Book Launch – Culture and Globalization Series 3

Book launch: The Cultures and Globilization Series 3

Friday 20 November 2009, 5pm
Rivington Place

Event to launch Series 3: Cultural Expression, Creativity and Innovation.
This event co-sponsored by Iniva and LSE Global Governance marks the publication of Volume 3 of The Cultures and Globalization Series, entitled Cultural Expression, Creativity and Innovation. The series maps the complex inter-relations between globalisation and culture in its many forms in the contemporary world. Dr Maruska Svasek of Queen’s University, Belfast, Dr Mo Tomaney, University for the Creative Arts, Epsom, Prof. Andrew Dewdney, Southbank University and Dr Helmut Anheier, Dean of the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, and co-editor of the book will participate in a panel discussion chaired by co-editor Prof. Yudhishthir Raj Isar of Iniva and The American University of Paris. The discussion will explore the complex relationships between arts practices and the flows of signs, symbols and meanings. The Cultures and Globilization Series is published by SAGE.

Exhibitions and events at Rivington Place are free. To book for events email bookings@rivingtonplace.org, or phone 020 7749 1240.

Opening hours:
Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm
Thursday late opening until 9pm
Saturday 12-6pm

Iniva
Rivington Place
London, EC2A 3BA
Nearest tubes: Old Street/ Liverpool Street
www.iniva.org

Betting on Shorts (BoSs): More than a Eurovision of Shortfilm 2009

Dr Ruth Adams has asked us to post details of this forthcoming event.

14 November 2009 Roxy Bar & Screen, London Bridge SE1 1LB,
betting time: 6.30pm
screening time: 7:00pm
Tickets: £5 /£4 Roxy Members.

Now in its fifth year, BoSs once again presents a selection of animations, narratives, documentaries and artist films from around the world, this year in response to the theme Control.

The programme will be screened simultaneously at the Roxy Bar & Screen in Londonand in Athens, Barcelona, Bucharest, Maribor, Naples, Novi Sad, Poznan, Thessaloniki, Stockholm and Wiesbaden.

The films are judged in each venue by a local jury and the overall favourite is awarded glory, fame and £500 cash. But before the show begins the audience will be asked to bet on who will be the grand winner. Bet on the right film and win a Roxy Membership. Audience winners will be announced in the bar as soon as all the juries’ decisions are in. After the screening there’ll be music and celebrations in the bar.

Check out clips of the films in the Roxy or on www.bettingonshorts.com from 7 November.

The London Jury includes: Philip Ilson (London Short Film Festival), Philip Wood (Roxy Bar and Screen) and Tessa Garland (artist and curator of Visions in the Nunnery). Sponsored by The London Consortium and Nextnode.net. BoSs is run by Ricarda Vidal, Irini Marinaki, Konstantinos Stefanis and Sarah Sparkes.

Chinese MA CCI students win BBC quiz

Congratulations to the team of 13 Chinese MA Cultural and Creative Industries students, pictured left, who won a BBC Chinese Service quiz on Friday 30 October, beating stiff competition from Imperial College, the Cass Business School, the University of Westminster and City University. The quiz, which featured questions about life in the UK, was filmed, and parts of it can be seen here. Many thanks to Didi Cai for sending the photo. And, to everyone on the team: 加油！(= well done!)

Congratulations to Joaquim -Again!

Congratulations again to CMCI’s recent PhD graduate Dr Joaquim Negreiros. He’s now won a post-doctoral award from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, the public Portuguese institution that supports scientific research.

The grant will enable Joaquim to carry out a research project focusing on the connections between citizenship and family life, and how these are affected by different living arrangements.

This will in turn involve the close study of two groups of people: those in “conventional” family units and those in “solo living” situations.

At the end of the project, both a book and an international conference are planned. Joaquim’s doctoral study at CMCI was supervised by Dr Richard Howells.

Forever Jung

As Culture, Theory and History leads… the BBC follows! Dr Richard Howells’ lecture on psycho-analytic theories of culture was followed this week by a Today programme item on Carl Jung and his recently published Red Book.

You can read all about it at the Today programme site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8318000/8318707.stm
But the item also explains why Jung is still so important today. It even defines archetypes and the collective unconscious…

You might think that the article following the lecture is a coincidence. But what did Jung tell us about synchronicity….?

Media Clusters

CMCI’s Professor Andy C Pratt gave a paper at an international seminar held in London on the topic of media clusters. The conference, organised by Prof R.Picard of Jonkoping International Business School in Sweden is one of three that has been held in the last 18 months and has as its objective the production of a research book comparing media clusters across the world.

Andy gave his presentation on the London media cluster that builds upon the work he has carried out in the last 5 years on film, television, new media and advertising clusters in London. Other cities in the project include: Toronto, Vancouver, Johannesburg, Hilvershum, Singapore, Dubai, Munich, Sydney, Trollhattan, and Manchester.

Shadow (Minister) Boxing

Centre Director Dr Richard Howells will be debating Shadow Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey, MP at the annual Battle of Ideas this weekend.

“Can the Arts Save the Economy” will be the topic under dispute at the event, staged by the Institute of Ideas and held at the Royal College of Art in London.

Joining the discussion with Richard and Ed will be James Boyle, former controller of BBC Radio 4, Angus Kennedy, IT consultant, and Karl-Erik Norman the opera singer and Secretary General of the European Cultural Parliament.

The Battle of Ideas is an annual event, dedicated to “shaping the future though debate.” Participants include journalist, academics, politicians and public figures from across the UK. Sponsors include The Times online, the Economic and Social Research Council, SAB Miller, Shell Oil and the Welcome Trust.

For more details of this and the whole weekend, including tickets and booking, go to www.battleofideas.org.uk

Museums and Urban Regeneration

CMCI’s Professor Andy Pratt has been busy presenting ongoing work about museums and urban regeneration.

He recently presented a joint paper at a seminar at LSE, written with Corinna Dean and Caroline Donnellan of LSE Cities Programme, entitled ‘The Tate Modern: pushing the limits of regeneration’. The paper discussed a range of tensions created within and without the museum through the multiplicity of audiences that the modern museum has to appeal to. The paper will be re-written for a special issue of Cities, Culture and Society on regeneration in London in the last decade.

He also presented a paper entitled ‘The museum, the cultural economy and the creative city‘ at a conference ‘Museums, the cultural industries & social inclusion: outlining & unearthing alternative perspectives’ supported by DCMS and ESRC, and Leicester University held at the Sackler Centre of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

MediaFest

CMCI joined with the National Media Museum to present “MediaFest”, which concentrated on the role of women in today’s media. The event as hosted by Professor Ros Gill, and also attended by our Media Liaison Officer, Fernanda Fain-Binda.

Fernanda reports a “stirring and provocative” key note speech from Emily Bell of the Guardian, who argued that changes in the media create more opportunities for women by breaking down institutional frameworks created by men.

This change was contrasted with the current state of women’s representation within the film industry, as Rachel Millward, CEO of Birds Eye View pointed out that statistically, the artistic and financial side of the movie business were still very much part of the old boys’ network.

Professor Gill’s presentation on her research of working conditions in the digital media industries had heads nodding across the conference.

Finally, a critique of Lady Gaga was made in the analysis on sexualised imagery, but Fernanda was quick to come to her defense!

Podcasts on the event will be available from the NMM shortly.

After the Fall

CMCI’s Professor Andy Pratt is one of the organizers of the “Creative Cities: after the fall of finance” event at the World Congress of Sociology in Sweden next year. He’s also calling for people to take part.

The session will explore whether the global financial crisis is changing prospects and policies for cultural and creative knowledge in different urban and national contexts.

They will also be asking whether the meltdown of finance is generating hardships or relief for cultural and knowledge ensembles -or perhaps even new opportunities for development?

Paper proposals should be sent to session organizers as well as the conference coordinators: Fernando Diaz Orueta, Fernando.diaz@ua.es and Kuniko Fujita, fujitak@msu.edu by October 31, 2009.

For more details, see: http://www.isa-sociology.org/congress2010/rc/rc21.htm