It seems the concept of vernacular creativity has legs that carry it into various disciplinary territories. Interestingly, this Call for Papers for a panel at the American Association of Geographers conference in San Francisco next year uses it in almost exactly the same way as I do.
Every day that passes, there’s more stuff to go in the section of my thesis entitled ‘the idea of vernacular creativity’; from vernacular architecture to domestic craft and DIY to vernacular photographies to vernacular public art (the most symptomatic form of which is the roadside shrine). I have to hurry up and finish. That is, in as much as a scholarly pace ever allows you to ‘hurry up.’ There are no shortcuts – that’s why you get to be called ‘doctor’ at the end of it.
3 responses to “spaces of vernacular creativity”
how are you coping with the big ‘hurry up’? is there an extensive difference, like producing more (or working longer), or is it an intensive thing, ie working harder or just more anxious? Sometimes i feel like I am doing all at once!
i was laughed at last night by a co-worker because i don’t go out drinking enough, apparently. yes, i am nerding it up nerdy nerdy nerd nerd. nerd-stylz z
Plus I am writing too much, I think. My next section is now 28,000 words, which is fine as it should be one quarter, but it isn’t actually finished yet! So I have put it on hold to write a couple of lectures and a book review. Time away from it. COme back to it soon. But I need to stop explaining everything into bloated complex things. it is only about cars ffs!!
i am going to be called ‘doctor’ so i can perform operations…
Glen, I think ‘coping’ is too optimistic a term! As i think is pretty common, it varies, swinging from calm plodding to manic anxiety to ruthless determination to despair. In the space of a week, sometimes! Time is behaving really weirdly, shrinking and expanding in an unfathomable way.
As for the quantity, I have never had the over-writing problem – if anything, it’s just the opposite for me, everything getting better and more precisely expressed, but not getting long enough fast enough. I have to force myself to unpack my pithy assertions and actually work through my data properly to show how i got there. A bit like what I remember from school: being yelled at to show my ‘working out’ and not just the answer!
I am going to be called doctor so I can prescribe myself valium…
Hi Jean
Came across your entry on vernacular creativity somewhat by accident, whilst sat in a Merriville Hotel (Indiana). Would be interested to know more about your PhD work as we are currently putting some ideas for publication based on the papers sessions I have organised for the AAG Conference in San Francisco in 2007.
Currently I am at a conference entitled Drawing the Lines, which is being hosted by North West Indiana University, which maybe of interest to you.
Yours
Steve