I went to a very valuable Academic Support session in the library with librarians Alice and Leo.

We spoke about structures of knowledge. How the Library is one ‘citational infrastructure’, and another library, Libsearch, JSTOR or Google Scholar, etc. are different citational infrastructures. Each curated by different organisations, each organisation potentially having a focus, or reliance on different organisations, each potentially capable of bias.

In a similar way to our discussions with David about idiosyncrasy (all research is worthy of engagement, to a certain extent…) we spoke about rhizomatic learning and how our minds slowly frame and gain knowledge from interpretation of data. If this data is fixed and for example, every academic is using the most cited sources for each topic on google scholar. Ideas will only be generated by the most popular sources from this particular infrastructure. Which means that there is in some form, a bias.

We spoke about learning as receiving data, scanning data for information, consolidating information into knowledge, knowledge becoming wisdom (or your own hypothesis). The information, knowledge or wisdom cannot be changed later if the data has not been meticulously and carefully sourced. These things can’t be added on, they have to be imbedded into the research from the beginning.

I reflected on the fact that, due to impending deadlines in previous years, I wasn’t happy with how diverse my academic writing was, I ended up quoting predominantly men from the west. I had hoped to have a more diverse bibliography, but the time constraint got the better of me, and because I hadn’t started with the research and finding the sources I would need later, not only was my essay short on enough relevant research, it also felt a little too reliant on Cage.

Book Recommendations: Algorithms of Oppression – Safiya Umoja Noble

Practical advice:

• Don’t just use citation counts or top results as a measure of quality
• Think about personal bias and source evaluation
• Try less traditional sources
• Could you cite sources in other languages?
• What or whose ideas are represented?
• Build evaluation skills

Think of citations as bricks, when citations become habits, bricks form walls”

Sara Ahmed

We were asked to write three artists on a post it at the beginning of our class. I wrote three case studies I am intending to use for my research. We discussed the sensitivity of referring to an artist’s work, when there is an element of them being chosen based on their identity. The answer came back to research, in that it is very important that I research the particular artist and find out how they tend to navigate their identity in relation to the world.

One of the Phd students in the room talked about how she will be using different citational practices in her bibliography because she felt certain elements of Chicago Citation was problematic. To be honest, I am not entirely sure how I felt about this, but it was interesting. It was interesting that the forms of academic essay at Phd level are up for discussion. It was inspiring to hear about the ways in which this format is constantly challenged and changing.

We had our first lecture with David as the first week was disrupted due to strike action. This lecture was really informative and marked a welcome change from thinking about academia as a test where there are boxes to tick (which in the case of our dissertation it is) and more as a creative form. The ways in which we spoke about idea generation were mostly in relation to ‘imbedding’ ourselves in the research. So that when we write we are writing with authority from the works we have absorbed. Once we have absorbed enough text, this can be a creative act of piecing and threading the readings together. This however is a creative act, thinking of it as such feels incredibly freeing, and makes the whole process feel less like work and more like a challenge.

I have been writing my principal ideas for the research project in a separate diary to this. But mostly I was concerned with New Age, Meditation, Theosophy, Multi-sensory ‘listening’ as meditation, Deep Listening, Muzak, Noise, Tinnitus, Aural Diversities. At this stage it is not completely set in stone, but is veering towards a link between Deep Listening, Tinnitus, Hearing Loss. Last year during my DPS, I spent some time in the Tate’s permanent collection due to it’s proximity to Blackfriars. From these trips, I found myself repeatedly drawn to the sonic implications of Georges Braque’s Mandora piece on show there. I want to work these themes together into a coherent question.

David’s advice:

1. Create a question ASAP and once that is figured, book an appointment with your tutor.
2. Find a place to research that feels right
3. Read research allowed in this place
4. Close your eyes and imagine where your research is going
5. Imagination is one of the most important parts of academia
6. Embedded in research = embodying tacit knowledge
7. Question clarity and accept your own pace

David spoke about Holger Schulze speaking of research as idiosyncrasy and how work will look different to the individual and only becomes ‘right’ when taken hold of by culture, when it raises questions and opens up new trains of thought. David also talked about how a colonialist thought of academia might be a straight line, but exercising a more compassionate and global framework means deviation from this line and accepting that everything is subject to review and potential change. Therefore seemingly idiosyncratic thought is just and deserves its right to be at least examined and entertained by peers.

“Maybe reading is listening to something in the space you inhabit”

I like this quote because it seems slightly related to my feelings about connotations of Sound and Listening, being more than just our hearing faculty. The terminology must go deeper and we must explore what other kinds of listening could be. As we are all operating slightly different bionic (and sometimes not) machinery.

David also spoke about Doreen Massey’s writings, “the way we imagine space has effect” – we spoke about this in relation to our own spaces and our they effect our thinking. Trying to imagine the broader outlook of the space in which our research occupies and being mindful of who it’s representing. I am hopeful that I can have a more diverse pool of research for this dissertation for a more inclusive bibliography. By setting this goal, I am expanding the space in which my research occupies.

It’s interesting to reflect on this lecture, and the multiple layers of space in which we discussed. The space we choose to study, finding a place that is ours and works from a productivity standpoint. The space we need to think, closing our eyes to ‘imagine’ research as a type of space and then a situational, societal space, in which where we choose to read and research we are imbedded in a conversation that will continue after our research is completed.

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