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Shard Cinema
by Evan Calder WilliamsShard Cinema tells an expansive story of how moving images have changed in the last three decades and how they changed us along with them, rewiring the ways we watch, fight, and navigate an unsteady world. With a range that spans film, games, software, architecture, and military technologies, the book crosses the twentieth century into our present to confront a new order of seeing and making that took slow shape: the composite image, where no clean distinction can be made between production and post-production, filmed and animated, material and digital. Giving equal ground to costly blockbusters and shaky riot footage, Williams leads us from computer-generated “shards” of particles and debris to the broken phone screen on which we watch those digital storms, looking for the unexpected histories lived in the interval between.
Filling the Void: Social Media and The Continuation of Capitalism
by Marcus Gilroy-WareFilling The Void is a book about how the cultures and psychology of social media use fit within a broader landscape of life under capitalism. It argues that social media use is often a psychological response to the need for pleasure and comfort that results from the stresses of life under postmodern capitalism, rather than being a driver of new behaviours as newer technologies are often said to be. Both the explosive growth of social media and the corresponding reconfiguration of the web from an information-based platform into an entertainment-based one are far more easily explained in terms of the subjective psychological experience of their users as capitalist subjects seeking 'depressive hedonia,' the book argues. Filling the Void also interrogates the role of social media networks, designed for private commercial gain, as part of a de-facto public sphere. Both the decreasing subjective importance of factual media and the ways in which the content of the timeline are quietly manipulated--often using labour in the developing world and secret algorithms--have potentially serious implications for the capacity of social media users to query or challenge the seeming reality offered by the established hegemonic order.
Studying Ida (Studying Films)
by Sheila SkaffPaweł Pawlikowski’s 2013 film Ida was exceptionally warmly received in the United States, culminating in the Academy Award for Film Not in the English Language, but it was not without controversy. Sheila Skaff’s introduction to the film explains the historical setting, including the violence that took place in the Polish countryside during World War II and was not exposed for sixty years, and provides political and cultural analysis to aid the reader in understanding the film’s setting and narrative. Skaff also touches on the influence of the film on current events in Poland, where censorship of it by an increasingly nationalist government has polarized the country. It also situates Ida within the contexts of Polish and world film history. Scene-by-scene analysis is accompanied in each chapter by background information that gives context to the aesthetic and narrative choices made by the director.
Studying Feminist Film Theory (Auteur)
by Terri MurrayThis book is aimed at helping media and film studies teachers introduce the basics of feminist film theory. No prior knowledge of feminist theory is required, the intended readers being university undergraduate teachers and students of film and media studies. Areas of emphasis include spectatorship, narrative, and ideology. Many illustrative case studies from popular cinema are used to offer students an opportunity to consider the connotations of visual and aural elements of film, narrative conflicts and oppositions, the implications of spectator “positioning” and viewer identification, and an ideological critical approach to film. Explanations of key terminology are included, along with classroom exercises and practice questions. Each chapter begins with key definitions and explanations of the concepts to be studied, including some historical background where relevant. Case studies include film noir, Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days and the work of directors Spike Lee, Claire Denis, and Paul Verhoeven.Studying Feminist Film Theory is a revised and expanded version of Feminist Film Studies: A Teacher’s Guide, published by Auteur in 2007.
Key Concepts in Public Archaeology
by Gabriel MoshenskaThis book provides a broad overview of the key concepts in public archaeology, a research field that examines the relationship between archaeology and the public, in both theoretical and practical terms. While based on the long-standing programme of undergraduate and graduate teaching in public archaeology at UCL’s renowned Institute of Archaeology, the book also takes into account the growth of scholarship from around the world and seeks to clarify what exactly ‘public archaeology’ is by promoting an inclusive, socially and politically engaged vision of the discipline. <p><p> Written for students and practitioners, the individual chapters provide textbook-level introductions to the themes, theories and controversies that connect archaeology to wider society, from the trade in illicit antiquities to the use of digital media in public engagement, and point readers to the most relevant case studies and learning resources to aid their further study. <p><p> This book was produced as part of JISC's Institution as e-Textbook Publisher project. Find out more at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/institution-as-e-textbook-publisher
From a Whisper to a Shout: How Social Media Activism Is Challenging Abortion Stigma
by Elizabeth KisslingAbortion remains legal in the US, but access has been slowly eroded since prohibition was ruled unconstitutional nearly fifty years ago. Simultaneously abortion remains culturally stigmatised – it is kept secret and presumed shameful. But feminist activists are working to increase access and challenge this stigma. Numerous organisations and campaigns are challenging abortion stigma using the internet and social media and intersectional feminist sensibilities. From A Whisper to a Shout takes a closer look at four of these organisations – #ShoutYourAbortion, Lady Parts Justice, #WeTestify, and The Abortion Diary – and how they are integrating feminist tactics, social media, and political strategies to challenge abortion stigma and promote abortion access.
Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black Woman to her European Son
by Lesley-Ann BrownA Trinidadian-American writer and activist explores motherhood, migration, identity, nationhood and how it relates to land, imprisonment, and genocide for Black and Indigenous peoples. Having moved to Copenhagen, Denmark from Brooklyn over 18 years ago, Brown attempts to contextualise her and her son's existence in a post-colonial and supposedly post-racial world where the very machine of so-called progress has been premised upon the demise of her lineage. Through these letters, Brown writes the past into the present - penned from the country that has been declared "The Happiest Place in the World" - creating a vision that is a necessary alternative to the dystopian one currently being bought and sold.
Authentocrats: Culture, Politics and the New Seriousness
by Joe Kennedy"The Authentocrats" claim to the be the new voice of common sense that speak for the common man and woman; right-wing, traditional and dangerous, Joe Kennedy argues that they are everything but what they purport to be.In contemporary Britain, a lot has been said about what it is that “real people” want politically. Forgotten by elites and sick of globalisation, so the story goes, they demand patriotism, respect for the military, assurances on defence, and controls on immigration. In trying to meet these supposed wishes, politicians attempt to appear normal, salt-of-the-earth, authentic. Authentocrats examines the function of this “authenticity” in a centrist politics which, paradoxically, often defines itself as cosmopolitan, technocratic and opposed to populism. Casting a doubtful eye over – amongst other things – latter-day James Bond films, contemporary nature writing and stand-up comedy, Authentocrats suggests that the sooner we can break with the sententiousness of a skewed conception of authenticity in aesthetics and politics the better.
Advertising Revolution: The Story of a Song, from Beatles Hit to Nike Slogan
by Linda Scott Alan BradshawThe story of "Revolution" by the Beatles, from its origin as a protest song of the 1960s, to it becoming the musical backdrop for one of the most famous, influential, and controversial adverts of all time.In 1987, Nike released their new sixty-second commercial for Air shoes—and changed the face of the advertising industry. Set to the song “Revolution” by the Beatles, the commercial was the first and only advert ever to feature an original recording of the FaUb Four. It sparked a chain of events that would transform the art of branding, the sanctity of pop music, the perception of advertisers in popular culture, and John Lennon’s place in the leftist imagination.Advertising Revolution traces the song “Revolution” from its origins in the social turmoil of the Sixties, through its controversial use in the Nike ad, to its status today as a right-wing anthem and part of Donald Trump’s campaign set list. Along the way, the book unfolds the story of how we came to think of Nike as the big bad wolf of soulless corporations, and how the Beatles got their name as the quintessential musicians of independent integrity. To what degree are each of these reputations deserved? How ruthlessly cynical was the process behind the Nike ad? And how wholesomely uncommercial was John Lennon’s writing of the song?Throughout the book, Alan Bradshaw and Linda Scott complicate our notions of commercialism and fandom, making the case for a reading of advertisements that takes into account the many overlapping intentions behind what we see onscreen. Challenging the narratives of the evil-genius ad conglomerate and the pure-intentioned artist, they argue that we can only begin to read adverts productively when we strip away the industry’s mysticism and approach advertisers and artists alike as real, flawed, differentiated human beings.
Regeneration Songs: Sounds of Investment and Loss in East London
by Dan Hancox Anna Minton Alberto Duman Malcolm JamesTwenty-seven leading artists, writers and academics come together to tackle one of the most drastic urban regeneration programmes in world history - the "Regeneration Supernova" of East London.The impact of global capital and foreign investment on local communities is being felt in major cities across the world. Since the 2012 Olympics was awarded to the British capital, East London has been at the heart of the largest and most all-encompassing top-down urban regeneration strategy in civic history. At the centre of this has been the local government, Newham Council, and their daring proposal: an "Arc of Opportunity" for developers to transform 1,412 hectares of Newham. The proposal was outlined in a short film, London's Regeneration Supernova, and shown to foreign developers and businesses at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.While the sweeping changes to East London have been keenly felt by locals, the symbolism and practicalities of these changes - for the local area, and the world alike - are overdue serious investigation. Regeneration Songs is about how places are turned into simple stories for packaged investment opportunities, how people living in those places relate to those stories, and how music and art can render those stories in many different ways.The book will also include a download code to obtain the related musical project, Music for Masterplanning - in which musicians from East London soundtracked London's Regeneration Supernova - and a 32-page glossy insert detailing the artists involved.
K-punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher
by Mark Fisher Simon Reynolds Darren AmbroseA comprehensive collection of the writings of Mark Fisher (1968-2017), whose work defined critical writing for a generation.This comprehensive collection brings together the work of acclaimed blogger, writer, political activist and lecturer Mark Fisher (aka k-punk). Covering the period 2004 - 2016, the collection will include some of the best writings from his seminal blog k-punk; a selection of his brilliantly insightful film, television and music reviews; his key writings on politics, activism, precarity, hauntology, mental health and popular modernism for numerous websites and magazines; his final unfinished introduction to his planned work on "Acid Communism"; and a number of important interviews from the last decade. Edited by Darren Ambrose and with a foreword by Simon Reynolds.
Stolen: How to Save the World from Financialisation
by Grace BlakeleyA must-read polemic about why the 'recovery' from the 2007-08 crash mostly benefited the 1%, and how democratic socialism can save us from a new crash and climate catastrophe.For decades, it has been easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. In the decade leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, booming banks, rising house prices and cheap consumer goods propped up living standards in the rich world. Thirty years of rocketing debt and financial wizardry had masked the deep underlying fragility of finance-led growth, and in 2008 we were forced to pay up. The decade since has witnessed all kinds of morbid symptoms, as all around the rich world, wages and productivity are stagnant, inequality is rising, and ecological systems are collapsing.Stolen is a history of finance-led growth and a guide as to how we might escape it. We've sat back as financial capitalism has stolen our economies, our environment and even the future itself. Now, we have an opportunity to change course. What happens next is up to us.
Strange Hate: Antisemitism, Racism and the Limits of Diversity
by Keith Kahn-harrisKeith Kahn-Harris argues that the controversy over antisemitism today is a symptom of a growing "selectivity" in anti-racism caused by a failure to engage with the challenges that diverse societies pose.How did antisemitism get so strange? How did hate become so clouded in controversy? And what does the strange hate of antisemitism tell us about racism and the politics of diversity today?Life-long anti-racists accused of antisemitism, life-long Jew haters declaring their love of Israel... Today, antisemitism has become selective. Non-Jews celebrate the "good Jews" and reject the "bad Jews". And its not just antisemitism that's becoming selective, racists and anti-racists alike are starting to choose the minorities they love and hate.In this passionate yet closely-argued polemic from a writer with an intimate knowledge of the antisemitism controversy, Keith Kahn-Harris argues that the emergence of strange hatreds shows how far we are from understanding what living in diverse societies really means.Strange Hate calls for us to abandon selective anti-racism and rethink how we view not just Jews and antisemitism, but the challenge of living with diversity.
How to Justify Torture: Inside the Ticking Bomb Scenario
by Alex AdamsFrom Batman Begins to Tom Clancy, How to Justify Torture shows how contemporary culture creates simplified narratives about good guy torturers and bad guy victims, how dangerous this is politically, and what we can do to challenge it.If there was a bomb hidden somewhere in a major city, and you had the person responsible in your custody, would you torture them to get the information needed to stop the bomb exploding, preventing a devastating terrorist attack and saving thousands of lives?This is the ticking bomb scenario -- a thought experiment designed to demonstrate that torture can be justified.In How to Justify Torture, cultural critic Alex Adams examines the ticking bomb scenario in-depth, looking at the ways it is presented in films, novels, and TV shows -- from Batman Begins and Dirty Harry to French military thrillers and home invasion narratives. By critiquing its argument step by step, this short, provocative book reminds us that, despite what the ticking bomb scenario will have us believe, torture can never be justified.
On War (Unabridged Start Publishing Llc Ser.)
by Carl von ClausewitzA new edition of von Clausewitz's classic treatise on military strategy, reinterpreted by Graham Harman through the philosophy of speculative realism.Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz famously wrote that 'War is the continuation of politics by other means'. But what does Clausewitz mean to a world where economic, political and cultural conflicts are increasingly framed as wars?Written after the Napoleonic Wars but left unfinished at the author's death and not published until 1832, On War is one of the most influential and important works on military strategy ever written. This new edition presents this classic text with a new introduction by Graham Harman, who reads Clausewitz's ideas about war, politics and military strategy through the lens of speculative realism.
Terraformed: Young Black Lives In The Inner City
by Joy WhiteAn uncompromising wake-up call. Joy White tells uncomfortable truths and blows apart our understanding of racism, crime and policing in our inner-cities.Since the 1980s, austerity, gentrification and structural racism have wreaked havoc on inner-city communities, widening inequality and entrenching poverty. In Terraformed, Joy White offers an insider ethnography of Forest Gate -- a neighbourhood in Newham, east London -- analysing how these issues affect the black youth of today. Connecting the dots between music, politics and the built environment, it centres the lived experiences of black youth who have had it all: huge student debt, invisible homelessness, custodial sentences, electronic tagging, surveillance, arrest, ASBOs, issues with health and well-being, and of course, loss. Part ethnography, part memoir, Terraformed contextualises the history of Newham and considers how young black lives are affected by racism, neoliberalism and austerity.
Abolish Silicon Valley: How to Liberate Technology from Capitalism
by Wendy LiuFormer insider turned critic Wendy Liu busts the myths of the tech industry, and offers a galvanising argument for why and how we must reclaim technology's potential for the public good.Former insider turned critic Wendy Liu busts the myths of the tech industry, and offers a galvanising argument for why and how we must reclaim technology's potential for the public good."Lucid, probing and urgent. Wendy Liu manages to be both optimistic about the emancipatory potential of tech and scathing about the industry that has harnessed it for bleak and self-serving ends." -- Naomi Klein, author of On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal"An inspiring memoir manifesto...Technologists all over the world are realizing that no amount of code can substitute for political engagement. Liu's memoir is a road map for that journey of realization." -- Cory Doctorow, author of Radicalized and Little BrotherInnovation. Meritocracy. The possibility of overnight success. What's not to love about Silicon Valley?These days, it's hard to be unambiguously optimistic about the growth-at-all-costs ethos of the tech industry. Public opinion is souring in the wake of revelations about Cambridge Analytica, Theranos, and the workplace conditions of Amazon workers or Uber drivers. It's becoming clear that the tech industry's promised "innovation" is neither sustainable nor always desirable.Abolish Silicon Valley is both a heartfelt personal story about the wasteful inequality of Silicon Valley, and a rallying call to engage in the radical politics needed to upend the status quo. Going beyond the idiosyncrasies of the individual founders and companies that characterise the industry today, Wendy Liu delves into the structural factors of the economy that gave rise to Silicon Valley as we know it. Ultimately, she proposes a more radical way of developing technology, where innovation is conducted for the benefit of society at large, and not just to enrich a select few.
After the Fact?: The Truth about Fake News
by Marcus Gilroy-WareWhy do we no longer trust facts, experts and statistics? In this essential guide to the turbulent times in which we live, Marcus Gilroy-Ware investigates our era of post-truths and fake news and answers the question of where we can go from here.We are supposed to have more information at our disposal now than at any time in history. So why, in a world of rising sea levels, populist leaders, resurgent fascism and a global pandemic, do so many people believe bizarre and untrue things about the world we live in? In After the Fact?, Marcus Gilroy-Ware shows us what really created the conditions for mis- and disinformation, from fake news and conspiracy theories, to bullshit journalism and the resurgence of the far-right, and why liberal newspaper columnists and centrist politicians are unable to turn back this tide. Spanning politics, culture, psychology, journalism, and much more, After the Fact? is a timely wake-up call for those who believe we can simply go "back to normal", and instead argues that, if we are to put an end to "fake news" we must deal with the broader social crises that are responsible for it.
The Sea View Has Me Again: Uwe Johnson in Sheerness
by Patrick WrightThe story of Uwe Johnson, one of Germany's greatest and most-influential post-war writers, and how he came to live and work in Sheerness, Kent in the 1970s.Towards the end of 1974, a stranger arrived in the small town of Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. He could often be found sitting at the bar in the Napier Tavern, drinking lager and smoking Gauloises while flicking through the pages of the Kent Evening Post. "Charles" was the name he offered to his new acquaintances. But this unexpected immigrant was actually Uwe Johnson, originally from the Baltic province of Mecklenburg in the GDR, and already famous as the leading author of a divided Germany. What caused him to abandon West Berlin and spend the last nine years of his life in Sheerness, where he eventually completed his great New York novel Anniversaries in a house overlooking the outer reaches of the Thames Estuary? And what did he mean by detecting a "moral utopia" in a town that others, including his concerned friends, saw only as a busted slum on an island abandoned to "deindustrialisation" and a stranded Liberty ship full of unexploded bombs? Patrick Wright, who himself abandoned north Kent for Canada a few months before Johnson arrived, returns to the "island that is all the world" to uncover the story of the East German author's English decade, and to understand why his closely observed Kentish writings continue to speak with such clairvoyance in the age of Brexit. Guided in his encounters and researches by clues left by Johnson in his own "island stories", the book is set in the 1970s, when North Sea oil and joining the European Economic Community seemed the last hope for bankrupt Britain. It opens out to provide an alternative version of modern British history: a history for the present, told through the rich and haunted landscapes of an often spurned downriver mudbank, with a brilliant German answer to Robinson Crusoe as its primary witness.
Retreat: How the Counterculture Invented Wellness
by Matthew IngramWhat have the hippies ever done for us? Matthew Ingram explores the relationship between the summer of love and wellness, medicine, and health.The counterculture of the Sixties and the Seventies is remembered chiefly for music, fashion, art, feminism, computing, black power, cultural revolt and the New Left. But an until-now unexplored, yet no less important aspect -- both in its core identity and in terms of its ongoing significance and impact -- is its relationship with health.In this popular and illuminating cultural history of the relationship between health and the counterculture, Matthew Ingram connects the dots between the beats, yoga, meditation, psychedelics, psychoanalysis, Eastern philosophy, sex, and veganism, showing how the hippies still have a lot to teach us about our wellbeing.
Egress: On Mourning, Melancholy and the Fisher-Function
by Matt ColquhounEgress is the first book to consider the legacy and work of the writer, cultural critic and cult academic Mark Fisher. Narrated in orbit of his death as experienced by a community of friends and students in 2017, it analyses Fisher&’s philosophical trajectory, from his days as a PhD student at the University of Warwick to the development of his unfinished book on Acid Communism. Taking the word &“egress&” as its starting point—a word used by Fisher in his book The Weird and the Eerie to describe an escape from present circumstances as experiences by the characters in countless examples of weird fiction—Egress consider the politics of death and community in a way that is indebted to Fisher&’s own forms of cultural criticism, ruminating on personal experience in the hope of making it productively impersonal.
Dispatches from the Vanguard: The Global International African Arts Movement versus Donald J. Trump
by Patrick HowellA collection of writers, poets, artists, social entrepreneurs and political activists in the Global International African Arts Movement speak about their work in the context of Trump, giving a voice to the voiceless and about the 5th estate of power in this timely and important book. Scheduled for release at the top of the 2020 US Presidential election, Dispatches from the Vanguard channels the global soul&’s hunger for freedom from authoritarian control. Partnering with dozens of Pulitzer Prize Winners, New York Times Best Sellers, poet laureates, TED speakers, and influencers within the Global International African Arts Movement, including Ishmael Reed, Tyehimba Jess, Rich Fresh, Nikki Giovanni, Nnedi Okorafor, Chester Higgins, Tori Reid and Jaki Shelton Green, Dispatches offers a poignant, high-frequency rebuke of Donald J. Trump (actual man, strawman and metaphor for white privilege and capitalist despotism) and his ruthless amoral presidency. As we approach a key moment in the recent history of American politics, Dispatches from the Vanguard is a timely intervention, showing us how we can challenge the impact and influence of politics when it is solely a means of authoritarian control.
Lost Boy Found: Overcoming My OCD (Inspirational Series)
by Andrew PuccettiAndrew Puccetti's life seemed perfect: he grew up in a loving Catholic community, his parents were happily married, and his childhood was good. But this picture-perfect existence started to crack when Andrew began to suffer from intense hypochondria and anxiety. Through therapy, he thought he had recovered, and, as he grew, he began to discover himself. He found the strength to come out as gay to his family, and everything seemed fine for a while.However, when he opened up to his group of friends about his sexuality, not all of them were as accepting as his family had been. Abandoned by his closest friend since childhood, his negative mental thoughts began to return, and Andrew found himself unable to cope with life, and forced to drop out of school. After months of isolation, Andrew took the brave step of admitting himself to a psychiatric hospital. Diagnosed with OCD, major depressive disorder, and borderline personality disorder, Andrew could finally begin to take control of his life. In Lost Boy Found, Andrew courageously tells his story of navigating adolescence through the lens of mental illness and finding peace with his true self.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Crime
by Jennifer FleetwoodAn examination of the increasingly public nature of crime and confession—from live-streamed offenses to Prince Andrew&’s Newsnight interview—by a noted writer & lecturer in criminology. Over the past few decades, there has been a remarkable rise in the number of people who speak publicly about their experience of crime. These personal accounts used to be confined to private or professional settings—the police station, the courtroom, a helpline or in a counselor&’s office—but today bookshops heave with autobiographies by prisoners, criminals, police, and lawyers; streaming platforms like Netflix and YouTube host hours of interviews with serial killers, death row residents, vigilantes, and gang members; true-crime podcasts like Criminal often feature episodes focusing entirely on one person&’s narrative; and some offenders even live-stream their crimes. In this fascinating new book, British criminologist Jennifer Fleetwood compellingly examines seven high-profile &“crimes&” which are known to us via a public, first-person account to try to make sense of the social, political, and cultural consequences that this confessional impulse has on our lives. From Howard Marks&’s autobiography Mr. Nice to Shamima Begum&’s 2019 Times interview; from the documentary The Real Mo Farah to Prince Andrew&’s disastrous Newsnight interview; from Chanel Miller&’s victim impact statement to episodes of Criminal and Myra Hindley&’s prison letters, Fleetwood invites us to think differently about the abundance of personal stories about crime that circulate in public life.
The Penalty Kick: The Story of a Gamechanger
by Robert McCrumA rousing history of the penalty kick and its introduction in English football by a famed British writer & editor.Football, in the 1880s, was a rough and dangerous game. To address the abhorrent state of the sport, William McCrum, an amateur Irish goalkeeper and the author's great-grandfather, proposed the penalty kick, a new and drastic sanction introduced to the game in 1891. For over a hundred years, this extraordinary phenomenon has not only regulated the conduct of football (also known as soccer) but has also inspired game theories and infiltrated classics of contemporary literature.An enthralling portrait of a lost age, The Penalty Kick: The Story of a Gamechanger is a family history, a social history, and a history of the world's most popular sport. It considers an extraordinary phenomenon as it examines the penalty kick&’s psychological—even philosophical—grip on our imaginations, with its distillation of risk and chance into the penalty shoot-out, an all-or-nothing moment.