Anthropologist
When cleaning my desk today I found some notes I had scribbled at the welcome event back in September. Three current PhD students gave the following advice:
I’ve been using Zotero for reference management so far. I like that it is open source. However, I have not used it integrated with a word processor (in my case, Libreoffice or even Apple Pages). I’ve copied my references manually, which (as I’m realising now) means a lot of work, especially if I want to change the reference style, but also when just adding or removing references.
Yesterday I attended a session on reference management, and it turned out that the University of Manchester provides Endnote to all students, and that Endnote is really well integrated into Microsoft Word, which is also provided.
The session convinced me to switch from Zotero + Libreoffice to Endnote + Word.
But then I attended another session the very same afternoon, on how to use the Latex editor Overleaf, which is also provided by the university. I’ve always been curious about Latex, it seems so clean and lightweight. It turned out that Overleaf has reference management integrations for Mendeley and Zotero – but not for Endnote!
So now I think my solution will be Zotero + Overleaf!
I can at least try it for my shorter papers that are coming up, and if it’s working well I can use it for my dissertation.
I think it’s a question of attitude and identity. It empowers me not to have to resort to proprietary software giants. Like Zotero, Latex is open source and so is the whole Overleaf platform, I’m just finding out. So the choice is really simple. And fun: These are the paraphernalia that add good energy to your research!
Mostly reading and seminars this week. I also got two rejections: Of the abstract i submitted for a special issue (admittedly a stretch) and of the article I submitted to a journal in August 2021.
I’ve been a PhD student for one month now, so I recorded a little update of what it’s been like.
Anki, kanji, news, anime, and:
I’m at episode 34 of Macross and might finish it tonight – it’s 36 episodes in total. I love it and relate to it on a personal level.
Finished The White Lotus, such a perfect piece of entertainment!
It’s fun! I can be sick of the book I’m reading at the end of the day, but next day I’m excited to start the next chapter and learn more. It’s almost like taking classes, but by reading chapters. I think it’s the intensity of the reading that creates that feeling. I wake up by myself at 7 or 8 in the morning. I keep studying eight effective hours per day. I want to keep this going.
Tomorrow is the official start of my PhD programme, so this week I have spent days and hours browsing the university’s website, trying to get some overview and structure.
I’m very confused. I don’t know what it will mean to be a PhD student. Should I sign up for courses? Where do I find them? What are the “training programmes” that it’s my responsibility to attend? Or will it from day one only be about reading a lot and doing my own research? These are the questions I need to ask my supervisors, and maybe the separately assigned advisor, which I guess I will be informed about.
Note: There will also be induction events next week. So things will get clearer. But I wanted to record my honest feelings at the moment.
On Tuesday I had Indonesian dinner at Mabuhay with M&B, and my friend O.
On Wednesday I visited my classmate and friend A and had my first yoga/breathing exercise/mantra chanting. And then we talked. Walked home, 7 km, just before the rain started pouring down.
On Thursday night I had a walk and dinner at Paolo Pinkel with A: We had delicious Bibimbap from their Korean kitchen (they have three kitchens, so we’re coming back). And then we also talked.
On Thursday and Friday I participated as a listener, and quite selectively, in the Enqa workshop 2021.
On Saturday I had my first insect burger with friends and neighbours at H/O’s place. Not too bad! I guess I’m now an ento-vegetarian. Earlier in the day I spontaneously ran a bit in the park where I usually walk:
And today I had a walk in the same park with my friend A. It was 16 degrees and chilly – I need to dress warmer when I’m not alone and can adjust the temperature by my walking pace.
In the mornings I watch Japanese news – it’s exciting now with the candidature to LDP leader – and in the evenings I’m watching Macross: Tonight will be episode 9. I like it very much.
My Manchester News:
SALC Academic Advising Community:
16–17 September 2021.
Nothing of direct relevance to me but I like Enqa and it’s interesting to hear about various queer research projects. Although Zoom presentations are very hard for me to follow, as noted earlier. One block per day will have to suffice.
Today I summarised my impressions of my favourite Japanese study book 真日本語 500問 N2.
Let the new adventure begin!
It was a very active and study-focused week.
I’m quite excited about phenomenology, which was the theme of this week’s unit in Qualitative Methods. In the always perfectly curated window display of The Berlin Book Nook I found Robert Anton Wilson’s Reality Is What You Can Get Away With from 1993/1996. I didn’t know that book of his, but have read many of his other works. Since the theme of phenomenology is that reality is always subjective, it was a nobrainer to grab it (God has a plan for you!) despite its relatively hefty price of 36 euro, apparently it’s a rarity.
Digital Anthropology Unit 8 had an art focus and included a discussion on works by Hito Steyerl. Incidentally she would have a talk at HKW this very week, so I went there to see her. Berlin delivers. The whole event was like a mini-Re:publica full of interesting talks and an interested audience – the auditorium was full.
For Digital Anthropology Unit 9 next week we got an assignment which I loved, it played right into where I was in my research right now and the lecturer’s attitude made me very inspired. I therefore started working on it immediately and was finished the next day, but I will post it in next week’s study diary since it belongs to Unit 9. I was also quite taken by Brian Larkin’s text, which was dense and hard to get through, but at the same time gave me a totally new perspective on the concept of infrastructure.
Ethnographic Film Unit 8 was about observational cinema and Frederick Wiseman’s first film Titicut Follies from 1967. By accident I checked the calendar of Arsenal Cinema and saw that they screened his latest film Monrovia, Indiana from 2018 this week, as part of an American independent film festival. I didn’t know the guy was still alive. He’s 89 now. The film was brilliant in many ways, mainly in its idea: Here is finally a guy who treats Americans in the same way that American anthropologists have treated people from various places in Africa. Again, Berlin delivers. I was excited to have found two amazing complements to this week’s studies.
I finished the first season of Dogs of Berlin. The series feels groundbreaking in a way, although I don’t watch many TV series. It feels like a turn driven by new technology. I can’t speficy exactly what it is, but the series feels so fresh, the feeling is like “so this is how it can be done”. The Netflix era. I had a similar feeling when I first watched 24: Not the idea of making each episode an actual hour (minus commercials) – that I considered mainly a gimmick – but the dramaturgy of having important characters suddenly turn on you, be revealed to be traitors. And then turn again. That trope was used extensively over the next decade or so until we viewers couldn’t care less. So something new had to be done. Dogs of Berlin is one of those things. It’s local, brutal and as exaggerated as a comic. Perfect entertainment. The letterbox on my 16:9 TV made me read up on the 2:1 (or 18:9) aspect ratio that Dogs of Berlin and several other high profile TV series are apparently filmed in.
I’m also rewatching season 2 of Mr Robot, which also felt groundbreaking now that I think of it. Maybe it’s just that I’m not used to watching TV series and they’re always this good nowadays! But Mr Robot also makes use of spectacular camera work which breaks the traditional cinematic rules in order to convey the feelings of Elliot. I’m watching on Amazon Prime on my old PS3 since I got Prime for free for a year as a student.
I finally reviewed WordPress’ new Gutenberg editor, which I must admit I hate. If anything looks strange, especially in terms of extra space where there should be no extra space – stuff like that – Gutenberg is to blame:
Artistic Practice in the Virtual Age // Post-internet Art
Aesthetics of Infrastructure : Practise-led-(Re)Search between the Virtual and Material Worlds
I mostly relaxed this week, and started reading the texts for the next units of Ethnographic Film and Digital Anthropology.
Next week school will start again, and I’m also super excited to do some proper work as well. That feeling of January, start of the year and all. Yes, the days are dark and Berlin is miserable. But I see it as just another reason to increase my screentime.
Observational Film and Beyond
Artistic Practice in the Virtual Age // Post-internet Art
