Chasing Dragons

Newcastle University Launches World Politics and Popular Culture MA Degree

I am pleased to announce that Politics at Newcastle University will be launching a new MA degree in World Politics and Popular Culture for the 2010-11 academic year. Here is the course description:

• World Politics and Popular Culture is a distinctive interdisciplinary degree programme that examines the changing dynamics of contemporary international relations in the context of the politics of the various forces shaping and shaped by popular culture. The programme focuses on key theories, policies, and events in world politics in relation to both traditional and new media. You will learn not only how to think critically about how world politics is reflected or reproduced in popular culture, but also how the politics of popular culture shape the dynamics of world politics...

The programme entails three core modules in Politics (World Politics and Popular Culture, Theories and Approaches to the Study of Politics, and a Dissertation in World Politics and Popular Culture) with 4 optional modules that can be taken from politics, cultural studies, media studies, and film.

Admission requirements are an undergraduate degree from an accredited university with at least a 2.i result--the rough equivalent in North American systems would be a B average.

Please note that 'other qualifications or relevant professional experience may also satisfy the entrance requirements. Applicants whose first language is not English require IELTS 6.5, TOEFL 575 (paper-based) or 233 (computer-based), or equivalent.'

Information on how to apply can be found here. There is no formal deadline--apart from the start of classes at the end of September--but if you are applying from overseas, securing a student visa can take several weeks depending on your circumstances.

If you'd like to talk to someone to find out more about the World Politics and Popular Culture MA, you can contact  Matt Davies, whose tremendous efforts and vision saw this through from design to implementation.

I'm also happy to field any inquiries that you may have about the programme or pursuing a MA in politics in the UK.

Disclaimer: If there are any differences between information provided here and that contained on official Newcastle University web-pages, the latter should be viewed as the authoritative source.

Collage and photo credit: DerrickT (work displayed under a Creative Commons attribution license)

Malcolm McLaren, RIP

Malcolm McLaren, artist, urban fashion guerrilla, godfather of punk, hip hop innovator, part-time politician, and pop- culture puppet-master died last night in Switzerland. 

Defiant, incorrigible, and roguish, he will be missed. 

 RIP, Mr. McLaren.

Call for Papers: 'Beauty Will Save The World': A Workshop on Art and Social Change

Are you currently working on a Masters or Ph.D. that explores aspects of how art and social change are related? Or are you really interested in the topic? If so, the following workshop organized by colleagues at the University of Bristol might just be for you. Please see the details below:

‘Beauty will save the world’*: An Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Workshop on Art and Social Change

University of Bristol, 7-8 September 2010

Hosted by the Department of Politics and sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Studies and the Global Insecurities Centre, University of Bristol

How does art construct, resist and contest dominant identities and social practices? How does art open up possibilities for (re)creating the world? What are the relationships between art, aesthetics, and politics?  What are the power relations involved in art? Whose art, and whose values are best placed to change the world? Can engaging with art help us develop new epistemologies and research methodologies? Can beauty ‘save’ the world?

This two-day interdisciplinary postgraduate workshop is premised on the assumption that art actively constructs social ‘reality’, as opposed to merely reflecting it. Against dominant pronouncements privileging the centrality of rationalism and science as the legitimate avenues towards knowledge and social change, this workshop poses the question: what does the ‘serious’ pursuit of ‘progress’ miss out on when it disqualifies the artist’s imaginary as superfluous, lacking impact, unimportant?

The workshop aims to bring together postgraduate students working in and across various disciplines to share research which looks at the contested meanings of art and aesthetics, explores art in different cultural and historical settings, and examines the ways in which art and its constructions of beauty, society, politics can help in understanding, and changing, the social world. The workshop will also enable postgraduate students to engage and network with more established scholars, who will be present at the workshop as keynote speakers, panel chairs and roundtable discussants.

We welcome paper and panel proposals (2-3 presenters per panel) which engage specifically with the theme of art and social change, from various disciplines, including but not limited to: Archaeology, Anthropology, Classics, English, Modern Languages, History, History of Art, Visual and Performing Arts, Cultural Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Sociology and Politics.

Ideas for papers might include:

• Art as nationalism;
• The aesthetics of social movements, protest and revolution;
• The envisioning of utopia(s);
• ‘The world as a stage’: playwrights, audiences and social change;
• Art as methodology.

Papers can include think pieces or works in progress. We encourage a diversity of presentation styles, from ‘traditional’ papers to interactive sessions, involving short film screenings, musical and dramatic performances, and the display of paintings, sculpture, photographs, and installation art. Presenters will be assigned a 30-minute slot for their presentation, which can be used by the presenter as they wish, but must include at least 5 minutes for audience questions.

Please email abstracts (maximum 300 words) of proposed presentations to both Cerelia Athanasiou (cerelia.athanasiou@bristol.ac.uk) and Shaira Kadir (shaira.kadir@bristol.ac.uk) by 31 May 2010.

Presenters will be able to make use of a digital data projector and DVD/CD player. However, we will not be able to provide musical instruments or any other specialist equipment.

*From Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot. 

Photo credit: mafleen

Download Beauty will save the world Call for Papers 

Why Are British Politicians Desperately Latching On To London Fashion Week?

One of the refreshing things about British politicians is that--in general--their sartorial sense is formal yet rather understated.  I cannot recall a published photograph of Gordon Brown not wearing a suit, David Cameron looks as though he is still dressed by his mom, Peter Mandelson sports the stockbroker by day-professional assassin by night motif, and Boris Johnson always looks as though he has just emerged from a dumpster located behind a really expensive haberdasher.

Why then have several notable politicians made a point of being 'seen on the scene' recently at London Fashion Week? Over at the Times Online, fashion editor Lisa Armstrong is speculating that a calculation has been made that the fashion industry can, 'for relatively little investment (unlike the car industry), be helped and ultimately reap PR dividends.'

My questions though are does a fashion industry still exists in the UK, and if so, what kind of industry exactly? Most of the major manufacturers--like Burberry--have relocated overseas. There are of course several globally established designers, smaller--often bespoke--producers, and a massive retail sector. But at least two of the three neither require, nor deserve, government support.

Promoting the regeneration of the productive manufacturing aspects of the fashion industry could be a welcome development if it could generate jobs while providing something tangible to the economy in terms of goods and skills. However, if effort goes towards boosting the retail sector or to designers who have their wares manufactured elsewhere-i.e., non-productive sectors like finance capital--the gains will be as transitory as those that got us into the current mess in the first place. Do you think this lot will have figured it out?

Image credit: ShedBOy^

SHOWstudio's 'Killed': Aesthetics, Politics, Power

A fascinating on-line exhibition called 'Killed' by SHOWstudio was recently brought to my attention. It contains a selection of published and unpublished fashion imagery that was commissioned and produced prior to the 9/11 attacks. While some of the images did appear in magazines, others were 'killed' because they were deemed to be 'inappropriate' for the post 9/11 climate by the editors who commissioned them.

The exhibition also features two essays. ' A War of Aesthetics' by Jo-Ann Furniss explores the fashion industry's response to 9/11 by providing insight into how its desire to appear a-political--if not non-political--harboured a very distinct political orientation. In 'The Worst Thing in the World' by John Taylor, an analysis is provided of how photographic images contribute to the collective experience of catastrophe.

As an exhibition, Killed reveals not only that aesthetics are an important element of politics but also that politics itself contributes to what we find aesthetically pleasing, arresting, or disturbing. Thus, claims that politics and aesthetics are not connected should themselves be seen as deeply political statements that attempt to hide a very powerful dynamic that shapes global social relations.

Photo credit 1: '"McDonaldization" by Richard Bush, styled by Jane How. Commissioned for the October 2001 issue of i-D and killed after the 9/11 attacks.'

Photo credit 2: '"Falling to Peaces" by Tim Walker, Vogue Nippon, January 2002, pp.188-199. Originally commissioned by Vogue Italia and killed after the 9/11 attacks.'

Thanks to Denise at theswellelife.com for the link!

The Pursuader™ and PeaceKeeper™: Gendering Militarism, Militarizing Gender?

The links between fashion and the politics of gender have long been recognized. Similarly, that the aesthetic sensibility of fashion has both influenced--and been influenced by--the social context from which it emerges, is also well-covered ground. But fashion's relationship to gender, militarism, and the gendering of military violence, whether as explicit as the manufacturing of Nazi uniforms by Hugo Boss in the 1940s, to the more subtle as seen in the incorporation of camouflage into generations of street wear, is something that often escapes notice.

By way of example, American designer James Piatt has brought The Pursuader™ and PeaceKeeper™ to the lucrative handbag market. The adoption of the sub-machine gun and brass knuckles for handbag design could be seen as an attempt to play against stereotype by appropriating these tools of violence for an item socially coded as explicitly feminine. In other words, looking 'tough' need not just be for 'boys'. 

At the same time though, as the photo gallery on the website illustrates, the representations of gender at play are extremely orthodox. In essense, the handbag--as an object of desire-- is a means to objectify the female model--another potential object of desire. The allure of the handbags then is overtly linked to the perceived sexual appeal--from what appears to be the perspective of a heterosexual male gaze--of combining traditional standards of femininity with the capacity for (militarized) violence. With the growth of this kind of female archetype in popular culture--from Laura Croft in the Tomb Raider video game series to the marketing of female participation in mixed martial arts competitions--are these handbags connected to a more general dynamic in the zeitgeist? What do you think?

Methamphetamine Chic?

Drug warriors in the United States have been lamenting the rise of the 'methamphetamine epidemic' since the early 1990s. While the overall rate of methamphetamine use in the United States is estimated to be quite small--8.6% of adults having tried it and 0.27% currently using it-- what has fueled the notion of a methamphetamine epidemic is that it does not neatly fit into longer-standing narratives about who uses drugs or areas where drug use takes place. 

Methamphetamine was initially found to be a drug largely confined to suburban and rural regions of the country with usage being more prevalent amongst those who would describe themselves as 'white'. This stands in sharp contrast to previous narratives of illicit drugs that have focused on urban spaces and those racial others said to inhabit them: opium dens in Chinese districts, marijuana and Hispanic barrios, heroin, and later, crack cocaine in African American ghettos. While its use has spread, these initial patterns of consumption continue to dominate, frustrating performatives of the American Self as drug-free that are central to the discursive practices of the 'war on drugs'.

How then are authorities responding? In Montana, which reportedly ranks amongst the top ten states nationally in per capita treatment admissions for methamphetamine, the solution has been to initiate a slick advertising campaign by problematizing methamphetamine use as a 'consumer product marketing issue'.

As the Montana Meth Project website notes:

• Meth is a consumer product. It is readily available. It is affordably priced. It is distributed statewide through a very effective distribution channel. It has many product attributes that are perceived as attractive.

The idea then is to counter the positive perceptions of methamphetamine with a

• research-based marketing campaign—supported by community outreach and public policy initiatives—that realistically and graphically communicate the risks of methamphetamine to the youth of Montana.

And the campaign of print ads--many of which can be found in high school newspapers--are visually powerful and stunning. The models, compositions, and palettes are particularly reminiscent of the controversial 'heroin chic' adverts for Calvin Klein--waify young models looking sweaty and strung out-- with the mixture of image and copy provoking the same kind of shock as the infamous 'United Colours of Benetton' campaign. In these respects, these ads have successful embraced the 'consumer product marketing' motif to produce a high impact message.

However,in doing so, there is a dangerous and counter-productive individualism--central to consumerism-- underpinning the message. The Montana Meth Project's campaign relies on reductionist links to sexual deviancy, self-image, and disease that Curtis Marez has shown to have been central to American narratives of illicit drug use since the first laws prohibiting opium use were passed in the second half of the 19th century.

Any of the social issues outlined in the campaign--cultures of rape in correctional facilities, teenage sexual activity, prostitution, or infectious disease transmission--are extremely complex. Coding methamphetamine use as a necessary condition for their occurrence and/or localizing their presence among methamphetamine users is completely irresponsible. Is it really only methamphetamine users in Montana who must deal with these issues? Do all methamphetamine users really have to deal with them? For example, is it inevitable that if you use methamphetamine, you will be sexually assaulted in a prison?

Moreover, the discursive framing that takes place both visually and textually shifts total blame onto those who may be subject to forms of violence, ill-health, or marginalization by implying that drug use has brought this--retributive?-- misfortune upon them. In other words, being vulnerable to infectious disease, sexual violence, or addiction is presented as arising directly from the consequences of personal choice. 

As much as the images and copy may shock us--particularly given their close resemblance to typical consumer campaigns--it is the baseless assumptions about inevitable consequences and individual choice that makes this advertising campaign so problematic.

Dressed To Not Be Killed: Body Armour As A Fashion Statement?

Are you tired of having to make a compromise between looking fashionable and being protected against bullets fired from a 9mm handgun? I know this isn't something I wrestle with on a regular basis but apparently there are people out there for whom this is a concern.

Enter a company called Urban Body Armour. They offer a line called Anxo that contains men's, women's, and tactical body armour clothing.

On their website, they describe themselves as 'the newest brand name in luxury and performance apparel' who are 'filling in a much needed void in the body armour industry by providing luxury, performance, and comfort'. 

I obviously have an interest in designs for everyday objects that are supposed to provide enhanced security as can be seen here and here. But what gets me about the Anxo is how the selling point is image and status as opposed to its functionality.

Like all luxury goods which by their very definition are completely unnecessary, there is the inevitable hook about your self-worth being both constituted and projected through ownership of this product:

• There is a certain pride that comes from owning one of our shirts or jackets. Our label isn't just about spending more than what the average person does for an Italian shirt. Our designers offer exceptional quality that brings a better fit, more comfort, and long-lasting apparel that last.

And of course--bad copyrighting aside--there must be a constant repetition of how special their potential client base is:

• VIPs should not have to conform to 'traditional' body armour. Men and women can now look classy yet stylish; be comfortable, and most importantly feel safe.

So, I guess when it comes to fashion and safety for the rest of us, the Anxo line, to paraphrase Marie Antoinette, would have us all wear Gucci?

Image credit: likecool.com

Weekend Reading Roundup v.1

Here are some neat articles I've come across in the past week that focus on the visual as political:

• "The Real Thing" from nocaptionneeded.com

• The Anti-Fascist Collages of John Heartfield from boingboing.net via quazen.com

• "Everyone is Doing the 80s: How Fashion Trends Begin" from modelsandmoguls.net

• "Gaza Laid Bare" from guernicamag.com

Have a nice weekend!

The above image is called 'Fear and Security' by kwerfeldein and is displayed under the terms of a CreativeCommons license.