time you please, be that Tuesday at 2pm or Saturday at 4am. The glorious fact about email is that it stays in our Inbox (offthewall@coa.edu) until we review all of the articles for the next publication. As long as what you have written is still relevant we will get it in the next issue. Can’t email it too us? Find Matt, Amelia, or Alice and hand deliver your submission, or put it in our mailbox located under the faculty mailboxes. We are planning to send out more reminders this term to jog your memory, and encourage you to submit what’s on your mind. Have comments for us? If so, write a letter to the editors, and we’ll publish it. Particularly fond of a doodle you created in Todd Little-Siebold’s class? Submit that too! What we’re trying to say here kids is that we care about what you have to say. So give us some meaty controversial material.
Photos Courtesy Alice Anderson
OTW SPRING BREAK ‘09!!
INDECENCY! CONTENTION!
SPATULA! DEFECTION!
Working Guidelines of Off the Wall, adopted by Publications Committee, Fall 2008
- Off the Wall is a community-wide publication that seeks within the broadest possible limits to express the complete spectrum of thought at the college. Although Off the Wall is the publication to list governance information, it does not reflect an official voice of any segment of the college population and relies on community input to achieve a well rounded voice. - Off the Wall prefers signed submission. Contributors may request their name be withheld from the publication or that a pseudonym be used, but this is done at the editor’s discretion. The editor is responsible to review material submitted and make decisions regarding the appropriateness of content. The editor is responsible for the content of unsigned material that is printed. - Off the Wall has a faculty or staff advisor who is responsible for assisting the editor in making decisions about questionable material. The advisor should have knowledge of Off the Wall and the concerns surrounding its publication. The editor must submit the name of the advisor to Publications and Communications Committee before publication of the first issue of the term. - The editor has the right to decline to print material on the grounds of excessive length, illegibility, or obvious libelous content. The editor may defer printing matter thought to be harmful to another person, cause liability, or which for any reason should be checked with the Off the Wall advisor. Contributors should bear in mind that Off the Wall should reflect a constructive and respectful approach toward other human beings and a thoughtful restraint on the use of resources.