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The C word(s)
A great post from Anne on the relations between and the material contexts of design practice, criticism and critique (and critical thinking – not the same thing as critique, as I keep saying until I’m blue in the face). It ends with this elegant provocation: And while we’re at it, how do ‘by-and-for the people’…
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complexity, pragmatism, critique
According to Theory, Culture and Society we are having a complexity turn. From John Urry’s introduction to the special issue on the topic: Overall, complexity approaches both signify and enhance a new ‘structure of feeling’; one that combines system and process thinking…such an emergent structure involves a sense of contingent openness and multiple futures, of…
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too hot for the beach
Against my better judgement, because I knew the effect it would have on my ability to focus on the rather cheerful article I’m writing, I spent a few hours catching up with some of the discussion that’s happening in my Australian cultural studies blogging neighbourhood about the Cronulla Riots. As predicted, the wind has gone…
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love and the mechanical sublime
In Adelaide over the weekend, I used Harry Potter as an excuse to experience the Capri Theatre first-hand. The Capri is a majestic, massively high-ceilinged theatre, with wooden floors, and two tiers of plush velvet seats. It is also home to the SA branch of the Theatre Organ Society, and boasts the most incredible theatre…
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the cultural public sphere
I haven’t really got the heart to involve myself in yet another round of cultural-studies-defensiveness-and-infighting just at the moment, but the discussion at Mel’s blog has prompted me to think that maybe it’s time for another set of Keywords, in the tradition of Grand Hegemon Raymond Williams. If I were brave and energetic enough to…
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Bringing Theory Home
Lilia Efimova has been thinking about the academic’s desire to explore and hunt down treasures deep in “theory land”, and how best to reconcile that with the ethics of research – by which both she and I mean something much more than the functional applied ethics that are represented by the hoop-jumping processes of getting…
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Activating the research ‘subject’
I’ve been aware of David Gauntlett’s ArtLab project at Bournemouth Media School’s Centre for Creative Media Research for a while, and keep meaning to post briefly on it. The ArtLab studies represent a new type of research in which media consumers’ own creativity, reflexivity and knowingness is harnessed, rather than ignored. In these studies, individuals…
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BigBrother as Morality Play?
Leaving aside for a moment the utterly barren and bimboesque human landscape that is this year’s Australian series of Big Brother, those of us in cultural and media studies will be more than familiar with the arguments for and against viewing reality TV shows like Big Brother as spaces for the exploration of everyday ethics…
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hopefulness
I hope one day I get Anne as a panel chair/moderator, because in her role as moderator of the final session at Floating Points 2 (on networked art in public spaces) she’s going to ask the panel members this most wonderful question: Isabelle Stengers has described the creative enterprise as an “adventure of hope” –…
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Guest Post: David Berry on Ethics and Enterprise in Open Source Communities
I’m so pleased that David Berry came through with a response to the WordPress/Google Adwords controversy, and in double-quick time too. By way of introduction (filched from his homepage on the Sussex University website): David M. Berry is a doctoral candidate at the University of Sussex, exploring the critical political economy of free/libre/open-source culture. The…