Rise of the Robots, Martin Ford
The Internet is not the Answer, Martin Ford
Who Owns the Future?, Jaron Lanier (a seminal work, it seems)
Beta Life, Martyn Amos & Ra Page (eds) [Sci-Fi stories + scientists' commentaries]
A story, essay, lyric or rhyme with no reason almost every day... or at least sometimes, randomly
Culture Clash, Scott Timberg
Rise of the Robots, Martin Ford The Internet is not the Answer, Martin Ford Who Owns the Future?, Jaron Lanier (a seminal work, it seems) Beta Life, Martyn Amos & Ra Page (eds) [Sci-Fi stories + scientists' commentaries]
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See the debate on my FB page - interestingly aggressive! Debate for me is about how we value (and measure) education in a capitalist society. Because, take it from me, the sort of radical education I might advocate will probably render the student unemployable, marginalised and depressed! For anyone with an emancipatory politics, it's increasingly problematic working in a commercialised academia: even a knowing, self-preserving hypocricy?
'Massively open online course (MOOCs) are in fact a calculated attempt to to have a winner takes all economy of teaching. If ever they work, every sdtudent will listen to lectures of the best professor in the world; there will be no teaching income for the middle-ranking academic' (Mike Holderness, New Scientist, 'A creative accounting', 14 February 2015, p. 46 -47)
Discuss. Last week we celebrated Ceredigion council declaring itself the first 'frack-free' local authority in Wales, the result of a more than a year's campaigning and particularly gathering 600+ signatures on a petition. Actually, Ceredigion has no shale gas of oil, no coal-bed methane and no possibility of underground gasification - so no chance at all of exploiting 'extreme energy'. Nevertheless, or rather even more so, the council's decision was made to underscore its own commitment to move completely away from fossil fuels in the request to mitigate climate change. The decision sent a signal to councils across Wales and beyond that it was possible to do this. No coincidence, the Welsh government backed a Plaid Cymru motion and declared a moratorium on fracking not long after the Ceredigion decision.
Otherwise, a few articles got published or inched closer. Kye Akins and I submitted our forum theatre piece 'fuller geographies and the care-ful co-production of transgressive pedagogies, or ‘Who Cares?’' as a chapter for a three volume series 'Transgressing Frontiers: Anarchism, Geography, and the Spirit of Revolt'. And 'Reading Groups as Radical Practice' , written with Sam Halvorsen and Kerry Burton, was published online by Antipode. Waiting to hear from Geography Compass about 'Participatory Geographies: Doing engaged research'. Also good news on organising 'Fracking and the imagination: Scraping the barrel or saving the day? which is a public forum of science, art and politics in Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Thursday 23 April 2015. Keynote speaker on 'extreme energy and human rights', Damien Short, confirmed. Also looking good for an artist presentation from Jessica Lloyd-Jones. Added mark Morgan to Quercus Burlesque and The Hittites for the evening gig too. There are two extraordinary exhibitions on in London at the moment. Anyone, particularly any geographer, who has the chance is highly recommended to take-in one or both.
Mapping the City (At Somerset House) was probably my favourite: street and graffiti artists map different cities in numerous creative, challenging and sometime beautiful ways. The influence of the Situationists, psychogeography and the dérive was very evident in many of the exhibits. Shepard Fairey's 'Berlin Tower' was arguably the most beautiful - and also seemingly conventional - image. Nug and Pike's trilogy of films, particularly 'King of the Line' were weird and hard to watch at times, but worth it. In between and beyond there were all manner of maps - sculptures, flags, photos, videos... Amazing stuff presented in the perfect space: 'Graffiti and street artists have an intimate relationship with the city. Through producing their work on this living canvas, inhabiting the streets, they come to understand and engage with the urban landscape in unique ways - through subjective surveying rather than objective ordinance.' Conflict-Time-Photography is amazing and very geographical, but it's also vast and there's an awful lot of reading to do if one is to be able to relate to the images: most visual exhibits do not stand alone so very well. An exception is Don McCullin's portrait of shell-shocked marine, one of the earliest images in the exhibition and surely one of the most powerful: the marine is a statue, grey and frozen and horrified. The short video on the Tate website by Dan Snow picks out some of the other highlights (sic) very well. One of the most moving for me, though was 'shot at dawn', Chloe Dewe Mathews' photos of places where a soldiers were executed for cowardice and desertion in WW1 - taken almost one-hundred years later, and poignant for the absence each landscape seems to lament so physically. Both these exhibition will stay with me for a long time. Singing from the same hymn sheet was a great symposium day from Panel 1 to the Pub in the evening. Here's some of the researchers and research most relevant to our street choirs research project; The Reverend Professor June Boyce-Tillman (feminism, ‘applied music’) How do we give value to each other without singing from the same hymn sheet? http://www.winchester.ac.uk/academicdepartments/PerformingArts/peopleprofiles/Pages/TheReverendProfessorJuneBoyce-Tillman.aspx Boyce-Tillman, June (2007b), Music and Value in Cross-cultural work. Chapter in Urbain, Olivier (2007), Music and Conflict transformation: Harmonies and Dissonances in Geopolitics, London: I. B. Tauris pp 40-52 Space for Peace (2012) http://www.winchester.ac.uk/newsandevents/eventscalendar/Pages/SpaceforPeace2012.aspx David Gilbert & Natalie Hyacinth (Geography) Music and popular creativity in suburban faith communities (including space/architecture/music) http://pure.rhul.ac.uk/portal/en/projects/music-and-popular-creativity-in-suburban-faith-communities(25ab2618-24b4-4170-9d28-ae5c8f31a8fb).html Rebecca Bramall (media studies) ‘The rise of the choir in austerity’ http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/staff/rebecca-bramall The Cultural Politics of Austerity: Past and Present in Austere Times (2013) Bramall, R. (2012) Popular culture and anti-austerity protest Journal of European Popular Culture, 3 (1). pp. 9-22. ISSN 2040-6134 Eiluned Pearce (anthropology) ‘Uncovering evolved mechanisms for community cohesion’ (e.g. singing) http://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/team/researchers/eiluned-pearce Caroline Bithell (ethnomusicology) ‘Reclaiming community theough the Natural Voice… (Practioners) http://www.manchester.ac.uk/research/caroline.bithell/personaldetails Caroline Bithell. A Different Voice, A Different Song. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. eScholarID:231947 | DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199354542.001.0001 Shilpah Shah (practioner) ‘My Heart Sings’ http://www.myheartsings.co.uk/ Dominic Stichbury (practitioner) Chaps Choir http://www.chapschoir.com/ Diana Parkinson ‘How gender affect community singing’ Middlesex University |
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December 2022
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