The Media Man

Sitting at his desk in front a hodgepodge of books, films and toys in East Pyne Hall, Professor Thomas Levin is not a typical faculty member. A self-proclaimed “disciplinary nomad,” he has worked at Princeton for 20 years, in fields ranging from architecture to German. Street caught up with him as he talked about working at Princeton, studying media, and Facebook.

Q How and why did you decide to become a professor at Princeton?

A It’s just a great place to work. They give me a lot of freedom, the students are excellent and the terms of being able to teach those kinds of things that I like are incredibly attractive. One of the things I love about teaching new media is that any 18-year-old knows more about new media and social media than I do, so they can teach me a lot. I, on the other hand, can help them contextualize it, theorize it, critique it. The result is a kind of give-and-take, a real collaboration, which makes the space of teaching one of collective, critical enterprise. And that’s what a good academic setting should be.

Q Why is it important to study media, and why surveillance in particular?

A If our political culture is shaped by media, then the only hope we have for a kind of future of successful democracy is if we can count on a citizenship that is able to navigate the complex landscape which is the unbelievable amount of media that we consume. How do you do that? What kind of skills does one need to think critically about media? That, in a certain sense, can be said to describe what my teaching is about in one form or another. I think questions of privacy, security and the degree to which the state can intervene in daily life are questions that are deeply contemporary and urgent.

Q Do you try to keep up with youth trends in media and pop culture?

A I try to watch a lot of movies. Here, too, my students often tell me about things that I haven’t seen, that I need to see, and then I go out and see them. Even more than film, however, it’s keeping up with new developments in technology like social media, like transformations made possible by new toys, smart phones, you name it. It’s a lot of work. It’s super fun. I also should say, I have young children. And there’s nothing like having a 7-year-old in the house to make you look at all kinds of media questions in an entirely different light. Is this something I want my child to be exposed to? What’s at stake in consuming these kinds of media? When is the right moment to start using a computer?

Q Do you have a Facebook account?

A I very decidedly do not have a Facebook page. Given that I work on surveillance, and given what we know about the — to put it diplomatically — problematic privacy politics of Facebook settings, and given my reluctance to spend that much time turning a Facebook page into the kind of productive site I would like it to be, I found that for me the responsible position is one where I remain a lurker.

Q I heard you once proposed a class on the aesthetics of pornography. Can you explain what your idea behind it was?

A Pornography is an enormously interesting subject. If you want to study the most advanced privacy, monetizing and other technological developments on the web, go to porn sites. They are at the absolute avant-garde because that’s where the money is. Considering that pornographic images are images that raise issues of ethics, politics, desire, gender politics, of the power of images, it’s astonishing that there aren’t many courses on pornography. With that said, pornographic images are controversial images. After working on developing the course, I realized this was not something I could teach responsibly without a female colleague. It was simply pragmatically that I didn’t find anybody who was comfortable teaching that with me then. I bet it’s something I’ll come back to.

Q What is one interesting fact about yourself that someone wouldn’t think to ask you about?

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A Some students might know that I’m a collector. I love to collect strange objects that are of interest to me theoretically. So, for example, I’m really interested in the history of voice mail. Collecting is part of my scholarship, part of my research, and if you’ve been in one of my classes, part of my teaching as well.

Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Lisa Han.