IQ by Intellect Ltd

iq Intellect Quarterly / thinking in colour

magazine no. 9

Serious Play Louise Peacock demonstrates that clowning is not as marginalized as we might think

Transnational Cinemas The editors discuss forming a journal across three continents

Aesthetic Investigations Alfredo Cramerotti discusses journalism in the contemporary art world

Screen Education Terry Bolas reflects on the days when screen education was just a phase

FREE

intellect news reviews features interviews

Call for Submissions

MUSIC Intellect seeks to expand its portfolio of publications in the area of contemporary music studies. We champion innovative scholarly work at the cross section of arts, media and creative practice. Since 1986, Intellect has provided a vital space for widening critical debate in new and emerging subjects. Intellect welcomes book proposals from both new and experienced authors producing original, adventurous academic work in the areas of contemporary music research. To send us your book proposals, please download a questionnaire from our website (www.intellectbooks.com), or contact books@intellectbooks.com for further information.

Call for Submissions

PHOTOGRAPHY

2 | Thinking in Colour

Since 1986, Intellect has provided a vital space for widening critical debate in new and emerging subjects. As a leading academic publisher in the fields of creative practice and popular culture, Intellect has a strong list of visual culture and contemporary art focused publications. We aim to offer a platform for creative artists to present and critically reflect on their work. Intellect welcomes proposals from both new and experienced authors producing original, adventurous critical work in areas of contemporary photography. Intellect seeks to encourage visual reflection on photography, to marry photographic work and critical texts, and to represent an equal balance between the two forms. To send us your book proposals, please download a questionnaire from our website (www.intellectbooks.com),or contact books@intellectbooks.com for further information.

Contents

Contents 10

Author Alfredo Cramerotti discusses journalism in the contemporary art world

4 News in Brief 5 North America News in Brief The latest on Intellect’s expansion

7 IQ Interview The spotlight turns on Intellect’s Design Consultant, Gabriel Solomons

16 Transnational Cinemas editors, Armida de la Garza and Claudia Magallanes-Blanco talk about the conception of the journal

The role of clowning in modern day society, explored by author Louise Peacock

8–9 Reviews Tasters of Intellect publications in the press over the past year

13–14 Author Terry Bolas on the

changing profile of film and media studies in the UK

22–23 Editor Hamish Fyfe describes

the formation of the Journal of Arts and Communities

24–25 Author Pat Francis explores the conundrum at the heart of art and design education 26–27 Editors Aarti Wani, Jyotsna

Kapur and Alka Kurian reflect on Studies in South Asian Film and Media

29–30 Editor Winston Mano on the role of media in Africa

20 Journal editor Enric Castelló on the Catalan Journal of Communication and Cultural Studies

Publisher: Masoud Yazdani Editor: Sam King Designer: Holly Rose IQ / Thinking in Colour

Intellect Ltd. The Mill, Parnall Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG Tel: 0117 9589910

ISSN 1478-7350

www.intellectbooks.com

©2009 Intellect Ltd. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, transmitted in any form or by any means without permission of the publisher. Intellect accept no responsibility for views expressed by contributors to IQ; or for unsolicted manuscripts, photographs or illustrations; or for errors in articles or advertisements.

IQ | 3

intellect news reviews features interviews

News in Brief 5Directories

5Twitter

We have now launched the Directory of World Cinema, adding a new dimension to the academic study of film. The Directory of World Cinema – which is split into regions such as Japanese, French and Iranian cinema – is at present a free online repository where anyone can search for or add an entry. Intellect has committed to publishing six regional print editions in 2010; these edited volumes will contextualize and expand on the pre-existing database. Take a look: www. worldcinemadirectory.org.

Along with our new website, Intellect has invested in numerous types of social media; we are now ‘tweeting’, ‘blogging’ and ‘msging’ to keep you upto-date, promote creative thinking and foster discussion. So come and join us online! www.twitter.com/intellectbooks For more information about all our social media go to: http://tiny.cc/rSdLa.

5New Website

5The Big Picture

5Expansion

We have upgraded and redesigned the Intellect website to increase functionality and improve appearance, incorporating Web 2.0 features and expanding our capacity to interact with our community of authors, editors and readers. In engineering the new site we worked with a global contingent of specialists, including developers from Tehran and designers from Fishponds (Bristol).

Our unique film magazine The Big Picture was launched this year and is available free, both as a download and from a vast array of locations including the BFI Filmstore as well as Curzon and Picturehouse cinemas. Proving ‘there’s more to film than meets the eye’, this visually focused magazine goes beyond the boundaries of the screen to provide an original take on the cinematic experience. For further information visit: www.thebigpicturemagazine.com.

At Intellect we aim to provide a vital space for widening critical debate in new and emerging subjects through an innovative range of publications. Our portfolio of journals is set to expand in 2010 with seventeen new titles being added to our pre-existing collection; this will create a total of 64 individual journals, each focusing on a highly specialized and often poorly represented area of study. In 2009 we have also published 41 books in both print and electronic form, and have started to develop a photography list, which seeks to balance critical reflection and visual content.

5Subject Areas After much discussion, Intellect has taken the decision to re-name the four subject areas we publish in to create a less restrictive and more inclusive system for organizing our subjects. Intellect’s four subject areas are now: film studies; visual arts; performing arts; and cultural & media studies. 4 | Thinking in Colour

5Australia As of May 2009 Intellect entered into a new partnership with Inbooks, who are now distributing our books in Australia and New Zealand. See page 6 for more details.

News

North America News in Brief 5Conferences: CAA Intellect had a presence at several academic conferences in North America this year, including the College Art Association’s annual meeting, which took place in February in Los Angeles, California. In previous years, Intellect titles have been displayed and sold at CAA within the University of Chicago Press booth (our North American distributors). This year, we decided to have our very own booth, and with great results. The Intellect booth allowed us to have more space to display our ever-growing list of visual arts books and journals, and also to get the word out about Intellect (our arresting covers and range of titles stopped many a browser in their tracks!). It was a great opportunity for us to meet new, existing and potential authors and editors, share the Intellect ethos, get feedback, and generally be a part of the North American academic art world.

5Wilmington Office

5Film Matters

Intellect has now established a new editorial office in North America. The office is based at the Department of Film Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. In addition to the benefits we enjoy by having a base on the other side of the Atlantic, the partnership will offer unique opportunities for Intellect, including the publication of a new undergraduate academic journal called Film Matters.

Film Matters, a new magazine published by Intellect in partnership with the film studies department at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, seeks papers written by undergraduate film scholars for its inaugural issue. This call is open to any undergraduate student currently enrolled at an institution of higher learning worldwide and working towards a bachelor’s degree in any field. Any original piece of written scholarship, involving film criticism, history or theory, will be considered for publication.

5Conferences: ICA We were also at the International Communication Association’s annual conference, which took place in May, in the heart of downtown Chicago on the Magnificent Mile. The theme of the meeting was ‘Keywords in Communication’, focusing on the central ideas and shared terms in communication which have remained relevant over time, and are valued in the field. Intellect authors and editors in attendance included Sonia Livingstone (ICA President 2007–2008), editor of Audiences and Publics and co-author of Harm and Offence in Media Content; Winston Mano, editor of the Journal of African Media Studies; Nico Carpentier, co-editor of Reclaiming the Media, and Towards a Sustainable Information Society, and series editor of the ECREA book series; Jan Servaes, editor of The European Information Society and coeditor of Towards a Sustainable Information Society. IQ | 5

intellect news reviews features interviews

New Book Distribution Inbooks are now publicizing and distributing our books in Australia and New Zealand

Since 1 May 2009, Intellect has entered into a new distribution arrangement with Inbooks, who are now publicizing and distributing our books in Australia and New Zealand.

Inbooks is a Sydney-based distributor for international publishers of scholarly and academic books. They provide a comprehensive marketing and distribution service to the trade, academic and library markets in Australia and New Zealand. Inbooks represents an extensive number of academic publishers, ranging from prestigious university presses to library science, scholarly and reference publishers. Intellect has published a number of new books recently, offering critical debate on issues related to contemporary culture and creative practice in these countries, including Diasporas of Aus-

tralian Cinema, Developing Dialogues: Indigenous and Ethnic Community Broadcasting in Australia and Australian Post-War Documentary Film: An Arc of Mirrors. We actively welcome new book proposals from authors and editors based in this region. Inbooks contact and order information: Locked Bag 535 Frenchs Forest NSW 2086 Tel: +61 2 9986 7082 Fax: +61 2 9986 7090 Email: orders@inbooks.com.au www.inbooks.com.au

Directory of World Cinema We have now launched the Directory of World Cinema, adding a new dimension to the academic study of film directory of

world

cinema

As an academic publisher of subjects related to creative media, Intellect has established a strong reputation in the field of cinema studies through its book and journal programmes. We are excited about the launch of an innovative project, which will bring a new dimension to the academic study of film â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Directory of World Cinema. The project consists of three components: 5The pre-print web-based database, which will facilitate content collection and provide free access to the content. 5A series of around 24 print volumes, each of about 300 pages, covering a world region. Each volume will be published bi-annually without the duplication of material between each edition.

6 | Thinking in Colour

5Post-publication online PDFs of the published material that is sold to libraries. 5The directory is intended to play a part in the distribution of academic output by building a forum for the study of film from a disciplined theoretical base. Each volume will cover the cinema of a particular world region, and will offer film reviews, longer essays and research resources. Visit: www.worldcinemadirectory.org Where you can: 5Learn more about the project. 5Comment on any of the reviews. 5Write your own film or director reviews. 5Offer to edit a volume of the directory.

Interview

Comic Books or Graphic Novels... What has inspired our Design Consultant Gabriel Solomons

What is your current role at Intellect?

At the moment I am Intellect’s Design Consultant. What inspired you to enter graphic design?

Most probably comic books or graphic novels. I used to collect them as a kid and I really liked the typography and the whole visual, graphic approach. I didn’t know it was called graphic art back then, but I thought the vibrancy of the imagery and the use of typography was great and I used to spend hours tracing the covers trying to get exactly the same effect. It wasn’t until I was probably about fifteen that I started to understand what it was all about. I started to pay more attention to adverts and magazines and thought that perhaps this is something I’d like to go into. How is your role as a Senior Lecturer at UWE different to your role at Intellect?

There’s a very different discipline to teaching than designing for clients. As a lecturer you can’t simply teach your own style. You have to be a lot more open to the way people are learning and be responsive to individual approaches. There’s been this whole development over the last five years in education, which has been a shift from

a teaching method (top-down), more to a learning method (bottom-up), so it’s really trying to understand the way that people learn in order to be an effective educator. It’s a different way of thinking than the way that I approach my own work, or when I’m doing work for a client. I think with teaching you really need to engage with and understand the strengths individual students have and try to bring those to the surface. It’s a challenging area to work in that brings a great sense of reward when you feel that people are really engaging with the subject and finding their passion – finding out what they can achieve, and what they can accomplish. The downside, for me at least, is the general attitude to the importance of teaching in this country. It still seems to be deemed as something that is not as vital or as important as I think it should be. It’s strange really considering the fact that an increasing amount of practising designers are making a conscious choice to involve themselves more in teaching, seeing the value of playing a part in the development of future designers. The designers that I most admire and respect are those that are involved in education. To be responsible in any kind of job, or with any skill that you’ve got, it’s good to try

to put something that you’ve learned back into the community and pass on to the next generation, as opposed to constantly focusing simply on your own work. It’s important to have a balance of the two, and that’s why I don’t teach full time, I do a bit of both. What is your vision for Intellect’s future?

I think Intellect has changed a lot and has developed since I joined the company five years ago. In terms of my own input, there’s more of a cohesive visual identity coming through which was somewhat lacking before – more of a unified ‘voice’ that bridges the print and web sides of the company. The most interesting developments I’m currently seeing in terms of the company’s growth as a whole are into different areas such as contract publishing, which are areas of particular interest to me. But there are challenges inherent in this area because I believe that the most successful companies are the ones that capitalize on their core strengths, which, in Intellect’s case, are academic books and journals. Initiating new, more mainstream publishing pursuits such as our recent film magazine, The Big Picture, are riskier but I’m excited to see what is going to happen and to see if some of these projects can become a success. IQ | 7

intellect news reviews features interviews

Reviews Erudite, challenging and profound...

Why We Make Art And Why it is Taught By Richard Hickman £14.95, $30 | Paperback ISBN 9781841501260

‘We should welcome and inwardly digest this excellent book that examines the necessity for art as a basic human need.’ Antony Gormley, Artist, London Why We Make Art And Why it is Taught has been a major influence in my career as an artist and an art educator. The depth of research that Dr Hickman has undergone in the areas of creativity and self-esteem have impacted my way of thinking in a most positive manner. His ideas on our capacity to notice, understand and communicate visually, should be a part of every artist/educator’s pedagogy. Julie Stanek, Art Educator, Memphis, Tennessee 8 | Thinking in Colour

Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance

Image Critique & the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Editors: Prof Richard J.Hand & Dr Katja Krebs

By Sunil Manghani

ISSN: 17536421 2008 | 3 issues per volume

JAFP has more to offer, however, than well-written pieces on adaptation quite broadly conceived. The contributions by practitioners and the reviews of major new publications in the field are uniformly useful, revealing the presence of very wise and in-touch editors. JAFP is a highquality academic publication, beautifully produced and printed. It should play a major role in the continuing development of adaptation studies as the most exciting anti-discipline on the current cultural studies scene. R. Barton Palmer

£19.95, $40 | Paperback ISBN 9781841501901

Manghani’s Image Critique & the Fall of the Berlin Wall is a magnificent encounter between visual images of the fall of the wall and the most sensitively acute intellectual theories about images; between the critical analysis of images and the critical thought that such images engender; between reflection as serious consideration of the fall of the wall and reflection as what happens when the images look back at us. Manghani crafts a novel form of image critique out of richly metaphorical writing, theoretical depths and carefully orchestrated images. He performs in a blend of scholarly and personal prose an edifying experience of history, visual culture and criticism. The brilliant flash of lightning that inspires this book makes music of the long roll of thunder heard in these inspiring pages.Jon Simons, Indiana University

Reviews

The Trustus Plays Journal of Writing in Creative Practice Editors: John Wood and Julia Lockheart Vol. 1 issues 1.1 and 1.2 ISSN: 17535190 3 issues per volume

The Journal of Writing in Creative Practice is the ‘official organ’ of the Writing PAD (Writing Purposefully in Art and Design) network, founded six years ago by Julia Lockheart and John Wood at Goldsmiths, University of London. As a participant member of several highly rewarding Writing PAD conference events, I am pleased to see this new publication take up and take forward the issues and concerns of a growing constituency of interest in writing within creative practice. Having just completed its first volume this journal already occupies a particularly necessary critical niche in the ever-growing panoply of titles in the creative industries’ field. The ambitious editorial pledge is to support writing not just ‘for’ and ‘in’ (as one might anticipate) art, craft, designing and performance but also ‘as’ art, craft, designing and performance. With the current heat now gently simmering in the debate on methodology in practicebased Ph.D.s and in the role of writing and research within arts education in general, there is no doubt that this journal is poised to make a timely contribution to the discourse in this contested field. The journal is a gripping read; erudite, challenging, at times playful and on occasions profound. Claire Scanlon, Northbrook College, Sussex. This review was first published in Networks 08, 2009

By Jon Tuttle

Issues in Curating Contemporary Art and Performance

£14.95, $30 | Paperback ISBN 9781841502243

Editors: Judith Rugg and Michèle Sedgwick £29.95, $60 | Hardback ISBN 9781841501628

Jon Tuttle is a writer of great humor, compassion and humanity. He writes about people in the midst of discovering each other and, in turn, themselves. What he finds in them are stories rife with bracing complexity and an aching sadness. David Lindsay-Abaire, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama The Place of Artists’ Cinema Space, Site and Screen By Maeve Connolly £19.95, $40 | Paperback ISBN 9781841502465

Maeve Connolly is the first film scholar in any language to explicate in depth contemporary artists’ insights on the cinema, new media, photography and cinephilia. She engages the specialist as well as the educated reader, by addressing the difference between information and translation, animation and re-enactment in the context of major art exhibitions all over the world. In discussing installations, immersions, performances and interactive experiences, Connolly demonstrates the central placement of the cinema as the source of creative and conceptual inspiration for the media of the future. Angela Dalle Vacche, Professor of Film Studies, Georgia Institute of Technology

In the last decade the boundaries between the artist and the curator have become more ambiguous: artists have adopted curatorial roles in staging their work and conversely curators have become increasingly directorial in their approach to the gallery show as a conceptually driven project. At the same time the developing audit culture in the field of research has slowly infiltrated the art and design sector as a whole, putting greater emphasis on the need to articulate the curatorial process as one that is linked to the production of knowledge. This set of essays explores some of the tensions in these positions, exploring not only the way in which this set of events impacts upon different contemporary practices, but also how these different practices each raise very particular issues of authorship, intervention and control. Theoretical issues are explored by a number of authors, with new contributions by writers such as JJ Charlesworth, Jane Rendell and Paul O’Neill, but one of the distinctive aspects of the volume is the emphasis upon detailed case studies of curatorial projects that emphasize the complexity of the terrain within which curators are operating. It will make a valuable contribution to debate in this area. Joanna Lowry, The University of Brighton IQ 9 | 9

intellect news reviews features interviews

Aesthetic Investigations Alfredo Cramerotti invites us to imagine journalism and art as a multilayered single activity

There is today an emergent mode of journalism which does not pass through broadcast or media news, yet reaches a (specialized, but consistent) worldwide audience. It is a mode of research, produce, and distributed ‘knowledge’ on histories and situations which uses the globalized circuits of art exhibitions, biennials, film festivals, cultural celebrations, and so forth. This reception and redistribution of information affects our idea of the way we know things about the world, and about ourselves. The interaction between art and journalism has developed to the point of forming a new mode of journalism, an ‘aesthetic journalism’, varying in intensity according to the degree of journalistic method applied by the artist. Imagine journalism and art as a multilayered single activity, rather than clear-cut separated fields. Journalism provides a view on things, art a view on the view, feeding back on the first. Even if 10 | Thinking in Colour

one is a coded system that speaks for the truth (or so it claims), and the other a set of activities that questions itself at every step (or so it claims), both are methods of representation and mediation for what is our human condition. When a journalist undertakes an investigation, (s)he selects a number of images and words out of a continuum of life (a subtraction from a huge and complex number of relations and processes – what we call ‘reality’). When an artist makes an artwork, (s)he creates a narrative where there was none (an addition to reality). The flux between adding and subtracting creates the environment in which we live. In terms of representation, very little changes if a story is factual or fictional – an account and a depiction is produced. What changes dramatically, however, is how this story is told and distributed, and the consequences that will affect our behaviour.

Reality and its representation Since the Age of Enlightenment – when to address public interest was of primary concern for the bourgeois – the profession of the journalist has become an object of negotiation. It implies to some degree an ethical stance: to serve the highest number of people possible, and to be a witness of history, but not its maker. In this process, the journalist may or may not denounce her biased view, and the fallibility in the pursuing of truth; now there is a constant conciliation between the sources of information, the employer’s interests, the power exerted over the subject of the reporting, and over the audience, but also the expectations by the very public it serves. This negotiation between

Aesthetic Investigations

multiple terms is the reason why, today, journalism is conducted in the pressroom, and not on the field. As something (we are told) happens somewhere, we get instant access to broadcasted footage in real time, mediated by experts that comment on the live feed of the images, and by digital editors that mix, overlap, crop and insert graphics and running texts. What we get in omniscience, we lose in context and sense. We no longer know in which situation something takes place, since the context is very much constructed, mediated and delivered to the viewer for consumption: more news, at any time; more journalism, universally coded; more events, thanks to the multiplication of newsworthiness. We have reached the point of metamedia – the explanatory industry. We consider everything as either reliable or manipulated, and depend for judgement on media watchers and critics, commentary programmes, articles on the interpretation of other articles, and so on. In this context, to explain means also to influence.

If journalism constantly struggles between its ‘mission’ and its power position, art, on the other hand, is no less implicated in a dualism: artists are keen to appeal to a particular audience (the art audience of the globalized circuits), pursuing at the same time something beyond the artistic field, ‘more real than reality’. Often non-fiction work by artists is uncritically taken for reliable information, as a valid counter-account to media journalism. However, since an act of interpretation is never neutral, art and journalism find themselves on the same level regarding the narratives they propose; this brings us back to my earlier invitation to imagine a notion of information that includes an aesthetic approach to reality.

An aesthetic approach to journalism Here we see the value of journalism ‘being’ aesthetic, rather than journalism ‘using’ aesthetic means (which it does very well and always has done). Journalism is necessary for us to deal with a

IQ 9 | 11

intellect news reviews features interviews

growing complex civilization, separations of roles and procedures in administration, science, culture, and technology; it has become the modus operandi for dealing with that which cannot be experienced first-hand. Since the journalistic attitude is so successful in proposing the model ‘as’ the event, it has spread in many other areas outside the journalistic field, setting the boundaries of normalcy for both representation and reality. In this sense, the journalist is an artisan, someone who carefully designs information (declaring or not its distortion) in order to present an understandable picture of the world ‘out there’. Art and journalism are therefore two sides of a unique activity, which generates a main question: is it possible to work with aesthetics, to allow meaning based on the viewer’s interpretation, and still be informative, precise, and relevant? If truth-telling is shifting from news to art, how can we negotiate the confinement of art within the boundaries of institutions, biennials, and a few public projects? Aesthetic journalism, in my view, should work on the border of reality and fiction, using documentary techniques and journalistic methods but self-reflecting on those means; ultimately, it is not about delivering information but questioning it, reversing the tradition of both fields (art and journalism). An activity – either produced by artists or journalists – that queries the realm of fiction as the site of imagination, and that of journalism as a site for reality. The hybridization of journalism with art adopts imagination, narrative, and abstraction to implement the research and delivering of information; it does not attempt to be objective at all costs, nor discard creativity in favour of neutrality. Here, we start to get closer to the core of reality itself when we make our reality not a given, irreversible fact, but a possibility among many others.

The possible horizon of meaning Aesthetics is about what our senses experience; aesthetic investigation becomes a tool to question both the selection of the material delivered to us, and the specific reasons for why things are selected. Cultural production in general, and art in particular, is increasingly at the forefront of understanding the world we live in. If in the 1950s or 1960s, 12 | Thinking in Colour

the economic mechanisms were the main referent for our experience as members of a given society (either in terms of conformity or antagonism), this is no longer the case. Today cultural dynamics play an increasingly important role, and criteria of economic achievement are no longer sufficient for a proper comprehension of phenomena like, to name one of the most abused terms, the ‘clash of civilizations’. It seems we have to rethink society bottomup, and readdress many of our referents in cultural, even aesthetic terms. Not surprisingly, multinationals and corporations put huge effort into reinvesting their profits in cultural and artistic projects, in order to create a ‘culture’ that can travel beyond national schemes and monetary value. The last generation of artists feel they cannot leave a commitment to social and political meaning outside their practice, and embrace strategies of production and distribution of work outside the specific constraints of art. This trait could shape the future view of the world, via a re-adaptation (in artistic terms) of journalism and the news industry. But rather than abandoning the aesthetic approach in search of a journalistic neutrality, the real challenge is to ‘contaminate’ one with the other, making it impossible to distinguish the two approaches and therefore ‘alerting’ the viewer about the mechanisms at play in representation and reporting. Whether this will become the essential feature for our understanding of the world, only time will tell us. Alfredo Cramerotti, April 2009, www.alcramer.net

Further Reading Aesthetic Journalism How to Inform Without Informing By Alfredo Cramerotti £19.95, $35 | Paperback ISBN 9781841502687 As the art world eagerly embraces a journalistic approach, Aesthetic Journalism explores why contemporary art exhibitions often consist of interviews, documentaries and reportage. This new mode of journalism is grasping more and more space in modern culture and Cramerotti probes the current merge of art with the sphere of investigative journalism.

Interview

Screen Education Terry Bolas discusses the days when screen education was just a phase

How did you come to write Screen education: from film appreciation to media studies?

I had been very involved in the Society for Education in Film and Television (SEFT) in the 1960s when serious consideration of film and television took place only at the margins of educational establishments. Yet by the start of the twenty-first century the study of the media, in all its variety, was everywhere. It was such a startling denouement that I was intrigued and determined to investigate. What surprised me was that no one had yet taken up the challenge. For the many film and media studies graduates seeking doctorates, it was research that offered tremendous scope. I did subsequently come across other researchers looking into related areas like aspects of the Film Society movement or local

film and cinema history. Perhaps it was simply that media teaching was now such an integral part of institutions that its graduates had no more curiosity about its provenance than an English or history graduate would have had about the institutional establishment of their respective studies. Why does your account of the history start so early in the twentieth century?

The momentum of the movement picked up greatly in the 1970s and most of the brief introductory historical accounts that do exist tend to make only the scantest reference to preceding decades. But the huge investment of energy that took place in the 1970s was only possible because of the structures created by what had gone before. I was aware of this because I had known –

and in some cases worked with – those who had been pioneers in the 1930s and 1940s. Subsequently much of the momentum in the 1950s had come from the ‘emergency trained’ teachers who had attended the one-year courses for ex-service personnel in the immediate post-war period. They continued to play important roles as volunteers in the movement when I first became involved. They established the Society of Film Teachers (SFT), which subsequently became SEFT. Fortunately there is surviving and accessible evidence of their involvement to be found in the publications of the period: Film Teacher, The Film Teacher’s Handbook, Screen Education, Screen Education Yearbook. What were your sources?

When I first proposed my project I had

IQ | 13

intellect news reviews features interviews

worked on the assumption that the two key organizations, the education department of the British Film Institute (BFI) and SEFT would have left substantial archives. Unfortunately this was not so. There were partial archives which were now being stored and maintained with proper recognition of their importance. But the current host archiving bodies had only been in a position to receive the material passed to them; they had had no control over what constituted the incoming documentation. I was particularly disappointed that the SFT/SEFT records from the 1950s and 1960s had disappeared, since I had acted as custodian of these documents when I was the Honorary Secretary of SEFT up until 1967. For me the process of research was rather different from that encountered by most researchers. Since so much of my enquiry depended on personal recollection I found myself interviewing people whom I had known or worked with some 35 years ago. The response of my interviewees was a very positive one, since many were aware of the key period in which they had been involved and understandably thought having an account of it was a good idea. Many were prepared to share with me not only their recollections but their personal media-teaching archives. Apart from your involvement with SEFT you worked in the education department of the British Film Institute in the late 1960s and early 1970s. What are your recollections of that period?

The key figure at that time was Paddy Whannel who headed the department. Like several of the SEFT activists, he had been trained as a teacher in the immediate post-war period. While encouraging the members of his staff 14 | Thinking in Colour

to develop their specialist areas of film criticism, he was committed to finding ways of introducing film and television study into schools. When he and Stuart Hall produced their groundbreaking book, The Popular Arts, in order to give credibility to their enterprise, the dust jacket emphasized that each author had been a teacher in secondary modern schools. Unfortunately BFI governors demonstrated more concern at Whannel’s drive for intellectual rigour among his colleagues than to his commitment to curriculum development in schools. Why did you leave the BFI and return to teaching?

Those whose careers have been consequent on their earning degrees in film or media should be aware that there was no such career structure for teachers or lecturers until film and media studies began to be established in higher education in the late 1970s. For most of us ‘screen education’ was a phase we went through before returning to a more conventional career path in order to achieve promotion in teaching or further education. Subsequently, once in a post at a school, I always endeavoured to find ways to introduce aspects of film and media study into the curriculum. How do you view the current situation around the delivery of media education?

It is curious, to say the least, that there was such a long gap of almost twenty years after SEFT disappeared before any comparable subject association was created for film and media teachers in schools, with the setting up of the Media Education Association in 2006. Of course there had long been an organization for those teaching in

higher education: Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA). This body had responded to the rapid and widespread expansion of media and associated subjects in the universities. The situation in schools was different. Essentially the years of collaboration between the BFI and SEFT had been the pioneer years, with only limited developments in the curriculum and much teacher energy directed to establishing the credibility of media education. However, once there was scope within the secondary schools for students to sit public examinations in film and media, the focus for teachers became their own institutions. Government has subsequently thrown in a further complication by stressing the importance of ‘media literacy’ and giving responsibility for its implementation to a national regulatory body: Ofcom. In 1964 the first course in which students might train and qualify as a teacher of film and television studies was established; in 2009 there is now no similar provision for would-be media teachers. Consequently the teaching in schools of examination subjects in film and media is delivered by those who are usually drafted in from other disciplines.

Further Reading Screen education from film appreciation to media studies By Terry Bolas £19.95, $40 | Paperback ISBN 9781841502373 Bolas’ account focuses particularly on the voluntary efforts of activists in the Society for Education in Film and Television and on that society’s interchanging relationship with the British Film Institute’s education department.

International

Intellect Publications Around the World Our books and journals can be found in locations across the world. Take a journey with our titles across international bookshelves from Toronto to London, Liverpool to New York.

Toronto

Liverpool London

Wilmington

London

New York Toronto

Tokyo

Stockholders Intellect participates with a number of independent bookshops across the world, who regularly stock our titles. If you know of a particular bookshop that you think would be a good fit for our publications, please let us know! Contact: books@intellectbooks.com. IQ 9 | 15

intellect news reviews features interviews

Transnational Cinemas The editors discuss the process of forming a journal across three continents Armida and Claudia’s story

Claudia and I met in Cambridge in 2006, at a conference that aimed to explore the way documentary, especially in Latin America, was being influenced by narrative techniques and aesthetic choices from the feature film and vice versa. Claudia gave a presentation on participatory documentaries made by indigenous peoples in Mexico, and I on the use of mockumentary to discuss Mexican migration to the US. We realized we came from similar backgrounds and shared the same interests – film and video and its relation to social contexts and social change. Our partners were at that time completing their Ph.D.s so we also had a sense that our lives at home were similar. It was a perfect personal and research match! Then the University of Nottingham, where I was working, opened its campus in China and I was seconded there. I realized that much of the research I was doing on Latin America, mainly about the relationship between cinema and societies undergoing massive change due to globalization – especially audience research – was also relevant to China. And then Claudia and I had an idea; if we could organize a conference on what is happening to cin16 | Thinking in Colour

ema and people in Asia and Latin America, two of the regions where some of the most dramatic social transformations are taking place and which, in fact, have more in common than would seem to be the case, that would really give a chance to people who had so far been working on aspects of the topic but from other disciplines or fields to exchange ideas and points of view. We wanted to have an interdisciplinary conference that would allow colleagues in area studies, film studies, sociology, cultural studies and anthropology to bring and share ideas about the transnationalization of cinema. The conference was finally held in Puebla, Mexico, in August 2008, at the Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla, where Claudia works. The conference turned out to be such a success, that we realized there was in fact enough interest in the topic and enough academics around the world already working on it to publish a journal on the subject and I sent a proposal to Intellect. Ravi Butalia was also enthusiastic and very receptive to the idea, but as the proposal was being considered, something really strange happened: Claudia and I were told that Intellect had received another proposal for a journal on transnational

Transnational Cinemas

cinema, which was in some respects very similar to ours but which also had some complementary differences. Ravi asked whether we would consider the possibility of joining efforts with the other editorial team, provided that we had the chance to study their proposal and found it was indeed pursuing the same ends. He also said it would be all right if we decided not to go that way. Claudia and I were a bit surprised but decided to look at the other proposal. We immediately realized that the editorial team seemed to be of one mind with us. We were delighted to learn the team comprised Ruth Doughty and Deborah Shaw, as Deborah had invited me to form part of her proposed AHRC bid on Transnational Cinemas. Claudia had had the opportunity to meet Deborah precisely during the Puebla conference, where Deborah presented a paper on the tourist gaze in Mexican popular and art film. Claudia and I knew that joining efforts with Deborah and Ruth would enable the four of us to create a highly original and academically strong journal, that would be as transnational as the cinemas we aim to study: Claudia is based in Mexico, I am in China, and Deborah and Ruth in the UK. Deborah and Ruth agreed, and so did Ravi. And here we are… Deborah and Ruth’s story

We had co-edited a book and we had enjoyed working together so much that we always knew we would welcome the opportunity to do so again if the right project came along. In the meantime Ruth had developed a new unit called ‘Third and Transnational Cinema’ for the film students at Portsmouth University, and I was working on my book, Contemporary Mexican Transnational Filmmakers for Manchester University Press, and a paper ‘Deconstructing and Reconstructing “Transnational Cinema”’. From our teaching and research it was becoming apparent that this was a developing area in film studies. As a result, we began to explore the possibility of starting a journal bringing together our research and teaching interests and to explore the possibility of starting up a new journal with Intellect. This is where serendipity came into play and forces conspired to make this happen far more

quickly than we had imagined. We contacted our colleagues in the department of creative arts, Dominic Symonds and George Burrows, editors of Studies in Musical Theatre, for advice on submitting a proposal to Intellect. Dominic told us that Ravi Butalia, (the Journals Manager) was visiting Portsmouth the very next day. A rather unprepared Deborah met with Ravi to discuss initial ideas. It was at this point that Ravi mentioned that he had received another proposal for a journal with a very similar focus, and for a series of reasons had delayed giving these still unknown editors his response. Rather than becoming competitors, we soon became collaborators, thanks to Ravi’s vision. Things then went into overdrive; we submitted a full proposal within the space of few days, which Ravi sent to Armida in China and Claudia in Mexico. They generously allowed a couple of interlopers to share in the creation of the new journal, and we were happy when we discovered their identities, as Deborah had met both Claudia and Armida at their excellent conference the previous summer, ‘Transnational Cinema in Globalising Societies: Asia and Latin America’. Even though we are based in three continents (as befits a journal of this scope), we have established a very good working relationship with Claudia and Armida, guided by the expertise and warmth of Ravi. We are on track to publish the first volume early in 2010, and already have some exciting and innovative articles by leading academics. We also hope to have two new female members of the team shortly as Ruth is expecting a baby girl in August and Claudia in October.

Further Reading Transnational Cinemas Editors: Armida de la Garza, Claudia Magallanes-Blanco, Deborah Shaw & Ruth Doughty ISSN: 20403526 2010 (forthcoming) 2 issues per volume

Transnational Cinemas aims to break down traditional geographical and area divisions and welcomes submissions from around the world that reflect the global nature of film cultures. IQ 9 | 17

intellect news reviews features interviews

Image: John Quinn, clown-doctor, at work.

Serious Play Louise Peacock reminds us of the importance of playing In 1999, at the Piccadilly Theatre in central London, I saw Slava’s Snowshow for the first time. I can’t even remember what prompted me to book tickets for a show I had never heard of, by a performer I had never heard of. I’m very glad I did though. I took my husband along (an experienced theatre academic in his own right) and together we were, quite literally, blown away by the show’s finale. If you haven’t seen the show, it ends with Carl Orff ’s Carmina Burana blasting through the sound system. Slava is on stage alone as wind begins to blow the snow-white backdrop hanging behind him. The backdrop is blown out of the way and a huge light is revealed, pointed blindingly out to the audience. The wind increases, snow (paper really) swirls around the auditorium and the audience is buffeted by the noise and the wind. After the finale Slava and his clowns release huge lightweight balls into the auditorium and they and their audience play. By the time we left the theatre I knew that my 18 | Thinking in Colour

view on what was important in theatre had fundamentally changed. I wanted to create, track down and research the kind of theatre that involved the audience in play and that used clowns as a way of engaging the audience. Directly inspired by Slava and then guided some years later by Angela De Castro (the original green clown in Slava’s Snowshow), I set about watching clown theatre and investigating clowns working in settings other than circus and theatre. I had no idea at that point that ten years after I first saw Slava, Intellect would be publishing my book Serious Play – Modern Clown Theatre. This book is the first of its kind in taking recent clown performances and viewing them through the lens of play theory. The relationship between performance and play is at the heart of my book, which looks at the tensions and possibilities of the playfulness of clown performance in a range of settings. The book has six chapters and the first of these,

Image: Alegría - Cirque du Soleil Clowns: Yuir Medvedev and Marcos De Oliveira Casuo Royal Albert Hall – London. Photo taken by Nigel Norrington.

Serious Play

‘Clown and clown play’, seeks to establish some definitions – the academic consideration of contemporary clown performance is relatively uncharted territory. So, the book not only makes reference to the traditional terms of Auguste, Whiteface and Tramp, it also introduces the notions of clown shows, clown actors and clown theatre, taking examples from recent performances to demonstrate how the terms might be applied. The book also draws heavily on the ideas of Jacques Lecoq and John Wright, who have both been influential thinkers around how playful theatre and clowns in playful theatre can make an important connection with the audience. But the book isn’t all about what happens in theatres, as the second chapter demonstrates. ‘The development of the circus clown – Frame and content’ examines the development of the circus clown, and modern circus performances by companies such as Circus Oz, Cirque du Soleil and the Pickles Family Circus. The notion of performance ‘frames’ and the way they affect the reception of clowning is introduced here and runs through the book. Theatre clowning, in all its forms, is at the heart of chapters three and four: ‘Clowns on stage’ and ‘Clowns who act: actors who clown’. Analysis of performance features strongly in these chapters and you can imagine the fun I had in watching a range of clown theatre performances in order to select the most helpful case studies to demonstrate the range and purpose of clown performance. Beyond that in ‘The truth tellers: clowns in religion and politics’ the book explores the way that clowns function in society beyond conventional zones of performance. So, with some help from the Rev. Roly Bain, I explored the use of the clown within the Christian faith. The work on clown ministry in this book is rare in being written by an outsider. Most of the literature on clown ministry is written by practising clown ministers. The work of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army and Dario Fo are explored as examples of contemporary political clowning – though I have to admit that this is a clown function which is rapidly diminishing. The role of the clown as social satirist has been taken over by stand-up comedians.

Perhaps most touching and interesting of all is the use made of clowns in hospitals, particularly with terminally ill children who may have lost most of their opportunity for play. This is explored in the book’s final chapter ‘Clown healers’. As well as offering an academic critique of clowning, what I really hope this book does is to demonstrate that clowning is not as marginalized as we might think. Clowns and clowning permeate all kinds of performances and all kinds of social settings and, by existing, they remind us of the importance of playing.

Further Reading Serious Play Modern Clown Performance By Louise Peacock £14.95, $30 | Paperback ISBN 9781841502410 Clowns’ slapstick is their primary mode of performance and allows them to provoke audiences to laughter wherever they perform. This innovative book, focusing on contemporary practice in the USA and Europe over the last fifty years, investigates the nature and function of clown performance in modern society. IQ | 19

intellect news reviews features interviews

A Global Project Becomes Reality The upcoming edition is proof that an academic journal in English can indeed be produced in a region like Catalonia By Enric Castelló

Where I work, the only problem with ideas for new initiatives is that many become reality. You have to think twice before risking a ‘why don’t we ....?’ because it’s very likely that you will end up assuming the consequences and putting your shoulder to the wheel. The seeds of the Catalan Journal of Communication and Cultural Studies (CJCS) were sown in informal conversations between members of the department of Communication Studies of the Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona. The initial idea matured over many weeks: after all, this would be – for us at least and from a Catalan perspective – a key initiative in terms of international communication and cultural studies. From the outset it was clear that we would need a travelling companion as a guide and partner. After considering a number of possibilities, we opted for the Intellect proposal as the one that best suited us. Intellect seems to have a philosophy that marries perfectly with our own entrepreneurial, even intrepid, spirit. With a view to developing a pro20 | Thinking in Colour

posal, we set to work defining our aims, deciding on the nature of the journal, setting up an editorial committee and deciding on operational aspects of the publication. Initially we had some doubts as to whether the fact that we were a Catalan journal applying to a British publisher would be a handicap and whether our cultural perspective would be viewed as rather local. Intellect, however, happily accepted our proposal and, after a few adjustments, we got down to work with our sights set on the first edition of the CJCS for September 2009. The first edition is proof that an academic journal in English can indeed be produced in a small country like Catalonia and fostered by a small university like the Rovira i Virgili University. The only requirements are to have a good proposal, apply solid academic criteria, set high quality standards, be suitably professional in dealings with the publisher, authors and reviewers, and maintain the momentum of the initial enthusiasm for the initiative – and, of course, consistently believe in the project. It is also very helpful to have a sponsor, which, in

A Global Project Becomes Reality

our case, is the Repsol/URV Chair of Excellence in Communication. The CJCS aims to become established as an international academic reference for media, communication and popular culture studies, both within and outside Catalonia. We do not see our geographic specificity as a barrier – quite the contrary, it seems to be the best and most direct window to the international sphere. Ours is a project developed locally for application globally, so any academic with an international outlook who is interested in Catalan and Spanish cultural studies will find, in the CJCS, a point of encounter, a forum for debate and reflection, and a platform for communicating research to the world. The editorial team is particularly interested in studies of popular culture communication, production and consumption in Catalonia, but also in other regions – whether in Spain, Europe or the rest of world – sharing characteristics, opportunities, phenomena, problems and experiences with Catalonia. The CJCS will specifically focus on themes such as the media, cultural change, globalization and localization dynamics, national construction processes, the relationship between languages and culture, cultural minority groups and the media, popular culture and the relationship between identity, heritage and communication. Characterized by a multidisciplinary approach, the CJCS is broadly aimed at academics in the humanities and social sciences. Its pages are open to articles describing both qualitative and quantitative research, with the main requirement being that they be original and thorough and that their results be relevant to communication and culture. The experience of putting the first edition to bed has been extraordinary. Very rapidly, the first obstacle was overcome: a lack of content. In just a few months we received a large number of submissions, many of exceptional interest. The initial risk was thus converted into the task of processing a large quantity of scientific production applying academic criteria. All works published in the ‘articles’ section of CJCS undergo a blind peer-review process performed by international experts in the field; this meant that establishing a network of contacts and the dedicated support of members of the edito-

rial board was central to the project. With the first edition published, we are aware that the complications are just beginning. Launching the journal was, in itself, an intensive and valuable learning experience, as an academic issue of this nature undoubtedly relies on constancy and sustained quality so as to meet the needs of a specialist and demanding readership. Having Intellect as our publisher is a wonderful guarantee, but it also implies great demands and responsibilities. We view the CJCS as a glocal project. We invite you to use the CJCS as your international platform, not only for academic communication and debate on Catalan media and culture, but also on other national traditions and cultural contexts. The team who made the journal possible truly believe in this project and in its global vocation. We do not renounce our local origin, as, far from being a drawback, it is the place to stand on that enables us to address the world.

Further Reading Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies Principal Editor: Enric Castelló ISSN: 17571898 First published in 2009 1 issue per volume Media, communication and cultural studies have experienced significant growth in Catalonia and the broader Catalanspeaking area. The Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies is committed to publishing research in these flourishing areas. IQ 9 | 21

intellect news reviews features interviews

Arts & Communities Hamish Fyfe aims to unite the academy and wider society Writing about the new Journal of Arts and Communities makes me feel like the chameleon that landed on the kilt. The activity that the journal concerns itself with is very hybrid. In an increasingly complex world, the need to revisit definitions of the individual rights and responsibilities that lie at the heart of what it means to be a community and the value of creativity in communities seems more important than ever, but there is a relative absence of critical space. Most kinds of assessment are gauged at providing numeric and monetized information which, important though it may be, doesn’t really help people get better at the core of their work. Whether, and if so, how, this work relates to the academy is another matter again. Why then, despite the clear cultural capital created by projects that link arts and communities has the academy remained largely unresponsive to the experience of the socially responsive arts? Perhaps politically and contextually bound study has simply not attracted the ‘theory’, which has characterized and become the normative academic project of the last forty years. Critiques of socially connected activity like community arts have been consistently marginalized by the academy in favour of a series of socially disconnected theories like semiotics and structuralism. These educational concerns however are minor ‘internal’ reflections of a more important sociallyrooted phenomenon. That is the division between what is perceived as valid ‘knowledge’, what carries epistemological weight, and the common sense and local understanding that emerge from projects. Clifford Geertz and his concept of local knowledge, Michelle de Certeau with his conceptualization of tactics and ruses, and the doxa of Ivan Illich validate the study of the intelligences of living: the knowledge which allows for social and political change. Relationships between the arts and communities are intellectually interesting and challenging because their referents include 300 years of what is now clas22 | Thinking in Colour

sified as philosophy, political theory, anthropology, linguistics, folklore, history, literary theory, sociology and art history. This is against the background of the fact that the vernacular voice, superstition and local knowledge have been consistently ‘othered’ by the critical studies of modernity and postmodernity. The construction of the modern age has been dependent on the positioning of notions of tradition, storytelling, superstition and so on, very much at arms length and thereby tending to keep structures of inequality and domination in place. In the case of the arts in community contexts, many of the modern magesteriums of professional art-making are challenged and what have previously been considered to be autonomous epistemological domains have developed porous boundaries through the socially responsive potential which the arts and communities bring. In his book Voices of Modernity Richard Bauman quotes Robert Wood writing in 1775 about the problematic strength of the Homeric tradition – a tradition that had literacy without much of a literature. Along with other theoreticians and practitioners the project of the Journal of Arts and Communities is attempting to respond to the relative absence of an objective critical enquiry. Wood counterposes an earlier (oral) stage in the development of human knowledge when common sense, the language of common life, experiential learning, and plain understanding prevail, with a later, learned, (literate) stage in which philosophy and science became separate, specialized, esoteric pursuits, characterized by their own special registers. For Wood the transition from orality to literacy entails a dimension of loss, the sacrifice of the simplicity, clarity, directness and passion that distinguish the language of

Arts & Communities

nature. There is a sense in which applying academic to do with them but whose taxes pay for them. These scrutiny to the processes of arts and community people are our ‘customers’ too. exposes both to the same danger. The creative sharLike many early twenty-first century instituing of the skills and knowledge of life, from knitting tions, universities are struggling to understand the to ukelele playing, from reflecting on life and death profound change that is affecting their social and to the further reaches of Japanese youth fashion, intellectual magisteriums. This is change in terms represents the clear continuation of a vernacular – real ‘newness’, not just doing more of what we tradition that has always been integral to human did before and trying to do it better. A social turn, life but which has consistently been reduced by the technological change and creative accidents have construction of the critical, rational and apparently produced a situation in which unpaid volunteers can disinterested reflections of ‘scientific’ processes. create a massive and accurate repository of knowlThere is an increasing emphasis in higher educaedge in their spare time. The principles through tion around the world on researchers engaging with which this knowledge is created go to the heart of the public. If this is about responding to a loss of the research practices of universities. A process that public confidence following Alderhay, GM crops and places publication before refinement, which posits corrosive nanotechnology debates, if this is about uncertainty as an invitation to participate and which making the occasional foray to a community hall in places far more emphasis on knowledge as a process order to make hard ideas appear straightforward, if rather than the kind of ‘outputs’ that form most of this is about recruiting more people from schools to the current products of universities, is profoundly our university, making money from the applications challenging. of research or telling a good public relations story, The capacity to receive information has always then it’s easy to ‘sell’. If, however, public engagement been essential in education but now ‘the public’ is about reviving the historic civic mission of univer- with whom we are encouraged to ‘engage’ have the sities and making a new settlement between society means to create and send information as well. The and the academy that acknowledges tectonic shifts era of sovereign scholarly work in which a very few in the way that social and intellectual capital is crepeople held knowledge and disseminated it, often ated and shared, and if it’s about reflecting the inher- exclusively, amongst themselves is over. The someent contradictions in a university system that applies times oppressive monologue of education is rapidly exclusive, competitive, selective and commercialized becoming a much more liberating dialogue. Work processes to create knowledge which contributes to that brings the academy together with wider society, equity and social justice, then it’s harder to ‘sell’. as we hope the Journal of Arts and Communities will Influential processes that have lain at the heart of in a small way, should be the field in which the new the accountability of the academy over the past 25 creativities and literacies of the twenty-first century years or so have created individuated and centripetal can be negotiated and developed. tendencies that have resulted in intense inwardfacing conversations. The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), peer-review and the Quality Assur- Further Reading ance industry, for example, all contributed to this. Journal of Arts and Communities An overall sense of uneasy competition has tended Principal Editor: Hamish Fyfe not to valorize any kind of engagement, collaboraAssociate Editor: Huw Champion tive or otherwise, outside the realm of universities ISSN: 17571936 themselves and this has tended to reduce the sense First published in 2009 2 issues per volume of responsibility that might be felt towards the 97 per cent of the population who, despite widening The Journal of Arts and Communities seeks to provide a critical examination of the practices known as community or participation in university education (7 per cent of participatory arts, encompassing work which incorporates the population of 18 year olds in the 1970s and now active creative collaboration between artists and people in a range of communities of place and interest. nearly 50 per cent in the UK), never have anything IQ | 23

intellect news reviews features interviews

Writing About Writing Pat Francis urges us not to be intimidated by the blank page Luckily whenever I have to write I don’t have major difficulties in transferring the thoughts and ideas that are in my head into the words that become solidified on the page. Blank paper is not too horrific. My sentences can be grammatical, spelt correctly and make sense. I can structure and tell a story, build an argument. Some tasks are harder than others, but I am not silenced by the act of writing. However, I work with very many people for whom this is not the case. Some are articulate and could talk the hind legs off a donkey, spout for England or could persuade a pig to fly. Others are so concerned about having to write ‘properly’ that it is to the detriment of their ideas. Many just go into a dark maelstrom of panic. And these are not all students. Many tutors in art and design – wonderful practitioners, and inspirational teachers – baulk at the written task. Often their ideas of writing are associated with formal essays, and their voices, which are creative and fluent, become stultified, false and formulaic in their writing. But everyone in the creative arts has to write far more than an analytical essay: often they have to compile artist’s or personal statements, descriptors of their work, exhibition catalogue entries, press releases, reviews, blurb, letters that persuade patrons to part with their money etc. It is important that they either feel they are able to approach all, or some, or any, of these tasks. 24 | Thinking in Colour

I am a practical person who communicates my ideas by all sorts of means: I gesture when talking, and frequently scribble and doodle words or patterns as I attempt to explain something and am constantly seeking metaphors as a way of elucidating a thought. Working with students, and later being persuaded to run workshops for staff, I was encouraged to think about writing down my ideas in order to help others. The compiling of the book took a few years, as it was written in the summer holidays. During the academic year I was too busy working on everyone else’s writing to be able to do my own. I knew there were no books quite like the one I was hoping to write, although the germs are there in a few rare volumes. With no clear answer as to how to structure and style my book I took the decision to write it for both students and tutors – it is founded on workshop activities, is adaptable to varying groups, but also works for individuals. The main concern was that it was not taken as being prescriptive. It should be a starting point for the reader to use and develop personal ideas and nurture their own voice. I have deliberately offered exercises, a lot of which are warm-ups, so that the readers can then extend these into varying subject areas, differing levels of study, and adapt them to appropriate background or knowledge.

Writing about Writing

The eclectic approach of the writing is matched with the fifty-five illustrations: these vary from diagrams to cartoons, original artwork to collage. Some reflect the author’s doodles but many come from students and tutors who have inspired much of the work. One key area of inspiration for the tone of this book is the use of the words of creative writers. John Berger is cited frequently for the vibrancy of his writing, as too is Jeanette Winterson, whose word play and depth of insight set off fireworks of ideas. Harriet Walter, from the theatre, develops a character through observation and this links to detail in writing. Virginia Woolf is quoted for her thoughts on diary keeping and voice, as is Eudora Welty on the growth of the writer, and Penelope Lively on discoveries in old photographs. These are just a few of the people drawn on as inspirations to acts of writing. This book has art and design in its title but the reactions to it are revealing in that it can be adapted to many areas of the creative arts: theatre, dance and music have parallels with the visual paths of art and design. The subtitle of the book – ‘taking a line for a write’ is a reworking of the words of Paul Klee, ‘taking a line for a walk’, which were to encourage student artists to explore the world through drawing. In this book I have tried to stimulate the

idea of exploring thoughts, ideas, memories and reflections through writing – letting go of preconceptions and being open-minded. One mnemonic, used to help remind writers not to edit as they go (i.e. not to stop and change, modify, or correct as they first write), is WIDEL – Write It Down, Edit Later. Let the first flurry of thoughts flow. So the laugh raised by saying ‘widel’ out loud reinforces the concept of this book: light-hearted and fun in action, but serious in content.

Further Reading Inspiring Writing in Art & Design Taking a Line for a Write By Pat Francis £14.95, $30 | Paperback ISBN 9781841502564

This very practical volume, written for tutors and students, nurtures writing’s creative role in the process of art and design. It uses short exercises and creative writing techniques combined with the energy and liveliness of the workshop situation to help with academic issues in writing assignments.

Intellect’s new website www.intellectbooks.com

Intellect is proud to announce the launch of their interactive new website. Through a range of Web 2.0 facilities, users can contribute, share ideas, and obtain useful resources on publishing and academia. Authors, editors and contributors are able to update their profiles, and post links, comments and ideas. The new interactive conference calendar is also a fantastic resource for the academic community, providing detailed information on all events related to creative practice and popular culture. The website offers an easily navigable, comprehensive catalogue of Intellect’s publications. All this, and you can still buy books, journals and e-books through the newly developed online order system. Go to: www.intellectbooks.com today and click on ‘Register’ to access forums, blogs, ideas repository, comments areas, multimedia and interactive content, latest news, and much, much more!

www.intellectbooks.com IQ 9 | 25

intellect news reviews features interviews

Aarti Wani, Jyotsna Kapur and Alka Kurian on sharing ideas and vision across the seas Aarti Wani

Pune, a small town in Maharashtra, has lately embarked on a new journey. Nestling among hills that surround it from all sides and known for its mild and pleasant climate, it used to be considered a pensioner’s haven. In the last few decades it transformed itself into an educational hub with nearly 200 undergraduate and professional colleges and it is currently witnessing yet another change. Eager to don the mantel of a modern, techno-savvy city that is at the centre of India’s communication revolution with its IT parks and call centres, Pune has big dreams that are easily traceable in the malls and multiplexes that are fast defining the skyline. I have lived in Pune most of my life and taught English in a city college for over a decade. Undergraduate teaching can be pretty undemanding here and, despite the number of colleges in Pune, the academic scene was not interesting or challenging. Teaching, and its consequent association with young people, spilled over into an engagement with leftist groups working with the young. Gradually, this broadened to include work with women’s groups and gender issues. At the same time, cinema had started to intrigue and I found myself writing mainly on Indian cinema – both in English and Marathi. As the Marathi pieces found their way into local progressive magazines, those written in English could find a potentially international readership because of the Internet. Daniel Lindvall, the editor of Film International, noticed my pieces in Monthly Review, a web magazine, and that was the beginning of my association with Intellect. When, in 2007, the thought of starting a journal on South Asian media and culture was floated, I was happy to be on the editorial team and hugely excited by 26 | Thinking in Colour

its possibilities for two reasons – one, it coincided with a deepening of my interest in popular culture that had now taken a more academic turn with the undertaking of Ph.D. research in cinema studies at JNU, New Delhi, and second, I saw it as an opportunity for creating a political space for understanding, participating and intervening in the cultural transformation of our world, with an emphasis on the media and cinema of South Asia. In the increasingly isolating and unsettling fragmentation of our daily lives, the connection and sharing of ideas and vision with Jyotsna Kapur and Alka Kurian across the seas (made possible by Intellect and the Internet) has been truly enabling and I look forward to a long association. Jyotsna Kapur

Checking my e-mail in the motel lobby before I left for the day’s events at the ‘Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference’, Chicago 2007, I found an e-mail from Intellect asking if I’d be interested in helping launch a journal on South Asian film and media. I was both excited at the possibility and also wary. Wary because publishing, at least in the US academy, which arguably still sets the norm for global education, has become in certain regards a career-building exercise rather than a means of furthering analysis, understanding, and change. There is an over-inflation of the written word as we say more and more about little and little in specialized enclaves, speaking a coded language of sorts. I decided to sleep over that query. The fact that I was tenured certainly made it easier to sleep calmly. Like Aarti, I teach in a small town. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, is a public university in the US Midwest, a region that has been sliding

How we got started

downwards, like other former industrial areas, since the 1980s neoliberal restructuring of the US economy. My students are working and middleclass, many of the first generation from their families to enter college. In the last eleven years that I have been teaching here, I find them increasingly inhabiting a global sensibility. Not that there is a choice – they face a job market that is thoroughly globalized and the ongoing war against Iraq and Afghanistan looms large. Yet, it would be grossly unfair to characterize their global sensibility as merely a threatened response, one enforced by economic and military imperatives from above. There is also an awareness of sharing a time and place, i.e., this planet, and a curiosity regarding others that I find animates this generation. Last year, when I taught a class on popular Bombay cinema, I had a waiting list of students who had to be turned away. Perhaps, film students have an advantage in recognizing the global nature of our existence. After all, early film-makers, like Dzigha Vertov, imagined film to be an international language that would enable international solidarity. As a generation born into the digital age, the Internet, Youtube, and Facebook, and with the hindsight of a century torn apart by war, perhaps, they can see how necessary, possible, and yet evasive that dream has remained. The opportunity to teach this, to help contextualize our present moment in history, is what keeps me going. It reminds me why the study of film and media in general is important, why it really matters. Studies in South Asian Film and Media is part of that broader effort to help understand and act upon this world through a critical study of South Asian media culture.

bordered by the North Sea, and defined by weekly football matches, post-coalmine and shipbuilding yard unemployment, the Nissan factory, eagereyed university students, Bangladeshi-run curry houses, and regular anti-racism protest marches. I had grown up watching Benegal, Ghatak, Sen, and Gopalakrishnan, which seemed tedious and ‘dry’ at that time, but which proved to leave a lasting impression on me and offered comfort during moments of profound dislocation and nostalgia. The university had gone through a substantial phase of restructuring and faculty relocations, opening an excellent opportunity for me to retrain myself in film and cultural studies so as to be able to teach Indian cinema: a desperate attempt to vicariously re-imagine home through representation. In response to an e-mail query sent in 2003 to Intellect asking if I could publish an article on Indian cinema, Ravi Butalia wrote back asking if I would rather help start a journal instead. And now another fortuitous opportunity – thanks to a research leave from the University of Sunderland – affords me the time to write my book on South Asian cinema as I cyber-connect almost on a daily basis with my wonderful co-editors. This much-needed space allows me to focus on this new and exciting cinema that campaigns for fracturing monolithic South Asian images, for redefining colonial and postcolonial identities, for reinterpreting and reimagining history, for challenging the sense of class and caste-based entitlement, and for undermining the disconnection between the local and global. This, in my view, is the larger vision that brings the three of us together.