Flying

I'm in final preparation mode for my short visit to Malta, which starts this weekend. The main purpose of this visit is part of an Erasmus teaching mobility agreement between the University of Malta and the University of Hull. On Monday and Tuesday next week, I'll be delivering two lectures about the aesthetics of refusal. More about that in a minute.

My most recent visit to Malta took place about a year ago. At that time I had been away from the islands for four years. It felt like the visit should have been a life-altering event in ways I still find hard to articulate. Re-reading blog entries from back then I wonder whether I should take any precautions this time. I know that nostalgia will rear its ugly head a couple of times again but I also know that I'll do my best to keep it at bay. Still, no regrets. I like the present better than my past and I still believe we can make the future better, without utopic fervour.

The two lectures I'm giving next week are part of a module on trends in contemporary performance practice organized by Dr Frank Camilleri. Frank was recently appointed co-ordinator of the Mediterranean Institute's Theatre Programme, replacing Dr Vicki Ann Cremona, who is now the Maltese ambassador in France. I've entitled the first lecture Getting to No You: The Way of Refusal and the second No 2 NO: Beyond the Way of Refusal. These are not lectures I've given before, but they do draw on material I've either delivered at academic conferences before or referred to during other lectures I've given over the last couple of years.

I'm still planning out the lectures. I know that Eugenio Barba's writings on refusal will provide a solid springboard for my discussion. I'll also talk about networked performance and hacktivism. Perhaps I'll share some of my lecture notes on my blog later, if I feel like it. I think some aspects of these lectures will only be of any interest to university students interested performance and/or new media studies. Aside from this I'm fascinated by the challenge of making such material accessible to anyone who reads my blog. After all, these are my thoughts and this is my blog.

Interesting construction there on that last sentence, as I contemplate a lecture called Getting to No You. Are these really my thoughts? How much of my thoughts do I owe to others...especially those whose thoughts I've read and studied over the years. And is this really my blog? Could I have another blog that's different from this and also call that my blog?

Now, if this type of thinking/writing nauseates you, then perhaps you're one of the readers who will pass on my next posting or two, should I indeed publish a distillate of my lecture notes on the aesthetics of refusal. In that case you can hopefully find consolation in the fact that I'll be releasing a new Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast before I deliver these two lectures at Tal-Qroqq next week.