Saturday 30 January 2010

What is the value of "Interdisciplinarity"?

"Interdisciplinarity", according to Rob Colls, has been somewhat misused. It isn't about falsely fixing together departments and subjects for the sake of it. It's about the way you live your life. Your life is interdisciplinary, but you don't think about it. You don't differentiate between physics and literature in day to day existence. That's how you have to come to understand it. Interdisciplinarity happens in your head, not in faculties. It's in the familiar made extraordinary. So, Rob recommends, don't talk about it, DO it.

Things to think about, I think. Come to your subject with a broad mindset. Don't ignore any possibilities. For us at the Attic, that is something vitally important, Museum Studies being what it is. We work in a medium that is interdisciplinary. We work with Natural History and Human History, and Sociology and Anthropology. And sometimes, we don't think about it - and sometimes, we think about it too much.