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integrating with the wildlife

Submitted by helen on Fri, 2007-03-02 03:49.

here i am in brisbane, settling into my new life as a masters student. so far everything has been pretty straight-forward. i've got my ID card with a truly dreadful photo of me on it, i've met with my supervisor (zane trow) and skipped my first lecture (it was a contemporary performance lecture but i chose instead to attend a contemporary performance - small metal objects - which was very good).

the other paper i have lectures for is "approaches to enquiry" - all the dry research stuff that i have very little idea of at the moment. lecturer prof. brad haseman is blessed with enormous enthusiasm for the topic which will hopeful prove contaigous. unfortunately next week's lecture clashes with the UpStage open walk-thru so i might have to skip another class ...

outside of the ivory tower i am coping well with the heat and the wildlife. the cockroaches here are about 5 times the size and 10 times more abundant than their new zealand cousins; they share the house with cute little geckos and trillions of ants (all food kept in sealed containers!). outside, larger lizards rustle away into the leaves as i approach and at night the possums thump around in the trees. in nz, possums are a pest but here they are protected. there are some impressive spider communities but the only snakes i have seen are rubber.

a couple of blocks away across a large park is an outdoor swimming pool, and i've been twice now, covered in sunscreen & going slowly back & forth while mothers & babies play in the nearby shallow pool under shade cloth.

i'm staying with my friends suzon & james and already we've started playing around with computers, software and data projector in the studio they have downstairs; and many conversations about performances we've seen, people we've met, ideas and projects.

meanwhile i continue to maintain my double life, co-organising the Magdalena Aotearoa National Gathering in wellington at easter, and building up towards the launch of UpStage 2 and the 070707 UpStage festival ... we have a new team of AUT students coming on board this week which is very exciting.

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approaches to enquiry

Submitted by ruthcatlow on Sun, 2007-03-04 01:32.

Hi Helen,
Well life sounds great- especially the wildlife. We had a full lunar eclipse this evening - it think it's the first natural thing I'd noticed for way too long- and even that was pretty far away.

Hope you continue keep us up to date with your studies and parallel lives. I got fascinated and then took up unhealthy residence in the "approaches to enquiry" bit of my MA studies last year.
xr

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approach with caution

Submitted by helen on Tue, 2007-03-06 14:14.

we have an "approaches to enquiry intensive" this coming saturday, 11.30-4pm. if you never hear from me again after that, you'll know i was crushed by a falling episteme or swept away on a tide of ontologies ...

as for the wildlife - i was disappointed to learn that most of the cute little geckos that dart about in the evenings are actually immigrants from singapore. apparently they are taking over the native variety of gecko - colonising, perhaps ... this makes me think about refugees & migrants & the australian government's current policy in this area (i'm going to see a play along these lines, slow falling bird by christine evans).

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