Civilising claims

Dr Hye-Kyung Lee’s latest article appears in the current issue of the journal Poetics.

Entitled ‘Uses of civilising claims: Three moments in British theatre history’, the paper argues that, during the last ten years, British cultural policy has seen “a remarkable rise in the discourse of culture’s civilising and governing powers, which are commonly called the ‘social impacts’ of culture.” Seeking a broader historical context for these policies, Dr Lee examines “the use of civilising claims at three moments in British theatre history”, namely commercial theatre management in the nineteenth century, the repertory movement of the early twentieth century, and state arts subsidy after the Second World War.

For members of King’s College London, and other subscribers to the Science Direct journals service, the article can be read here.

Punk rock as English heritage

Dr Ruth Adams’s latest publication is a paper for the academic journal Popular Music and Society entitled ‘The Englishness of English Punk: Sex Pistols, Subcultures, and Nostalgia’. The paper considers “the Englishness of the Sex Pistols and the cultural productions associated with them”, asking whether “the challenge that they posed to conventional, Establishment, consensus notions of Englishness has merely been recuperated as an entertaining diversion within a broader hegemonic nationalist history or whether this challenge has had a more fundamental impact”. It argues that “the Pistols facilitated a reframing and a re-imagining of English culture and left a legacy, which has been drawn upon by a number of subsequent art and music subcultures.” If you have a subscription to Routledge journals, you can access the paper here.

Beijing DJ wanted

Dr Ruth Adams is looking for a Beijing-based DJ, “preferably one who is able to scratch”. Ruth’s friend’s band, Belleruche, are playing at a Jazz festival in Beijing in November and are looking to hire a local DJ as their own is unable to be there. More info at their MySpace page www.myspace.com/belleruche. Please email any leads to ruth.3.adams@kcl.ac.uk.

Millennials and Music Industry

Lost in CCI recently learned that, in marketing-speak, someone born after 1982 is known as a ‘millennial’. A conference entitled Face To Face With The Millennials, organised by Music Tank, will take place on 17 July here in London, looking at how this generation consumes music and interacts with labels, bands and artists. Further information about the event can be found here. If you’re a music fan with something to say and would like to join an informal discussion panel, please contact jonathan@musictank.co.uk, putting ‘Interview’ in the subject heading.

Contentious Museums

Readers of Lost in CCI may be interested to note that the ‘Contentious Museum’ conference will be held in Aberdeen 20-21 November 2008. The draft programme is now available at www.abdn.ac.uk/contentiousmuseum and bookings can start being made.

Lunch with Vivienne Westwood

Centre Director Dr Richard Howells has had the unusual pleasure of lunch with fashion doyenne Vivienne Westwood. They met at the annual convocation of the Royal College of Art, where Dame Vivienne had just received an honorary degree. The two found themselves sharing a table, and as the meal progressed the celebrated designer was particularly keen to talk about her new “Active Resistance to Propaganda” campaign and pressed a manifesto into Richard’s comparatively unstylish hand.

The manifesto takes the form of a dramatised conversation between characters including Alice (as in Wonderland), Pinocchio, Aristotle and Westwood herself. It’s all about the importance of art, the need for culture – and both as the antidote to propaganda. She concludes: “If you follow it your life will change. In the pursuit of culture you will start to think. If you change your life, you change the world.”

Many of the concepts included will not be unfamiliar to students of the MA in Cultural and Creative Industries, a number of whom would have been amused to see their programme director discussing Frankfurt Theory with the woman credited both as a progenitor of punk and the designer of Carrie Bradshaw’s wedding dress in Sex and the City.

And the manifesto? Check it out for yourself at http://www.activeresistance.com Comments welcomed!