Social Inquiry student Matt Rochford about his time at Nerds FC
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The interview was conducted by Writing and Cultural Studies student Steph Liew.
What defines a 'nerd'? The ability to memorise over 400 decimal places of the number pi? An unbridled enthusiasm for anime conventions? Or perhaps someone who thinks about the interstices of seemingly mundane or irrelevant things, like white noise, or text messages. As a lover of the latter pair, it is fitting then, that Social Enquiry student Matt Rochford heard about auditions for the second series of SBS' reality television show 'Nerds FC', through SMS.
"I got a text message from Tim Kirk who was in the original series of Nerds FC. He sent me a message saying they're looking for new members for the new series so I went along to the auditions at Sydney Uni and I brought along all my old mobile phones, about twenty."
Social Inquiry student Matt Rochford and his team at Nerds FC
Photo courtesy of SBS and Fremantle Media
Upon being asked why he considered himself a nerd, Matt told the 'Nerds FC' judges that he cared about "the details about things, especially the intricacies of the way the social world works."
As one-fourteenth of the 'Nerds FC' team whose collective interests range from computers and psychology to maths and medieval re-enactment, Rochford says that his "nerdy qualities" stray from those attached to the archetypal nerd.
"I'm not a nerd in the traditional sense of that calculator-carrying, hands-in-pockets, glasses-wearing, mathematically-minded, socially-inept nerd. I'm not that kind of nerd, but because I care about things on a level that leaves me to inquire - which sort of flows into my Social Inquiry degree - into things that might not be cool or comfortable for people (but I do it anyway) and investigate possibilities that might seem a bit 'out there', I consider myself a nerd. Also I live with my grandma, which might seem pretty nerdy."