I don’t make resolutions for new year. I do however always make myself a reminder about what’s important in an academic life. The reminder is usually a quotation that I’ve found during the year, something I want to think about and perhaps use later.

The quotes are on sticky notes I keep on my desk top. In the week between Christmas and New Year I review the year’s sticky notes. I find something that resonates, then I print it out and put it next to my computer.

A lot of my sticky note quotations are about writing and scholarly practice. But some, like this year’s choice, stem from the arts research that I do.  in 2018, my quote is from Gilles Deleuze writing on Nietzsche:

… dance, laughter and play are affirmative powers of reflection and development. Dance affirms becoming and the being of becoming; laughter, roars of laughter, affirm multiplicity and the unity of multiplicity; play affirms chance and the necessity of chance. (p. 183)

In performative work environments and grim political times, maintaining a focus on the small, the here and now, the human and humane, seems very necessary.   This coming year I want to keep sight of the importance of being, being in the moment, being with other people, being open to and welcoming of the pleasure of the serendipitous.

I’m also going to live up to this sketch that Linda Stupart made of me during 2017 TATE summer school.

Oh, and yes, patter is going to be posting just once a week for the foreseeable future. Monday mornings, 7 am, GMT.