Introduction

[Kenneth Fields]

Nimen hao,
I'm a post-doc at Tsinghua University in Beijing, doing research
in area of computer aided collaborative work. My Ph.D. in
Media Arts and Technology was an independent and interdisciplinary
effort between depts (comp and cog science, computer music and
art, and artificial and real environment studies) at Santa Barbara - hence
my interest in academic discourses as differentiated from discipline.
My dissertation was an 'immersive document' (virtual reality), an
exploration of media arts discourses in an attempt to define our
new 'discipline.' My approach is that semiotics/signification is the bases
of media arts studies. My main discourse community is the international
computer music association. I am now involved in an international
accreditation exploration for our association. Any advice in this matter?

My current research is a technology project in discourse mapping.
The premise being that discourse may be a better organizational
strategy than discipline for structuring a university system. Given
that a discipline is a discourse complex, not enough research has
been done in mapping discourse for the purpose of optimizing areas of
overlap (how about genetics and object-oriented programming for one
example). For some reason :) I am now researching
meta-programming languages (Unified Modeling Language) and
Kristeva.

Any information in the area of 'discourse mapping' would be greatly
appreciated. What are the parameters to work with in differentiating
discourses: should it be based on a parallax of methodology, object of
study, and medium of communication (text, audio, graphic)? And how
can curriculum be dynamically modeled to keep up with the student in
their evolving careers as a student and likely needs in their continuing
research in or out of academia.


Kenneth Fields
Ph.D. Media Arts and Technology
Institute of Human Computer Interaction and Media Integration
Department of Computer Science
Tsinghua University
Beijing, China 100084
ken at tsinghua.edu.cn
ken at create.ucsb.edu
http://www.create.ucsb.edu/ken
(86 10) 8316 1363