Wednesday 6^th June 2012, 4pm
University of Westminster, London

Professor Thomas Y. Levin
Princeton University / IKKM Bauhaus University, Weimar

“Ghostly Surveillance: Some Stabs in the Ciné-Narratological Dark”

Simultaneous with the increasingly widespread use of surveillance as a narrative device in contemporary cinema – its most obvious manifestation being the rise of so-called “real-time” transmission characteristic of CCTV systems in films such as The Truman Show — we are also witnessing a curious proliferation of ghosts within the surveillant machinery, from disturbing videocasettes desposited mysteriously on doorsteps (Lost Highway, Caché) to the re-appearance of people who are supposedly dead on the screens of corporate security systems (Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet [2000]) and the documentation of the presence of demons by means of home surveillance cameras (Paranormal Activity).  While it could be argued that at least since Bentham, there has always been a ghostly dimension to surveillance (the panoptic tower functions despite the complete inability to determine whether anyone is actually really inside), what might these ghostly apparitions reveal about the assumptions we make about surveillance images, indeed about cinema as such?

Thomas Y. Levin teaches media theory and history, cultural theory, intellectual history, and aesthetics. His essays have appeared in October, Grey Room, New German Critique, Screen, The Yale Journal of Criticism, and Texte zur Kunst. He translated and edited the critical edition of Siegfried Kracauer’s The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays (1995). He was part of the curatorial collective responsible for the first exhibition on the Situationist International at the Centre Pompidou, ICA London and the ICA Boston in 1989. Levin also conceived and curated the exhibition (CTRL [SPACE], Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother which opened at at the ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology) in Karlsruhe in October 2001 and edited the catalogue under the same title (with Ursula Frohne and Peter Weibel). His more recent curatorial activities include “Anxious Omniscience: Surveillance and Contemporary Cultural Practice” (Princeton University Art Museum, 2002), “911+1: The Perplexities of Security” (Watson Institute, Brown University, 2002) and “The Arts of the Future will be Radical Transformations of Situations, or They will be Nothing’: Guy Debord Cineaste” (Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, 2006).

Narratives of Suburbia

Friday 15^th June 2012, 9.15am – 5.15pm
Room 354, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London

Programme attached here: Narratives of Suburbia Programme[1]

Entrance is FREE but space is limited so please book your place in advance by contacting the organisers, Christopher Daley (daleyc@westminster.ac.uk) and Aisling McKeown (A.Mckeown@westminster.ac.uk).

China in Britain #1. Film
Thursday May 10th 2012, 10.00 am – 6.00 pm

An important message from the organisers: because of our support for UCU Strike Action on May 10th, the venue has been transferred from the University of Westminster to The Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh St., Russell Square, London WC1H OXG: http://www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/

The first in a series of colloquia organised as part of China in Britain: Myths and Realities, an AHRC-funded research network project to investigate changing conceptions of China and Chineseness in Britain, and based at Westminster. The colloquia will connect up the important yet disparate work being done by cultural historians, literary critics, curators, archivists, contemporary artists, film makers and Sino-British organisations. In bringing these specialists together, the project aims to provide a high profile platform for the discursive elaboration of the changing terms of engagement between British and Chinese people and to widen the terms of debate from diaspora studies and simplistic reductions around identity to an inter-disciplinary network of research practice relevant to contemporary debate.

Participants include: Ross Forman (University of Warwick); Felicia Chan (University of Manchester) and Andy Willis (University of Salford); Jo Ho (filmmaker). The day will end with Guo Xiaolu introducing a screening of her film She, A Chinese, followed by a Q and A.

RSVP – Places are free but strictly limited so it is essential to register with the project’s Principal Investigator, Anne Witchard, at: anne@translatingchina.info

WEBSITE:  http://www.translatingchina.info

From our friends at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP), Kingston University

Workshop – Transdisciplinary Problematics
Anti-humanism and Gender Studies
17-18 May 2012, London

This two-day workshop will examine the notion of a transdisciplinary problematic, via the cases of anti-humanism and gender studies. The first day will approach theoretical anti-humanism from the standpoint of its destructive effect upon disciplinary fields in the humanities and as a radical problematisation of the discipline of philosophy in particular. The second day will focus on gender studies as a transdisciplinary problematic and on the transdisciplinary nature of the concept of gender itself. Topics will include the historical reconstruction of ‘gender’ as a boundary-crossing concept; the relation of its conceptual content to its functioning as a general concept across disciplines; the transformation of the disciplines in the humanities by ‘gender’ and gender studies; and the current productivity of ‘gender’.

Day 1: Anti-humanism
17 May 2012, 10.00–18.00
Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, London WC1

Introduction: Peter Osborne & Eric Alliez (CRMEP, Kingston University)
Etienne Balibar (Philosophy, University of Paris X/Irvine)
‘Anti-Humanism, and the Question of Philosophical Anthropology’
Respondent: Patrice Maniglier (University of Essex)
Nina Power (Philosophy, Roehampton University/Royal College of Art)
‘Is Antihumanism Transdisciplinary?’
David Cunningham (English, University of Westminster)
‘Intersciences, Philosophy and Writing’
Respondent: Simon Morgan Wortham (English, Kingston University)

Day 2: Gender Studies
18 May 2012, 10.00–18.00
Large Common Room, Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square, London WC1N

Introduction: Stella Sandford (CRMEP, Kingston University)
Tuija Pulkkinen (Women’s Studies, University of Helsinki)
‘Disciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity in Gender Studies’
Sara Heinamaa (Philosophy, University of Helsinki)
‘Sex, Gender and Embodiment: A Critique of Concepts’
Elsa Dorlin (Political Science, University of Paris VIII)
title tba
Ken Corbett (Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis, New York University)
‘The Transforming Nexus: Psychoanalysis, Social Theory and Queer Childhood’
Respondent: Lynne Segal (Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck, London)

The event is free, but registration is essential at the following website: http://workshopthree.eventbrite.com/

Further information and background texts, go to: http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/activities/item.php?updatenum=1962

Other enquiries: S.Sandford@kingston.ac.uk

This is the third public workshop of the AHRC-funded project ‘Transdisciplinarity and the Humanities: Problems, Methods, Histories, Concepts’
2011–2013 (AHRC 914469)

Narratives of Suburbia

Friday 15^th June 2012, 9.15am – 5.15pm
Room 354, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London

Programme: Narratives of Suburbia Programme[1]

The Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster is delighted to host the 17^th Westminster Colloquium  entitled ‘Narratives of Suburbia’ on Friday 15^th June 2012. The colloquium aims to assess contemporary representations of suburbia in British and North American fiction, with a particular focus on the exponential growth of suburbia since the Second World War and the fictional offshoots it has produced. By exploring the work of Anglo-American authors, the objective is to identify thematic and stylistic areas of convergence and  divergence.

Speakers:
John Beck (Newcastle)
Christine Berberich (Portsmouth)
Professor Neil Campbell (Derby)
Mark Clapson (Westminster)
Martyn Colebrook (Hull)
Martin Dines (Kingston )
Nick Hubble (Brunel)
Rupa Huq (Kingston)

Entrance is FREE but space is limited so please book your place in advance by contacting the organisers, Christopher Daley (daleyc@westminster.ac.uk) and Aisling McKeown (A.Mckeown@westminster.ac.uk). Full programme to follow. 

Th

Wednesday 16 May 2012, 6.30 – 8.30 p.m.
The Boardroom, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW

The Smithsonian-Westminster Colloquium invites you to a discussion forum with Dr Peter Jakab, Associate Director, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC

Other contributors include: Andrew Nahum, Senior Curator in Aviation, Science Museum, London; David Hendy, Professor of Media History, University of Westminster.

Peter Jakab is Associate Director for Collections and Curatorial Affairs and curator of World War I Aviation at the National Air and Space Museum.  His publications include Visions of a Flying Machine: The Wright Brothers and the Process of Invention (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990); The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000; co-edited with Rick Young); and The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age (National Geographic Society, 2003; co-authored with Tom Crouch). At NASM he has curated numerous exhibitions, including The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age, which opened in 2003.

Open and free. No booking required, but RSVP appreciated.
Further information and RSVP: Helena Scott, email H.Scott@westminster.ac.uk

Social Sciences Humanities and Languages Studentships

The School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages at the University of Westminster is pleased to offer three research studentships for prospective PhD students from September 2012 for three years.

The Studentships are for full-time study in any of the School’s six Departments and include a fee waiver (Home/EU rate), plus a £5000 maintenance grant per year, for a maximum of three years. Please note that only Home/EU students are eligible to apply.

As part of the scholarship terms successful candidates will be required to contribute to teaching and research activities (up to 60 hrs per year), for which mentoring and development support will be provided.

Deadline for applications is 5pm on Friday 1 June 2012.

If your are applying for the English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies research area, your application will also be considered for the English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies Studentship and you do not have to submit two separate applications.

English, Lingusitics and Cultural Studies Bursaries

The Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster is pleased to offer three bursaries for prospective PhD students.

Applications are invited for awards which are tenable for up to three years for full-time study (pro-rata both in amount and length for part-time students). Please note that only home/EU students are eligible to apply

English Literature after 1800

Areas of staff expertise include: the literature and culture of the nineteenth century, the gothic, modernism, the avant-garde, Scottish writing, modern poetry, life writing, contemporary fiction, critical theory, aesthetics, the literature of London.

Museums and Galleries in the 21^st century

To consolidate the postgraduate community of our MA Museums, Galleries, and Contemporary Culture, taught in partnership with Tate and Museum of London, the department would welcome prospective PhD students with a particular interest in developing projects on audiences, digital culture, and curating.

Based in the heart of London, the department has an active research culture which includes regular seminars and conferences, and a lively research student community. In addition to this, staff and PG students are part of the University’s Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture.

For further information please contact:
Dr Leigh Wilson, PhD Coordinator
Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies
32-38 Wells St, London W1T 3UW

T: +44 (0)20 7 911 5000 Ext 2365
E: wilsonl@westminster.ac.uk

Deadline for applications is 5pm on Friday 1 June 2012.

Please note that your application will also be considered for the SSHL Studentship and they you do not have to submit two separate applications.

A great article on the BBC website about Alexa Wright’s A View for Inside. Here’s a snippet: `A View From Inside’ is an exploration of some alternative perspectives on reality. Her thought provoking portraits offer a window into the unique realities experienced by Theresa and nine other people who have been affected by a psychotic `disorder’ such as bipolar or schizophrenia. Alexa Wright’s aim is two fold. “One is bringing issues of mental health into the public domain, she said. ‘But the other is to look at our notion of reality. What is reality, we all operate in society on the basis that what we consider real is the same as what someone else might. But it’s interesting to look at a reality that only one person is privy to but for them is absolutely real when they are experiencing it.’

Read the full article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17618459

April 28^th 2012, 1-5pm
Hardaland art Centre, Klosteret 17, PB 1745 Nordnes, 5816 Bergen, Norway

In conjunction with the exhibition A neutral, flexible structure by Martin Torgersrud, Hardaland Art Centre is staging a seminar, Blank Identification, touching on the themes of photography, abstraction and economy. The seminar comprises four lectures, and an open discussion with the audience of the ideas put forward by our guests, with all the digressions and associations that come with it. 

Speakers:
Morten Torgersrud, artist, Kirkenes, Norway/Stockholm, Sweden
Matt Packer, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork
Arne Skaug Olsen, art critic, Bergen
David Cunningham, Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture, London

The seminar will be held in English. Participation is free, but due to limited avaliable seats we encourage everyone interested to notify us before April 25th to hks [at] kunstsenter.no.
The seminar is supported by Bergen Academy of Art and Design.

Further details at: http://www.kunstsenter.no/en/seminar-tom-identifisering

Sir George Cayley (1773-1857), the Father of Flight

Friday 27^th April, 1.00-.200 pm
The Royal Society, Carlton House Terrace, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG

This Royal Society lecture discusses Cayley’s pioneering aviation work, and his roles as an inventor and as founder of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street. Cayley’s work will be related to the scientific and intellectual milieu of the day, and to debates regarding the public engagement with science and technology. The lecture will be delivered by Alan Morrison, who is an Honorary Fellow in the IMCC at the University of Westminster, as well as a Lemelson Center Research Associate at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. He curated the exhibition ‘Sir George Cayley: the Father of Flight’ shown at the RAF Museum Hendon.

The lecture is open and free to the public – there is no need to book, and seats are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Thursday 5 April 2012, 7pm
Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1
Price: £7.00 / £5.00 concessions (includes free glass of wine).

This season’s Whitechapel Salon organised by the IMCC in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery is on ‘Cultures of Capitalism’.  The fifth salon turns to that social and economic form at the very heart of capitalist cultures: Money. In the light of contemporary crises in financial capitalism, Professor Peter Osborne, Director of the Centre for Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, and author of books including The Politics of Time, Philosophy in Cultural Theory, and Conceptual Art, will be in discussion with David Cunningham about money, cultural form, and the nature of the ‘real’ today.

Book your ticket at:
http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/shop/index.php/fuseaction/shop.product/product_id/1160

Sports and the City
April 24-25 2012
Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, 309 Regent St, London W1B

Organised by our friends in the Department of Social and Historical Studies at Westminster, the University is staging a two-day conference on sport and the city. The conference will also include a reception to launch Mark Clapson’s book An Education in Sport: Competition, Communities and Identities at the University of Westminster Since 1864, which constitutes the second part of the University’s ‘History Project’.

The conference costs £60 for both days, including lunch and drinks reception. A student rate of £30 is also available.

To register please contact Anna McNally at archive@westminster.ac.uk and details will be given for credit card payment.

We are delighted to announce the publication of Alexa Wright’s book A View From Inside from White-Card. Including essays from Graham Thornicroft and Jeanne Randolph, A View From Inside challenges our preconceptions about what constitutes reality. The ten portrait photos in the book draw on the principles of eighteenth-century portrait painting to give form to the unique realities encountered by different people during psychotic episodes.

The book is published to accompany a series of ten framed photographic portraits (76 x 100 cm / 30 x 40 inches) designed for gallery exhibition.
RRP £22.00
ISBN: 978-0-9571558-0-0

For more information visit: www.alexawright.com

China in Britain #2. Film

Thursday May 31st 2012, 9.45 am – 4.45 pm
Room 451, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW  

This is the second in a series of colloquia organised as part of China in Britain: Myths and Realities, an AHRC-funded research network project to investigate changing conceptions of China and Chineseness in Britain, and based at Westminster. The colloquia will connect up the important yet disparate work being done by cultural historians, literary critics, curators, archivists, contemporary artists, film makers and Sino-British organisations. In bringing these specialists together, the project aims to provide a high profile platform for the discursive elaboration of the changing terms of engagement between British and Chinese people and to widen the terms of debate from diaspora studies and simplistic reductions around identity to an inter-disciplinary network of research practice relevant to contemporary debate.

This second event on film will begin with a screening at 10.00am of the 1988 film Soursweet, directed by Mike Newell (most popularly known for his direction of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). This will be followed by an afternoon talk from Newall and roundtable discussion (2.30pm).

The day will also include presentations of their film work by Rosa Fong and Lab Ky Mo (12.15pm) and conclude with a paper by Jeffrey Richards (Lancaster University) on ‘Fu Manchu and the Yellow Peril (3.45pm).

RSVP – Places are free but strictly limited so it is essential to register with the project’s Principal Investigator, Anne Witchard, at: anne@translatingchina.info

WEBSITE:  http://www.translatingchina.info

Wednesday 21^st March, 1.15pm – 2.30pm
Room 257, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street

Aisling McKeown (University of Westminster)
‘Once Upon A Time In The West: the Rural Idyll in Contemporary Irish Fiction and Film’

Abstract: In 1952, John Wayne starred in John Ford’s film The Quiet Man, set in the west of Ireland. Playing a returned Irish-American emigrant, rather than his more customary role as that potent symbol of the American west, the cowboy, Wayne cut a swathe  through Ireland’s wild landscape. The film projected an image of Ireland as a rural idyll, populated by fiery yet charming natives. Contemporary film-makers and writers, unless being deliberately ironic, tend to avoid such clichéd treatment of rural Ireland. Combining discourses of tradition and modernity, their representations reflect the  socio-cultural evolution of this remote location, which inspired Yeats and Synge over a century ago. This paper will trace the development of these representations and discuss the blend of mythology and realism that underpins the work of today’s writers as they address such themes as immigration, identity and belonging.

David Cunningham will be speaking in the series of ‘Big Ideas’ pub philosophy talks held at the Wheatsheaf in London on Tuesday 27^th March, 8pm. The topic is: ‘Are Cities Important to Philosophy?’ And here’s the blurb:

Socrates in Athens; Kant in Konigsberg; Hegel in Jena; Russell in Oxford; Carnap in Vienna; Sartre in Paris. Cities, of course, attract cultural production of all kinds to themselves, and the great cities act as magnets for philosophers just as they do for artists, entrepreneurs and chancers. But is there something more to the relationship between philosophy and the city? Has the course of Western philosophy been influenced by its overwhelmingly urban setting?

Further details at: http://bigi.org.uk/events/cities-philosophy/

Thomson & Craighead are part of the inaugural exhibition ‘Being Social’ in the new Furtherfield Gallery slap bang in the middle of Finsbury Park, North London where they are showing a version of ‘London Wall’.  The exhibition is on already and runs until 28th April. Details here.

T&C are also showing a new projected version of ‘Flipped Clock’ and the short documentary artwork, ‘Several Interruptions’ as part of the exhibition ‘Mirror Neurons’ at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland,  on until 20th May. Details here.

They’ve also completely revamped their 2001 online artwork ‘e-poltergeist’ for the Canadian journal ‘BleuOrange’, and this goes live on 20th March at 0300hrs GMT. And finally, a new artwork, ‘A live portrait of Sir Tim Berners Lee (an early warning system)’ will be part of the major new exhibition, ‘Life Online’ launching in the National Media Museum on 29th March. Further details here.

Thursday 5 April 2012, 7pm
Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1
Price: £7.00 / £5.00 concessions (includes free glass of wine).

This season’s Whitechapel Salon organised by the IMCC in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery is on ‘Cultures of Capitalism’.  The fifth salon turns to that social and economic form at the very heart of capitalist cultures: Money. In the light of contemporary crises in financial capitalism, Professor Peter Osborne, Director of the Centre for Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, and author of books including The Politics of Time, Philosophy in Cultural Theory, and Conceptual Art, will be in discussion with David Cunningham about money, cultural form, and the nature of the ‘real’ today.

Book your ticket at:

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/shop/index.php/fuseaction/shop.product/product_id/1160?

China in Britain #1. Film
Thursday May 10th 2012, 10.00 am – 6.00 pm

UPDATE: An important message from the organisers: because of our support for UCU Strike Action on May 10th, the venue has been transferred from the University of Westminster to The Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh St., Russell Square, London WC1H OXG: http://www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/

You are invited to the first in a series of colloquia organised as part of China in Britain: Myths and Realities, an AHRC-funded research network project to investigate changing conceptions of China and Chineseness in Britain, and based at Westminster. The colloquia will connect up the important yet disparate work being done by cultural historians, literary critics, curators, archivists, contemporary artists, film makers and Sino-British organisations. In bringing these specialists together, the project aims to provide a high profile platform for the discursive elaboration of the changing terms of engagement between British and Chinese people and to widen the terms of debate from diaspora studies and simplistic reductions around identity to an inter-disciplinary network of research practice relevant to contemporary debate.

Participants include: Ross Forman (University of Warwick); Felicia Chan (University of Manchester) and Andy Willis (University of Salford); Jo Ho (filmmaker). The day will end with Guo Xiaolu introducing a screening of her film She, A Chinese, followed by a Q and A.

The Chinese presence in British cinema dates from James Williamson’s 1900 ‘documentary’ film, Attack on a China Mission, a recreation of that year’s ‘Boxer rebellion’ in which nationalist militants attempted to expel Christian missionaries and other foreigners from China. It was actually filmed in Brighton and Williamson had never visited China. A ‘yellow-face’ tradition followed, most popularly the Fu Manchu movies stretching through to the 1970s craze for kung fu – not until the early 1980s did Asian-British filmmakers finally make some inroads into the British film industry. In 1986 the first truly Chinese-British feature, Ping Pong (1986), reached the screen. Directed by the British-born director Po-Chi Leong, who had directed several features in Hong Kong, the film was set in London’s Chinatown, with a largely unknown cast – except for David Yip, best known as TV’s The Chinese Detective (BBC, 1981-82). Though critically lauded, however, the film failed to find the success it deserved, and neither it nor Mike Newell’s Soursweet (1988) adapted from Timothy Mo’s novel and scripted by Ian McEwan, has so far heralded the arrival of a healthy British-Chinese cinema. While China, Taiwan and Hong Kong-based directors like Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee and Wong Kar-Wai achieved arthouse and now mainstream success in Britain, other British-Chinese features such as BBC Film Peggy Su! (dir. Frances-Anne Solomon, 1998), failed to receive a proper release, despite favourable reviews. More recently Guo Xiaolu’s award winning film, She, A Chinese (2009), a British film in terms of its financing and much of its location, also failed to achieve due recognition from the film trade press and distributors. However a new generation of British-born or British-based Chinese are at the vanguard of positive change, amongst them University of Westminster alumna, Jo Ho, who created the hit BBC television show, Spirit Warriors (the first British series to star a predominantly East Asian cast) and who is now working on several feature films, and award winning director, Belfast born Lab Ky Mo.

RSVP – Places are free but strictly limited so it is essential to register with the project’s Principal Investigator, Anne Witchard, at: anne@translatingchina.info

WEBSITE:  http://www.translatingchina.info

Wednesday 7^th March, 1.15pm – 2.30pm
Room 257, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street

Matthew Taunton (Queen Mary, University of London)
‘Socialism, Literature and the Radiant Future: Before and After 1917’

Abstract: The idea that a “radiant future” (in Zinoviev’s phrase) was just around the corner was central to the Soviet myth. But how were Western ideas about the future affected by the advent of the Bolshevik revolution? This paper will suggest that the bright eyed visions of the future prevalent in the fin de siècle and the Edwardian period were increasingly replaced, after 1917, by sectarian debates about Russia. The future had become a spatial, rather than a purely temporal entity – whether it was to be welcomed as the true democracy (Shaw, the Webbs) or feared as a totalitarian nightmare (Orwell, Koestler, Nabokov). Speculative fictions like those of Morris, Bellamy, and Wells gave way to anti-Communist texts like Darkness at Noon, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Bend Sinister, and endorsements of Stalinism by Day Lewis, Shaw and others. This paper explores a range of ways in which ‘the future’ had to be rethought in light of the events of 1917.

PLEASE NOTE: We have changed seminar rooms this week and will be in Regent Street room 257.