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Politics Philosophy Aesthetics (PPA)

a seminar series at the

School of Historical and Critical Studies (SHaCS)

University of Brighton

What is the current programme?

Fetishism > Slavery > Zizek > Feminism > Art History > Nigresence > Totality > Jameson > Film > Representation > Memory > Enlightenment > Bruce Lee > Privacy > Identity > Poland Today > Lacan > Photography > Ireland > Insecurity > Aestheto-politics ...

The programme for the Autumn and Spring terms is as follows. Should any of the seminars have to be altered, the changes will be notified via this web site. With the exception of the seminar on the 10th October, all events will be held in room G7 of the Pavilion Street annexe of the University, opposite The Royal Pavilion, and next to The Marlborough pub.

---------------------

10th October 2005 6.30pm

'ID Cards in the UK: political and social consequences'

Speakers:

David Shayler (ex-MI5 officer); Phil Booth (NO2ID campaign); Tom Hickey (University of Brighton)

to be Held in the Sallis Benney Theatre, Grand Parade, Brighton (Faculty of Arts and Architecture, opposite The King and Queen pub)

---------------------

20th October 2005 6.30 pm

'Politics, Psychoanalysis and Popular Film: Zizek, Lacan and the films of Bruce Lee'

Paul Bowman, Roehampton Institute, University of London

--------------------

17th November 2005 6.30 pm

'"Aborigines of Connaught": Finding Nigrescence at the turn of the c.20th in Ireland'

Kathrine O'Donnell, University College Dublin

This paper looks at the research expeditions made by anthropologists from the Anthropological Laboratory at Trinity College Dublin who went to the west coast of Ireland in order to measure scientifically the physical characteristics of the inhabitants, and hence to determine to which race they belonged. The findings were published in seven reports between the years1895 and 1902 by the Royal Irish Academy. Inspired and supported by the English eugenicists, Galton and Beddoe, and using measuring implements such as those devised by the British colonial police in India, they presented copious statistical tables detailing hair and eye colour; head, face and body measurements, and ratios of these measurements, in order to compute the scientific 'Index of Nigrescence'. The detailed reports are also rich in ethnographical, historical and economic information but it is the authors' silence on the contemporary political context of the peasants that I argue provides the context for discussing the significance of these scientists' findings. That context included organised agitation over land rights, such as the movement against Captain Boycott, another large-scale famine, and mass evictions from the land. The anthropologists did not fail, however, to reference positively the cultural nationalism of the Anglo-Irish gentry.

--------------------

1st December 2005 6.30pm

'Misrepresenting Transformation: Polish ‘Regeneration’ and its Discontents'

Jane Hardy, Reader in Institutional Economics, Business School, University of Hertfordshire

Neoliberals and institutionalists have dominated thinking about the profound economic changes in Central and Eastern Europe since 1990. In these paradigms the market should either be ‘jump started’ in the case of the former, or would emerge in an evolutionary manner in the case of the latter. This has misrepresented the transformation process and it will be argued that the market has been socially constructed both materially and discursively by powerful interests. Further, the complex and contradictory ideas of workers in collaborating with or contesting these processes is also central to an understanding of the restructuring of Polish capitalism.

--------------------

19th january 2006 6.30pm

'"Insecurity"

Photography, Art and Global Order'

Christopher Stewart, School of Arts and Communications, University of Brighton

“Here is the constitutive ground of our current unease…Christopher Stewart’s powerfully disorienting photographs detonate our Orwellian anxieties…[they are]…preliminary studies in the banality of dystopia.”

“The shadowland he documents is ubiquitous...the victim and perpetrator here are always the same…these photographs are not the staged melodrama or noir-ish tableau vivants so favoured by some contemporary photographers….the scenes could be contrived, but they are not. ..the pain, menace, stealth and unease are all real. So are the intrusions, the multiple knife wounds inflicted by our gaze. “ (Mike Davis 2002)

“Christopher Stewart's documentary project … points both to its own 'insecurity', and to the insecurity of our own reading of the image … in [these] photographs … the ambivalence of the image mirrors the ambivalence of our contemporary relationship to the state and its rights to the exercise of power and violence over the body.” (Joanna Lowry, 2000)

“In Stewart’s work the dream of a secure, transparent world of stable power relations has vanished. His interplay of inside and outside, darkness and light, visibility and invisibility dramatises a world in which all bonds are contingent, everybody is vulnerable and watchful, loyalty is bought and sold. His landscapes of darkness and shadow…were supposed to have been banished by the Age of Enlightenment. Stewart conjures up a world no longer controlled by law or institutions, a world in which the social contract has unravelled.” (Patrick Henry, 2004)

--------------------

2nd February 2006 6.30pm

'Jameson and Totality: a Critique of Fredric Jameson's Aestheto-politics'

Mark Abel, School of Historical and Critical Studies, University of Brighton

Fredric Jameson's materialist theorization of postmodernist cultural sensibilities as 'the cultural logic of late capitalism' is one element of a wider periodization of aesthetic modes and the social formations to which they correspond. This paper will question whether Jameson's tight homologies between the cultural and the socio-economic do not, paradoxically, lead him to concede too much ground to the philosphical agenda of postmodernism itself, and will argue that, despite its insights, Jameson's thinking suffers from a flawed conception of totality and of dialectical change.

--------------------

2nd March 2006 6.30pm

'Fetishism and Feminist Art History'

Alexandra Kokoli, School of Historical and Critical Studies, University of Brighton

It is widely acknowledged that the term 'fetishism' has been instrumental in the articulation of second-wave feminism's critique of visual culture since the early 1970s, as well as in the development of feminist art practice. This paper considers some of the uses and abuses of fetishism in art criticism and theory, focusing on its Freudian, Marxist and anthropological underpinnings, but also suggests that certain types of fetishism have been covertly operative in the writing of feminist art histories and the emergence of feminist art canons.

--------------------

16th March 2006 6.30pm

'Capitalism, Slavery and Memory: the Case of the Slave Ship 'Zong''

Anita Rupprecht, School of Historical and Critical Studies, University of Brighton

In 1781, in the face of a food and water shortage aboard, and in the interest of preserving the bulk of his cargo, Luke Collingwood, captain of the “Zong” jettisoned part of that cargo. He threw overboard 132 of his slave merchandise so that the rest of his assets could survive. Having ensured at the outset that his enterprise was insured against loss, he duly submitted a claim for compensation on his return to London. The claim was contested, and remained unresolved, enmired in legal argument. The case provoked, however, a political and moral scandal. It is credited with having played a major part in the formation of the Abolition Movement in Britain, and inspired the Dolben Act of 1788 which regulated the design and fitting of ships intended for the use of slave transportation. This paper will investigate how the reconfiguration of the representation of bodies and selves and ‘persons’, as a consequence of the Zong incident, impacted on political and moral discourses at the time. It will consider to what, and in what way, the issue of the relationship between representation and politics can speak today.

--------------------

For more information, about the seminars and about how to gain admission, contact Tom Hickey: T.Hickey@Brighton.ac.uk

_______________________________________________________

What is the seminar series for?

The series is designed to draw together colleagues, researchers, students, and other interested parties, who wish to reflect on key questions in contemporary political, cultural and aesthetic debates. It aims to foster debate about the intimate relations between our academic research and our ties to a world where political, cultural and economic possibilities are inequitably distributed. The inter-disciplinary nature of the seminar means that speakers from across a range of disciplines will be invited, cutting across the diverse interests of members of staff in this faculty.

For whom is the series designed?

Building on a number of successful seminars and conferences hosted by the School, this series is open to all students and staff at the universities of Brighton and Sussex, and to residents of the city of Brighton and Hove. It presumes some familiarity with the theories and philosophies and histories and artefacts that are being discussed. For that reason, it takes the form of a 'research in progress' seminar series rather than an introductory series of talks. To facilitate discussion presenters will be asked to provide a short abstract of, and an indicative bibliography for, their papers in advance. These will be made available electronically. Those without access to web and e-mail facilities should contact the seminar organisers. Each seminar will begin with a presentation by the guest speaker followed by a break for a glass of wine before questions.

What issues will be addressed?

The series aims to address key debates in contemporary politics, aesthetics, culture and philosophy. There is no restriction in terms of subject matter provided talks contribute to an ongoing reflection on place of these discourses in contemporary cultural and political conditions. Depending on the interest engendered by the series we may begin to organise terms thematically, so that each seminar becomes part of an ongoing between guest speakers and those who attend the series.

Where and when will the seminars be held?

Seminars will normally be held in room G7, SHACS, Pavilion Street, every second Thursday of the term. They begin at 18.30 and finish between 20.00 and 20.30 when we retire to the pub for informal discussion. Please contact the organisers for admission. In addition to staff and students, the seminnars are open to members of the public by arrangement. Contact: T.Hickey@Brighton.ac.uk

Biennial Conference on 'Globalisation and its Discontents'

Faculty of Arts and Architecture, University of Brighton

School of Historical and Critical Studies

PPA Archive (some seminars from previous programmes)

Faculty of Arts and Architecture

School of Historical and Critical Studies

'Globalisation and its Discontents' Biennial International Conference

PPA Archive (some previous seminars)


			Politics Philosophy Aesthetics (PPA) a seminar series at the School of Historical and Critical Studies (SHaCS) University of Brighton *What is the current programme?* Fetishism > Slavery > Zizek > Feminism > Art History > Nigresence > Totality > Jameson > Film > Representation > Memory > Enlightenment > Bruce Lee > Privacy > Identity > Poland Today > Lacan > Photography > Ireland > Insecurity > Aestheto-politics ... The programme for the Autumn and Spring terms is as follows. Should any of the seminars have to be altered, the changes will be notified via this web site. With the exception of the seminar on the 10th October, all events will be held in room G7 of the Pavilion Street annexe of the University, opposite The Royal Pavilion, and next to The Marlborough pub. --------------------- 10th October 2005 6.30pm 'ID Cards in the UK: political and social consequences' Speakers: David Shayler (ex-MI5 officer); Phil Booth (NO2ID campaign); Tom Hickey (University of Brighton) to be Held in the Sallis Benney Theatre, Grand Parade, Brighton (Faculty of Arts and Architecture, opposite The King and Queen pub) --------------------- 20th October 2005 6.30 pm *'Politics, Psychoanalysis and Popular Film: Zizek, Lacan and the films of Bruce Lee'* Paul Bowman, Roehampton Institute, University of London -------------------- 17th November 2005 6.30 pm '"Aborigines of Connaught": Finding Nigrescence at the turn of the c.20th in Ireland' Kathrine O'Donnell, University College Dublin This paper looks at the research expeditions made by anthropologists from the Anthropological Laboratory at Trinity College Dublin who went to the west coast of Ireland in order to measure scientifically the physical characteristics of the inhabitants, and hence to determine to which race they belonged. The findings were published in seven reports between the years1895 and 1902 by the Royal Irish Academy. Inspired and supported by the English eugenicists, Galton and Beddoe, and using measuring implements such as those devised by the British colonial police in India, they presented copious statistical tables detailing hair and eye colour; head, face and body measurements, and ratios of these measurements, in order to compute the scientific 'Index of Nigrescence'. The detailed reports are also rich in ethnographical, historical and economic information but it is the authors' silence on the contemporary political context of the peasants that I argue provides the context for discussing the significance of these scientists' findings. That context included organised agitation over land rights, such as the movement against Captain Boycott, another large-scale famine, and mass evictions from the land. The anthropologists did not fail, however, to reference positively the cultural nationalism of the Anglo-Irish gentry. -------------------- 1st December 2005 6.30pm *'Misrepresenting Transformation: Polish ‘Regeneration’ and its Discontents'* Jane Hardy, Reader in Institutional Economics, Business School, University of Hertfordshire Neoliberals and institutionalists have dominated thinking about the profound economic changes in Central and Eastern Europe since 1990. In these paradigms the market should either be ‘jump started’ in the case of the former, or would emerge in an evolutionary manner in the case of the latter. This has misrepresented the transformation process and it will be argued that the market has been socially constructed both materially and discursively by powerful interests. Further, the complex and contradictory ideas of workers in collaborating with or contesting these processes is also central to an understanding of the restructuring of Polish capitalism. -------------------- 19th january 2006 6.30pm '"Insecurity" *Photography, Art and Global Order'* Christopher Stewart, School of Arts and Communications, University of Brighton “Here is the constitutive ground of our current unease…Christopher Stewart’s powerfully disorienting photographs detonate our Orwellian anxieties…[they are]…preliminary studies in the banality of dystopia.” “The shadowland he documents is ubiquitous...the victim and perpetrator here are always the same…these photographs are not the staged melodrama or noir-ish tableau vivants so favoured by some contemporary photographers….the scenes could be contrived, but they are not. ..the pain, menace, stealth and unease are all real. So are the intrusions, the multiple knife wounds inflicted by our gaze. “ (Mike Davis 2002) “Christopher Stewart's documentary project … points both to its own 'insecurity', and to the insecurity of our own reading of the image … in [these] photographs … the ambivalence of the image mirrors the ambivalence of our contemporary relationship to the state and its rights to the exercise of power and violence over the body.” (Joanna Lowry, 2000) “In Stewart’s work the dream of a secure, transparent world of stable power relations has vanished. His interplay of inside and outside, darkness and light, visibility and invisibility dramatises a world in which all bonds are contingent, everybody is vulnerable and watchful, loyalty is bought and sold. His landscapes of darkness and shadow…were supposed to have been banished by the Age of Enlightenment. Stewart conjures up a world no longer controlled by law or institutions, a world in which the social contract has unravelled.” (Patrick Henry, 2004) -------------------- 2nd February 2006 6.30pm *'Jameson and Totality: a Critique of Fredric Jameson's Aestheto-politics'* Mark Abel, School of Historical and Critical Studies, University of Brighton Fredric Jameson's materialist theorization of postmodernist cultural sensibilities as 'the cultural logic of late capitalism' is one element of a wider periodization of aesthetic modes and the social formations to which they correspond. This paper will question whether Jameson's tight homologies between the cultural and the socio-economic do not, paradoxically, lead him to concede too much ground to the philosphical agenda of postmodernism itself, and will argue that, despite its insights, Jameson's thinking suffers from a flawed conception of totality and of dialectical change. -------------------- 2nd March 2006 6.30pm *'Fetishism and Feminist Art History'* Alexandra Kokoli, School of Historical and Critical Studies, University of Brighton It is widely acknowledged that the term 'fetishism' has been instrumental in the articulation of second-wave feminism's critique of visual culture since the early 1970s, as well as in the development of feminist art practice. This paper considers some of the uses and abuses of fetishism in art criticism and theory, focusing on its Freudian, Marxist and anthropological underpinnings, but also suggests that certain types of fetishism have been covertly operative in the writing of feminist art histories and the emergence of feminist art canons. -------------------- 16th March 2006 6.30pm 'Capitalism, Slavery and Memory: the Case of the Slave Ship 'Zong'' Anita Rupprecht, School of Historical and Critical Studies, University of Brighton In 1781, in the face of a food and water shortage aboard, and in the interest of preserving the bulk of his cargo, Luke Collingwood, captain of the “Zong” jettisoned part of that cargo. He threw overboard 132 of his slave merchandise so that the rest of his assets could survive. Having ensured at the outset that his enterprise was insured against loss, he duly submitted a claim for compensation on his return to London. The claim was contested, and remained unresolved, enmired in legal argument. The case provoked, however, a political and moral scandal. It is credited with having played a major part in the formation of the Abolition Movement in Britain, and inspired the Dolben Act of 1788 which regulated the design and fitting of ships intended for the use of slave transportation. This paper will investigate how the reconfiguration of the representation of bodies and selves and ‘persons’, as a consequence of the Zong incident, impacted on political and moral discourses at the time. It will consider to what, and in what way, the issue of the relationship between representation and politics can speak today. -------------------- For more information, about the seminars and about how to gain admission, contact Tom Hickey: T.Hickey@Brighton.ac.uk _______________________________________________________ *What is the seminar series for?* The series is designed to draw together colleagues, researchers, students, and other interested parties, who wish to reflect on key questions in contemporary political, cultural and aesthetic debates. It aims to foster debate about the intimate relations between our academic research and our ties to a world where political, cultural and economic possibilities are inequitably distributed. The inter-disciplinary nature of the seminar means that speakers from across a range of disciplines will be invited, cutting across the diverse interests of members of staff in this faculty. *For whom is the series designed?* Building on a number of successful seminars and conferences hosted by the School, this series is open to all students and staff at the universities of Brighton and Sussex, and to residents of the city of Brighton and Hove. It presumes some familiarity with the theories and philosophies and histories and artefacts that are being discussed. For that reason, it takes the form of a 'research in progress' seminar series rather than an introductory series of talks. To facilitate discussion presenters will be asked to provide a short abstract of, and an indicative bibliography for, their papers in advance. These will be made available electronically. Those without access to web and e-mail facilities should contact the seminar organisers. Each seminar will begin with a presentation by the guest speaker followed by a break for a glass of wine before questions. *What issues will be addressed?* The series aims to address key debates in contemporary politics, aesthetics, culture and philosophy. There is no restriction in terms of subject matter provided talks contribute to an ongoing reflection on place of these discourses in contemporary cultural and political conditions. Depending on the interest engendered by the series we may begin to organise terms thematically, so that each seminar becomes part of an ongoing between guest speakers and those who attend the series. *Where and when will the seminars be held?* Seminars will normally be held in room G7, SHACS, Pavilion Street, every second Thursday of the term. They begin at 18.30 and finish between 20.00 and 20.30 when we retire to the pub for informal discussion. Please contact the organisers for admission. In addition to staff and students, the seminnars are open to members of the public by arrangement. Contact: T.Hickey@Brighton.ac.uk



	Biennial Conference on 'Globalisation and its Discontents' Faculty of Arts and Architecture, University of Brighton School of Historical and Critical Studies PPA Archive (some seminars from previous programmes)


	Faculty of Arts and Architecture School of Historical and Critical Studies 'Globalisation and its Discontents' Biennial International Conference PPA Archive (some previous seminars)