CCK08: Week 5 Stephen, George, Jon, Terry, Frida, Antony and Leonard

I have been looking forward to this week’s CCK08 Connectives and Collectives readings, viewings and listenings. I do not read ahead of the course and reserve each Monday for reading, reflecting on and writing about that week’s materials.
I am fascinated by the creativity of course participants and the emerging visualisations of the ideas, concepts, thoughts and reflections. This week I would like to add a music metaphor to the mix of discussion to make sense of connectives, collectives, groups, networks and affordances.
Although my knowledge of pop music is somewhat dated I recall that some musicians were listed by their names (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young) whilst others were aggregated as a group name (The Rolling Stones). Sometimes a member of the group became pre-eminent during the lifetime of the group and had their name listed ahead of the group (Diana Ross and the Supremes). Sometimes a backing group was formed to support an established individual (Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds).  Sometimes the creative energy in a group had a centrifugal effect and groups disbanded (The Beatles). Still other groups chose a title to conceal the identity of the individuals even though their artistic flair was an individual (unique) contribution (The Traveling Wilburys).
Given the differences I perceived in Stephen’s, George’s and Jon and Terry’s contribution to Week 5’s discussion I thought I would list them as individuals in the title of the post rather than as The Collectives. As ever, I reveled in Stephen and George’s views. I found Jon and Terry’s social view of e-learning thought-provoking. (I was sidetracked by contemplating Figure 1 in their paper. Is the relationship between a network, collective and group symmetrical with equal space for each element and overlap?)

Whether it is serendipity or providence I have been listening to Frida Ohrn’s (Oh Laura) Release Me.
[youtube=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=xYfsJ6rXgoc]
The lyrics are:
I am the wilderness locked in a cage
I am a growing force you kept in place
I am a tree reaching for the sun
Please don’t hold me down
Please don’t hold me down
I am a rolling wave without the motion
A glass of water longing for the ocean
I am an askful flower breaking free but you keep stopping me
Release me
Release me
I am the rain that’s coming down on you
That you shielded yourself from with a roof
I am the fire burning desperately but you’re controlling me
Release me
Release me
I think these lyrics embody the issues Stephen and George discuss this week.
A few weeks ago the SBS broadcasted a Leonard Cohen tribute I’m Your Man. In it Antony Hegarty sang If It Be Your Will. YouTube provides a link to Leonard Cohen’s own version of this song.
These are the lyrics:
If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will
If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well
And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will
If it be your will.
In the context of this week’s readings it is fascinating to hear two distinct voices (Antony Hegarty and Leonard Cohen) with the same content. I am wondering if Frida, Antony and Leonrad encapsulate the issues under discussion this week.
By coincidence I have been working with someone who is exploring the works of G H Mead, Harold Garfinkel and Erving Goffman. Even with these three thinkers the profundity of the study of the self and social norms is enormous!
I am hopeful that I will remain an ‘askful flower breaking free’ whilst being nourished by the wonderful connections offered by a network (and community) in CCK08.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Keith, your knowledge of pop music may be dated, but as someone who had no idea what the topic of this post was (Connectives and Collectives), after reading your analogy/s it was very clear. For the record, while a backing group was indeed formed to support Nick Cave, over the years it has evolved to the point where effectively the same group of people released a CD under a different name (Grinderman) to represent the contribution that all members make.

  2. Hi Keith – I love the way you have used music to describe different types of groups – particularly since all the groups are very familiar to me 😉
    I’ve had a quick look at your links to Mead, Garfinkel and Goffman and I really like this from the Goffman link
    ‘Goffman suggests that life is a theatre, but we also need a parking lot and a cloak room: there is a wider context lying beyond the face-to-face symbolic interaction.’
    I can relate to the theatre, parking lot and cloak room in relation to this course!
    Jenny

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