MATCH NOW: Theories of Detonation

"Wanna try? I'll be your detonator"

NaNaNa (NaNaNaNaNaNaNaNaNa), MCR

The 2012-2013 Academic Calendar has come to a close for many of us in MATCH and as we transition into our summer research and other projects, it is important to mark a year of significant accomplishments as we tend fires to carry us towards whatever the future holds.

While initial suggestions for a Theory Working Group was met with general support, there was an initial concern that similar ventures have often folded in relatively quick order. Nonetheless, come September (really late August) MATCH  was officially announced, an event was set and readings dispersed. The feeling going into the first meeting was this:

Rather than worry over perpetuity and goals, let's focus on the present and doing things --- even if MATCH blows out like a candle in the wind, it will nonetheless exist to give a little light and warmth here & now.

With a full set of 6 meetings (3 each term), including a discussion of Failure, Cyborgs, Bubbles, Affect, Hotels, and a Round-Table on the Personal Side of Academia we made something; not least of which was community. The second set of 3 meetings saw the launch of our website and podcast (which will both be expanded in the next year).

As we broke bread and shared a drink to discuss the future, the feeling we started with remains: to move ahead like the next project could be our last, finding what we need as a community here and now and doing that.

In that spirit, drawing on the interests of the members, MATCH has started the KINDLING Series to edit and publish a collection of essays under the title Mad Sciences. Leigha McReynolds will act as the Series Co-Editor along with MW Bychowski, and the Call for Papers has recently been released.

A second collection of papers from the Round-Table "Attitude, Affects & Alliances in Scholarship" is being published by PREFIX.

Finally, starting next year, Patrick Henry will become the acting Co-Director of MATCH.

Thanks to all who has made this possible, you keep my candle lit as we work to make the intellectual world (in & outside academia) a place for intellectuals & intellectual growth; especially for young minds. We are not just the future, we are the now, let's define it.

Be a MATCH: Burn on! Remain a mobile, active, theoretical, community seeking the best of what the "humanity" of the Humanities can be.

Sincerely,
MW Bychowski