12 Experiments in E-Study for a Post-Pandemic World

Abstract

The current coronavirus pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented acceleration of online instruction, particularly in the form of e-learning, yet there has not been a commensurate movement exploring the role of study within a digital context. While e-learning seeks to replicate analog learning practices that result in measurable outcomes, e-study presents an alternative educational logic. E-study embraces the rhizomatic dimensions of the internet to foster singular educational experiences devoid of progress indicators, engaging with the digital on its own terms while revealing new potentialities. This article posits that these potentialities are actualized through studious drift, a yielding to a flow beyond one’s control that results in an ongoing process of stupification. The authors use the occasion of an experiment titled Studio_D to provide a framework for creating digital spaces that provoke studious drift and demonstrate its potential.