Infrastructure of Labor:
Going into the Infrastructure of Labor panel, I thought the material presented would be more relevant to media studies and possibly would explore media infrastructures such as how data is transferred from point to point. Sadly, the panelists didn’t address media infrastructures at all and presented their own studies that were focused on certain types of infrastructure and the humans, or laborers if you would, that these certain infrastructures impact.
First off, the way in which the panelists presented their research and findings was incredibly bland. Most of the information was read off by the panelists in a manner that was hard to follow and did not seize the attention of the audience. I think this could be attributed to the fact that most of the panelists did not utilize their presentation slides effectively. For example, as Rosalind Fredericks rattled off her research on the waste-disposal infrastructure in Senegal, her slides did not highlight the key points or main takeaways from the information she was presenting; the majority of her slides contained photos, specifically that of the union garbage disposal workers of Dakar. Kafui Attoh, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies at The Murphy Institute of CUNY, introduced his topic of research with the following video.
Not only was the video successful at captivating my attention because of the performance that the bus driver puts on for the court in the video, it also was very informative about the current challenges and poor treatment transportation workers face today. Right away, I knew exactly what Attoh was about to present to the audience because he provided context for his research. Although his research wasn’t necessarily media-related, I found it very provoking, as I had not realized, up until the point of his presentation, how unfairly transportation workers are treated today. For example, the fact that bus drivers are deterred to take rest room breaks due to the impact taking a short break could have on their bus schedule is completely ridiculous. I firmly believe that it is a natural right for a human to be able to go to the bathroom when he or she pleases, but moreover, not going to the bathroom causes discomfort so more likely than not said worker is not going to be able to complete their job to the best of their ability if they are not feeling bad.
Another presentation that I found interesting and most relevant to our course was Catherine Fennel. Fennel described the present drawbacks with how houses, specifically houses in the city of Detroit, are demolished. One interesting fact that Fennel put forward is that almost half of all landfills are composed of housing construction material. The most terrifying aspect of the aforementioned fact is that a majority of housing material contains lead paint. Therefore, these landfills are extremely toxic and furthermore, the demolition of lead painted uninhabited houses in Detroit causes the uplift of mass amounts of toxic lead dust into the air. This phenomena connects back to the article “The Geology of Media,” which states, “the heavy concentration of toxins that will last much longer than the businesses and remind of the geological afterglow of the digital hype, the residue of the tech companies use of chemicals in the manufacturing of our devices.” (Parikka, “The Geology of Media). Just like the businesses that Parikka references in her article, the “the heavy concentration of toxins” and the effects of these toxins will last for much longer than the Detroit houses that were manufactured with the use of these toxins. For instance, Fennel asserted that recently a correlation has been found between lead poisoning and the poor educational performance of children who live in poor areas. This correlation exemplifies the possible long-term effects of unregulated infrastructure.
All in all, the panel was not phenomenal but it still provided me with a better understanding of state of different types of infrastructures across the world and how humans are impacted by said infrastructures; a topic which I was not well versed in before.
Sirgutz:
Despite many efforts to sit down and interview Brian Sirgutz, I was unable to meet with the current Senior Vice President of Social Impact and Social Innovation at the Huffington Post, which is definitely a bummer considering his past work as an artist manager early on in his college years. The fact that Sirgutz worked with Grammy-Award winning American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails when he was around my age is of acute interest to me because earlier this semester I started a multi-faceted talent management agency that represents various musical acts. Therefore, I felt that I could learn a lot about the music industry from him and that he could possibly provide guidance of some sort for me. Everything happens for a reason though, and needless to say, I took a lot of way from Sirgutz’s Dean Table at Gallatin.
One of the main takeaways from the discussion we had with Sirgutz was that you should be open to career-driving opportunities even if they don’t necessarily pertain to your ideal career path. Take for example Sirgutz’s own career path, after making a name of sorts for him in the music industry, Sirgutz found himself washed up and back in square one from the place were it all began, New York City. Once back in New York City, Sirgutz came to the conclusion that he wished to get readmitted into New York University to finish up his collegiate education he had started years prior. After months of pestering the board of admissions, Sirgutz was able to get readmitted, but despite accomplishing this feat Sirgutz set his sights on the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. He expressed upon the audience of students at the Dean’s Table how his education at Gallatin shaped the manner in which he thinks and analyzes problems and, furthermore, opened his ideas to career opportunities outside of the music industry.
From 2004 till 2007, Sirgutz combined his love for music and his drive for social change by working for the late R&B singer Aaliyah’s estate. Sirgutz specifically designed Aaliyah’s website, with the goal of reinvigorating the late singer’s fan base to support fund-raising efforts conducted by the Aaliyah Memorial Fund. I found this very relatable because for the final project of this course I was tasked with designing a prototype web interface for Panache—a multimodal online dictionary database. Similar to Sirgutz’s website, Panache is a non-for profit company that wants to elicit global literacy change through the utilization of our website and the various term definition illustrations it offers. With that in mind, I wanted to make sure that our website was intuitive and had a user-friendly interface which would ultimately allow new and old users to navigate the illustrations effortlessly. Another similarity between Panache’s website and Sirgutz’s approach to his social impact column, is that there are no ads featured on the Panache site and its revenue is generated through grants and small donations. Considering how successful Sirgutz’s social impact column is, I felt that incorporating a similar model into the website was necessary in order to drive the authentic and genuine content featured on our website.
Going to the Dean’s Table event was overall a really informative event that gave me a lot of insight into where my intended career path could branch off into and that I should be open to new and different career opportunities because you never know where that career choice could take you and the success it could possibly generate for you down the line.
