Islands Cultural Archives

This research programme directed by Dr Kathryn Burnett (UWS) has recently launched a website archive of the project:

http://islandcas.wordpress.com/ 

About the Project

Island Cultural Archives: knowledge transfer opportunities in the Hebrides  Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Funded Project 

Dr Kathryn A Burnett, University of the West of Scotland.

This project is positioned against an unfolding backdrop of a new and hitherto unparalleled context within which the academic issue of knowledge transfer and archival research potential can be assessed. The successfully negotiated ‘community buyout’ of the lands and assets of South Uist Estates (the biggest in Scotland under the Scottish Parliament’s land legislation), by the island communities of South Uist, Benbecula and Eriskay,was historic. Through Stòras Uibhist, their community company, the islanders entered 2007 with the physical and cultural resources of their islands held in community ownership. With the new ownership status, the community is poised to develop empathetic collaboration to ensure this worth is not only more fully appreciated but also made more accessible (and sustainable) in a current digital age. Local historical societies, island cultural organisations, and cultural entrepreneurs are acutely aware of the value of what they hold in trust yet require responsive structures to debate, develop and manage this resource. This project sought to provide a locally informed framework to facilitate debate, knowledge pooling and collaborative possibilities.

 

Three workshop events were held on South Uist. The central theme for these events was of knowledge transfer opportunities for Island Cultural Archives. Keynote addresses were made and each workshop privileged a core theme that offered focus for the various community archives and museum collections involved. The workshops’ participants included museums and archive staff and custodians, community cultural organisations and academics from a range of disciplinary fields.

 

Workshop One examined the research potential of the ‘Oral Tradition’ with particular reference to the Gaelic poetry and story-telling of the islands. A rich seam for further activity, debate and practice, digital media possibilities for a ‘heritage in the making’ in relation to local history and Bardachd (Gaelic bard tradition) were developed. In Workshop Two the focus shifted to the crucial socio-political arena of ‘Deserted Settlement’. Current ’settlement’ challenges to small island and remote communities, including retaining, and welcoming, residents raised interesting questions for how academic and media practice expertise can contribute to the wider debate on rural and island life. The role that historical archives, narratives and artefacts can play in the framing of this debate was considered not least in view of the next era of the community and its demographics. Workshop Three focused on ‘Visual Legacies’. Visual archives within the Outer Hebrides, but Uist in particular, were discussed including  paintings, still photography, creative and documentary film, and community activity recordings. This themed event provided an engaging arena for ongoing and new partnership in relation to visual media, museum artefact and community archives.

 

The workshops were held in a small, remote island and a face-to-face community setting. This shaped the scale and nuances of activity and the negotiating of community and academic relations in such a highly local-bound setting provides a case study for reflection and comparison to similar situations. The project offers a commentary on the HEI- community interface in Scotland. The project was successful in its core aim of stimulating collaboration that builds on the knowledge transfer that took place and further research projects developing academic and community partnership are underway.

Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance

LAUNCH of new journal:

Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance

- an Intellect journal -
ISSN: 17536421

1pm to 3pm
Atrium
University of Glamorgan
Adam Street, Cardiff, Room CA112

Aims and scope: Adaptation, or the conversion of oral, historical or fictional narratives into stage drama has been common practice for centuries. In our own time the processes of cross-generic transformation continue to be extremely important in theatre as well as in the film and other media industries. Adaptation and the related areas of translation and intertextuality continue to have a central place in our culture with a profound resonance across our civilisation. As an academic discipline, Adaptation Studies has begun to establish itself in the last few decades as an important area of scholarship and research which continues to make significant contributions to our analysis and understanding of a complex and increasingly diverse world culture.

Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance is a new, peer-reviewed journal designed to engage with specific issues relating to performance on stage, film, television, radio and other media. Embracing comfortably these disciplines under the umbrella of adaptation theories and practices, it attempts to challenge widespread views of national cultural histories and global constructions of performance culture by analysing methods, histories and occurrences of adaptation across a range of media.

The launch is linked to a research roundtable discussion between the editorial team of JAFP:

Editors:
Prof. Richard Hand (rhand@glam.ac.uk) <mailto:rhand@glam.ac.uk)>  and
Dr. Katja Krebs (k.krebs@bristol.ac.uk) <mailto:k.krebs@bristol.ac.uk)>

Assistant editor: Dr Márta Minier (mminier@glam.ac.uk) <mailto:mminier@glam.ac.uk)>
Reviews editor: Dr Duška Radosavljević (drxdr@bristol.ac.uk <mailto:drxdr@bristol.ac.uk> )

Chaired by Professor Stephen Lacey (University of Glamorgan)

Our publisher, Intellect, will be represented by Ravi Butalia, the Journals Manager, and Steve Pearce Business Development Manager. Some of our authors and members of our editorial board will also be attending.

The inaugural issue is available for inspection online by registering as a reader on the Intellect website: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals.php?issn=17536421 <http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals.php?issn=17536421> .

For library and individual subscriptions for JAFP Luke Roberts may be contacted: Luke@intellectbooks.com <mailto:Luke@intellectbooks.com> .

Subscription prices:£33 personal and £210 institutional.

Professor Yvonne Spielmann inaugural lecture (12 Dec, CCA, Glasgow)

Please find below details of Professor Yvonne Spielmann’s inaugural lecture at the University of the West of Scotland.

Inaugural lecture
“Intermediality: Perspectives on Convergent Media”.
Professor Yvonne Spielmann,
Professor of New Media, University of the West of Scotland
Wednesday 12 December, 7.30-8:30pm, refreshments to follow.
CCA (CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS) 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow

In her lecture, Professor Spielmann will introduce relevant aspects of the histories and concepts of how interrelationships between different media can function. This will involve the discussion of examples from literature, photography, film and in particular electronic film in order to better understand the larger picture of contemporary fusion that seemingly embraces all media. The lecture identifies a variety of strategies in the media arts where we can see how the separation and the borders between film, video and computer generated images are challenged. These processes are relevant to creative practices that combine and converge elements of the analogue and the digital. Thereby, the lecture will also raise the question how innovation and creativity express technologically and/or aesthetically in the increasingly complex and convergent media practices.

Yvonne joins the University from the Braunschweig School of Art where she was Professor of Visual Media, prior to that Yvonne was Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Siegen, both Germany. She is author of the German language monographs “Eine Pfütze in bezug aufs Mehr. Avantgarde” (1991), “Intermedialität. Das System Peter Greenaway” (1998), and “Video. Das reflexive Medium” (2005).

The Lecture will commence at 7.30 pm and last for around one hour.  A buffet reception will take place immediately after the lecture.

The lecture is free and open to all, but requires confirmation of attendance, as numbers are limited.

For more information and to register your interest call 01292 886260 or email

Margaret Gibb at margaret.gibb@uws.ac.uk
http:///www.uws.ac.uk

Hetherington Memorial Lecture, Stirling University

A Serious Crisis?
The future of analytical &  investigative reporting

JOHN LLOYD
Reuters Institute, Oxford University

Monday 19 November
6.00 pm, Logie Lecture Theatre
University of Stirling

John Lloyd, Reuters Institute, Oxford University, Contributing Editor to the Financial Times and author of What the media are doing to our politics presents the 2007 Hetherington Memorial Lecture on Monday 19 November in the Logie Lecture Theatre at 6pm.

His lecture will be entitled ‘A Serious Crisis?: the future of analytical and investigative reporting’.

The annual event, organised by the Stirling Media Research Institute and supported by the Scott Trust, is named after the late Alastair Hetherington. The former editor of the Guardian and Controller of BBC Scotland was the first Research Professor of Media Studies at the University of Stirling. Previous lectures have been given by Peter Preston, Jon Snow, Alan Rusbridger, Sheena McDonald, Jonathan Freedland, Roy Greenslade, Elinor Goodman and Trevor Phillips.

All are welcome to attend, no booking is required.

Please contact Karen Forrest, Department of Film & Media Studies for further details or for press enquiries (k.p.forrest@stir.ac.uk or 01786 466220).

Dr Philip Drake
Stirling Media Research Institute
Department of Film & Media Studies
University of Stirling
FK9 4LA
Scotland, UK

Tel: 00 44 (0) 1786 467973
Fax: 00 44 (0) 1786 466855
http://www.fms.stir.ac.uk <http://www.fms.stir.ac.uk/>

Royal College of Art (London 8 Oct, 2007)

Last week, Andy Miah gave another lecture to the Design Interactions programme at the Royal College of Art. This time, the focus was on Robot Ethics and his presentation dealt with aspects of prosthesis, robotics and artificial life. Also speaking that day was the renowned science fiction writer Bruce Sterling.

John W Robertson (Ayr, 12-2, 24 Oct, 2007)

John W. Robertson: ‘Quality and Quantity’: The value of online seminars for Media and Cultural Studies undergraduates

Much previous research into the effectiveness of Computer-mediated Communications (CMC) has suffered from a lack of clarity or of consistency in the adoption and explication of coding typologies or taxonomies. This has reduced opportunities for comparison between studies and for the accumulation of evidence to guide pedagogy. In addition, most studies of CMC have used post graduate students from the sciences, mathematics and engineering as their subjects. There is a notable dearth of studies with undergraduate students and, in particular, with students in the arts, social sciences and humanities. In this study, 104 undergraduate students on media-related programmes undertook a three-week online (BlackboardTM) discussion on the nature of cultural globalisation. The quality of the discussion was evaluated using an enhanced taxonomy rooted in Bloom and other more recent writers. The pattern of dialogue was also mapped and represented graphically. The results suggest that CMC as a method for enhancing peer-led discussion of theoretical concepts, with media arts undergraduates, can be very effective.

The session will offer suggestions for maximising the quality for the learner of such experiences.
The full research report appears in Learning, Media and Technology, 32 (4) 2007

The Big Debate:’that’s not research it’s art’ (Manchester, 23 Oct, 2007)

The Big Debate:’that’s not research it’s art’

23 October 2007 - 4.15pm to 6pm

Location: Bragg Lecture Theatre, Martin Harris Bldg, University of
Manchester.

A debate about the place of ‘practice as research’.

With Suzy Butters (Art History), Andrew Irving (Visual  Anthropology),
and
Kevin
Malone (Music). The session will be chaired by Sasha  Dundjerovic
(Drama).

This debate will be followed by a drinks reception.

NB: This is a free event and forms part of the Drama department’s
Research
Encounters Seminar series.

For more information please contact Jennifer.Kidd[AT]manchester.ac.uk or
katharine.low[AT]postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

Arrival of New Professor

 Yvonne Spielmann joins the School this semester as Professor of New Media.

Yvonne Spielmann (Ph.D. habil.) is formerly Professor of Visual Media at the
Braunschweig School of Art, Germany, previously Assistant Professor of
Media Studies at the University of Siegen, Germany. She is author of the
books “Eine Pfütze in bezug aufs Mehr. Avantgarde” (1991), “Intermedialität.
Das System Peter Greenaway” (1998), and “Video. Das reflexive Medium”
(2005). The Engish translation of the book “Video. The Reflexive Medium” is
forthcoming with MIT Press in fall 2007.
She has edited “Kunst und Politik der Avantgarde” (1989), “Image - Media –
Art” (German and English, 1999, together with Gundolf Winter), “What is
Intermedia?”, special issue of Convergence, winter 2002 (together with
Jürgen Heinrichs), and is editor of “Hybrid Identities in Digital Media”, special
issue of Convergence, winter 2005 (together with Kerstin Mey) and the
section “Forty Years of Video Art” of Art Journal (2006) and “Cultural
Renovations. Spaces, Identities, and Re/presentations” (together with Meike
Kröncke and Kerstin Mey), (German, 2007).
Research grants and fellowships include the Getty Center (1989/90), The
Society for the Humanities at Cornell University (2000/2001), The Rockefeller
Foundation’s Bellagio Study & Conference Center (2002), The Daniel Langlois
Foundation (2003 and 2004), the Japan Foundation (2005), and the National
University of Singapore (2007).

5 new phd students

This semester, five new phd students start with us full time:

Ana Adi, BA, MA, MA
Ana Adi is a doctoral researcher in the School of Media, Language and Music at the University of Paisley (University of the West of Scotland). Ana comes to the University after completing a Fulbright scholarship at the Missouri School of Journalism of the University of Missouri-Columbia where her dissertation was on emotional engagement with online news video releases. Ana has worked as a PR Executive for various agencies and organisations such as Mojo AD in the United States and McCann PR in Romania. She also has extensive experience as a radio producer.

An expert in Public Relations, Ana’s background is in Political and Administrative Studies and Strategic Communication. Ana’s PhD investigates the role of new media structures and public relations in China, as they relate to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Ana is a Staff Writer for Culture at the Olympics: Issues, Trends and Perspectives.  Ana is a true polyglot, fluent in English, Spanish, French and competent in German, Dutch and Italian, along with her mother tongue, Romanian.

Link:
http://anaadi.wordpress.com

Contact details: ana.adi@gmail.com

John Andrew Carruthers, BA (Hons), MSc

John Andrew Carruthers is engaged in PhD research with the School of Media, Language and Music at the University of Paisley. John’s current research explores the effectiveness of separate and integrated marketing communications in selling alcoholic beverages to consumers within the eighteen to thirty age group in the United Kingdom.

John obtained a BA (Honours) degree in Communication and Mass Media from Glasgow Caledonian University, and an MSc International Marketing degree from the University of Paisley. He previously worked in a marketing role for Glasgow Caledonian University, and currently works on behalf of the United Kingdom Government providing sexual health information and advice to young people. Aside from marketing communications, his wider interests include European, Asian and Middle Eastern media, global communication and information technology, online marketing and buyer behaviour.

Bettina Hörmann, BA (Hons), MRes

Bettina (Tina) Hörmann is the Institute of Nanotechnology Doctoral Researcher in Public Engagement with Science, at the School of Media, Language and Music, University of Paisley. Tina’s research investigates ethical, policy and communication issues arising from nanotechnology.

Previously a Master degree student in Sociology at Brunel University, where she attained a Distinction on her dissertation, Tina is originally from Germany. Her undergraduate honours degree in Communication is from the University of Applied Science Hanover. Tina brings considerable expertise in the area of science communication and is working closely with the IoN in developing an industry sensitive analysis of critical nanotechnology challenges within the United Kingdom. In September 2007, Tina participated in the NanoBio-RAISE programme on public engagement with nanotechnology held at Oxford University.

links:
http://www.bettinahoermann.net
http://www.nano.org.uk

email: email@bettinahoermann.net

Elizabeth McLaughlin BA, MSc (award pending)
Elizabeth is joining the university as a PhD student studying media effects at the School of Media, Language and Music. Elizabeth’s research intends to look at the impact the Internet is having on young people and their engagement with the world of news media and politics.

Elizabeth has just completed a Masters in Political Communication at the University of Glasgow, and her dissertation researched the role the Internet is playing in local newspapers and whether this is helping to embrace the concept of citizen journalism. She has an undergraduate degree in Journalism Studies, which she gained at Bell College in Hamilton.

Elizabeth has spent the past 22 years as a working journalist, 15 of those as editor of local weekly newspapers in Glasgow and Ayrshire. She has also lectured in journalism and media related subjects for the past eight years teaching at Bell College and Glasgow Caledonian University. She has considerable experience and knowledge of the newspaper industry – having worked up through the ranks from her first appointment as a trainee reporter at the age of 18 – and her research will also look at the impact the Internet is having on the traditional mass media.

email: mclaughlineliz@aol.com

John Quinn, Cert. HE, BA (Hons)

PhD Student: Media Effects

John holds a BA in Cinema from the University of Paisley. His dissertation explored connections between Modernism, Jungian Psychoanalytic theory, and the aesthetics of German Expressionist cinema. John also specialised in creative writing and is currently working on a novel.

Research interests

‘High Concept’ production values/ Jungian Psychoanalytic theory/ Crime & Deviance/ Biomedical & Bio-psychosocial theory/ Modernity & Modernism

Links

http://www.bebo.com/quinnjohn5
[e] quinn.john@talk21.com

Transforming Audiences (6-7 Sept, 2007, London)

An international conference

6–7 September 2007, University of Westminster

http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/page-1530

in association with the Audience and Reception Studies section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), and the Popular Communication Division of the International Communication Association (ICA).

Registration now open   Registration is now open, and a general schedule of the two days can now be viewed. Individual paper times for the parallel sessions will be announced in August when we have received most confirmations of attendance.