30 years later; A New Start

 This is an experiment, it may not last. 

In 1993 I was accepted as a PhD student at the department of Art History, I had an idea about Digital Aesthetics that I proposed as the subject of my thesis. My point then was that I somehow could see and describe new forms of artistic production inside the then very speedily evolving world of computer graphics and online technology. But I also got very much involved in teaching Art History so the thesis remained half-written and I gave up on the project. There where more stuff happening in my life at the time, and I was not the best prepared PhD-student. Instead I became an adjunct and teacher at my department.

A few years back I wrote a short article in an anthology on Nature that we all at the (now) division of Art History worked with. It was a very enjoyable writing process and I restarted my thesis project again. And then Covid hit and everything was turned up-side down again for almost two years. At the end of that period I hade accumulated a lot of repartiation-time from various jobs as well as some over-time. And it dawned on me that if I could take all that time and dedicatedly write on my thesis for several months without interruption I would probably be able to do it, to actually write that dissertation. My boss at the Department of Cultural Sciences (of which Art History is now a part) liked the idea and offered some more time for me so I could get a full semester off for writing, with the catch that I can't have any other projects running during that time.

So this last Friday, October 28th 2022, all details were finalized; I have half a year off from my two other projects at the university and all is set to go for the fall semester of 2023. For those of you who don't work in academia or other large organisations; the budget and planning for 2023 has to be finalized now, so doing this just a year in advance is really very fast. 

Another thing changed these last weeks, I have switched from Swedish to English in my writing. I might elaborate on why in another post.

This blog (and yes I know it's an old format and all that, I just don't care, it's a good format) is my way of keeping track of my work with the thesis and to keep myself somewhat accountable by making public notes on my progress. I'll write another post explaining what my thesis subject looks like now, it's a bit different but still in the same area, but now I play a few videogames.