Month: June 2014

Radical arts activism, sustainability by renewal & social justice: refining doctoral research via critical theory towards a working hypothesis

This post is a first draft of part of my doctoral research methodology.  I have been developing my thinking using a broad range of interdisciplinary approaches and theoretical perspectives that are both complementary and conflicting.  This has led to the development of a research design founded on a working hypothesis that (hopefully) better expresses the…Read more Radical arts activism, sustainability by renewal & social justice: refining doctoral research via critical theory towards a working hypothesis

The Challenges of Resilience for Cultural Organisations

Interesting new post by Anamaria Wills: can NPOs adapt & remain resilient in a fast changing cultural landscape?

4creativentrepreneurs's Blog

With the announcement about the next round of NPOs due in a couple of days, I’ve been thinking about Resilience and what it is that makes a resilient organisation. All over England, cultural organisations are facing a period of fundamental change in the ecology of the country’s arts.  Long held beliefs and assumptions about the relationship between the arts and government, the arts and funding, about the nature of arts organisations themselves, are being challenged.  As in other sectors, competitive advantages have become transient. We are facing situations where advantages are copied quickly, technology is just one constant change, our customers seek other alternatives and things move on faster and faster.  In this challenging context, creating clear goals and linking/aligning innovation to more agile strategies for growth, differentiation and disruption is a vital role for CEOs and senior executives.  They cannot abdicate this role.

But for arts organisations, this requires…

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Second post : ‘Occupy artists take message to streets’ from BBC (via @illuminator99) # PhDResearch

Second post : 'Occupy artists take message to streets' from BBC (via @illuminator99) # PhDResearchThis link takes you to a really interesting piece by the BBC from 2012 exploring how Occupy use arts as a powerful means of producing counter-hegemonic discourse with big public impact.  Features Illuminator 99%.

Radical counter-hegemonic arts ‘participation’ that critiques instrumentalism by @illuminator99 #PhDResearch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHFwQ4UX0FY I have been a long-time admirer of the amazingly simple, incredibly expressive and exceptionally impactful work of activist arts movement Illuminator 99%. Their work epitomises, for me, the spirit of Occupy and other non-hierarchical counter-hegemonic movements. This video is the first of two I wish to post to (hopefully) stimulate some discussion around arts,…Read more Radical counter-hegemonic arts ‘participation’ that critiques instrumentalism by @illuminator99 #PhDResearch

A (brief) Critique of LacLau and Mouffe’s Discourse Analysis

Interesting critique of the discourse analysis of Laclau & Mouffe as ‘constructivist idealism’

Struggleswithphilosophy.wordpress

Media as Discourse – Lacau and Mouffe’s social constructivism ‘message without a medium’

In a follow up to a previous post on Deleuze and Guattari’s third major group of strata – alloplastic strata – I will now critique LacLau and Mouffe’s social constructivism. In general, while I see the merits of discourse analysis, I cannot but help feel it is a limited approach to understanding how the world is literally constructed, which is a limitation found in other forms of social constructivism.  The aim of considering Deleuze and Guattari’s model, or diagram, of stratification is it offers one a way out of language-dependent understanding of how the world is constructed and a more comprehensive idea of articulation. Hopefully, Deleuze and Guattari can help to demonstrate the limitations of Laclau and Mouffe specifically and social constructivism in general. 

 

            Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse analysis is an example postmodern theorising that…

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This is not a love song – lessons the arts might learn from football

I'm going over to the other sideI'm happy to have and not to have notBig business is very wiseI'm inside free enterprise This is not a love songThis is not a love songThis is not a love songThis is not a love songThis is not a love songThis is not a love songNot a love…Read more This is not a love song – lessons the arts might learn from football

This is not a love song – lessons the arts might learn from football

I'm going over to the other sideI'm happy to have and not to have notBig business is very wiseI'm inside free enterprise This is not a love songThis is not a love songThis is not a love songThis is not a love songThis is not a love songThis is not a love songNot a love…Read more This is not a love song – lessons the arts might learn from football

‘northerngame’ – review by Ron Moule

northerngame A child stands, face turned away from the camera, on a piece of ground somewhere near a small village in Northumberland. The ground seems marked, and marked out, as if for a ritual: possibly the celebration of a pagan god. The child is a question: a question of belonging, of tradition and masculinity, of…Read more ‘northerngame’ – review by Ron Moule

Grassroots arts social engagement

northerngame Working with traditional communities and contemporary exhibitions This post is an initial attempt to describe an extraordinary socially engaged art commission I was lucky enough to co-create with artist Stevie Ronnie.  The work was participatory; the exhibition likewise.  The opening was Friday 6th June.  The work is on show until the end of July,…Read more Grassroots arts social engagement

Buzzfeed and the “the acceleration of the temporal rhythm of late capitalist visual culture”

Mark Carrigan: "The quote in this title isn’t from a critique of Buzzfeed written by a contemporary critical theorist loftily bemoaning everything this site is coming to represent. It’s from a paper written by the founder of Buzzfeed when he was a critical theorist loftily bemoaning the cultural logic of late capitalism..." Hmm...