Department of Oppositional Studies

From Wiki.a-wa-re.com

Contents

What is the Department?

Rather than keeping their traditional roles as centres of learning and debate, universities today are heavily rationalised institutions that are increasingly becoming training grounds for professionals and research arms of industry. Driven by business goals, there is insurmountable pressure to meet short-term requirements and to show visible progressive improvement at all times. Pragmatism has become a central concern: students must become employable, useful members of an industrialised society. Within the institution, the pressure to conform is insurmountable: all teaching practices are required to conform to predetermined metrics and to run within institutional structural constraints.

Even in disciplines with a strong industry focus such as engineering, these imperatives are problematic: they produce highly-employable graduates but at the expense of breadth in their education, which becomes more difficult to obtain once in the workforce. This constriction will affect graduates' abilities to produce lateral outcomes in an economic environment where creative output is increasingly becoming a critical resource. However, it is in disciplines where creativity is tantamount that the problem is most pronounced: short-term, functional concerns and rigid organisational structures can be stifling in the humanities and in art/design schools (which in Australia, have almost all been absorbed into universities).

The Department of Oppositional Studies recognises the importance of creativity and aims to foster its development using a simple intervention: DOS widens students' scopes of thought by presenting stimuli that directly oppose the results-oriented culture in universities. DOS does not challenge the validity of this culture but instead, supplements it by introducing the necessary ingredients for a creative education.

Motivation: The Case for Oppositional Studies

History

  • Originates from a 1997 research project in the Department of Zoology.
  • Research team led by Dr. Elwood Galeazzi.
  • Project studied successful escapes of animals in captivity.
  • Team found that more creative escapes occurred when animals were in polarised environments i.e. ones where extremes were experienced.
  • Team began to create environments containing various types of extremes and found that methods of escape came markedly more varied and intelligent.
  • Team began to develop the idea of oppositional training, where extreme opposites were introduced into captive environments to prompt creative outcomes.
  • Became part of the Faculty of Education in 2002.

Oppositional Values

Oppositional Studies is a field of study that fosters creative thoughts by introducing and promoting values that are opposed to the norm. Typically, studies prompt highly unusual initial responses in students that progressively moderate to new, more useful outcomes. For example, in a pragmatic institution, the opposite value of dysfunction is cultivated. In learning about and experiencing dysfunction, students are able to understand the benefits of the impractical and will be led to develop a sense of idealism, an important creative drive.

Within university education, opposition is directed towards university values.

University Values Oppositional Values Moderated Outcome
Accountability Irresponsibility Trust
Agency Inactivity Surrender
Determinacy Unpredictability Recklessness
Industry Idleness Dreaminess
Inquisitiveness Boredom Contemplation
Learning Ignorance Wonder
Method Confusion Spontaneity
Objective Rigour Superficial Partisanship Passion
Originality Appropriation Synthesis
Pragmatism Dysfunction Utopianism
Professionalism Incapability Freshness
Progressiveness Stillness Mindfulness
Responsiveness Rebellion Considered Integrity
Sophistication Naivete Pathos
Specialisation Holism Mysticism
Success Failure Tragedy
Thoughtfulness Rashness Courage
Transparency Muteness Restraint
Wealth Poverty Contentment

Promotional Material

Events

Interventions

Interventions are used to inject entities that embody oppositional values into the university environment.

  • Monday 6th October - Capt. Erin Duffy (Army) & PO Jason Clark (Navy)
  • Interview with Susanna McNiell

Didactic Lectures

The didactic lectures inform students on, and promote, oppositional values and practices.

Lecture Topics

  • How to be Unemployable
  • How to Develop and Maintain Ignorance - Cullan Joyce
  • Scott Aumont - Not Available

Lecture Archive (VHS)

  • [97-LEC-04] Heidegger on Boredom and the Passing of Time - Dr. Christian Fraizer (Philosophy)
  • [98-LEC-16] Fight and Flight Responses - Dr. Antoinette Briscoe (Medicine)
  • [04-LEC-0009] Keeping Quiet - The Gentle Art of Restraint - Hon. Lasek Penundaram (Bhikkhuni Order of the Mahayana Sect)
  • [04-LEC-0012] How We Forget to Fail (What Happened to the Tragedy in Tragicomic?) - Cody Hussein (Sydney Theatre Company)
  • [04-LEC-0017] Not Playing by the Rules: A Case Study in Anglo-Gallic Relations - Paul Mcgowan (Cultural Studies)
  • [05-LEC-0006] Crash Test Dummy - The Philosophy of Engineering Failure Testing - Dr. Steve Farnell (Engineering)
  • [05-LEC-00023] Making It Big Without Being Sexy - Blair McIntosh (Dufus Designs Inc.)

Resources and References

Philosophy

28. Retaining Integrity

Whilst developing creativity,
also cultivate receptivity.
Retain the mind like that of a child,
which flows like running water.
When considering any thing,
do not lose its opposite.
When thinking of the finite,
do not forget infinity;
Act with honour, but retain humility.
By acting according to the way of the Tao,
set others an example.
By retaining the integrity
of the inner and external worlds,
true selfhood is maintained,
and the inner world made fertile.

Education as Art

Education Reform

Retrieved from "http://wiki.a-wa-re.com/index.php5?title=Department_of_Oppositional_Studies"