Here's the back cover of my actual-virtual Harbin ethnographic book draft:
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Naked Harbin Ethnography: ~
Hippies, Warm Pools, Counterculture & Clothing-Optional, Virtual Harbin
Hippies, Warm Pools, Counterculture & Clothing-Optional, Virtual Harbin
Academic Press at World University and School
Advance praise for
Naked Harbin Ethnography
- UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus Nelson Graburn
"People come to Harbin to soak in liquid god." -- said Ganesha Das at today's kirtan. He drives this classic Studebaker. — with Ganesha Das at Harbin Hot Springs.
An anthropology of the 1960s-70s forward, counterculture, virtual worlds and information technology
After you check in at the gate at Harbin, one resident who has worked there for years often says, "Go play." This ethnography of Harbin Hot Springs in northern California explicitly and theoretically brings together approaches to the comparative study of both the actual and virtual, by developing new methodologies in studying Harbin - as a kind of hippy or alternative haven from modernity. Through this anthropological book and conceiving of virtual Harbin, you can begin not only to "be there" - to visit Harbin virtually in the text, as it were - but also to revisit the 1960s and its related freedom-seeking movements. Moreover, Harbin Hot Springs' clothing-optionality, spirituality and alternative culture are attractive in mysterious ways. In the way that Margaret Mead's work was theoretical and gained widespread attention at the same time, this book will appeal due to the broad interest in emerging interactive virtual worlds, as well as 1960's informed alternative Harbin's exotic, yet familiar, attractiveness, now mediated digitally.
http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html
Scott MacLeod's research focuses on the anthropology of information technology and counterculture. He's taught the open free "Information Technology and the Network Society" course on Harvard’s virtual island and in Google group video Hangouts for many years, where he also teaches anthropology and sociology. He’s the founder, president and CEO of World University and School (like Wikipedia with best STEM CC OpenCourseWare – http://worlduniversityandschool.org).
After you check in at the gate at Harbin, one resident who has worked there for years often says, "Go play." This ethnography of Harbin Hot Springs in northern California explicitly and theoretically brings together approaches to the comparative study of both the actual and virtual, by developing new methodologies in studying Harbin - as a kind of hippy or alternative haven from modernity. Through this anthropological book and conceiving of virtual Harbin, you can begin not only to "be there" - to visit Harbin virtually in the text, as it were - but also to revisit the 1960s and its related freedom-seeking movements. Moreover, Harbin Hot Springs' clothing-optionality, spirituality and alternative culture are attractive in mysterious ways. In the way that Margaret Mead's work was theoretical and gained widespread attention at the same time, this book will appeal due to the broad interest in emerging interactive virtual worlds, as well as 1960's informed alternative Harbin's exotic, yet familiar, attractiveness, now mediated digitally.
http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html
Scott MacLeod's research focuses on the anthropology of information technology and counterculture. He's taught the open free "Information Technology and the Network Society" course on Harvard’s virtual island and in Google group video Hangouts for many years, where he also teaches anthropology and sociology. He’s the founder, president and CEO of World University and School (like Wikipedia with best STEM CC OpenCourseWare – http://worlduniversityandschool.org).
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