For the past 3 weeks-ish I've been in Australia with a base in Perth / at the University of Western Australia. The time's flown by and has been great. I can really understand why so many folk move down here from Britain...
I've mostly just been working away at the subject book (see below) but have also been mixing in some time off around work; I've managed a roughly 60/40 or 50/50 split between work and not work. My wife and daughter are here and I've been staying with family for part of it so was always meant to be part-holiday, part-work. It's also been great see Matthew Tonts and Paul Maginn - they've been great hosts - and meeting a few others. I co-taught a field trip with Matthew a few years ago (mixing Plymouth and UWA students) and Paul did his sabbatical in Plymouth / the office next to me a couple of years ago.
There are some things I've learned while I'm here...
1) Coffee here is awesome. Like, really awesome. The least-good coffee I've had here is probably somewhere above average at home and the best, way better. I've drunk far to much of it.
2) It's hard to do work when: a) it's 35 degrees and humid, and b) there are beaches within 20minutes drive away.
3) Public parks here, and play-parks in particular, a so much better than at home. I'm assuming this has something to do with all the revenues from big oil companies etc. that are based here... But it also seems like people actually take pride in the surroundings and appreciate them. All those I've been to - and that's a lot... - have great equipment, are clear, aren't vandalised, etc.. My daughter has loved it and is going to be so disappointed when we get back to Plymouth!
4) It's not just the poisonous stuff that you have to look out for (snakes, spiders etc) but also the flies - there are billions at this time of year - and the birds. The latter 'swoop' you quite aggressively. Oh, and flies are attracted to beard oil. Really attracted...
5) UWA campus is really, really nice (see images).
I've mostly just been working away at the subject book (see below) but have also been mixing in some time off around work; I've managed a roughly 60/40 or 50/50 split between work and not work. My wife and daughter are here and I've been staying with family for part of it so was always meant to be part-holiday, part-work. It's also been great see Matthew Tonts and Paul Maginn - they've been great hosts - and meeting a few others. I co-taught a field trip with Matthew a few years ago (mixing Plymouth and UWA students) and Paul did his sabbatical in Plymouth / the office next to me a couple of years ago.
There are some things I've learned while I'm here...
1) Coffee here is awesome. Like, really awesome. The least-good coffee I've had here is probably somewhere above average at home and the best, way better. I've drunk far to much of it.
2) It's hard to do work when: a) it's 35 degrees and humid, and b) there are beaches within 20minutes drive away.
3) Public parks here, and play-parks in particular, a so much better than at home. I'm assuming this has something to do with all the revenues from big oil companies etc. that are based here... But it also seems like people actually take pride in the surroundings and appreciate them. All those I've been to - and that's a lot... - have great equipment, are clear, aren't vandalised, etc.. My daughter has loved it and is going to be so disappointed when we get back to Plymouth!
4) It's not just the poisonous stuff that you have to look out for (snakes, spiders etc) but also the flies - there are billions at this time of year - and the birds. The latter 'swoop' you quite aggressively. Oh, and flies are attracted to beard oil. Really attracted...
5) UWA campus is really, really nice (see images).
In terms of work, mostly I've been reading about Levinas and reading Levinas, particularly "Time and the Other" and "Totality and Infinity". It's taking me a while to get through this - I remember that about Levinas and his style being hard work - but being here in Perth has been a good context to do that in.
My initial ideas about how I might think / write critically on Levinas and his 'face-to-face' relation in the context of the book seem to be panning out and developing, which has been nice. I think there are ways that the case / example / foil (I'm still not quite sure how I'm going to refer to the 'empirical' moments...) I wanted to work with in this chapter - the movie Shame - is going to work. It's in no way exemplary of anything in Levinas but it sits in odd constructive tension - all the long and lingering face-to-face looks that take place, the distance in that, the (lack of) history given, the role of 'eros' / sexual encounters in both, etc. etc. all have given me things to think about / ways of mapping out the discussion and where it might go.
Also, everything I've found in terms of academic literature on Shame is psychoanalytic in approach - it all focuses on childhood trauma (never explained in the movie), parental / sibling relations, the nature of addiction etc.
This is all usual and will hopefully mean that Shame will play a dual role in the chapter: 1) throwing into relief points from Levinas (the basic thing I hoped it would do) and 2) allowing me to contrast the post-phenomenology of (inter)subjectivity I'm trying to develop to a more psychoanalytical account of subjectivity. I think the latter will be important less to the chapter and more to the book given that there's a range of psychoanalytic work in geography which I could have risked passing by / just name checking in the intro....
But back to more pressing concerns - we leave in a couple of days and so that means an even longer journey than the one out; 19hours of flying plus 5 waiting in Singapore airport. Time to download more Peppa Pig...
In terms of work, mostly I've been reading about Levinas and reading Levinas, particularly "Time and the Other" and "Totality and Infinity". It's taking me a while to get through this - I remember that about Levinas and his style being hard work - but being here in Perth has been a good context to do that in.
My initial ideas about how I might think / write critically on Levinas and his 'face-to-face' relation in the context of the book seem to be panning out and developing, which has been nice. I think there are ways that the case / example / foil (I'm still not quite sure how I'm going to refer to the 'empirical' moments...) I wanted to work with in this chapter - the movie Shame - is going to work. It's in no way exemplary of anything in Levinas but it sits in odd constructive tension - all the long and lingering face-to-face looks that take place, the distance in that, the (lack of) history given, the role of 'eros' / sexual encounters in both, etc. etc. all have given me things to think about / ways of mapping out the discussion and where it might go.
Also, everything I've found in terms of academic literature on Shame is psychoanalytic in approach - it all focuses on childhood trauma (never explained in the movie), parental / sibling relations, the nature of addiction etc.
This is all usual and will hopefully mean that Shame will play a dual role in the chapter: 1) throwing into relief points from Levinas (the basic thing I hoped it would do) and 2) allowing me to contrast the post-phenomenology of (inter)subjectivity I'm trying to develop to a more psychoanalytical account of subjectivity. I think the latter will be important less to the chapter and more to the book given that there's a range of psychoanalytic work in geography which I could have risked passing by / just name checking in the intro....
But back to more pressing concerns - we leave in a couple of days and so that means an even longer journey than the one out; 19hours of flying plus 5 waiting in Singapore airport. Time to download more Peppa Pig...
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