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Mr Andersson is a PhD student in the Department of Media & Communications, a freelance writer-slash-blogger, a music aficionado and occational DJ, an expat, and... well, overall a perfectly reasonable gentleman.

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Don't think. Shoot!

An embrace of concepts like “self-fulfilment”, “collaboration” and general “new ways of thinking” are these days to be found both in…

Think Different. Enjoy Life. Enjoy uncertainty. Rethink TV. Unleash Your Warrior Spirit. Think. Talk. Quit. DRINK. WIN. PLAY. Do More, Feel Better, Live Longer. Simplify. Modify. Magnify. Relax. Go Nuts. Accelerate your life. Look sharp! Feel sharp! Be sharp! Wash. Dry. Fold. Give. Grow. Achieve. Thrive. Catch our momentum. Surrender to smooth and creamy Galaxy. Remember: Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. get up get active get animated. Spread the Word. Grab a little “me” time. Celebrate the Moments of Your Life. Laugh More. Cry More. Experience More. Collect Them All. Don’t Just Entertain them! Delight them! TALK FOR FREE. Some Things Aren’t Meant To Be Shared; Get Cleaner. Elevate. Expand. Endure. ADD LINES. Stay Connected with the Ones you Love. Celebrate more, Spend less. change the way you look at color. Make Peace With Your Body. FALL IN LOVE WITH GOING TO WORK. KEEP YOUR IDENTITY TO YOURSELF. Know what matters. Transform ideas into action. Put The Freshness Back. Obey Your Thirst. Honor the past. Celebrate the present. Promise the future. SHIFT the future! Spread the Fun Be a Great Gift Giver. We Report. You Decide. Enjoy uncertainty. Look forward to not looking.

The Institute for Infinitely Small Things is running a database of corporate commands open to submissions from eager contributors around the world.
Isn’t it ironic that there in the context of academic, critical relativism and detachment (read: Goldsmiths) exists discourses so similar to these commands issued by mainstream corporate advertisers, think tanks and spin doctors? “Think different.” “Enjoy uncertainty.” “Think outside the box.” “Know what matters.” “Transform ideas into action.”
Are concepts like collaboration, networking, interactivity, self-fulfilment, fluidity, or - by all means - interdisciplinarity always automatically good things? Is there a reason as to why these concepts are so universally embraced in this particular historical era, by corporate powerhouses as well as by anti-capitalist scholars? Why are these concepts so important for us right here and now?
Hereby the meeting of minds is declared open. Discuss!

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Comments

You make an interesting point Jonas - These concepts are very important for us right here right now. And as you say they are important for a diverse range of groups.

I belive that the rise of concepts such as interdisciplinarity are intimately connected to the rise of networked computers, and the importance of relational databases in archiving and displaying the information held on these computers.

The more contact points in a network - And the internet has to all intents and purposes an infinite number of connections - The higher the chances of productive and useful ideas and technologies emerging from the network.

The productivity of the internet is recognised by global firms and global activists - And both can exploit the network effects to their own advantage. The internet is the greatest re-distribution of power ever. I stand in awe of what has already happened, and as for what will happen . . . who knows - But its going to be good!

Posted by Nicholas Marsh

Individuality are not enough. You must be different! But have you ever thought of that difference has no substance, that it is a just a negation?

Interdisciplinarity may be a creative zone, but it may also be a an excuse for lack of knowledge and fuzzy thoughts !

Tine

Posted by Tine Blom

Nick,
Attributing the rise of concepts such as interdisciplinarity to the technological phenomenon of a congruent ‘rise of networked computers’ makes for what a social scientist would call “technological determinism”. Also, your way of putting it; things (almost magically) ‘emerging from the network,’ would be interpreted in the same way. I am not criticising your interpretation – mine would amount to a similar view, but we have to be aware we are following a very Marxist strategy of presuming the material conditions as the chief magnetic force here, seemingly pointing in a unidirectional direction of necessarily more intermingling, hybridisation, and shaping human action and discourse accordingly.
Then you mention what I think is the most central aspect here; that both ‘global firms and global activists’ are recognizing this condition. Because it seems like we are (amid all hype, ‘fuzzy thoughts’ and web 2.0 manifestos) talking about a condition here; something “in the air”. The care we have to take as scholars here I believe is to not swallow the hype, but to reflect on it critically, given that we all have the luxury of working in the haven of commercialism that the academy after all is (it’s sometimes easy to forget that we don’t have to succumb to the spin and rather desperate milking of concepts that the marketing and PR world is all about). And Tine, your point makes perfect sense here.
However, we shouldn’t go too far the other way either! The “ivory tower” is, in my view, a dead concept. A critical stance is all fair and good – but the very best thing we can do is to communicate this attitude to the wider world, ‘eliminating all the whackness,’ as Lootpack or Gang Starr would have put it.

Posted by J. Andersson

Jonas Andersson