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Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 16:22:31 +0200 (MET DST)
From: The Weekender <Sandra.Fauconnier@rug.ac.be>
To: The Weekender <weekender@simsim.rug.ac.be>
Subject: The Weekender 092b
. The Weekender ...................................................
. a weekly digest of calls . actions . websites . campaigns . etc .
. post announcements & notes -> mailto:announcer@simsim.rug.ac.be .
. please don't be late ! delivered each weekend . into your inbox .
. http://simsim.rug.ac.be/announcer/ for subscription info & help .
. archive (separate msgs) http://www.egroups.com/group/announcer/ .
...................................................................
01 . Delbruegge & de Moll . HAMBURG ERSATZ
02 . pacsf@gold.ac.uk . PACSF NEWSLETTER VOL. 8
03 . Kalina Bunevska . ZAYAC No.3
04 . GAMEOVER . GAME_OVERv1.0 !exhibition
05 . Jon Ippolito . WNET Web site presents New York artists
06 . Axel Bruns . New issue of M/C now available
................................................................... 01
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 13:21:00 +0200
From: Ralf de Moll/Christiane Dellbruegge <modell@berlin.snafu.de>
HAMBURG ERSATZ
Dellbrgge & de Moll
http://hamburg-ersatz.trmd.de
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Der Hamburg Ersatz steht! Nach einjhriger Bauttigkeit sind nun alle
Etagen des siebenstckigen Turmes begehbar.
* Die erste Ebene stellt das Haus als Zelle menschlichen Wohnens vor, das
seine Bewohner formt und auf Grundbedrfnisse antwortet: die Befreiung von
der Schwerkraft, von der Arbeit, von Langeweile und Einsamkeit.
* Die zweite Etage widmet sich der Stadt als komplexer Organisationsform
des Zusammenlebens und hlt im Stadtgarten verschiedene Modelle vom
sozialutopischen Entwurf "New Harmony" ber die Unterwasserstadt fr den
Homo aquaticus, bis zur technischen Utopie EPCOT von Walt Disney bereit.
* Auf der Agora der dritten Ebene artikulieren die Datenkrper der
Ersatz-Hamburger, wie sie sich wnschen zu wohnen.
* Das Sprechzimmer auf Ebene vier bietet Gesprche mit Spezialisten ber
das Funktionieren der Stadt, die Ekstase des Programmierens, mit
Kunstpublikum gefllte Fuballstadien, das Internet als Club und die
Ambivalenz des staatlich berufenen Kurators fr Kunst in ffentlichen
Rumen.
* Das Auditorium der fnften Ebene lt Stadt als Sound erstehen und
ermglicht, sich ein akustisches Klangambiete zu mixen.
* Auf der sechsten Etage erwartet Sie der Philosophenweg auf einen
Plausch.
* Ganz oben angelangt genieen Sie den Ausblick ins All, die Aussicht auf
>Reisen zum Mond, auerirdische Siedlungsformen und den Klang der
Sphrenharmonien.
Der Hamburg Ersatz von Dellbrgge & de Moll ist das erste
netz.kunst-Projekt des Hamburger Kunst im ffentlichen Raum-Programms
"weitergehen". Als work in progress wird der Hamburg Ersatz noch bis zum
31.12.1999 im Internet angesiedelt sein. Anschlieend ist eine Bearbeitung
fr CD-Rom geplant, die von einem Buch begleitet wird.
................................................................... 02
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 17:44:05 +0100
From: pacsf@gold.ac.uk
Subject: Newsletter 8.
*************************
PACSF NEWSLETTER VOL. 8
*************************
Contents
1. Timetable of the Conference "Dislocating the West and the Rest"
2. How to Register, How to Get to Goldsmiths
3. Future Seminar Schedule
4. Abstracts from the last seminar
--------------------
1. Conference Timetable
--------------------
Finally, we could announce the detail of the conference. Please find
the below the timetable of our conference "Dislocating the West and
the Rest." Pass over the information to your friends and colleagues
who might be interested in the conference.
09:30-10:00 Registration (Room 150)
10:00-10:05 Introductory Remark by Scott Lash and
10:05-11:05 Plenary Speech 1 (Ian Gullard Theatre)
11:00-11:30 Tea Break (Room 150)
11:30-13:00 Workshop Session 1
Workshop A * D (Respectively Room 144, 143, 142, 137A)
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:30 Workshop Session 2
Workshop E - H (Respectively Room 143, 137A, 142, 144)
15:30-16:00 Tea Break (Room 150)
16:00-17:00 Plenary Speech 2 (Ian Gullard Theatre)
17:15-18:15 Panel Discussion (Ian Gullard Theatre)
And here is the detail of each workshops.
Workshop session 1 (11:30-13:00)
Workshop A: Practicing Theory (Place: MB144)(Chair: Jorella Andrews)
Claudia ALVARES (Media and Communications, Goldsmiths College)
Hannah Arendt and Frantz Fanon: On participatory politics as the
precondition
for a new humanism
Seong-ju HAM (Fine Arts, Leeds University)
The question of positionality in relation to Trinh T Minh-ha's work
Chris THOMPSON (History and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College)
Making Felt
Workshop B: Race and Representation (Place: MB143)(Chair: Celia Lury)
Yu-wen FU (Literature, University of Essex)
Cultural Representation after the Empire: Can Color Difference Explain
All?
Yeran KIM (Media and Communications, Goldsmiths College)
The regime of representation of the British black subject
Chi-Yun SHIN (English, University of Exeter)
Locating the Self: The Matter of Identity
Workshop C: Performing the National (Place: MB142)(Chair: Les Back)
Hiroki OGASAWARA (Sociology, Goldsmiths College)
Discourse on the 2002 World Cup : Exoticism, Egocentrism, but
Empowerment to
'outer-nationalism'
Giogio SHANI (International Relations, SOAS)
Location and Identity: The `Territorialisation of Memory' among
Diaspora Sikhs
Kaori TSURUMOTO (Sociology, Goldsmiths College)
'Modernising' the Japanese Masculine Subjectivity between 1868
and1906: Genealogical Analysis of Ethical School Textbooks
Workshop D: Rethinking Positionality (MB: 137a)(Chair: Paul Gilroy)
Josephine Ann CUTAJAR (Sociology and Equity Studies, University of
Toronto)
The Politics of Self, Identity and 'Other':The Interweaving of the
Personal with the Local, National and the Global.
Doreen FUMIA (Sociology and Equity Studies, University Of Toronto)
Respectability, Degeneracy and Liberalism Gets Under Your Skin
Anita Naoko PILGRIM (Sociology, Goldsmiths College)
Dynamics of Identification
Workshop Session 2(14:00-15:30)
Workshop E: Ambivalence in Postcolonial Writing (MB 143) (Chair:
Gareth Stanton)
Yinka ABETUYI
Postmodern Identity:- Geographical Location and Locational Geography
in Morrison and Soyinka
Keng fang LEE (English, University of Sussex)
Swan Mother and Banana Daughters: How Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan
translate Their Cultural Heritage into Cultural Identity Fomation
Ted MOTHOHASHI (English, Tokyo Metropolitan University)
The Discourse of Cannibalism in Early Modern Travel Writings
Workshop F: Media, Technology and Space (MB 137a) (Chair: John Hutnik)
Kiyoshi ABE (Informatics, Kansai University)
Technological Image of a Nation: Strange Coexistence of
Techno-Nationalsim and
Techno Orientalism in Japan
HU Hsing-chi (Cultural Studies &Sociology, University of Birmingham)
VCDs (Video CDS) and Cyber Communities: The question of "Asian-ness"
in Global
Culture
Toshiya UENO (Humanities, Wako university)
Techno-Orientalism and Media Tribalism in Inter-East cultural scenes
Workshop G: Designing the Self (MB 142)(Chair: Helen Thomas)
Yu-ling CHAO (Laban Centre)
Dance, Myth and Politics: The Representation of National Identity in
the Reper
toire of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre
Renate DOHMAN (Art History, University of Newcastle)
Liminal designs - Rest and West
Shizen OZAWA (Literature, University of Essex)
Scratches on the Face of the "West" : Kafu Nagai's "Voyage In"
Workshop H: National Identity and Global Discourse (MB 144) (Chair:
David Morley)
Jong mi KIM (Gender Institute, LSE)
How useful is postcolonial theory in Korean context?
Hiroshi NARUMI (Sociology, Goldsmiths College)
Mode-orientalism and Japanese Fashion as a Counterculture:
Representation of Japaneseness in the Discourse of Fashion and Body
I-fen WU (Literature, University of Essex)
Can The Camera Tell The Truth? :The Construction of Historical Sense
and The Question of Historical Representation in Hou Hsiao-Hsien's
Trilogy
------------------------------------------------------------------
2. How to Register, How to Get to Goldsmiths
--------------------------------------
You find the detail of the conference attractive and want to
participate in the conference? Good. Here is how to register:
Please 1)give us your name, institution, postal address, e-mail
address and tel/fax number,
2) enclose a check of 20 pounds (concession 10 pounds)
payable to Goldsmiths college,
3) and send to:
PACSF(Pacific Asia Cultural Studies Forum)
Centre for Cultural Studies
Goldsmiths College, University of London
New Cross, London, SE14 6NW UK
Please register early, otherwise you might not be able to get your tea
and coffee!!
There are also several inquiries directed to PACSF as to how to get to
Goldsmiths College. Here is the detail.
To get to room 150 in the Main Building at Goldsmiths College by
9.30am
>from central London on 24th, June, take the British Rail from London
Bridge, and get off at either New Cross or New Cross Gate Station.
Once
you are on the train, the journey will take 7 minutes from London
Bridge.
The college is about 5 minutes on foot from either station. If you
are
coming to this area for the first time, it is advisable to be at
London
Bridge by 9am.
Or alternatively, please use East London line of tube.
If you get off at New Cross Station, when you get out of the station
building, you will find yourself on Amersham Vale. Turn right and
briefly walk up Amersham Vale (about 15 meters) and you will find
yourself on
New Cross Road. Turn right and you will find yourself walking over
the
train rails. Immediately after this, take the zebra crossing on your
left
(you will be crossing New Cross Road), whence you will find yourself
on an
island. Take the right zebra crossing and you will be on Amersham
Road.
Walk up Amersham Road and take the first right. Walk up Amersham-Park
to the end of the road and you should see the Main Building coming
into
your view.
If you get off at New Cross Gate Station, when you get out of the
station building, you will find yourself on New Cross Road. Turn left
and walk
for about 100 meters and you will walk past Iceland. Cross the street
at
the first traffic signal after Iceland and walk in the same direction
as you
were before you crossed the street. Make a right turn at Lewisham Way
and walk for another 100 meters and you should see the Main Building
coming
into your view on your right.
The Main Building is a three-story red brick building. There is a
reception at the entrance where they will be able to tell you where
room
150 is. The committee will also put the notice as to indicate the
direction.
The address of Goldsmiths College is:
Goldsmiths College
University of London
New Cross, London SE14 6NW
Main switchboard 0171-919-7171
We look forward to seeing you at the conference!
-----------------------
3. Future Seminar Schedule
-----------------------
This is the last seminar in this academic year. So do not miss it!!
All welcome!!
Summer Seminar No. 4
Friday, June 18th, 4:30 - 6:00pm
Goldsmiths College, Main Building Room 137a
Seminar Title: Fieldwork
Commentator: Dr. John Hutnyk (Anthropology, Goldsmiths)
(PACSF thanks him for his kind support.)
Speakers:
Dr. Kawori Iguchi (Social Anthropology, Manchester)
The Meaning of a Practice
Kaori Tsurumoto (Sociology, Goldsmiths)
Modernising Japanese Masculine Subjectivity 1868-1906: Genealogical
Analysis of Ethical School Textbooks
-------------------------------------------------
4. Abstracts from the last seminar
----------------------------
Friday, 4th June, 4:30-6:00 pm Goldsmiths College, Main Building room
137a
Seminar Title: Whose identity is this?: Representation of otherness in
Film and Fashion
Commentator: Celia Lury (Sociology, Goldsmiths)
(PACSF thanks her for her kind support.)
Speakers:
Yeran Kim (Media &Communications, Goldsmiths)
"The regime of representation of the British black subject"
Abstract:
How has the regime of representation of the British black subject been
constituted since the 1980s? By focusing on the British black
independent
workshop, I examine the genealogy of the constitution of [the truth
of]
British black subjectivity, through representational practices.
First, I investigate the discontinuity in the history of black
diaspora:
what strategies have black subjects used to intervene in the political
space of representation in the context of governmental power, social
regulation and other public-private relations?
Next, I focus on the vivid and diverse activities of film
practitioners
through which specific styles of visual language emerged. In
particular, the collective nature of the workshop practices is
highlighted, since in that project, institutional discourses, popular
cultural elements, academic discourses and the narratives of black
communities are intertwined. I suggest that the characteristics of
hybridity and heterogeneity of their filmmaking processes are also
reflected in their film texts.
The last question is what styles of alternative visual discourses of
the
British black subject have been created within film text. I call them
'aesthetics of ambiguity'. The visual discourses of film texts are not
only reflective images but also a formative part of power/knowledge
system, by which different kinds of truth of British
blackness can be re-constituted. Therefore an alternative ways of
representation is an initial point from which the diasporaic history
can
be developed as the politics of 'differences'.
Hiroshi Narumi (Sociology, Goldsmiths):
"New Japonism in consumer culture"
Abstract:
The aim of this presentation is to consider the meaning of 'new
Japonism' in consumer culture. Fashion is not only a way of
articulating
body according to certain norms and aesthetics but also a battle field
in which the West and other cultures have contested. Since 1980s
Japanese fashion designers (esp. Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji
Yamamoto) have given strong influence over the western fashion by
problematizing the traditional notions of gender, body and race.
Having
denounced them as deviant and marginalized, the western fashion
discourse has redefined them and dissolved the otherness dialectically
according to its Orientalist project. Furthermore, while these
designers
are highly appreciated as artists nowadays, there is still another
exotic as well as techno-oriental representation of Japanese culture.
On
the other hand, because of disposition of auto-exoticism, non-western
fashion designers are willing to be subjugated to the western gaze in
order to be visible. However, is it inconceivable that any local
experience can subvert the western project of modernity? Through
looking
at representation of Japanese fashion, I will rethink how the West
appropriate other cultures, and how local culture (Japanese fashion
design) can be a counterculture to modernity in the age of
globalization.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
And finally, the below is two abstracts from the seminar, conducted on
21st May.
Soyang Park (Mphil research in historical cultural studies)
Cultivating post-colonial self in Korean resistance art
Abstract:
The aim of my project is to construct the meaning of avant-garde
artistic
practice in a post-colonial space. The avant-garde art responds the
problematic of its own identity caused by colonial modernisation. The
Minjung Art, as an example for this project is the most powerful
avant-garde
art movement in Korea, which has been repressed by the regime amid the
social upheaval of the 80s and early 90s. This avant-garde art reverts
the
meaning of 'art' as a 'pure form', which is imposed from the outside,
the
west to replace it with the true representation of the people's lived
experience from the inside. Through my study, I questions how an art
came to
be a space for a political resistance by forging the agenda of
native/self
identity reconstruction in the post-colonial/post-modern space in
retrospective of its own past.
Sakiko Nishihara (Freelance)
"Nationalising the self: case study of Japan"
Abstract:
As a 'Japanese' 'female' who has been away from 'Japan' for more than
2
years, I found out that I have been disciplined as a 'good' 'Japanese'
'female' through internalising Japanese norms and gazes.
I want to avoid fully belonging to any community; I am now effectively
lost between Japan and West. Yet I desire the comfort and pleasure of
belonging to a community. I take on Irit Rogoff's idea of "on being
lost"
to try to find a way of imbibing the pleasure of community/belonging
and
yet to make the experience of being lost a positive one.
********************************************************
Pacific Asia Cultural Studies Forum (PACSF) is a forum organized by
postgraduate students, with the kind support from Centre for Cultural
Studies, Goldsmiths College, University of London. PACSF aims at
providing an intellectual space within which those who are looking at
Pacific Asian issues can discuss, share problems and exchange ideas
through biweekly seminars and a conference. PACSF also tries to keep
and establish human network by publishing cyber newsletters. The
forum is mainly for postgraduate students, but open to anyone who is
interested in taking part.
********************************************************
(This issue is edited by Shizen Ozawa)
................................................................... 03
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 10:36:53 +0200
From: Kalina Bunevska <kbunevsk@soros.org.mk>
Subject: ZAYAC No.3
The Soros Center for Contemporary Art - Skopje, Macedonia
cordially invites You to attend the promotion of the
Internet Zine
ZAYAC - zine about young art culture No. 3
http://zayac.scca.org.mk/
and the exhibition
BREAKING THROUGH
Gordana Vrencoska
Wednesday, 16.06.1999, 8p.m.
CIX Gallery
Orce Nikolov 109
You may read in this number of ZAYAC:
- Gordana Vrencoska/ BREAKING THROUGH
- Vesna Kondeva/ARHITECTONIC STORY
- Kristina Miljanovska & Emil Petrov/PLURAL IN ONE
- Ana Bakalinova/CYBORG
- Robert Alagjozovski/THE PLAY AS A DOMINANT CREATIVE ACTION IN THE
PRESENT
- Maja Dzartovska/WHAT ARE YOU SEEING?
- Sasko Ilov/TRANSPARENT PHOTOS
- Kofalanja
................................................................... 04
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 03:07:30 +0200
From: GAMEOVER <play@gameover.org>
Subject: ann! ... GAME_OVERv1.0 !exhibition
<newz flash>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4weeks to go!. . .
GAME_OVER Version 1.0
#loading next level...
Game_Over [G_O] is an interactive EXHIBITION on COMPUTERGAMES!
an open source space-installation located on the web and
physically in switzerland; the exhibition offers active gaming,
characters, spaces, moves, surfaces, action and star-players of
the scene. the computergame in its cultural and technological
context... visit the web-site to push & pull...
I-D Magazine wrote...
"Tech-heads of the world are uniting and taking over...
grab a joypad and click to begin... an exhibition to explore,
experience and explain the spaghetti junction of modern
madness!" [Issue 51]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
OPEN SOURCE - 3 ZONES - ECHTZEIT
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
surf the user-pushed database in realtime...
choose PLAYZONE on:
http://www.gameover.org/
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
zone 1 interaction / action
zone 2 virtual architecture/ database
zone 3 information / surface
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
fluid topics;
characters-spaces-moves-surfaces-action-players
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
to visit the spectacular architecture and design....
CLICK HERE: http://www.gameover.org/
...and choose renderings
find more text-descriptions....
CLICK HERE: http://www.gameover.org/
...for extreme c64 sound-applet by micromusic.org
CLICK HERE: http://server.gameover.org/futurelab/gameover/
_._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _.
this exhibition is for ACTIVE GAMERS; for families to learn
what the kids are doing all day long... and for specialists
from the fields of new media, gaming, c64, architecture and
action_entertainment... so to say: for EVERYBODY!
>> MAKE THIS INFORMATION A VIRUS... SPREADIT!
PLEASE! publish this content_info in your publication,
post it to your mailinglist or preferred newsgroup and
forward to interested persons and friends...
_._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
more...
-> location/date
-> press_information
-> sponsors
-> disclaimer .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
<location> ZURICH SWITZERLAND
<date> NOW!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
GAME_OVER version 1.0 started april 14th 1999 and
will end july 4th 1999
museum fuer gestaltung zuerich
ausstellungsstrasse 60
ch-8005 zurich / switzerland
fon [+41] 1-446 22 11
http://www.museum-gestaltung.ch
tue,thu,fri 10am - 6pm
wed 10am - 9pm
sat-sun 11am - 6pm
<press contact>
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
for pictures and interviews
tina weber hilgarth or martina caplazi
fon [++41] 1-446 22 07 | fax [++41] 1-446 22 33
for Net.PR [email requests/links]
hans_extrem play@gameover.org
_._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _.
<sponsors>
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
GAME_OVER version 1.0 is funded by research grants of the
commission for technology and innovation KTI of the BUNDES-
AMTES FUER BERUFSBILDUNG UND TECHNOLOGIE SWITZERLAND and
supported by CREDIT SUISSE [main sponsor], IFA informatik,
SONY computer entertainment and SIEMENS business services
and many more... additional programs are organized by
digital brainstorming / KULTURPROZENT MGB, cinema riff raff,
load, booom and substrat at the rohstofflager.
_._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _._ _.
<disclaimer>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
we respect your online time and internet privacy. if you
prefer to receive no further information about GAME_OVER,
please send an email to: unsubscribe@gameover.org
. . . . . . . . . . . . m.i.c.r.o.m.u.s.i.c.</disclaimer>
................................................................... 05
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 14:13:01 -0400
From: Jon Ippolito <JIppolito@guggenheim.org>
Subject: WNET Web site presents New York artists
Web-Based Works by Fourteen Artists Are Chosen in First Thirteen/WNET Web
Showcase
http://www.wnet.org/reelnewyorkweb
For the first time, REEL NEW YORK is reaching beyond the airwaves and into
cyberspace with REEL NEW YORK.WEB. An online companion to WNET's annual
televised festival of local independent film and video, REEL NEW YORK.WEB
showcases outstanding Web-based works by fourteen local artists working in
this exciting new medium. Online works were selected by Barry Levine,
Director of wNetStation and Online Programs at Thirteen/WNET, and Carl
Goodman, Curator of Digital Media for the American Museum of the Moving
Image and curatorial consultant to REEL NEW YORK.WEB. Nominations were
received from the REEL NEW YORK.WEB Advisory Board, the public, and the
wNetStation staff. The Advisory Board was comprised of Kathy Brew of
Thundergulch, Kevin Duggan of the New York Foundation for the Arts, Mr.
Goodman of the American Museum of the Moving Image, Cheryl Harris of
Northstar Interactive, Carol Parkinson of Harvestworks, and Beth Rosenberg
of Eyebeam Atelier.
As it has in past years, the WNET Web site will also include a Web
companion
to the televised version of REEL NEW YORK, with clips from films and
videos
featured in the television series, artist interviews and photographs, a
festival calendar, and a resource guide for independent filmmaking. REEL
NEW YORK ONLINE can be found at http://www.wnet.org/reelnewyork.
REEL NEW YORK.WEB is made possible with public funds from the New York
State
Council on the Arts, a State Agency. wNetStation, Thirteen/WNET's
award-winning Web site, is a project of the New Media Group at
Thirteen/WNET's Kravis Multimedia Education Center.
Featured Artists:
Diane Bertolo
Isabel Chang
Janet Cohen, Keith Frank, and Jon Ippolito
David Crawford
Sabina Daley
Ursula Endlicher
Mark Napier
Erwin Redl
Yoshi Sodeoka
Annette Weintraub
Maciej Wisniewski
Neil Zusman
Press Contact:
Edward Gregory, Sr. Publicist
Thirteen/WNET
212.560.3021; fax 212.560.3012
e-mail: gregory@wnet.org
http://www.wnet.org/reelnewyorkweb
................................................................... 06
From: Axel Bruns <mc@mailbox.uq.edu.au>
The Media and Cultural Studies Centre at the University of Queensland
is proud to present issue four in volume two of the award-winning
M/C - A Journal of Media and Culture
http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/
'pop' - Issue Editors: P. David Marshall & Axel Bruns
M/C is an award-winning journal that crosses over between the popular and
the academic. It is attempting to engage with the 'popular', and integrate
the work of 'scholarship' in media and cultural studies into our critical
work. We take seriously the need to move ideas outward, so that our
cultural debates may have some resonance with wider political and cultural
interests.
It would be easy to take a highbrow approach to popular culture,
condemning
it outright -- many academics still do. Cultural studies, however, is
centrally concerned with pop in all its forms, be they pop music,
mainstream cinema, popular fiction, or anything else that has captured the
attention of a large slice of the public. What makes things popular? What
are the processes behind the production and worship of popular culture?
Where are the boundaries to populism? Can mainstream appeal and artistic
integrity exist in combination, or are they mutually exclusive? Does
anybody really like to listen to the Spice Girls? Our answers to
these questions mightn't always be popular, but should make for an
interesting read anyway. Have some popcorn ready, perhaps, when you read
the articles in this issue:
"Picking through the Trash"
In his feature article, Martin Laba checks for the vital signs of pop both
within and outside environments of commercial detritus. Not unlike
garbage-
picking, the project of this analysis is to work through the trash
dimensions of pop in culture, and to offer a sense of pop spaces and
moments not only in the mall, but also in creative cultural excursions.
"Ya Bloody Cappie!"
Sean Aylward Smith identifies an emerging aesthetic practice and asks
"what
is to be done?" He argues that 'the cappie' -- as in 'the consumer of
alternative pricey products' --, a creature obsessed with the conspicuous
display of an eclectic and obscure register of signifiers, is the
aesthetic
manifestation -- that is, the subjective embodiment -- of changes in
global
process of capitalism and production.
"Seen But Not Heard: Pop Culture Scapegoats and the Media Discourse
Hierarchy"
In the wake of the Littleton massacre, Nick Caldwell investigates the
incredibly repetitive media patterning of establishing cause and effect
relationships between outbreaks of youth violence and the usual suspects
of
cultural artefacts. He finds the discursive proliferation sadly familiar
as
the media looks to popular culture to stitch together its neverending
narrative without the requisite sideways glance at the cultural context of
violence.
"A Red Light Sabre to Go, and Other Histories of the Present"
The build-up to Star Wars: The Phantom Menace offers a potent site for an
investigation of popular memory. Tara Brabazon explores why this film has
capture such attention. Beyond the hype, beyond a marketing phenomenon,
she
looks behind the Darth Vader mask and Darth Maul's makeup to reveal a
framework of meaning, memory and politics.
"Justify My Love: Popular Culture and the Academy"
Diane Railton provides an invigilating examination of where academics have
engaged with popular culture. She notes that often pop is simply
recategorised with shifted monikers of high (legitimate) and low
(illegitimate) designations, and calls for a realisation of the political
nature of academic work on popular culture that moves beyond this new and
shifted constitution of cultural elitism.
"Painting Out Pop: 'Andy Warhol' as a Character in 90s Films"
Julie Turnock traces portrayals of Andy Warhol in recent movies, and
uncovers how Andy Warhol's blank visage sits uncomfortably with the
narrative and content of three films that need the richness of a normative
biography. In the process, the films cannot deal with the
conceptualisation
of pop that Warhol embodied as an artist, where content disappears to
surface and repetition.
"Wayne's World: The Making of a Hockey Movie"
David Riddell discovers that sports god Wayne Gretzky's retirement
reproduces naturally and seamlessly the spectacle of ice hockey into a
movie narrative. He performs a close textual reading of Wayne Gretzky's
last game in terms of heavily pre-planned causation which transforms the
pleasures of the unexpected that are part of watching any sporting event
into the constructed celebrity spectacle.
"What's Pop, and What's Not? Measuring Popularity in the Many-to-Many
Age"
Axel Bruns questions the meaningfulness of media popularity ratings, and
debates the significance of the ways the Internet determines popularity
(for example through the ubiquitous counters). The mythic models of
measuring the television audience prove to be inadequate to describe the
forms of interactions and sideward hypertext movements on the contemporary
Web. Nevertheless, the counting goes on....
"Making It Unpopular: The CIA and UFOs in Popular Culture"
Adam Dodd's provocatively argued piece indicates that a fear of mass
hysteria motivated moves by the CIA and other government agencies to
debunk
through apparent explanation any possibility that UFOs actually existed
and
were seen. Although we may never know the truth with the amount of
propaganda and misinformation masquerading as fact, Dodd presents an
interesting case study in the government control and movement of
information about a popular cultural phenomenon.
And in other news...
M/C Reviews - An ongoing series of reviews
of events in culture and the media.
http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/
M/C Reviews is a companion piece to the M/C journal itself. Publication on
the Internet gives us the freedom to keep its link to M/C proper
ambiguous:
M/C Reviews is neither simply a sub-section of M/C, nor completely
independent of it; you, the reader, decide how you want to see it. The
reviews are informed by the culture-critical perspective of M/C, but you
don't need to take notice of this fact; if you do, however, you'll find
that they tie in to some of the debates represented in greater length in
M/C. New articles are continually added to M/C Reviews.
Recent reviews include:
Kirsty Leishman "Politics is Elsewhere: 'Popular Culture and
Everyday Life'"
Nick Caldwell "Cyber Surf's Up: 'The Matrix'"
Kirsty Leishman "Point and Click to 'Cutnpaste'"
Shane Lewis "Sensitive Old Age Guy: 'True Crime'"
Shane Lewis "Must Try Harder: 'American History X'"
Sue McKell "A Vibrant Corpus: David Williamson's 'Corporate
Vibes'"
Sue McKell "Familiar Yet Lacking: 'Divorcing Jack'"
Eleonora Deak "The Truth Is in the Language: 'Language Myths'"
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Issue four in volume two of M/C is now online: <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/>.
Previous issues of M/C on various topics are also still available online.
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M/C Reviews is now available at <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/>.
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All M/C contributors are available for media contacts:
mc@mailbox.uq.edu.au
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end
Axel Bruns
--
M/C - A Journal of Media and Culture mc@mailbox.uq.edu.au
The University of Queensland http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/